Being a person: The Challenging Art of living well in today's world

Join us for the next event in a new Series: Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University Excellence Series. This series has been designed to showcase leadership in various disciplines including the opportunity to promote the University’s distinctive and impactful applied research. This series celebrates research excellence and promotes a public forum to a broader community, highlighting Lincoln University’s specialist land-based contribution to driving New Zealand’s prosperity and intergenerational wellbeing. The topic of wellbeing is now centre-stage. It has become part of almost every policy discussion. More and more products and services tout their ‘wellbeing benefits’; and, increasingly, individuals seek ways to gain and increase their wellbeing. Psychology has chimed in with its science-based recommendations for improving individual wellbeing (be active; connect; learn; be grateful; find purpose, etc.). Yet, despite this focus and this advice, there’s a glaring paradox. Around the developed and developing world, people are experiencing increasing rates of ‘ill-being’–and Aotearoa New Zealand is no exception. Global poverty has fallen and life expectancy has increased but so too have rates of stress, anxiety and depression. What is going on – or going wrong? Is it time to re-think our most basic assumptions about wellbeing - and also about ourselves and our world? Each of us is a person, but what is a person, exactly? And what do we mean by a person’s wellbeing? Can we move towards a world that generates wellbeing ‘naturally’ as part of how we live our daily lives? And what might transitioning to that world mean for our cultures, societies, economies and the rest of nature?  Join us as we hear from Professor Kevin Moore about his latest research insights into how our wellbeing is inseparable from our relationships with each other and with the wider world.