HUBweek, Boston’s festival of ideas, attracts some 25,000 curious and creative minds from our region and across the globe—artists and academics, inventors and entrepreneurs, researchers and influencers—all sharing their visions for how to make a better world. This year, through pop-up events, immersive art and technology exhibits, and interactive speaker sessions, HUBweek sparked bold solutions for a better, more inclusive future—especially as it relates to health and wellness.

In conjunction with exclusive health plan sponsor Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, HUBweek hosted a series of visionary speakers who shared their experiences in shaping the health ecosystem of the future.

And while their insights are undoubtedly moving forward the future of health care, each of us can benefit from their key takeaways when applied to our everyday lives. Here is some of the advice, themes, and insights:

1. Stop thinking “I’ll be happy when…”

Scott EisenNataly Kogan, founder and CEO of Happier

Psychologists define a moment as lasting about three seconds. In an average lifetime, an individual gets about 600 million of them. “In how many of those moments do you feel truly present?” Nataly Kogan, founder and CEO of Happier, asked the audience during a session in the igloo-shaped Ideas Dome, presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, at HUBWeek. “Or how many moments do you race through because you’re working so hard toward some big, really important goal?”

From her humble beginnings as a child refugee from Russia to becoming a managing director at a venture capital firm at the age of 26, “I was achieving all my ‘I’ll be happy whens,’” Kogan said. Each accomplishment boosted her happiness at first, she said, “but after a while I didn’t feel that good anymore, so I just had to chase more and more.” Ultimately, Kogan said, this behavior was counter-productive to leading a joyful life.

So what’s the antidote to an “I’ll be happy when…” mindset? Something simple: gratitude. “Focusing on what you appreciate about something that is familiar,” Kogan said, is the best tool for finding joy in the present.

Here is what she suggests: Think about something you do every day without much thought—like running water from the tap, putting on your favorite shoes, or riding the T—and imagine your life without it. Really visualize how your day would be different. When you’re done, Kogan said, you should be able to see that small piece of your everyday life with a new perspective.

But is an “I’ll be happy when…” mindset all that bad, when for a lot of people those thoughts motivate and inspire them? “How do you recommend getting past that mindset while maintaining motivation?” an audience member asked Kogan.

“You can both feel grateful for what you have and want to create more,” Kogan answered. Gratitude and motivation are not opposites, she noted, but symbiotic. “When you practice these skills, they are your fuel that enables you to do more of the things that you care about” and, yes, achieve your goals.

2. Harness empathy to include, innovate, and invent

Scott EisenTaylor Carol, co-founder of GameChanger Charity and ZOTT

After being told he had two weeks to live in 2006, Taylor Carol, now a 26-year-old Harvard graduate, survived terminal cancer thanks to experimental treatments. He spent a total of five years in the hospital, including six months in an isolation unit where he temporarily lost the ability to eat, speak, walk and see.

With his unique perspective, Carol has been able to help hospital patients in ways that many caregivers don’t pause to consider: understanding and alleviating the emotional trauma—isolation, boredom, depression, loss of agency—that can come from long-term hospital stays like his own. “Boredom is one of the leading causes of pain in the hospital experience,” Carol said. “Patients left with nothing to do but dwell on their uncomfortable experiences and suffering feel their pain amplifying.”

Because video games were an important outlet of normalcy and connection during his treatment, Carol and his father co-founded GameChanger Charity and ZOTT, which provide scholarships for patients’ futures, custom-built gaming rigs for those with physical limitations, and virtual reality and augmented reality devices for distraction therapy.

Anecdotally, Carol has seen pain scores drop by as much as six points on a 10-point scale as a result of VR use. “That is the difference between using morphine or using Tylenol,” Carol said.

Scott EisenThe Bespoke Bodies exhibit inside SELUR

This theme—empathy—carried over to SELUR, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts container at HUBweek, where attendees practiced their own empathy skills by putting themselves in the shoes of someone with a prosthetic limb. Inside SELUR, The Design Museum Boston presented interactive elements from its upcoming exhibition, Bespoke Bodies: The Design & Craft of Prosthetics. Its Hanger Clinic provided an immersive virtual reality experience in which visitors were able to try out a variety of prosthetic devices, allowing them to better understand the capabilities and experiences of those who use them everyday.

3. Reconsider your weaknesses as strengths

Scott EisenTatyana McFadden, Paralympic athlete

Tatyana McFadden was born with a hole in her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down. She spent the first six years of her life in an orphanage, without a wheelchair, using her hands to “walk” in order to keep up with the other kids.

Little did she know that the powerful arms she developed during her challenging childhood would help her earn seven Paralympic gold medals, 24 World Major Marathon wins, and acclaim as the fastest female wheelchair racer in the world. By overcoming her challenges, she went on to accomplish one-of-a-kind triumphs.

“Everyone always looked at me and thought, ‘no she can’t,’” McFadden told the audience inside the Ideas Dome. “To me, it was ‘yes, I can. I can do this.’ I’ve always believed in myself, and I use adversity, my story, to empower others.”

Glennon Doyle, an author, activist, philanthropist, and creator of the online community Momastery, considers her clinical anxiety her “fire,” she said. In a conversation at Faneuil Hall with her wife, Olympic soccer medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Abby Wambach, Doyle shared how she now uses this fire to fuel positive action as the founder and president of Together Rising, a nonprofit that “transforms collective heartbreak into effective action.” Since 2012, Together Rising has raised more than $14 million—with an average donation of $25. The organization has impacted individuals around the country, from helping kids living on the street in Indianapolis to establishing the first opioid recovery home for pregnant teens in New Hampshire to keeping a foster family’s heat on in Texas.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts played a central role at HUBweek: bringing diverse minds together to help solve real-world problems. Local thought leaders in healthcare innovation, diverse speakers like Kogan, Carol, McFadden, and Doyle, and HUBweek attendees all joined in to discuss and propose solutions to issues like the health-damaging loneliness epidemic in America today and the limited health insurance of workers in the growing gig economy.

“We are dedicated to reinventing healthcare, but to accomplish that, we need the type of collaboration and diversity of ideas that we experienced at HUBweek,” said Kathy Klingler, chief marketing officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. “It’s inspiring to hear how these incredible leaders are doing their part to build a more inclusive and equitable future.”