ASICS returns to talk about mental health with a new campaign for World Mental Health Day, but this time it shifts the focus from the need to “escape” to the possibility of finding your own wellbeing every day. Everyday Escape is the title of the project starring actor and screenwriter Natasha Rothwell, whom many will remember for her role as Belinda in The White Lotus, the spa manager at Mike White’s luxury resort who tries to take care of others while, quietly, struggling to carve out space for herself.

In the world of The White Lotus, wellbeing is a packaged luxury, a paid experience often steeped in frustration and disillusionment. And it’s precisely from this contradiction that ASICS starts: according to research conducted for the campaign, wellness retreats can be as expensive as they are fleeting, with benefits that fade as soon as you return. Italians, for example, travel an average of 1,780 kilometers and spend over €1,400 for such a vacation, but 70% admit that the positive effects last very little.

ASICS’ response is both simple and radical: just fifteen minutes of movement can deliver a 21% improvement in mental state compared to an entire week at a retreat. This is demonstrated by the Everyday Escape study, overseen by Dr. Brendon Stubbs of King’s College London, which confirms that even a short break for daily activity can reduce stress and improve mood more effectively and lastingly.

“Wellbeing shouldn’t be a luxury,” says Rothwell, appointed by ASICS as Everyday Escape Concierge, “but something accessible to everyone, every day. It can be a walk, a dance in the kitchen, or a few minutes of stretching: it’s free, simple, and most importantly, it’s yours.” A message that resonates with her own personal story and with the character of Belinda, trapped in a system that confuses caring for others with burning yourself out.

It’s interesting to note how Everyday Escape ideally continues the conversation that ASICS began last year, when Brian Cox — the acclaimed star of Succession — embodied a ruthless boss to highlight the silent threat of office sedentariness. Back then, the invitation was to step away from the desk; today, with Rothwell, it becomes a more intimate call: to find your own “everyday escape,” a moment to move your body and, in turn, your mind.

On the one hand, then, the campaign with Cox denounced immobility as a poison of the modern mind; on the other, Everyday Escape proposes movement as an accessible form of liberation, a small act of self-determination.

The result is a campaign that — like last year — manages to combine science, irony, and humanity. No exotic settings or promises of instant transformation: just a simple, everyday, and powerful gesture. Because, as ASICS reminds us, Anima Sana in Corpore Sano is not a slogan, but a principle that holds true every day — even (and perhaps especially) in the fifteen minutes we take for ourselves.