As World Wellbeing Week arrives, millions worldwide are discovering that true wellness isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress.
In a bustling café on Regent Street, Sarah Miles takes a deliberate pause before answering her phone. It’s a small gesture—three deep breaths—but one that has transformed her relationship with stress over the past six months. Like millions of others participating in World Wellbeing Week, Sarah has discovered that wellness isn’t about dramatic lifestyle overhauls or expensive retreats. It’s about the micro-moments that add up to macro-changes.
This shift in perspective represents a fundamental evolution in how we approach wellbeing. Gone are the days when wellness was synonymous with juice cleanses and marathon meditation sessions. Today’s wellness revolution is refreshingly democratic, accessible, and surprisingly effective.
The Science of Small Steps
Dr BJ Fogg, who founded the Behaviour Design Lab at Stanford University, has spent over 20 years researching human behaviour and has personally coached more than 60,000 people in habit formation. His groundbreaking research, detailed at tinyhabits.com and in his New York Times bestselling book “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything,” reveals something remarkable: the most sustainable improvements come from consistent, small actions.
According to Fogg’s research published through Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, “When you go tiny, when you set the bar really low, you are much more likely to succeed. You can form the habit faster because you’re setting yourself up to feel successful and that’s the feeling that wires in the habit.”
Complementing this research, Dr Wendy Wood, Provost Professor Emerita of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, has found through decades of habit research that approximately 43% of what people do every day is repeated in the same context. Her work, published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and featured on scholar.google.com with nearly 60,000 citations, demonstrates how environmental cues influence automatic behaviours.
Research from the Mayo Clinic, published in Annals of Surgery, demonstrates the power of micro-interventions in healthcare settings: studies with 56 surgeons across multiple medical centres found that intraoperative micro-breaks with targeted stretching enhanced mental focus (88% reported improvement or no change) and physical performance (100% reported improvement or no change).
World Wellbeing Week: A global movement
World Wellbeing Week takes place annually during the last week of June and is now in its sixth year. The 2025 World Wellbeing Week runs from 24 June to 30 June.
Organised by WellBeing World, this global initiative celebrates all aspects of wellbeing, from meaningful and purposeful work to financial security, physical, mental, and emotional health, social resilience, and, empathic corporate and civic leadership, community relations, and care for the environment.
This year’s focus places significant emphasis on encouraging organisations worldwide to initiate crucial conversations about mental and emotional health within their workplaces and broader networks.
Evidence-based wellness dimensions
Research consistently identifies several key dimensions of wellbeing that work together to support overall health. While different frameworks exist, workplace wellness research published by organisations like Humaans identifies core areas, including mental health, physical wellbeing, social connections, and financial security.
Mental resilience focuses on developing emotional agility and stress management. Research from the Health and Safety Executive shows that there were 776,000 cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2023/24, highlighting the critical importance of mental health support in workplaces, as documented by Mates in Mind.
Physical vitality encompasses movement, nutrition, and sleep. The American Heart Association provides evidence-based recommendations (heart.org) for workplace wellness, including staying hydrated, taking regular breaks, and scheduling proper lunch times to improve both physical health and cognitive function.
Social connection has been identified by the World Health Organisation as crucial for workplace wellbeing. Research published in PMC shows that employees who are in good physical, mental, and emotional health are more likely to deliver optimal performance than those who are not.
Purpose and growth relate to meaningful work and continuous development. Studies referenced by Stanford’s Environmental Health & Safety Department support the implementation of micro-learning and development practices as part of comprehensive workplace wellness programs.
Breaking down barriers
The wellness community is increasingly recognising that effective wellbeing practices must be accessible and adaptable. The National Academy of Medicine and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have identified worker well-being as a nationally important health issue, recognising that employed US adults spend more than half of their waking lives working, according to research published in PMC.
Organisations are implementing evidence-based approaches to promoting healthy habits. McKinsey research (mckinsey.com) shows that organisations can help promote healthy employee habits by clearly defining routines and changing environmental cues. For example, Virgin Atlantic decreased fuel costs by 3.3 million pounds by providing monthly usage reports to flight captains, disrupting their existing fuel usage habits.
The documented ripple effect
Research consistently demonstrates that workplace wellness initiatives create measurable benefits. Studies show that healthy and happy employees have a better quality of life, a lower risk of disease and injury, increased work productivity, and a greater likelihood of contributing to their communities than employees with poorer well-being.
Your evidence-based starting point
Based on BJ Fogg’s research available at Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, the key to successful habit formation is to “set the bar really low” and keep it low, even when you can do more. As documented in his research, “You change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.”
Consider starting with what researchers call a “keystone habit”—a small change that naturally triggers other positive behaviours. This might be as simple as keeping a water bottle at your desk to encourage consistent hydration, which research from the American Heart Association shows improves brain function. Alternatively, it could involve implementing the 20/20/20 rule, where you look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
The key is sustainability over intensity. Dr Wendy Wood’s research, as published in her book “Good Habits, Bad Habits” and available through USC Dornsife, demonstrates that habits are formed through repetition in consistent contexts, rather than relying solely on willpower or motivation.
Looking forward
As workplace wellness statistics reveal concerning trends—with hundreds of thousands of cases of work-related stress annually according to official health and safety data—World Wellbeing Week provides a vital platform for evidence-based action.
The traditional approach to wellness is giving way to a more scientific, sustainable model based on behavioural research from institutions such as Stanford University, the University of Southern California (USC), and the Mayo Clinic. This new paradigm recognises that wellbeing flourishes through small, consistent actions supported by environmental design and social systems.
In Sarah’s café in Regent Street, her three-breath practice represents more than a personal choice—it’s part of a global movement backed by decades of research showing that tiny changes, when implemented consistently, create transformative results.
World Wellbeing Week runs globally from 24 June to 30, 2025. For official resources and participation information, visit the organisers and participating wellness organisations worldwide.
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