Comprehensive Analysis Reveals Multiple Effective Pathways for Enhancing Well-Being

A sweeping analysis of 23,000 participants reveals that from yoga to awe walks, multiple pathways can reliably boost mental health—offering public health officials a flexible toolkit for combating well-being crises.

The study reviewed 183 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 23,000 participants.

Researchers found that mindfulness, compassion-based approaches, yoga, exercise, and positive psychology interventions all demonstrated moderate benefits compared with control groups.

Combined interventions—particularly pairing physical activity with psychological practices—showed the most consistent effects.

Dr. Lowri Wilkie said:

"Our analysis shows that there is no single route to improving well-being. Mindfulness, compassion-based approaches, yoga, exercise and positive psychology interventions all showed moderate benefits compared with control groups, and combining physical activity with psychological interventions appeared particularly promising."

Professor Andrew Kemp added:

"What this study makes clear is that well-being can be supported through multiple, evidence-based pathways. Psychological interventions, exercise and mind–body practices all perform well."

The strongest effects were observed for combined exercise plus psychological interventions, such as awe walks or meditation with walking.

Mind–body interventions demonstrated consistently moderate, reliable effects, while exercise alone produced similar benefits to many psychological interventions. The study emphasizes flexibility in designing well-being programs for diverse settings.

The findings were published in Nature Human Behaviour (DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02369-1).

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