Research shows that loneliness and isolation are so bad for you they can literally take years off your life. And that spending time with someone you care about, or at least communicating with someone you care about, is one of the most powerful methods there is for feeling better.

So even if you live alone, or are so busy that you and the others in your household barely see each other, make sure to reach out to someone you care about at least once a day. It could be by text or phone or video chat or some other method. It doesn't have to be in person.

Napping isn't for everyone. And a lengthy nap can leave you with sleep inertia, a.k.a. grogginess. But a brief nap of 10 to 30 minutes can improve your mental function, memory, and problem-solving ability as well as improve your mood.

It's absolutely worth building in those few minutes of naptime into the day if you can.

There's evidence that reading books provide an amazing host of health and brain benefits, including possibly increased longevity. That's a really good reason to do it.

The important thing is to pick a book that may or may not be what others consider a good book. Pick something you yourself will enjoy reading. The kind of book you look forward to diving into and hate to set down. It might be a mystery novel, a romance, science fiction, true crime, or something entirely other.

Laughing is really good for you. So, every day, try to find something to at least make you chuckle.

If you don't know of anything, ask your friends to send you funny YouTubes and jokes, or try laughing yoga, in which people get together and just start laughing, until the strangeness of doing so catches up with them, and they start guffawing for real.

All of us live super busy, overscheduled lives. But, increasingly, research tells us there are big benefits to being a little less busy and spending a little more time doing nothing, or at least nothing more productive than staring out a window.

For one thing, even if it feels like you're doing nothing, your brain will leap into action, working out your most important problems and making connections in ways that it can't when you're busy doing something.