What is mental wealth?
We’ve all heard of mental health, but what about mental wealth?
Like our finances, mental health fluctuates as we go through life. There are periods when we are struggling and others when we are rich in energy, connection and resilience. For the last 11 years, City Lit’s Mental Wealth Festival has explored exactly this idea.
The Festival brings together talks, panels, workshops and performances that offer advice, spark conversation and support wellbeing. And this year was no different.
In October 2025, thousands of visitors came to Central London to learn from the speakers, connect with others and celebrate positive mental wealth.
Festival in numbers…
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40 Workshops
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20 Talks
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2 Performances
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1 Exhibition
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21 Partners
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4 Locations (City Lit, Royal Opera House, The National Gallery, British Library)
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Over 100 Contributors
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Over 1500 Attendees
Things we learned from the Mental Wealth Festival
City Lit’s programme was packed and varied. The building hosted everything from Deaf yoga to live podcasts, ballet performances to buzzing panel discussions. We couldn’t list everything we learned over the three days, so here are eight standout lessons that stayed with us.
1. Learn to disagree agreeably
On the opening night of the Festival, we welcomed back London School of Economics Professor Paul Dolan. He talked all about ‘beliefism’, or the discrimination against those we disagree with.
We’re all guilty of this: someone shares a view we don’t like, and we struggle to engage in future with them. We often dismiss their other beliefs while we’re at it. But this only fuels more division and anger.
Professor Dolan reminded us that healthy societies embrace different perspectives. The takeaway? We can disagree without dismissing each other.
2. Your community is vital
A recurring theme throughout the Festival was how much we need each other. Yes, alone time matters, but so do shared spaces where we can connect, learn and feel seen.
Dr Mark Fabian and Dr Alastair Santhouse spoke about how the decline of group spaces is affecting modern wellbeing. Wellbeing isn’t just personal, but something we create together. To be well we must think about others too, not just ourselves.
Nothing captured this better than the Chaps Choir and other members of the City Lit community, who performed live on World Mental Health Day. The camaraderie of group singing, combined with thought-provoking spoken word, showed the power of community and coming together.
3. Creativity is queen
Bill Gates coined the term ‘content is king’ in the 90’s. But this year’s Festival reminded us that creativity is content’s royal partner.
The On Being Creative discussion brought together artists, poets and health practitioners. They shared how creative expression can energise, ground, challenge and even transform our sense of self.
Dr Tara Swart also explored creativity through the lens of neuroscience. Whether you’re going to the theatre or getting hands-on with art yourself (both linked to better health and even lower mortality), creativity has powerful effects on the brain.
As she put it: “It doesn’t matter how good you are at it, the benefits are the same.”
It’s a perfect reminder of why places like City Lit exist. It gives people the chance to create, explore and grow, even if you don’t have experience.
4. Build a more compassionate society
Being compassionate involves finding the courage to face the hard stuff emotionally. The Compassionate Conversations session explored the unique challenges of suicide bereavement and reminded us that compassion isn’t about fixing someone’s pain, but rather being humble and listening without judgement.
It also means understanding experiences that are different from our own. In Neurodiversity in the Workplace, we unpacked the difference between the neurodiversity paradigm and the neurodiversity movement. This involves accepting that brain differences are natural and valid, but also recognising the need for rights, inclusion and genuine acceptance.
Author and doctor Guy Leschziner also challenged our obsession with the “seven deadly sins”. Gluttony, sloth, wrath and the like are actually part of our biology, not moral failings. We should be kinder, and have more humility, to those predisposed to these traits.
A compassionate society makes space for every kind of experience, even the ones we don’t fully understand.
5. Form genuine connections
Sitting in the Royal Ballet and Opera on Friday lunchtime was a powerful reminder of how much we need genuine connection. From the dancers performing in perfect sync, to the crowd engrossed, to the honest discussion afterwards – you could feel the energy of people truly sharing an experience.
This was echoed by Tom Davies during the Festival’s live recording of the Proper Mental Podcast. As he said, “online reach doesn’t mean being reached.” Likes and impressions on Instagram don’t always translate into real connection or real change.
His point went deeper: meaningful progress often comes from grassroots people and groups doing the work on the ground. It’s not just about making noise online.
Nothing showed this better than the Festival Fair on Saturday. At the stalls and in the workshops, visitors were talking, sharing stories and building relationships. It was easy to overlook, but incredibly impactful.
6. Boost your brain power
Mental wealth includes looking after our physical and cognitive health, as well as our emotions. Several sessions explored practical ways to give our brains a boost.
A Mediterranean diet, regular exercise and good sleep were all recommended by Olivia Hum and Zoe Schadel from Myla Health. These keep our brains healthy later in life. On a day-to-day level, Dr Tara Swart also suggested ‘olfactory enrichment’. She shared that simply smelling seven different scents a day has been shown to improve learning and memory by 226 percent!
Another key message was that our brains are neuroplastic. It’s never too late to improve how we think and function. Shammi Khalis from Brain Abilitiez illustrated this perfectly. He shared his own personal story of retraining his brain after childhood, to thrive later in life.
7. Slow down!
Modern society constantly tells us to maximise every minute and always be improving. But one of the biggest takeaways from the Festival was the opposite: sometimes the best thing we can do is slow down. When we push through exhaustion, we’re actually doing our mental health a disservice.
It starts with sleep. In the Tired of Being Tired? session, psychiatrist Hugh Selsick shared practical tips: wind down one to two hours before bed, keep your bedroom just for sleeping and stick to a consistent sleep schedule.
But recovery shouldn’t only happen while we’re asleep. We need to prioritise rest too. Author and podcast host Mita Mistry reminded us in her interactive session that rest is almost as important to our wellbeing as diet and exercise.
Main message: slow down to keep your speed up.
8. Be proactive with mental health
One message ran through almost every session: don’t wait until things get bad to take care of your mental health. We can be proactive and protect our mental wealth before life does its best to knock it.
City Lit Fellow Sir Vince Cable and other panellists at the Business Breakfast stressed that poor mental health doesn’t just affect us individually. It impacts our friends, families, colleagues and workplaces too.
If there’s one thing to take from the Festival, it’s this: keep looking after yourself as we head into winter and throughout 2026. Mental wealth grows when we invest in it early.
VIDEO: Highlights from the 2025 Mental Wealth Festival
Investing in our mental wealth
We would like to thank our speakers, contributors and partners for making the Mental Wealth Festival such a huge success. The Festival only happens once a year. But at City Lit, we appreciate that mental health extends beyond the confines of three days in October.
That’s why we have courses running throughout the year designed to harness our creativity and look after our wellbeing. Whether it’s taking part in an art class, learning a new instrument or finding out more about health – there is a course at City Lit to help keep you well.
Sign up today. If you want to be part of next year’s Mental Wealth Festival email mentalwealth.festival@citylit.ac.uk.
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