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The Good Vibes Experiment is an award-winning mental health campaign co-designed with students at Flinders University.

Since 2021, it has encouraged students to experiment with small, wellbeing-focused activities in daily life. It's not about pretending to be happy, but about building skills to improve, sustain, repair, and strengthen your mental health.

You'll see Good Vibes signs and activities across campus, and you can pick up free Activity Books at places like Oasis and Health, Counselling and Disability Services.

The campaign remains part of campus life, featuring in Orientation, Wellbeing Week, R U OK? Day, and more.

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The Story Behind the Good Vibes Experiment

The Good Vibes Experiment started with a simple question: if mental health is more than just the absence of illness, what can we actually do to build it?

Drawing on research from Be Well Co and the Greater Good in Action project, mental health professionals identified 20 evidence-based wellbeing tactics. They span everything from meditation and time in nature to gratitude, connection, and meaning, reflecting the idea that there's no single pathway to positive mental health. 

From there, students, designers, communications staff, and mental health professionals worked together to translate those ideas into something more tangible. The result was the Good Vibes Activity Book, a collection of small, playful activities designed to be tried, tested, and adapted in everyday life. Think of them as taste-testers: brief invitations to pause, experiment, and notice what genuinely supports your mental health. Just as importantly, the team wanted to make sure the book didn't stop at positive mental health strategies alone. Throughout the book, students are also clearly shown where and how to get support if they're struggling. Use the buttons below to explore the Activity Book, learn more about the 20 wellbeing tactics, connect with Good Vibes and social media, or dive into additional resources. 

Activity book

The 20 tactics

Connect on social media

Resources

Activity Book

This activity book is both an educational tool, in which we share with you some of the science of improving your mental health, and a personal reflective tool (like a journal) in which you can take legitimate steps in investing in your mental health.

You can flip to any page in this book and there will be a unique exercise or experiment for you to try. Some of them are just for fun and to relax, while others are challenges to question your way of thinking, your habits, your priorities, etc.

Order an activity book

View activity book

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The 20 tactics

If you would like to start the process of learning about the 20 tactics designed to help you improve, sustain, repair or strengthen your mental health, you can read the brief descriptions below.

  1. Meditation and mindfulness. Learning how to be present and focusing your attention.
  2. Seeking out awe. Taking moments to bask in the amazingness of something or someone.
  3. Finding your meaning and purpose. Connecting to a purpose higher than you and understanding what you want to contribute to the world.
  4. Future orientation. Taking the time to visualise the future you want for yourself and setting things in place to bring it into reality.
  5. Understanding yourself. Learning more about the person you are, your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes and personality.
  6. Developing and expressing gratitude. Cultivating a sense of appreciation of the people and things in your life and the experiences you’ve had.
  7. Building and supporting connections with others. Building and nurturing supportive relationships with friends, family, colleagues and even the a random stranger!
  8. Developing self and other compassion. Extending understanding and kindness to yourself and other people during difficult times.
  9. Forgiveness. Letting go of difficult thoughts, feelings and ideas about someone who has wronged you.
  10. Expressing kindness. Engaging in regular acts of kindness towards self and others.
  11. Seeking help. Knowing when and how to reach out for assistance.
  12. Learning and teaching. An ongoing willingness to learn as well as pass on the knowledge you’ve gained to others.
  13. Building a healthy lifestyle. Looking after your body and mind with healthy habits.
  14. Spending time in nature. Connecting regularly with the natural world.
  15. Having fun. Spending more time engaging in activities that bring a true smile to your face.
  16. Facing your fears. Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.
  17. Deliberate practice. Getting better at something through focused practice.
  18. Enhancing productivity. Learning to work smarter, not harder and increasing your productivity and efficiency.
  19. Expressive writing and art. Processing your feelings and reactions to things through writing and art.
  20. Thinking about thinking. Learning more about the role that your thoughts and beliefs play in shaping your world and how to change or challenge your thinking.

Connect on social media

Follow Oasis on Facebook and Instagram for GVE updates during 2022

Oasis Facebook

Oasis Instagram


Use the Good Vibes hashtag!

Use #flindersgoodvibes to give a Good Vibes shout-out on your own social media channels.

Develop your own Good Vibes plan

Wondering how to incorporate Good Vibes Experiment principles into your everyday life? In this 3-part video series, Dr Gareth Furber from Oasis talks about how to develop a Good Vibes Plan – a strategy for sustaining and growing your mental health.

Resources

Visit the support and services directory to view the extensive range of free support services available at Flinders to support your mental, cultural, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Visit the Support and Services Directory

There are also a number of community and online services that you can access.

You aren’t just limited to accessing services within Flinders University. There are hundreds of different services in the community that assist with all types of issues. Some starting points in terms of mental health include:

  • Headspace centres are ‘free and confidential service where young people aged between 12 - 25 can access qualified youth mental health professionals.
  • Links to Wellbeing provide counselling and mental health support across central and southern Adelaide. 
  • Community mental health services are run by SA Health and include a range of services delivered through community centres, hospitals and home-visit services. Their website also contains links to other mental health services worth knowing about.

In terms of other community-based services, we recommend familiarising yourself with a couple of the community service directories, that is, catalogues of services for different issues. 

One of our favourites is Ask Izzy – works well on mobile devices and documents a huge range of services.

Another good one is Affordable SA - which has a helpline you can ring (1800 025 539).

Finally, you can try the SA Directory of Community Services which have a huge catalogue of services, but not all are in the health and welfare space.

 

We’re lucky to have lots of excellent online mental health programs and services. 

These are particularly useful for people who want to learn more about mental health and get some therapeutic support but aren’t quite ready yet to visit a professional face-to-face. 

There are two good entry points into discovering the best online mental health focused services and resources. 

Head to Health is a government created portal to finding mental health resources from trusted service providers. The site isn’t just designed to provide links to services and resources, there are educational materials on there as well so you can learn more about mental health and wellbeing. 

Another excellent site is eMHprac who have compiled a list of “Australian online and teleweb programs, all of which have been developed by credible sources, such as the Australian Government, universities, and national non-government organisations. This includes apps, online programs, online forums, and phone services, as well as a range of digital information resources. Check out the directory.

The Good Vibes Experiment vision:

  • That all members of the Flinders University community have the knowledge and tools to make meaningful improvements to their mental health and wellbeing. 
  • That people don’t feel alone in their attempts to make these improvements, but rather feel part of a community trying to make these changes en masse. 
  • To de-stigmatise the conversation about mental health in the Flinders Community.
  • That people know how to use the power of positive emotions to bring balance during difficult times. 
  • That all students know about the range of mental health focused services available to them at Flinders, but also in the community and online. 

Access to Good Vibes Experiment materials

Flinders University have waived copyright over the Good Vibes Experiment materials to ensure they are freely available to all universities and other organisations across Australia and internationally. To access the digital and physical assets, including the files for the activity book, posters, enamel pins, t-shirts and other promotional items, please click here.

Read the media release. 

More information?

The Good Vibes Experiment (GVE) is a campaign developed by Flinders University students, Flinders University Student Association (FUSA), Health, Counselling and Disability Services, Oasis, and Student Experience. If you’d like to reach out to the GVE team, please email using the address below.

goodvibes@flinders.edu.au

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Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042

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Last Updated: 23 Jan 2026
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