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

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

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Increasingly people are focused on wellbeing. Wellbeing has been the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: buzzword for at least a decade, and yet there are
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: so many different pathways to wellbeing. People are very curious
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  Speaker 1: about what is going to give maximum bang for buck
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: plus so many well being quote unquote interventions now cost money.
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  Speaker 1: What's the best way to boost your wellbeing? How can
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  Speaker 1: you be quote unquote happier and help your kids to
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  Speaker 1: get there as well, especially if they're struggling. Today it's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a doctor's desk episode on the Happy Families Podcast where
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  Speaker 1: we unpack the latest meta analysis systematic review in the
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  Speaker 1: journal Nature looking at randomized controlled trials of wellbeing focused interventions.
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  Speaker 2: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: I just love it when I get to talk science.
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  Speaker 1: That's coming up next on the Happy Families podcast. Stay
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  Speaker 1: with us, gooday, Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast where
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  Speaker 1: Justin and Kylie Colson. This is australia most downloaded parenting podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Today some positive parenting solutions to help boost your wellbeing. Kylie,
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  Speaker 1: you get so excited every time we get to talk science.
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  Speaker 1: I get to dive into the latest research. Today we
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  Speaker 1: are really going to kick off a big one published
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  Speaker 1: at the start of this year in Nature, which is
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  Speaker 1: one of the world's most prestigious journals. A systematic review
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  Speaker 1: and network meta analysis of randomized control trials, well being
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  Speaker 1: focused Interventions by Laurie Wilkie and colleagues. How exciting does
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  Speaker 1: that sound? I'm so excited I can I can see
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  Speaker 1: the goose bumps on your arms as you heard me
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  Speaker 1: read out that scientific title. It just sounds so so good.
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  Speaker 1: Where do you want to start with this one? There's
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  Speaker 1: 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? Say?
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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 of the research literature, and a meta analysis
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  Speaker 1: that means that we're literally looking at all of the
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  Speaker 1: studies that do this thing, randomized controlled trials of course
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: being the gold standard as well. So these are the
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  Speaker 1: very best studies and it's a whole bunch of them
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  Speaker 1: all being analyzed in how people say, oh, you can
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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 one hundred and eighty three
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  Speaker 1: well being randomized controlled trials. So it's a big meta analysis,
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  Speaker 1: big synthesis of all the literature looking at interventions for
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  Speaker 1: well being in adults without diagnosed conditions. Ok so we're
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  Speaker 1: 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, right, Okay, And that's why these are
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  Speaker 1: so powerful, Because if one researcher gets a certain effect
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  Speaker 1: and they keep ondoing these studies and they keep getting
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  Speaker 1: that effect, but no one else does, we call that
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  Speaker 1: an experimental expectancy effect. People show up and the experimenter
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  Speaker 1: expects something's going to happen, and people kind of it
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  Speaker 1: almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, even if they haven't
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  Speaker 1: communicated that there's something that happens there. That's really quite strange.
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  Speaker 1: But when you get a whole lot of studies from
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  Speaker 1: all over the world, from different research labs, looking at
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  Speaker 1: the same problem but in slightly different ways, you pull
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  Speaker 1: it all together.
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  Speaker 2: You're taking different cultural contrasts in as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, and that's where the power of these big
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  Speaker 1: literature syntheses and meta analyses really plays out. So I
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  Speaker 1: really I'm fascinated by this study because how many did
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  Speaker 1: you say, undred, one hundred eighty three trials. We're talking
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  Speaker 1: about close to twenty three thousand different participants from all
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  Speaker 1: over the world in these well being trials, So.
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  Speaker 2: You'd have to believe that there's kind of some truth
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  Speaker 2: in here.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk 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
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  Speaker 1: looking at this exercise, yoga, educational interventions, nature based programs,
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  Speaker 1: and they even did an analysis of doing an approach
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  Speaker 1: where they canbine exercise in 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 is 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 you well being compared with people who aren't
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  Speaker 1: doing anything at all.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know from my own personal experience. I can
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  Speaker 2: go for a five k run which kills me, but
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  Speaker 2: I still feel really good for having done it. At
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  Speaker 2: the other end, or i can go for or walk
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  Speaker 2: down at the beach and I'm not using half the
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  Speaker 2: amount of energy, but i still feel better for having
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  Speaker 2: done that than 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 into the Happy
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Families podcast. Want to be happier, want to have higher
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: levels of well being? The evidence says just do something,
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  Speaker 1: Just do something, and you'll probably do really well. Kylie,
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  Speaker 1: I want to go through these results. They actually do
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  Speaker 1: matter and they are quite relevant if people are trying
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  Speaker 1: to work out well, where am I going to get
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  Speaker 1: the best bang for buck? So the best way to
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  Speaker 1: boost your well being is to do exercise, but combine
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  Speaker 1: that with some kind of psychological intervention. Now, that might
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  Speaker 1: be listening to a great podcasts, that might be doing
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  Speaker 1: some relationship building. It might be meeting with the therapist
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  Speaker 1: once a month. But doing something where you're moving your
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  Speaker 1: body seems to be the best way to boost well being,
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  Speaker 1: especially when you combine it with some kind of psychological intervention.
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  Speaker 1: The next best thing were things like mindfulness, compassion, working
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  Speaker 1: on positive psychology kinds of stuff that's gratitude and optimism,
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  Speaker 1: and focusing on strengths and all those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 1: Yoga and exercise interventions demonstrated moderate consistent effects, and there
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  Speaker 1: was no significant difference between any of those interventions. They
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  Speaker 1: all just kind of worked. The one thing that surprised
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  Speaker 1: me that didn't work nearly as well as all the
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  Speaker 1: other stuff was nature based interventions. They weren't significantly better
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  Speaker 1: than controls in the meta analysis, which means all the
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  Speaker 1: forest bathing or the sitting somewhere quiet and just soaking
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  Speaker 1: up nature, that stuff 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's purely the nature based.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to say, because I think that the more
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  Speaker 2: you understand about yourself, the more you are able to
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  Speaker 2: process things better, and the more you're able to appreciate
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  Speaker 2: quiet and stillness. If you don't have self awareness or
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  Speaker 2: the tools in your toolkit to help you do those things,
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  Speaker 2: then often the silence is actually more noise, if that
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  Speaker 2: makes sense, because you've just got so much going on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that that default mode network in your brain
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  Speaker 1: kicks into high gear and you're like, whoa, that may
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  Speaker 1: be part of it. Although the researchers argued it was
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  Speaker 1: something else, Okay, They said that there was a high
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  Speaker 1: level of what they call methodological heterogeneity in other words,
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  Speaker 1: great In other words, the methodology for all the studies
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  Speaker 1: was too different and they were studying too many different
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  Speaker 1: variables for them to get a really clear and concise
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  Speaker 1: measure of what's going on there. So I would actually
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  Speaker 1: argue that those kinds of nature based interventions can and
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  Speaker 1: do work. Yeah, but they weren't able to study it
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  Speaker 1: the way that needed to. In having said that, they
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  Speaker 1: didn't find it, so we have to report that accurately
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  Speaker 1: and appropriately. So what does this mean for us? It
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  Speaker 1: basically means that if you would like to increase your
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  Speaker 1: well being.
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  Speaker 2: Do something.
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  Speaker 1: Do something. Just do something, but do it consistently, do
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  Speaker 1: it well. If you can't do it every day, do
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  Speaker 1: it five times a week. And if you can't do
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  Speaker 1: it five times a week, do it at least three
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  Speaker 1: times a week. And like you said before, Kylie, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's a walk, spending some time in the park, or
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  Speaker 1: staring on laying on the trampoline, staring at the clouds,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's meditation, whether it's yoga or exercise, or learning
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  Speaker 1: about mindfulness, or learning about the psychology of compassion, 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: you know, kind of that consistent that so that it
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  Speaker 2: would make a difference. And over time it wasn't my reality.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a mom of six kids and a grand baby.
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  Speaker 2: You are gone a lot, and so the idea that
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  Speaker 2: I would have this heavenly you know kind of hour
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  Speaker 2: or two to myself in the mornings before everybody got up,
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  Speaker 2: and that I would be able to just have that
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  Speaker 2: stillness and have that meditation time. And you know, check
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  Speaker 2: in point was not realistic. But what I found is
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  Speaker 2: as I have become consistent with it, that even if
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  Speaker 2: I only do it once or twice a week, the
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  Speaker 2: shifts that it helps me in are massive compared to
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  Speaker 2: not doing it. And I notice it more when I
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: haven't done it and I've actually gone to you and
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  Speaker 2: just said I'm falling a piece.
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  Speaker 1: I just need to do that thing. Yeah, yep, yep,
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  Speaker 1: do the thing. Do the thing. It will make you happier. Ideally,
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  Speaker 1: it won't add stress to your life. We will link
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to the article in the show notes, although if you're
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  Speaker 1: anything like Kylie, you don't need to read the article.
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  Speaker 1: You just need to do the thing. I just like
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  Speaker 1: reading the articles. That's our doctor's Desk episode for today.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us the Happy Families podcast.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow. It's produced by Justin Rouland from Bridge.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Medium Happens provides our admin and other support. If you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: would like more info to make your family happy, visit
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: happy families dot com dot a you in a quick
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: remind of the brand new book, Boys Building Strong young
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Men from the Inside Out, comes out a couple of
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: weeks time, sixteenth of June. It's a Tuesday in two
• 10:41
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• 10:43
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• 10:46
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• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Check out Boys Building Strong young Men from the Inside Out.