MORNING
Breakfast
Start the day with a
nutritious breakfast containing nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, oily fish, fermented food and a rainbow of fruit and vegetables, preferably including avocados, unless you’re trying to buy your first home. Make sure to get the right balance of carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, calcium and fibre. The meal should carry a low glycemic load, be sustainable, low carbon, cruelty-free, light on meat and dairy, and, where possible, organic.
Experience awe
Go to a local hilltop, beach or mountain if you can, or go outside and look at the sky or clouds if you can’t. According to UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, awe is “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world” and it’s been shown to make you a less selfish, entitled person and a generally better member of society. If you think that’s something other people need more than you, you ARE other people.
Meditate
Sitting still for an extended period for no reason has been shown to be associated with increases in positive emotion and reductions in anxiety, depression, stress and pain. It has shown promise as an intervention for a range of conditions including cognitive impairment and dementia.
Exercise
Engage in moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes and preferably 60. The World Health Organisation lists the following benefits: “improved all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, incident hypertension, incident site-specific cancers, incident type 2 diabetes, mental health (reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression); cognitive health, and sleep; measures of adiposity may also improve.”
Engage with others
Talk with your family and not just to yell at them to get out of bed or the shower or to get ready for school, or to ask what they’ve done with the milk or why there are toast crumbs in the butter. In the world’s longest study of human happiness, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, people with strong connections to others were shown to be the happiest, healthiest and longest-lived.
Apply sunscreen/moisturiser
Not just because it makes your skin look and feel nice (and might therefore help with “have sex” later), but because it prevents skin damage, which can lead to age related diseases, including dementia.
Don’t worry
By now, you’re very late for work, but don’t worry, because worrying has been shown to be terrible for both physical and mental health. In particular, don’t worry about the possible financial implications of being late to work because thinking about money makes us less helpful and less likely to spend time with others. And, as we know, spending time with others is critical to our wellbeing.
AT WORK / DAYTIME
Have purpose
Believing you have a purpose, and that your purpose is important, is associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety, according to a meta-analysis published last year in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Another meta-analysis showed it can also lead to lower levels of stress.
Be bored
Boredom can lead to mind-wandering, which can foster inspiration and creativity, help us learn more effectively and help us achieve our goals.
Don’t be bored
Job boredom has been associated with lower life satisfaction, lower positive functioning and greater anxiety and depression.
Move
Being sedentary is very bad for you and research has shown any incidental movement can make a surprisingly big difference. Fidget, jiggle in your seat, tap your feet, drum your fingers annoyingly on your desk. Leave the office for a meaningless minute or two, walk to the kitchen and back for no reason, go to the toilet twice as often as you need.
Lunch
See breakfast.
Be kind to others
Although much of this list focuses on what we can do for ourselves, study after study has shown the thing that makes us happiest is focusing on doing things for others. It doesn’t have to be a big deal: Tell your colleague they’re nice, or that you like their jumper, or give them a bag of your least appealing feijoas.
Talk to a stranger
In a finding that surprised even experts, interacting with people you don’t know, even if you’re an introvert, turns out to significantly improve your wellbeing.
EVENING
Do something creative
A 2014 study in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts showed that drawing, writing, or any other activity done with the purpose of being creative helps foster psychological health.
Volunteer
Like all acts of kindness, volunteering releases oxytocin and serotonin, but seems to do it better. One study found that regular volunteering can reduce the risk of dying by a quarter. A 2014 literature review showed volunteers reaped benefits including “increased positive mood, greater psychological wellbeing, increased physical activity, improved self-reported health, lower morbidity, and even decreased mortality.”
Dinner
See lunch.
Express gratitude/count blessings
One of the OG wellbeing interventions, the idea of writing down three things you’re grateful for is so omnipresent in the literature as to have become a cliche, but if you’re going to be a cliche, you may as well be evidence-backed. Being grateful for what we have has been shown to improve sleep and immune function, while reducing blood pressure, frustration, envy and regret.
Have sex
Any sort is fine. It doesn’t need to be wild, creative, extended or excessively aerobic. It doesn’t even require reaching the finish line: Kissing, caressing, frank sex talk, snuggling and incidental genital contact are all good for you, although orgasm does produce some additional feel-good chemicals. Solo options, while less healthful, also bring with them a range of benefits including pain reduction, improved sleep and reduced blood pressure.
Sleep
If you’ve remained awake to the end of the sex act, this is a good time to start your sleep routine: In the hour or two before drifting off, you should avoid bright lights, alcohol, and food that’s heavy, spicy or high in sugar. To relax, you should meditate, take a warm bath or shower, stretch, read or put on relaxing music. You should avoid gripping TV, difficult discussions with your partner and scrolling through your phone.
It hasn’t been easy, but if you’ve managed to get through everything on this list, you’ve given yourself the best possible chance of leading a long, healthy and happy life. If you’ve failed, don’t worry, because worry can lead to premature death. But do hurry up and go to sleep, because a lack of sleep can lead to premature death. And you can’t afford to die right now - you’ve got too much to do tomorrow.
