When we're constantly working, it's easy to forget the important things in life.
Physical and emotional wellbeing are all too often an afterthought - even Michelle Obama has said all she wants for Christmas is a little more sleep.
Earlier this year, The Huffington Post's founder Arianna Huffington released her book 'Thrive', which explores how we can re-define success so that wellbeing, wisdom and wonder become the top priority.
Mindfulness and meditation have become more and popular in recent years, suggesting many others agree it's time for change.
In 2012 the Bank of England began offering meditation and wellbeing sessions. In 2013 celebrities like Emma Watson and Davina McCall showed their support for mindfulness.
Now we bring you the high profile people who embraced everything Thrive stands for in 2014, from Richard Branson's insane (but fabulous) staff holiday policy to actress Naomie Harris' sleep habits.
We hope The First Lady gets her Christmas wish and makes it onto our list for 2015.
People Who Embraced Thrive In 2014
Anderson Cooper (01 of14)
The CNN news anchor and journalist attended a weekend-long mindfulness retreat with meditation expert Jon Kabat-Zinn this year. Speaking on '60 Minutes Overtime' after his experience, Cooper said: "I don't feel I'm very present in each moment. "I feel like every moment I'm either thinking about something that's coming down the road or something that's been in the past."I meditate. Like, I try. Not every day, but even if I'm not doing that meditation, the moments of my day have changed because I'm not on my phone so much. I'm intentionally not checking my phone every two seconds." (credit:Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Katy Perry(02 of14)
Speaking to Rolling Stones magazine in August 2014, Katy Perry explained why she's such a big fan of transcendental meditation."For people that are so creative and have this kind of creative faucet that never turns off – it just continues and continues – it can be a little exhausting," she said. "And, you know, with the continual responsibility of having 127 people on the road, and always being the point person for everything, my subconscious is going even when I'm sleeping. "I'm dreaming about whatever I'm creating next, or relationships, or blah, blah, blah. So I'm never really off. And meditation is actually the one time I get to really reset." (credit:NIKKI SHORT/AAP)
Richard Branson(03 of14)
This year Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has been more outspoken than ever about putting employees' wellbeing first. Speaking to Inc in August he said: "If the person who works at your company is 100% proud of the brand and you give them the tools to do a good job and they are treated well, they're going to be happy."If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to do things with a smile. Effectively, in the end shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy." In September he went on to implement what is without doubt the best annual leave policy ever. Virgin staff in both the UK and US are now allowed to take as much holiday as they want, whenever they want. (credit:Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Jaden Smith and Willow Smith(04 of14)
Despite being just 16 and 14, respectively, the siblings (children of Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith) gave one of the most mindful interviews of the year. Speaking to New York Times, the pair spoke about meditation and being present: WILLOW: Breathing is meditation; life is a meditation. You have to breathe in order to live, so breathing is how you get in touch with the sacred space of your heart.JADEN: When babies are born, their soft spots bump: It has, like, a heartbeat in it. That’s because energy is coming through their body, up and down.WILLOW: Prana energy. (credit:Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Mohamed El-Erian (05 of14)
Mohamed El-Erian resigned as CEO of investment fund Pimco in January 2014. The true reason for his resignation was revealed in September. El-Erian's 10-year-old daughter confronted him with a list of all the important moments he had missed because of his job, including his daughter's first school football match, her first day of school and her parent-teacher evening.El-Erian's resignation reminds us all that success can't always be defined by money and power. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
MP David Lammy(06 of14)
In September a cross-party parliamentary group said wellbeing should be the top priority. The all-party group's chairman, Labour MP David Lammy, said: "It has been eight years since David Cameron first declared his intention to measure wellbeing, and in that time the financial crisis has shifted many people's priorities. But in fact wellbeing matters more, not less, in times of economic difficulties."Fundamentally this is about creating the conditions for people to live better lives, which should be the primary objective of all policy." (credit:Myung Jung Kim/PA Archive)
Ruby Wax (07 of14)
Comedian Ruby Wax has long been a fan of meditation, but in 2014 her open discussion on how the practice helped her combat depression brought the topic to the masses.As part of her 2014 Sane New World tour, she explored the topic of mindfulness and in an interview with The Telegraph in August 2014, she said: "I wake up around 9am then meditate for 20 minutes."I practise mindfulness, which involves letting my garbage go through my brain but always bringing my focus to my breathing. It’s not something I ‘believe in’ – I know from brain research what’s going on, so it’s not a holy thing. "I try to do it every morning, or failing that I do it in a taxi or on a train." (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
MP David Laws (08 of14)
During a Commons education select committee hearing on child wellbeing, Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, asked Liberal Democrat Daid Laws: "What part do courses in mindfulness play in raising child wellbeing, does the Department for Education plan to promote such courses?"In reply, the minister said: "I think we are very interested in promoting this and we certainly think that it's an area that merits consideration based on the evidence we've seen to date." Laws was then asked by committee chairman Graham Stuart, Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, to explain the concept of mindfulness.He told the cross-party group of MPs: "It's about trying to impact on people's motivations, their attitudes to life, it's about trying to get at some of the things we don't always get at through our crude technical interventions and I think it's an area that we should take seriously while making sure that there is proper evidence-based scrutiny of it." (credit:PA Wire/PA Archive)
Hilaria Baldwin(09 of14)
Boris Johnson(10 of14)
London mayor Boris Johnson makes sure his staff at City Hall receive free help to help with mindfulness. A spokesperson told HuffPost UK: "We have a wellbeing portal on our intranet which provides resources to staff on a range of topics to do with health and wellbeing."These include mindfulness podcasts which we have promoted to staff since May 2014."As an employer we believe improving employees' ability to maintain their health and wellbeing, handle pressure and balance work and home life is commonsense, because ultimately it leads to improved individual and organisational performance.” (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The England Football Team (11 of14)
A number of leading footballers were reported to be receiving help and support from psychologists and practicing mindfulness before and during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.The players wanted to find balance and the inner strength to cope with the pressures of the game.England's Daniel Sturridge is known to have devoted one hour of his pre-match preparations to psychiatrist Steve Peters before his World Cup debut in June. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Naomie Harris(12 of14)
Even Miss Moneypenny knows the value of sleep.In a recent interview with the Evening Standard, actress Naomie Harris said: "When I’m filming Bond the most important thing is getting enough sleep. "I wear cosy monogrammed pyjamas and a silk eye mask, apply Dr Gowri Motha night oil and listen to a hypnotherapy sleep CD." (credit:Karwai Tang via Getty Images)
Gus O'Donnell (13 of14)
Former head of the civil service Gus O'Donnell warned politicians that they should consider wellbeing as well as the economy when making policy in March of this year.Gus O'Donnell proved he's a man who understands that success is more than money and power when he said: "GDP alone is not enough. To measure a country's progress, we also need to look at how satisfied we are with our lives and how worthwhile our lives are." (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Lloyd Blankfein(14 of14)
Goldman Sachs became joined other financial firms in the City of London in offering meditation and mindfulness sessions, so we though it was only fair to add its CEO Lloyd Blankfein to our list. In May, Sally Boyle, head of human capital management at Goldman Sachs, said: “In years to come we’ll be talking about mindfulness as we talk about exercise.” (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)