Top endorsement times two

Professional recognition for program behind our wellbeing unit

The program behind our core Foundations of Wellbeing unit is now the only one certified and endorsed by the peak lifestyle medicine bodies here and in the US.

The Lift Project has the tick of approval from the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. “It’s been a lot of work getting to this point but I’m excited by the potential for this endorsement to further contribute to the cause of lifting 10 million lives,” says Associate Professor Darren Morton, who directs the Lifestyle Medicine and Health Research Centre at Avondale.

The 10-week “educational adventure,” part of Darren’s “audacious” plan, introduces scientifically-proven strategies from the fields of neuroscience, positive psychology and lifestyle medicine that “help lift your mood and your life.”

Darren and colleague Dr Jason Hinze use the program in the wellbeing unit. And it’s popular. Students complete challenges each week. One, Gratitude Visit, asks them to write about a person who has made a meaningful impact on their life and then to share the piece of writing with that person. In another, MasterChef Me, they prepare a plant-based, wholefood dish to share with others in the class. “We’ve just taken the students to the beach to teach them lesson three from the program, how blue and green should often be seen.”

Other challenges include: Night by Firelight, where students spend a night without artificial light; Live Love, where students identify the love languages of those within their circles of influence and then express those languages; and RAK, where students participate in random acts of kindness.

Lectures begin with students leading small groups where they present to each other the key learnings from the previous week. A short lecture follows where Darren and Jason introduce a new wellbeing concept and show evidence for why it works. Another activity puts the concept into practice. Darren and Jason reinforce the concept and then introduce the next challenge.

“To prepare a student for life, our courses have to extend beyond just offering training for professional competency,” says Darren. He notes the growing body of research showing the contribution emotional intelligence and wellbeing make to so-called life success. “This is our way of encouraging our undergraduate students to take this part of their life seriously and to share what they’ve experienced and learnt with others.”