August is National Wellness Month, founded in 2018 by wellness brand Live Love Spa to turn self-care from an occasional treat into a daily habit. It's a nice idea. But looking at the UK's current health data, this year it feels less like a marketing moment and more like a prompt worth taking seriously.
Start with burnout. Deloitte's 2024 mental health and employers report found that poor mental health now costs UK employers an estimated £51 billion a year, with presenteeism - people showing up to work unwell and running on empty - the single biggest driver at £24 billion. Six in ten employees (63%) reported at least one sign of burnout, up from just over half two years earlier.
Then there's absence. The CIPD's 2025 Health and Wellbeing at Work report recorded average staff absence climbing to 9.4 days per employee per year, the highest level in over a decade. Nearly two-thirds of organisations (64%) reported stress-related absence in the past 12 months, with heavy workloads the most common cause.
Put together, the picture is clear: people are running on empty, and it's showing up in sick days, in performance, and in how people actually feel day to day. National Wellness Month exists to interrupt that pattern, even if only for 31 days.
The word "wellness" gets used loosely, but the World Health Organisation's own definition is broader than most people assume: complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not just the absence of illness. That means wellness isn't a candle or a bubble bath. It's sleep, movement, stress levels, and whether your body is quietly telling you something you haven't had time to listen to.
That's where a lot of people fall down - not from lack of willpower, but from lack of information. You can't manage what you haven't measured.
Protecting your long-term health rarely requires dramatic changes. Sleep, regular movement, managing stress and knowing key health markers such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar can all help identify problems before they become more serious.
You don't need a full lifestyle overhaul this August. A few starting points:
If it's been a while since you had a proper check-up, National Wellness Month is as good a reason as any to book one. Our health checks and medical assessments are built to catch what routine life doesn't have time to notice, and you can book online or arrange a GP consultation at a time that actually suits you.
