Eight Ways to Stay Happier This Year, According to Science

Why not try these science-backed tips to achieve more happiness in your life?

Some people are born to be happier than others. But whether you’re the type who sings in the shower and dances in the rain, or have a more austere bent, contentment isn’t just something that happens to us. We can all change our habits to incorporate more into our lives.

Here are our best tips for a happier 2025.

Friendship benefits people of all agesbut later in life it can become a particularly important source of happiness. While older adults typically reduce their social networks to prioritize time spent with those who know them well, research shows that it’s a good idea to stay open to new friendships because they bring us slightly different benefits in our relationships with family, which may be based on obligation. Because friendships are voluntary, not obligatory, relationships that can begin or end at any time, they tend to be more fun and less tense or fraught.

Although older people may face a number of obstacles that can make meeting new people difficult, in some ways it should be easier for us to make friends: as our personalities mature, we acquire more social skills, our attitude becomes more joy-oriented and we tend to become more pleasant. And the effort to maintain quality friendships as we age is worth it because the benefits go beyond just the simple psychological well-being – it also improves our cognitive functioning and physical health. In fact, research consistently suggests that friendships are also important as well as family ties to predict well-being in adulthood and old age.

And if you’re the type of person who has trouble making friends, sharing an awesome moment, like the total solar eclipse that crossed North America last year, is one way to helps you feel closer to the people around you while inspiring positive emotions along the way.

Compassion is a well-known foundation of true friendship. Derived from the Latin “shared pain,” this empathy helps us build strong bonds when our friends need help. But there is an opposite state, relatively unknown and just as important: “conlicity”, as David Robson wrote for the BBC.

Meaning “shared happiness,” it’s an underappreciated facet of good relationships and could be just as important as compassion in nurturing friendships. several studies suggest.

Enthusiastically supporting a friend’s good news – and asking questions about it – is the basis of being a good friend. Respond too passively – or actively downplay your friend’s success – and you run the risk of damaging the relationship.

It’s almost a cliché to say that doing something for someone else makes you feel better than rewarding yourself, but the more you know about altruism, the more it seems to ring true.

In fact, studies have shown that volunteering can even help in serial conditions like chronic pain And depression. A 2002 studyfor example, found that peer volunteers tasked with helping others with chronic pain saw their pain intensity scores drop while they volunteered. Other studies have shown that taking care animals can improve our health And caring for indoor plants can help us thrive, especially in old age.

Learn more about the unexpected benefits of targeted prescribing and why volunteering seems so good for us, .

There is another way the past could help you in the present. Research suggests that engaging with our ancestors can have profound psychological benefits. Family stories about overcoming adversity, for example, can be enriching when passed down to the next generation.

It can also give you a sense of perspective and gratitude: knowing that your life today was made possible by the struggles and courage of your predecessors on behalf of those who will follow them.

Counting your blessings is age-old advice, but it underpins a simple but well-demonstrated intervention. It turns out that writing a list of three good things that happened to us can help improve our mood. Whether it’s a life-changing event, like passing an important exam or having a baby, or something that seems unimportant, like running into an old friend or enjoying some beautiful light at the start of evening during a walk, there is a growing number of searches. this suggests that it can improve our well-being.

There’s nothing like a scenic drive: the wind in your hair, a few tunes on the stereo, the freedom of the open road ahead. Well, rats can now enjoy a slice of this automotive paradise, after researchers at the University of Richmond, Virginia, taught their furry, wiggly-nosed subjects to drive small Perspex automobiles in laboratory.

The rats quickly mastered this new skill and soon jumped into cars with enthusiasmin preparation for their next trip. Eventually, the researchers noticed that some rats made little excited jumps, as if enjoying the anticipation of pleasure.

This opened up a whole new avenue of research. Could the expectation of pleasure be as rewarding as the activity itself? In another experiment, scientists trained some rats to wait for rewards, while others received them immediately. They later assessed the rats’ optimism and found that those who had been trained to expect rewards were more optimistic.

The researchers hypothesized that this might also work for humans: by regularly anticipating pleasant activities or events, we might reprogram our brains to be more optimistic.

If you made it this far down the list, this one might come as a surprise. But research suggests that worrying too much about happiness can actually prevent you from feeling it.

Experiments that made people desire greater happiness – perhaps by reading about their happiness – before watching an uplifting film have finally come to fruition. feeling more disappointed than elated. The theory is that by raising their expectations, reading and worrying about the importance of happiness can actually leave people feeling deflated.

You may have experienced this yourself during a big event or party that you were looking forward to and it didn’t quite live up to your expectations.

Iris Mauss, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has also shown that desire and the pursuit of happiness can also increase feelings of loneliness and disconnection. She recommends adopting a more stoic attitude and being more accepting of life’s ups and downs.

During cold, dark winter days, a cup of coffee can give your brain and body a much-needed boost. Consuming caffeine can make us feel alert because it is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream where it overpowers adenosine, a chemical that makes us tired.

But timing is everything when it comes to caffeine, as it can take a while to take effect and a long time to wear off. Scientists recommend taking your last dose of caffeine eight hours and 48 minutes before going to bed. We also shouldn’t consume too much caffeine – no more than 400 mg or about two to three cups of coffee, depending on the strength – to avoid sleep disturbances, headaches, nausea and anxiety.

This year I’ve covered many science-based ways to improve our health and well-being, but I have to admit that, like many of us, I don’t always put the advice I give into practice. After finishing a six-week mindfulness course I stopped practicing mindfulness after the course ended, although I learned that even five minutes a day has many benefits, such as improving attention and reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

However, this summer, as I researched and wrote six science-backed steps to feeling calmerIt quickly became apparent that even if we feel relatively calm and stress-free, we can all benefit from many of the anti-anxiety exercises presented – and I found myself using the mindfulness skills I learned when my mind was overactive. at night.

Often we only seek interventions when we already feel stressed or exhausted – or if anxiety arises, it can feel overwhelming to seek intervention, but it’s clear that there are ways to avoid getting to this state in the first place. Even though mindfulness isn’t for me every day, having it in my toolbox is certainly reassuring if I ever need it.

Among the six steps presented, the one I keep coming back to concerns the benefits of nature. It is well known how beneficial the outdoors is can be beneficial for our mental health, but even when we’re stuck at home, studies have shown that enjoying nature virtually still has a remarkable positive effect. Nature has a positive effect on the mind and body, but it can be overlooked as a simple method to stay calm. This is why I discovered that virtually evoking nature be such a powerful tool.

If we hear recordings of wild animals for example, it can have a calming effect. Other research found that virtual reality access to a marine environment improved participants’ moods. The same goes for watching nature scenes on a computer or phone screen. And while virtual nature shouldn’t replace reality, it’s reassuring that giving our minds a regular virtual break can work wonders.

For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X And Instagram.