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Reasons to be Hopeful

Reasons to be Hopeful

Breaking: news is bad for your health. Mentally and physically. But if you know where to look, it's possible to swap gloom and fear for hope and positivity. With Ruby Wax as your guide, get ready to rejoice in a future that’s both bright and hopeful.

It's easy to focus on the negative

One study found that people who consumed 6+ hours of media coverage a day, in the aftermath of a terror attack, were nine times more likely to experience high acute stress than those who didn’t often engage with news.

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Introducing

Reasons to be Hopeful, with Ruby Wax

The Series: Reasons to be Hopeful 

In an Unmind first, this Series will not focus on you, the user. It will instead talk about the good news that will make all our futures better. Each session will go deep on a specific topic – be it food, business, education or technology – present the challenges we face as a species, then provide the reasons why tomorrow is, in fact, full of hope and excitement. All of this, delivered by your personal guide to hope: Ruby Wax.

Already have an Unmind account?

You can check out our new Series today. Just log in to Unmind, then head to Series > Wellbeing > Reasons to be Hopeful.

Meet the expert

Ruby isn't just a beloved comedian, writer and performer, she's also an esteemed wellbeing expert with an OBE for services to mental health. She's written several bestselling books on mental wellbeing, including And Now For The Good News: To the Future With Love, which inspired Reasons to be Hopeful – Ruby’s debut Series with Unmind.

Ruby Wax Series launch landing page

Good news/bad news

Bad

Doomscrolling causes depression. The more news a person consumes after traumatic events, the higher chance they’ll suffer from various mental health issues.

Good

Community is a social cure. New research suggests a sense of belonging can protect people from depression, improve their health in retirement, and aid recovery from heart attacks.

Bad

We waste a third of all food produced for human consumption. If food waste was a country, it’d be the third largest carbon emitter on Earth (after China and the US).

Good

Campaign groups around the world fight food waste with a glut of clever schemes. Some rescue post-harvest produce, others share food in community fridges.

Bad

Where the average US worker saw a mere 11% wage increase in 30-years, for CEOs it was nearer 950%.

Good

Unilever has stopped 2,330 tonnes of greenhouse gas from entering atmosphere, saved 120 tonnes of water, and repurposed 27 million plastic bottles.

Good news/bad news

Bad

Humans are destroying the Earth. Cement-made bricks, alone, cause 8% of all CO2 emissions. Pollution poisons the ocean, plastic waste chokes marine life, and overfishing risks exterminating entire species.

Good

Fungi bricks actually store carbon, and could reduce emissions by 800 tonnes each year. It’s now possible to turn soot into ink and switch plastic packaging for something sea creatures want to nibble on.

Bad

Today’s schoolkids are under a whole bunch of pressure – none of it their fault. In fact, one in three children suffers from mental health problems.

Good

Over 1 billion children head to class on any given school day, compared with 1 in 4 in 1870.

Bad

Around 16% of crops get wasted before they even leave the farm, for not being the right size or shape.

Good

Progressive educators – from Forest School to Finland – are embracing mindful, kid-first learning. This means pupils can put as much effort into growing as human beings as they do exams.