Nature-Based Interventions and Mind–Body Interventions: Saving Public Health Costs Whilst Increasing Life Satisfaction and HappinessJules Pretty and Jo Barton
Received: 17 September 2020; Accepted: 20 October 2020; Published: 23 October 2020
1. The study assessed the effects of 3 nature-based interventions and one mind-body intervention (Living Movement Tai Chi).
2. It measured the effects on happiness and well-being and found a significant increase – see Table 1 and Figure 1 in the paper for summaries.
3. "An early section of the paper deals with habits, and how long it takes to hard-wire or automate habits. This is 50 hours (hence our use of the 50 hour point to define the transition from novice to experienced). For the first time in the literature, we were able to segment the tai chi practitioners into 3 groups according to experience: novice (0-50 hours), experienced (50-500 hours) and expert (500 to more than 8000 hours). People need to stay with the learning for 50 hours before automating the movements they are learning. But also, as the data shows, they are still receiving health and happiness benefits"
4. The margin of improvement for the tai chi practitioners was +1.10, +1.12 and +0.59 for these three groups. The experts had already had improvements – you can see that they began at higher values, but then travelled less far. See fig 1 in the paper.
Note: these improvements of +1.0 are greater than the largest events in life – see Table 7 in the paper for summaries.
.
"The research was able to measure the economic benefits of reduced health costs from the NBIs – we did not do this with Living Movement, as there was not the data. But it would be entirely reasonable to suggest that Living Movement Tai Chi saves the NHS money by keeping people healthy and happy!"
Received: 17 September 2020; Accepted: 20 October 2020; Published: 23 October 2020
1. The study assessed the effects of 3 nature-based interventions and one mind-body intervention (Living Movement Tai Chi).
2. It measured the effects on happiness and well-being and found a significant increase – see Table 1 and Figure 1 in the paper for summaries.
3. "An early section of the paper deals with habits, and how long it takes to hard-wire or automate habits. This is 50 hours (hence our use of the 50 hour point to define the transition from novice to experienced). For the first time in the literature, we were able to segment the tai chi practitioners into 3 groups according to experience: novice (0-50 hours), experienced (50-500 hours) and expert (500 to more than 8000 hours). People need to stay with the learning for 50 hours before automating the movements they are learning. But also, as the data shows, they are still receiving health and happiness benefits"
4. The margin of improvement for the tai chi practitioners was +1.10, +1.12 and +0.59 for these three groups. The experts had already had improvements – you can see that they began at higher values, but then travelled less far. See fig 1 in the paper.
Note: these improvements of +1.0 are greater than the largest events in life – see Table 7 in the paper for summaries.
.
"The research was able to measure the economic benefits of reduced health costs from the NBIs – we did not do this with Living Movement, as there was not the data. But it would be entirely reasonable to suggest that Living Movement Tai Chi saves the NHS money by keeping people healthy and happy!"