What the research does and does not say

Across twelve randomised trials, yoga showed a moderate short-term benefit for low mood compared with usual care.

In a network meta-analysis of randomised trials, walking, yoga, and strength work were among the most effective forms of exercise for low mood.

Adults who did even half the recommended amount of activity had an estimated 18% lower risk of depression than inactive adults.

Across 41 controlled studies, dance was associated with better quality of life and fewer reported low-mood and anxiety experiences.

Light timing and intensity shift the body clock and affect sleep timing and mood; morning light generally advances the rhythm.

Strategies that change how you think about a situation are among the more effective ways to change how it feels, across 306 comparisons.

Across 62 tests, practices that shift attention from appearance to function were associated with small-to-moderate improvements in body image.

In a small randomised trial, sitting upright rather than slumped during a stressful task was associated with slightly better mood afterward.

Five minutes a day of cyclic sighing lifted mood and slowed breathing more than the same dose of mindfulness meditation in a 28-day randomised trial.

Slow, paced breathing is associated with a shift toward calmer autonomic activity and greater subjective calm; the underlying studies vary a lot.

Humming markedly increases nitric oxide in the nose compared with a quiet out-breath; the practical effect on mood has not been established.

Bringing attention to everyday activities is associated with wellbeing; the studies so far are self-report, not trials.

Across 27 randomised trials, brief self-compassion practices were associated with moderate improvements in mood, worry, and rumination.

Rehearsing direct, respectful ways of saying no is a long-established skills practice, though the modern trial evidence is thin.

Across 148 studies, people with stronger social ties did substantially better over time; contact is not a small thing.

Doing small, concrete activities when you feel low is one of the best-studied approaches to low mood; across 25 trials it outperformed control conditions.

Higher self-compassion is consistently associated with better mental and physical wellbeing across a large body of research.

Writing a plan as "When X, I will Y" makes follow-through substantially more likely; across 94 tests the effect was medium to large.

Gratitude writing is associated with small reductions in low mood and worry; it supports other practices rather than replacing them.

In everyday, healthy samples the effects of gratitude exercises on wellbeing are modest and depend a lot on what they are compared with.

Writing about what's on your mind has a small but reliable positive effect across 146 studies.

In a small trial, restricting worry to a set time and place reduced worry, tension, and sleep trouble more than worrying freely.

Talking to yourself in the second person or by name, rather than as "I", was associated with calmer appraisals under stress in several small studies.

Behavioural sleep programmes reliably improve how long it takes to fall asleep and how much of the night is spent asleep, in people with long-term insomnia.

In a sleep-lab study, writing a specific to-do list at bedtime helped people fall asleep faster than writing about finished tasks.

Brief writing about something you genuinely value is associated with staying steadier under stress and criticism, sometimes months later.

In a small randomised study, savoring a moment as it happened raised positive feelings more than a control task.

Feeling chronically rushed is strongly associated with perceived stress in self-report studies.

Across 142 randomised trials, attention-training practices performed about as well as other established approaches and better than doing nothing.