Eight ways to stay happier this year, according to science
Why not try these science-backed tips to get more happiness in your life?
Some people are born to be happier than others. But whether you're the kind of person who sings in the shower and dances in the rain, or of a more dour inclination, contentment isn't just something that happens to us. We can all change our habits to coax more of it into our lives.
So, here are our top tips for a happier 2025.
Embrace friendship as we age
Friendship benefits people across all ages, but in later life, it can become an especially important source of happiness. While older people typically shrink their social networks to prioritise spending time with those who know them well, research shows that it's a good idea to remain open to new friendships, as they give us slightly different benefits to our relationships with family, which can be based on obligation. As friendships are voluntary, non-obligatory relationships that can begin or end at any time, they tend to be more fun and less tense or fraught.
Although older adults may face a number of hurdles which can make meeting new people difficult, in some ways, it should be easier for us to make friends: our personalities mature, we gain more social skills, our outlook becomes more joy-oriented and we tend to become more agreeable. And the effort of maintaining quality friendships as we age is worth it, as the advantages stretch beyond just psychological wellbeing – it also improves our cognitive functioning and physical health. In fact, research consistently suggests that friendships are as important as family ties in predicting wellbeing in adulthood and old age.
And if you are the sort of person who finds making friends difficult – sharing an awe-striking moment, such as the total solar eclipse that passed across North America last year, is one way to help make you feel closer to the people around you while also inspiring some positive emotions along the way.
Practice "confelicity"
Compassion is a well-known foundation of true friendship. Derived from the Latin for "shared pain", this empathy helps us form strong connections when our friends need help. But there's an opposite state that is relatively unknown and equally important – "confelicity", as David Robson wrote for the BBC.
Meaning "shared happiness", it's an undervalued facet of good relationships and could be just as important as compassion for maintaining friendships, multiple studies suggest.
Enthusiastically supporting a friend's good news – and asking questions about it – is a basis of being a good friend. Respond too passively – or actively underpla
Do some volunteering
It's almost a cliché to say that doing something for someone else makes you feel better than rewarding yourself, but the more learned about altruism, the more it seems to ring true.
In fact, studies have found that volunteering can even help with series conditions like chronic pain and depression. A 2002 study, for example, found peer volunteers assigned to help others struggling with chronic pain saw their pain intensity scores drop while they were volunteering. Other studies have shown that looking after animals can improve our health and taking care of houseplants can help us thrive, especially in old age.
Some healthcare providers are now even prescribing volunteering as one particularly effective form of "social prescribing": prescriptions which connect people to community resources and activities. Sending people to everything from art classes to cycling groups to groups, and helping them with food and heating bills, are all increasingly proven to be valid health interventions which could also reduce pressure on health services.
