Here’s a question that challenges conventional wellness thinking: What if the gap between knowing what’s healthy and doing it isn’t only about willpower but also about how your brain is wired?
Neuroplasticity – your brain’s ability to form new neural pathways – responds to consistency, not intensity. This means your brain doesn’t need dramatic overhauls or perfect discipline. It needs small, repeated actions combined with meaningful recognition.
This insight is transforming how South African organisations approach employee wellness, and how individuals think about their own health journeys.
The neuroplasticity advantage: why 1% changes outperform 10% resolutions
Your brain physically rewires itself based on what you do repeatedly. Dr Tara Swart, neuroscientist and bestselling author, explained this approach on the eve of the inaugural Mind Matters Summit, which took place in Cape Town recently. “Change 10 things by 1% rather than one thing by 10%. Don’t jump from couch potato to gym three times a week – park a thousand steps further from your office, have one extra glass of water per day, go to bed half an hour earlier.”
Her neuroplasticity research confirms what behavioural scientists have long known: lasting change comes from small, repeated actions that rewire the brain and not heroic resolutions that crumble under pressure.
This principle holds true across behaviours: A two-minute breathing reset practiced daily creates stronger brain connections than an hour-long meditation attempted sporadically. When these small actions are rewarded – whether emotionally, socially, or financially – they become easier to repeat.
Why South African businesses are rethinking wellness
The summit’s authority came from who was in the room and what they agreed on. Paul Miller (CEO, Cipla One Africa), Mo Gawdat (former Google X Chief Business Officer), leadership strategist Christophe Fauconnier, multi-platinum artist Lira, and double Olympic champion Tatjana Smith made a unified case: With one in three South Africans diagnosed with depression, preventative wellness isn’t a benefit – it’s business-critical.
Miller called incentivised wellness essential. Gawdat positioned AI as a personalisation tool. Fauconnier reframed joy and gratitude as strategic imperatives. When leaders managing billion-rand operations and global innovation ecosystems align on wellness as non-negotiable, it’s not advocacy – it’s evidence.
Their message reflects a broader shift: Organisations are moving away from information-based wellness programmes that assume employees just need to “know better,” and toward incentive-based models that work with how the brain changes.
Treating mental health as seriously as physical health
“We need to treat an anxiety attack as seriously as a heart attack,” says Maria Carpenter, Head of Momentum Multiply and TEDx speaker. “For too long, mental wellbeing has been treated as separate from physical health – or worse, as a personal weakness rather than a medical reality.”
This perspective is driving wellness programmes that don’t just provide information – they reward action. Momentum Multiply, for example, financially rewards members for creating consistent healthy habits.
“There’s science behind our methodology,” Carpenter explains. “Neuroplasticity is real – the more you do it, the better it gets. When members earn benefits for a five-minute breath reset or logging gratitude, we’re not just incentivising wellness – we’re rewarding health ownership. And that’s when sustainable change happens.”
What this means for you
Lasting wellness doesn’t require perfect willpower or dramatic life overhauls. It requires understanding how your brain works – and working with it, not against it.
Small, consistent actions build new neural pathways. Meaningful rewards strengthen those pathways. And over time, what once required discipline becomes automatic.
Ready to start your health ownership journey? Discover how Momentum Multiply rewards your wellbeing at multiply.co.za.