Why every neighbourhood needs a wellbeing hub (E100)

Happiness for Cynics podcast

Join Marie and Pete as they celebrate Happiness for Cynics’ 100th episode by looking at wellbeing hubs and why your neighbourhood needs one. 

Show notes

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) vs. Herald/Age Lateral Economics (HALE) – Wellbeing index

The GDP in Australia was worth 1370.00 billion US dollars (1939.10 billion AU dollars) in 2021, according to official data from the World Bank. The gross domestic product (GDP) measures of national income and output for a given country’s economy. The gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to the total expenditures for all final goods and services produced within the country in a stipulated period of time. 

The Herald/Age Lateral Economics – Wellbeing index looks at changes in education, health, work-life, social inequality and environmental degradation. According to the HALE Wellbeing index Australians overall wellbeing has suffered a significant decline since the start of the pandemic and the financial value of this decline is estimated at 9.4 billion US dollars (13.3 billion AU dollars). That is approximately 0.7% of the GDP.

Thinker in Residence – Martin Seligman 2012-13 

Each Thinker is a world leader and exemplar in their field. They come and live and work in Adelaide for a period of time. The Thinker focuses on contemporary, complex challenges, recognised as important to the future of the state. 

Wellbeing hubs

Wellbeing SA is partnering with the City of Playford and Naracoorte Lucindale Council to co-invest in local Wellbeing Hubs, through which a range of targeted initiatives are being implemented to support community physical, mental and social wellbeing

Transcript

[Happy intro music -background] 

M: Welcome to happiness for cynics and thanks for joining us as we explore all the things I wish I’d known earlier in life but didn’t. 

P: This podcast is about how to live the good life. Whether we’re talking about a new study or the latest news or eastern philosophy, our show is all about discovering what makes people happy. 

M: So, if you’re like me and you want more out of life, listen in and more importantly, buy in because I guarantee if you do, the science of happiness can change your life. 

P: Plus, sometimes I think we’re kind of funny. 

[Intro music fadeout] 

M: [Singing] Happy birthday to us,

P: Laugh!

M & P: [Both singing] Happy birthday to us,

P: Happy birthday, Happiness for Cynics,

M: Happy birthday to us!

P: We are on 100! Yay!

M: Whoop, 100 episodes.

P: Woo hoo, welcome, welcome, welcome! Who would have thought, gosh.

M: I know. It was really just, “want to do a podcast? On zoom?”

P: [Excited voice] “Sure!” Laugh. Does it mean I get to hang out with you? Sure, I’m in, laugh.

M: I was like, you’re kind of happy, this could be fun.

P: Laugh! Annoyingly so.

M: Happy and not a cynic. And now look at us.

P: I know.

M: I’m so not a cynic and you are.

P: Laugh. What have you done to me? Laugh.

M: I’d like to think that it is the act of going back to school that has made you appreciate sources and understanding quality information.

P: Mmm, yeah.

M: I’d also like to think that the shit show that’s going on in America has made us all questions sources.

P: Laugh. I hope they’re questioning sources; I really do. Laugh.

M: Questioning the reliability of sources.

P: Yes, yes, it’s great explanation of social media induced news and information and we need to have those filters on. And be really mindful of what we’re putting in and filter out the crap from the stuff that’s worth investigating.

M: Yep, and happiness is [worth investigating] as we know.

P: Laugh.

M: So, this is what really started as us exploring you know, what makes people happy, and noting that I tripped over a lot of this stuff because I never really believed in it.

P: Mmm, mmm.

M: And now look at us.

P: We’ve almost reversed. Laugh.

M: We talk about Amygdala’s.

P: Ha ha ha!

M: And what else have we talked about? We’ve talked about a lot of pretty scientific stuff.

P: We have. We brought the science.

M: Neuroscience.

P: Yes, yes. Even a little bit of vagal tone in vegus nerve stimulation.

M: Mmm hmm. That was the breathing stuff.

P: Yeah.

M: I still have no idea what you were on about that day.

P: Laugh! One day you will get there. One day I’ll explain it.

M: We were talking about the muscles and the ribs. Gotcha. That’s breathing right there.

P: Laugh.

M: And I was like, wha??? how does this all fit together?

P: Laugh.

M: But we got there. And I do ramble on about a whole lot of other stuff where you’re just like, “Mmm hmm, you just, you go girl.”

P: Laugh. I’m right behind you, cheer squad.

M: Laugh.

P: Right here. We all need our cheer squads.

M: We do, yes, we do. Build each other up.

P: Yes.

M: Not tear each other down.

P: And applaud the investigation. Applaud the moving forward and finding things out and going, “Sure there’s something to forest bathing. Sure, let’s investigate that.”

M: Mmm hmm. Unless you’re Josh Frydenberg (Treasurer of Australia) and then… I can’t say that on air.

P: Laugh!

M: But today, what we want to talk about is wellbeing hubs.

P: Now, this is a particular passion of yours, Marie. We’ve had many discussions about this. We’ve driven through industrial estates in the back of Sydney, looking at venues and these dilapidated housing places. And your first thought always goes, ‘that could be a happiness centre!’

M: Yes, yes! And you know it really is the next evolution out of the book that we wrote.

P: Mmm.

M: What was the name of the book we wrote?

P: Laugh!

M: Selfcare is Church for Non-Believers. You know, we used to all get together on a Sunday and create that community and talk about service and kindness to others.

P: Mmm mmm.

M: And really rally around the community that really brought people together.

P: Absolutely, yeah.

M: With fewer and fewer people going to church and believing in God. There isn’t that thing that brings people in a community together.

P: Yes.

M: I didn’t even know my neighbours. I live in a high rise, and the other day I got off on the lift and they were like, “Oh, no, this is our floor.” And I was like, “No, no, no, it’s mine, too.”

P: Laugh.

M: That’s a typical city persons story.

P: Yes, it is.

M: We need these wellbeing hubs to replace that community that we used to have.

P: Absolutely. These are the new churches. Is that what you’re saying?

M: Yep.

P: New old churches?

M: Yes.

P: Yeah. I like it.

M: The role the church played in society was so much more than just religion and bringing people together around religion.

P: Oh yeah, definitely. Community so much more important. And this is where the change happens as well, when you’ve got people bringing in new ideas and being supportive and creating those social connections.

M: So anyway, back to Josh Frydenberg, who I really want to trash on the show today.

P & M: Laugh!

P: Poor Josh.

M: So, this all came about out of a Sydney Morning Herald article, an opinion piece, which pretty much said a few weeks ago, our treasurer in Australia here, was patting himself on the back of the GDP growth in the midst of a pandemic.

P: Yeah. Mmm, well done you… whoo.

M: All the old white men standing around paying themselves on the back.

P: Laugh.

M: Anyway, went we’ve done our job as elected officials in this country. GDP went up a couple of percent. Wow we’re good, right.

P: Mmm, yeah.

M: But what they didn’t take into account and what The Sydney Morning Herald was looking at. So, there’s an annual Herald/Age Lateral Economics (HALE) wellbeing index.

P: That’s quite a mouthful.

M: It is. They need a better name. They really do.

P: They need an acronym or something, laugh.

M: So, you think the media would know –

P: The LEWI index? See there we go, I’m good.

M: There we go 😊

M: – about the index. So, this index, rather than just GDP, shows Australians have suffered negative impacts to the wellbeing during coronavirus.

P: Mmm.

M: So, unfortunately, these impacts are largely overlooked by traditional economic indicators like GDP, which is really singularly focused, right.

P: Very much so. Very narrow.

M: What I argue, and many other people argue around the world and many countries have already started implementing. Bhutan is probably the most famous.

P: Ahh.

M: So, they have G… Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH).

P: Oh my.

M: Yes, and there’s a range of measures that go into that. A couple of years ago, now, New Zealand launched their wellbeing plan.

P: Yeah, that was such a good thing, a defining moment.

M: Scotland, Germany, you know a few countries, [whispers] mostly women run countries –

P: Hmm, interesting.

M: – have realised that GDP is not the sole measure for whether or not you’re doing a good job when running a country.

P: It shouldn’t be the sole measure, no. The health and wellbeing of your people.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: Uh-peoples as King George used to say.

M: Uh-peoples, yes, are the peoples happy?

P: Laugh, yeah. And that should be the focus that should be.

M: Yeah.

P: We should be putting measures in place where we can start to collect data around this sort of statistics so that we can then have measurable, quantifiable numbers that we can use in arguments.

M: Yes.

P: To say this approach is working, people’s happiness, people’s content. We’re getting better social commentaries or social engagement.

M: Health!

P: Oh, health is a huge one.

M: Mental health, and all of those measures have been going backwards over the last decade. And unless we do something differently, they’re going to continue getting worse. We’re going to have higher rates of suicides, higher rates of depression, anxiety, obesity, diabetes.

P: Yeah.

M: You name it, things are falling apart from the mental health perspective.

P: And they are linked. Like mental health is one of the biggest indicators for obesity in Australia.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: And globally, it makes a big difference.

M: A lot of other countries are looking not only at GDP, but other measures to say whether or not… You know, on their report card at the end of the year when they pat themselves on the back.

P: Laugh, yeah.

M: It’s not only an A in economics, it’s an A in social sciences and all the other things.

P: Wealth distribution.

M: Yes, let’s not even talk about that.

P: Laugh!

M: This Herald/Age Lateral Economics Wellbeing Index looks at changes in education, health, work-life, social inequality and environmental degradation.

P: Mmm.

M: It doesn’t matter if you’re healthy and happy if you’ve got no world to live on.

P: Exactly.

M: And the results for overall Australian wellbeing are not good.

P: Mmm.

M: So, we’ve had a decline in the pandemic, and here’s… Let’s put some dollar values on it since we are talking GDP, a lot of time.

P: Ok, yep.

M: Worth $13.3 billion AU.

P: Sounds like a lot of money.

M: It’s a lot of money. You could fund a lot of wellbeing hubs with 13.3 billion dollars.

P: Yes, you could, definitely. Yeah.

M: Laugh.

P: Where does that sit, in terms of our, in terms of our GDP? As a percentage?

M: Oh, I should have looked into it.

P: Maybe I’ll look that one up. Leandra will look that up.

M & P: Laugh.

P: Thanks Lea.

M: So, 13.3 billion dollars is the value of the decline in our mental health since the pandemic started.

P: Mmm.

M: And we’re sitting around talking about how well we’re doing.

P: Yeah.

M: We’re not.

P: No.

M: We’re not. And look, to be fair, this is, this is kind of new. We’re a little behind the eight ball in Australia. As we’ve said, there’s other countries leading the way. But for the last 100 years there was a really good correlation between GDP, you know, in growth and financial security, and how prosperous and healthy population was.

P: Or contented the population was. The population was happy when we were earning money.

M: Not necessarily contentment, that didn’t factor in. But health measures and things like housing, water, electricity, etcetera go up as the country gets richer.

P: Yep.

M: And there’s a direct correlation to social impact and wellbeing impact when people start getting fresh water, right?

P: Yep.

M: When they have access to housing rather than living in slums.

P: Access to basic human rights.

M: So, there’s definitely a direct impact. When you’re talking poorer countries increase the GDP, you’ll increase your people’s basic access to what we think of basic human rights, right?

P: Well, they are. Water, sanitation, nutrition –

M: But we’re long past that in Australia, America, most European countries that haven’t been…

P: The developed nations.

M: Right? They have all been happily drinking water from a tap, pretty much getting their housing right, feeding their population in general etcetera.

P: Yep.

M: And so, for a while GDP has continued to grow, but we haven’t seen those increases in wellbeing in the population. And it’s because once you get to a certain point of development in your country, we need new measures then. So, I will give a little bit of slack to our government.

P: Laugh.

M: I think we’re very much a lucky country.

P: Sure.

M: But it’s time for change.

P: It’s time for new measures.

M: It’s time.

P: It’s time to look at other things. So, what are the other things that we do look at when we’re looking at wellbeing, Marie?

M: Well, maybe let’s talk about what is wellbeing? When we’re talking about wellbeing.

P: Ok.

M: So, wellbeing and happiness are a little bit different. So, it is definitely multifaceted, and it includes your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

P: Yep.

M: So, all three of those, and really it includes having meaning and purpose in your life. So that’s again, very closely tied to a sense of identity and self.

P: Yeah.

M: And factors into your emotional health.

P: Very clearly. If you can wake up and be excited for doing a job or a task or having something to wake up for huge amounts of physical impacts, with that.

M: Yep, and on top of that, if you can have autonomy and agency in those things, we talked about those before. It’s about also having something to get you out of bed in the morning again back to that lovely start that we always talk. About 40% of people who retire are depressed within a year.

P: Yes.

M: It’s something that gives you something to look forward to. Plan for, feel good about doing and achieving and accomplishing.

P: Yep.

M: So that’s the first one. Second, one community and connection again –

P: This is the social?

M: Yeah.

M: – and we’ve seen very much during Covid that a lot of people have been suffering from loneliness and social isolation.

P: Mmm.

M: The third, which I kind of bucket in with the fourth here as well, so physical health and mental health.

P: Mmm.

M: So, are you getting outside, exercising, eating well, sleeping well?

P: Yep.

M: And mental health? Do you prioritise mental health, are you practising kindness and gratitude? Do you manage your negative thoughts?

P: Mmm.

M: And do you actively work on your resilience, stress and positive mental health?

P: Yes.

M: Right, which is the bit that I didn’t know we had to do. I just thought happiness was a natural state.

P: Laugh! Well, I think this is what society has been prioritising a little bit more, and this has come from a lot of government led initiatives back in the 2000’s, with governments going we need to start thinking about wellbeing and having those ideas out there. New Zealand was the one that really jumped on top of it from my memory in terms of putting into policy. And that’s where Jacinda Ardern has been so proactive.

M: Mmm.

P: But these are the things that people of our mother’s generation didn’t consider. But we’re really lucky, as you said and we’re in the position where we don’t have to worry about clean running water and a roof over our heads, we can actually start considering things like resiliency, mental wellbeing, emotional intelligence.

M: Mmm hmm. What do we want out of life? Following your passions, not just trying to put food on the table.

P: Yeah.

M: Yeah, we are very privileged in that way.

P: Mmm.

M: So, that is what wellbeing encompasses. But it’s also about balance. It’s also about understanding that you need to put time into being happy and resilient and managing your mental health, your physical health, having meaning and purpose, contributing to community and connection with others. And the more that comes at you, redundancy, illness in the family, coronavirus.

P: Yep.

M: The more stresses that come at you, the more you gotta double down on those things, right?

P: Yeah, they’re more important.

M: To a certain point, when, unfortunately, your seesaw is going to get a bit out of balance. If, for instance, we have two years of Global Pandemic.

P: Mmm.

M: And maybe on top of that, if you’re in America two years of a global pandemic and a lot of political turmoil, right?

P: Yes.

M: And that will send anyone even if they’re doing the best they can to look after their physical and mental wellbeing and to reach out to people, etcetera, etcetera, that amount of change and…

P: Crises.

M: Crises will break even the most resilient person.

P: Absolutely.

M: So, wellbeing is about having the balance there and on any day we go through a lot of change and a lot of turmoil.

P: Yep.

M: And so, that’s why it’s so important nowadays compared to our parents’ generation to be putting the time in. But we’ve been through a tough couple of years, and another really good example of where you can’t help that balance is a war zone for instance.

P: Yeah.

M: When you’re just constantly in fright or flight.

P: Mmm, yeah.

M: So, that’s wellbeing. It’s about putting all the work in on those three to four things. But then also understanding that at any one point in your life things might throw that balance out of whack. And it’s about balancing the challenges with the good stuff.

P: Yep. So then, in terms of putting that into practise, this is the idea of the wellbeing hubs which is a particular passion of yours. And there was an article by Martin Seligman, our friend Martin.

M: Oh, not an article. He was a Thinker in Residence in South Australia in 2013. I love that job title.

P: Laugh! Thinker in Residence.

M: “I’m a Thinker in Residence.” Laugh.

P: Go South Australia for taking the initiative on that, to have a Thinker in Residence, to have a philosophical person up there.

M: And to have someone from the positive psychology field come and be a Thinker in Residence.

P: Yeah.

M: So, he came up with the idea of wellbeing hubs and look for many, many, many years, we have known that people are more successful in life when they practise these positive psychology interventions.

P: Yep, mmm hmm.

M: And activities, when they do the things that we talked about.

P: Yes.

M: That is our wellbeing activities, right? People are more successful. They contribute more in their jobs and to the economy.

P: Yeah.

M: And so, you want your GDP to go up?

P: You want people to be happy.

M: Right. Yeah.

P: A happy worker is a good worker. That’s a Chinese thing.

M: Very true. They’re very smart, Chinese. So many years ago, we worked out that it’s better to have happy people and our schools went okay, this is great. And all over Australia we are really quite advanced in the world with how we’ve implemented positive psychology into our curricula.

P: Like in our education?

M: Yes, we’re doing some really good things. So, I was online, and obviously South Australia took the Wellbeing hubs concept and they’ve got their kids and wellbeing programmes they’ve got resources, the Australian federal government has a bunch of resources and information. Podcasts for teachers, teacher guides, classroom activities, all of that kind of that kind of stuff to bring it into the classrooms, these concepts and ideas and to help train kids.

P: Ok.

M: But no one’s really doing much out there for everyone else.

P: So once you get out of school, it kind of falls away a little bit.

M: Like, we’ve had to do all our research here, you and me.

P: Yep.

M: And if you’re under 18 [great]. Where are people getting their information about how to live a good life? We missed the boat, right?

P: These new kids coming through great, good on you. A wonderful idea, yeah.

M: And in New South Wales there is a wellbeing framework for school kids as well. So, a lot of our state governments are on top of this, But that’s only 0- to 18-year-olds.

P: Yeah.

M: What about the rest of us?

P: Where does the rest of the population go to?

M: I’m glad you asked, Pete.

P: Laugh! Was that a nice little feed there, laugh. There you go, off you go.

M: My solution.

P & M: Laugh.

M: And Martin, Dr Martin Seligman’s solution is these wellbeing hubs.

P: Ok.

M: And essentially, they will do a lot of the same things that churches do, right? It is a space, a physical space, but also a virtual space where you can run programs and get people involved in their community.

P: And any number of diverse programs as well. It can be more than just a sporting thing or a sporting association or a knitting class or an orchid club.

M: Yeah, yeah, you can have pregnant yoga in the mornings and book club at lunch for the… anyone, anyone really, let’s be honest and…

P: Creative contemporary dance in the afternoon.

M: Mmm hmm, and then gardening in the evenings. So, whatever it is and it’s just a way to pull together a variety of activities that are all based in positive psychology research.

P: Yeah.

M: And not only give meaning, so whether you’re learning a new skill or you’re giving back or contributing or volunteering at the centre.

P: Yep.

M: Or doing something more meaningful, like teaching a class right?

P: Yep.

M: Or doing it with a group of friends or meeting new friends as you learn these new skills and then also, you know, wherever possible, building in physical health activities and elements to that as well.

P: It’s also a great screening tool as well, getting people who maybe are in social isolation for whatever reason, sometimes my personal choice.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: These are the people that miss out on engaging with other people who go, “oh, are you OK today? You’re looking a little bit lacklustre?”

M: Mmm hmm.

P: And that, that’s really important for health and mental health as well. The possibility that someone may not be processing a death in the family very well or not reaching out might be suffering from something that’s ill health, and they haven’t realised it until someone makes a comment about it. “Are you losing a little bit of weight? Have you been eating okay?”

M: Mmm hmm.

P: Or, “Have you been sleeping well?” And these are all factors that build into us being able to recognise and look out for each other, which then results in better health outcomes and wellbeing outcomes.

M: It’s a community. When you see someone every week for an hour, that’s all it is.

P: Yeah.

M: Then you look out for that person, you know, you start to build a relationship, and it’s not necessarily super awkward, like networking. Where you go just to talk, you’ve got something to do, and you can build relationships as you’ve seen [or heard] through our episode on making friends as adults.

P: Yes.

M: Yeah, it really helps to deepen those bonds.

P: Yeah.

M: As we know through volleyball.

P: Hugely.

M: All right, so wellbeing hubs. That’s my thing.

P: Laugh.

M: So, the good news is South Australia have partnered with the Playford and Na-ruh-coot (Naracoorte) Lucindale Council to co invest in some local wellbeing hubs.

P: Na-ruh-kawt (Naracoorte) for our Adelaide listeners.

M: Sorry about that.

P: Laugh.

M: Na-ruh-coot, na-ruh-kawt.

P: In Canberra, they recently launched a wellbeing hub. They got the minister out there to plant some seedlings, good photo op.

P: There we go. Shake some hands.

M: Yep.

P: Kiss some babies.

M: So, they’re starting to pop up now. My challenge to you out there is how will you get involved and make it happen, because I think around the country every neighbourhood should have a wellbeing hub.

P: Yeah, yeah. I think that would be good.

M: That, I think is the future. So –

P: As common as a library. Every suburb should have a library. Every suburb should have a wellbeing hub.

M: Absolutely, with programs to bring people together.

P: There we go.

M: All right, that’s it, we’ve had our rant.

P: Laugh!

M: 100th episode! Again, thank you so much for listening everybody. And we really appreciate hearing from you and knowing that you’re out there. So, thank you for your support. And hopefully we can make the next 100 just as interesting.

P: And in the meantime, stay happy,

M: and cynical 😊

[Happy exit music – background] 

M: Thanks for joining us today if you want to hear more, please remember to subscribe and like this podcast and remember you can find us at www.marieskelton.com, where you can also send in questions or propose a topic. 

P: And if you like our little show, we would absolutely love for you to leave a comment or rating to help us out. 

M: Until next time. 

M & P: Choose happiness. 

[Exit music fadeout] 

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and weekly email newsletter for regular updates and news!  

Please note that I may get a small commission if you buy something from my site. Your support helps to keep this site going at no additional cost to you. Thanks!