Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Just Do Something - The Ultimate Wellness Hack

Transcript

Just Do Something - The Ultimate Wellness Hack · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: Increasingly people are focused on well-being well-being has been the
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  Speaker 1: buzzword for at least a decade and yet there are
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  Speaker 1: so many different pathways to well-being people are very curious
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  Speaker 1: about what is going to give maximum bang for buck
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  Speaker 1: plus so many well-being quote-unquote interventions now cost money what's
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  Speaker 1: the best way to boost your well-being how can you
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  Speaker 1: be quote-unquote happier and help your kids to get there
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  Speaker 1: as well especially if they're struggling Today, it's a doctor's
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  Speaker 1: desk episode on the Happy Families podcast, where we unpack
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  Speaker 1: the latest meta-analysis, systematic review in the journal Nature, looking
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  Speaker 1: at randomized controlled trials of wellbeing-focused interventions. Oh, I just
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  Speaker 1: love it when I get to talk science. That's coming
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  Speaker 1: up next on the Happy Families podcast. Stay with us. G'day,
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  Speaker 1: welcome to the Happy Families podcast. We're Justin and Kylie Coulson.
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  Speaker 1: This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. today some positive
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  Speaker 1: parenting solutions to help boost your well-being kylie you get
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  Speaker 1: so excited every time we get to talk science i
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  Speaker 1: get to dive into the latest research today we are
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  Speaker 1: really going to kick off a big one published at
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  Speaker 1: the start of this year in nature which is one
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  Speaker 1: of the world's most prestigious journals a systematic review and
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  Speaker 1: network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials well-being focused interventions by
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  Speaker 1: laurie wilkie and colleagues how exciting does that sound I'm
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  Speaker 1: so excited. I know. I can see the goosebumps on
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  Speaker 1: your arms as you heard me read out that scientific title.
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  Speaker 1: It just sounds so, so good. Where do you want
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  Speaker 1: to start with this one? There's a lot to talk about.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think the best place to start is at
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  Speaker 2: the beginning. What did they do?
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  Speaker 1: Fair enough. So basically, the best studies are the ones
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  Speaker 1: where we do a systematic review. That means we go
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  Speaker 1: through all the research literature and a meta-analysis. That means
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  Speaker 1: that we're literally looking at all of the studies that
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  Speaker 1: do this thing. randomized controlled trials of course being the
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  Speaker 1: gold standard as well so these are the very best
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  Speaker 1: studies and it's a whole bunch of them all being
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  Speaker 1: analyzed you know how people say oh you can get
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  Speaker 1: you can get a study to tell you anything well
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  Speaker 1: this time we're looking at 183 well-being randomized controlled trials
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  Speaker 1: so it's a big meta-analysis big synthesis of all the
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  Speaker 1: literature looking at interventions for wellbeing in adults without diagnosed conditions. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: So we're talking about mentally healthy adults.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of groups here. Are the randomized studies
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  Speaker 2: done in different places at different times with different researchers?
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  Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
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  Speaker 2: Right. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why these are so powerful because if one
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  Speaker 1: researcher gets a certain effect and they keep on doing
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  Speaker 1: these studies and they keep getting that effect, but no
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  Speaker 1: one else does, we call that an experimental expectancy effect.
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  Speaker 1: People show up and the experimenter expects something's going to
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  Speaker 1: happen and people kind of, it always becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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  Speaker 1: Even if they haven't communicated that, there's something that happens
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  Speaker 1: there that's really quite strange. But when you get a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of studies from all over the world, from
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  Speaker 1: different research labs, looking at the same problem, but in
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  Speaker 1: slightly different ways, you pull it all together.
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  Speaker 2: You're taking different cultural contrasts in as well. Yes. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where the power of these big literature syntheses
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  Speaker 1: and meta-analyses really plays out. So I'm fascinated by this
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  Speaker 1: study because- So how many did you say? 183 trials. 183.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about close to 23,000 different participants from all
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  Speaker 1: over the world in these well-being trials.
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  Speaker 2: So you'd have to believe that there's kind of some
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  Speaker 2: truth in here.
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  Speaker 1: We can unpack some truth. That's right. We can talk
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  Speaker 1: about it.
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  Speaker 2: So what were the well-being interventions they actually did?
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  Speaker 1: They had a look at a bunch of them. So
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  Speaker 1: all of these studies, they include psychological interventions, something called
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  Speaker 1: acceptance and commitment therapy, which is a very popular form
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  Speaker 1: of therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, compassion-based interventions. They were looking at
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  Speaker 1: the effect of exercise, yoga, educational interventions, nature-based programs. And
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  Speaker 1: they even did an analysis of doing an approach where
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  Speaker 1: they combined exercise and psychological intervention at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: So this is thorough. There's a lot going on.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't read your paper. No. And I have not
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  Speaker 2: been a participant in any of these. But I would
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  Speaker 2: think that based on all of the interventions you're talking about,
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  Speaker 2: there's going to be positive outcomes across the board because
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  Speaker 2: whenever we do anything out of the norm to connect–
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  Speaker 2: with self and to become more aware, it feels like progress.
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  Speaker 1: So the research has found in all of these randomized
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  Speaker 1: controlled trials, the overall effect was when you do anything,
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  Speaker 1: it improves your well-being compared with people who aren't doing
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  Speaker 1: anything at all. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I know from my own personal experience, I can go
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  Speaker 2: for a 5K run, which kills me, but I still
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  Speaker 2: feel really good for having done it at the other end.
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  Speaker 2: Or I can go for a walk down at the
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  Speaker 2: beach and I'm not using half the amount of energy,
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  Speaker 2: but I still feel better- for having done that than
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  Speaker 2: sitting on the couch.
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  Speaker 1: After the break, I'm going to go through precisely what
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  Speaker 1: they found because some things do work better than others.
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  Speaker 1: But the good news is they all work. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about the implications of that as well.
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  Speaker 1: That's next. Stay with us. We're back. It's the Happy
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  Speaker 1: Families podcast. Want to be happier? Want to have higher
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  Speaker 1: levels of well-being? The evidence says just do something. Just
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  Speaker 1: do something and you'll probably do really well. Kylie, I
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  Speaker 1: want to go through these results. They actually do matter
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  Speaker 1: and they are quite relevant if people are trying to
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  Speaker 1: work out, well, where am I going to get the
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  Speaker 1: best bang for buck? So the best way to boost
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  Speaker 1: your well-being is to do exercise, but combine that with
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  Speaker 1: some kind of psychological intervention. Now, that might be listening
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  Speaker 1: to great podcasts. It might be doing some relationship building.
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  Speaker 1: It might be meeting with a therapist once a month.
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  Speaker 1: But doing something where you're moving your body seems to
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  Speaker 1: be the best way to boost well-being, especially when you
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  Speaker 1: combine it with some kind of psychological intervention. The next
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  Speaker 1: best thing were things like mindfulness, compassion, working on positive
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  Speaker 1: psychology kinds of stuff. That's gratitude and optimism and focusing
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  Speaker 1: on strengths and all those sorts of things. Yoga and
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  Speaker 1: exercise interventions demonstrated moderate, consistent effects, and there was no
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  Speaker 1: significant difference between any of those interventions. They all just
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  Speaker 1: kind of worked. The one thing that surprised me that
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  Speaker 1: didn't work nearly as well as all the other stuff
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  Speaker 1: was nature-based interventions. They weren't significantly better than controls in
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  Speaker 1: the meta-analysis, which means all the forest bathing or the
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  Speaker 1: sitting somewhere quiet and just soaking up nature, that stuff
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  Speaker 1: didn't have the same positive outcome.
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  Speaker 2: So were they doing forest bathing and combining that with
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  Speaker 2: some kind of psychological?
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  Speaker 1: No, no, it was purely the nature-based intervention.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, because I think that
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  Speaker 2: the more you understand about yourself, the more you are
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  Speaker 2: able to process things better, and the more you're able
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  Speaker 2: to appreciate quiet and stillness. If you don't have self-awareness
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  Speaker 2: or the tools in your toolkit to help you do
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  Speaker 2: those things, then often the silence is actually more noise,
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  Speaker 2: if that makes sense, because you've just got so much
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  Speaker 2: going on. Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That default mode network in your brain kicks into high
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  Speaker 1: gear and you're like, whoa. That may be part of it,
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  Speaker 1: although the researchers argued it was something else. Okay. They
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  Speaker 1: said that there was a high level of what they
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  Speaker 1: call methodological heterogeneity. In other words- In other words, the
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  Speaker 1: methodology for all the studies was too different, and they
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  Speaker 1: were studying too many different variables for them to get
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  Speaker 1: a really clear and concise measure of what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: That's fair.
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  Speaker 1: So I would actually argue that those kinds of nature-based
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  Speaker 1: interventions can and do work, but they weren't able to
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  Speaker 1: study it the way they needed to in here. Having
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  Speaker 1: said that, they didn't find it, so we have to
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  Speaker 1: report that accurately and appropriately. So what does this mean
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  Speaker 1: for us? It basically means that if you would like
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  Speaker 1: to increase your well-being... Do something. Do something.
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  Speaker 2: Just do something.
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  Speaker 1: But do it consistently. If you can't do it every day,
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  Speaker 1: do it five times a week. And if you can't
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  Speaker 1: do it five times a week, do it at least
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  Speaker 1: three times a week. And like you said before, Kylie,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's a walk, spending some time in the park
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  Speaker 1: or laying on the trampoline, staring at the clouds, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's meditation, whether it's yoga or exercise or learning about
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  Speaker 1: mindfulness or learning about the psychology of compassion or or
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  Speaker 1: meeting with somebody and doing some self-work. It all works.
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  Speaker 1: It all works. You've just got to be consistent and
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  Speaker 1: do it frequently. That's my very happy news from the
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  Speaker 1: doctor's desk today.
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  Speaker 2: When I first started learning about just how to kind
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  Speaker 2: of work through my own challenges and create a toolkit
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  Speaker 2: that would work for me, I thought that I had
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  Speaker 2: to do it every day, that I had to be
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  Speaker 2: kind of that consistent. that, so that it would make
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  Speaker 2: a difference. And over time, it wasn't my reality. I'm
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  Speaker 2: a mom of six kids and a grandbaby. You are
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  Speaker 2: gone a lot. And so the idea that I would
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  Speaker 2: have this heavenly, you know, kind of hour or two
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  Speaker 2: to myself in the mornings before everybody got up and
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  Speaker 2: that I would be able to just have that stillness
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  Speaker 2: and have that meditation time and, you But what I
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  Speaker 2: found is as I have become consistent with it, that
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  Speaker 2: even if I only do it once or twice a week,
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  Speaker 2: the shifts that it helps me in are massive compared
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  Speaker 2: to not doing it. And I notice it more when
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  Speaker 2: I haven't done it. And I've actually gone to you
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  Speaker 2: and just said, I'm falling to pieces.
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  Speaker 1: I just need to do that thing. I've got to
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  Speaker 1: back yeah yep yep uh do the thing do the
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  Speaker 1: thing it will make you happier ideally it won't add
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  Speaker 1: stress to your life we will link to the article
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  Speaker 1: in the show notes although if you're anything like kylie
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  Speaker 1: you don't need to read the article you just need
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  Speaker 1: to do the thing i just like reading the articles
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  Speaker 1: That's our Doctor's Desk episode for today. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for joining us. The Happy Families podcast will be back tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: It's produced by Justin Rulon from Bridge Medium. M. Hammonds
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  Speaker 1: provides our admin and other support. If you would like
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  Speaker 1: more info to make your family happier, visit happyfamilies.com.au.