editor’s letter
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healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 3
mindapples
Gross National Happiness – Bhutan’s long-standing answer to GDP – may be under increasing debate in its homeland. Yet, where previously it might have been considered too touchy-feely for western countries, today it seems the idea is catching on. “There’s an emerging feeling that there’s more to life than Gross
Domestic Product (GDP),” says Paul Allin of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK (see Leisure Management, issue 2 2011, p26). Consequently, last November, the government announced a £2m project to measure national wellbeing, the first phase being a public consultation to establish what ‘wellbeing’ means to people. The findings of this consultation will be reported next month. However, the ONS has already
incorporated four questions, aimed at monitoring subjective wellbeing, into its Integrated Household Study: questions investigating how satisfied people are with their life, how happy – or anxious – they feel, and how worthwhile they consider the things they do in their life to be. “It’s high time we admitted that, taken on its own, GDP is an incomplete way of measuring a country’s progress,” said prime minister David Cameron at the launch of the project. Meanwhile, introduced to the UK in April,
The current surge of interest in the ‘feelgood factor’ represents an unprecedented
opportunity to promote the role of exercise in maintaining a happy, balanced state of mind
‘Action for Happiness’ is said to be the world’s first membership organisation dedicated to spreading happiness. With a reported 4,500 members across more than 60 countries, one of the movement’s basic premises is the need to prioritise things that cause happiness, from ‘external’ contributors such as positive relationships to ‘internal’ contributors such as good mental health. The synergy couldn’t be more obvious
between this notion and a new campaign set to be trialled by the National Health Service
in the UK. Announced last month, Mindapples adopts the ‘Five a Day’ idea – which encouraged us to eat more fruit and vegetables – and translates it into the mental health arena. Designed to help everyone feel more cheerful, the campaign asks people to think of five mood-boosting activities – ‘mindapples’ – and to incorporate these into their daily routine. These could be anything, from a walk in the park to relaxing in the bath or talking to friends. So where does the health and fitness industry fit in to all this? Although Mindapples is
deliberately non-prescriptive, leaving it to each individual to decide what makes them happy, Action for Happiness makes 10 specific suggestions for happier living – of which exercise is one. “Be active, relax, rest, repeat daily,” exhorts a campaign poster. Of course, the positive impact of exercise on mental health is hardly news to those in the health
and fitness sector; the introduction of Level 4 National Occupational Standards has even led to the development of specialist qualifications for fitness instructors wanting to work in this field (see HCM March 11, p36). However, the current surge of interest in ‘the feelgood factor’ surely represents an unprecedented opportunity for our industry to promote the role of exercise in maintaining a happy, balanced state of mind. Perhaps this will be the marketing message that finally takes us past the 12 per cent penetration level at which we’ve remained for so long.
Kate Cracknell, editor
katecracknell@leisuremedia.com
FRONT COVER: WWW.
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / © DEAN MITCHELL
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