You don’t have to pack up your entire life and buy a one way ticket to Italy to be happy, although it will probably work. We’ve compiled 50 mostly useful ways that help us feel alive during a strange time of rebirth and renewal.

1. Smile at strangers.

2. Eat something before your coffee.

3. Sleep with your phone in a different room and buy an alarm clock.

4. Set time limits on all of your most-used apps.

5. Take a really, really cold shower or if you can, a cold sea swim. Honestly, the bollocks.

6. Eat.

7. Do regular digital cleansing. It's mostly shite.

8. Call your loved ones.

9. Take the stairs (if you can).

10. Write thank you letters and cards.

11. Watch programmes like BBC Earth that make you feel insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the known universe.

12. If the journey is under an hour, walk without headphones!

13. Read more.

14. Order something different on the menu.

15. Order what you actually want (not what you think you should have).

16. Lay down in the dark listening to music.

17. Do something for someone else because it's nice and you can.

18. No phone first thing in the morning, or last thing at night.

19. Read stuff written by old philosophers who have some interesting thoughts and some pretty naff ones.

20. Practice understanding other perspectives, even if you don't agree with them.

21. Walk up a hill really fast and get red in the face and out of breath.

22. Make your bed, and wash your bedsheets.

23. Do the thing you don't want to do. Unless it's really bad and weird, then generally, don't do it.

24. Buy great bed sheets.

25. Start taking supplements, but do your research.

26. Make peace with the things you can't change.

27. A gentle slap in the face or pinch of the arm when you're spiralling.

28. Buy yourself the nice thing.

29. Delete Tiktok. And Instagram. And Twitter or X or whatever it's called.

30. Crease at stupid things with friends.

31. Use that language app with the creepy owl and think of how many more amazing people you could meet.

32. Drink a dirty, stinking martini.

33. Get into bed at 9.30pm.

34. Stop saying sorry in emails.

35. Stop overusing exclamation marks.

36. Go to the cinema on your ones.

37. Say no to plans.

38. Hold your mates hands and tell them you love them.

39. Stand outside on a really windy day.

40. Get some decent hobbies, even better if they make you money.

41. Don’t go on your phone when you’re eating dinner.

42. Go to therapy.

43. Spend more time outside.

44. Learn how to breathe deeper. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

45. Understand that not every motivational quote on Instagram relates to you. We are all toxic sometimes, even you.

46. Delete apps you don't really enjoy.

47. De-clutter your camera roll (and re-discover fave memories in the process).

48. Print out your favourite photos and start a photo album. Write the date and location on the back of each pic.

49. Keep your own traditions and embrace new ones.

50. Your personality is a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with. How many people are looking to you?