Do you feel mentally prepared for the 2025? Whatever your answer, there are some tried-and-true habits that will help you feel awake, alive, and well next year—and they’re easy to put into practice.
As journalists covering the mind and brain, we continually ask experts about behaviors, conditions and perspectives that influence mental and cognitive health.
The tips listed here, some of our favorites from last year, aren’t meant to ensure that you’ll be pumped up and performing at your best 24/7 (to be honest, that’s not even realistic), but they can help. to develop resilience, strike a balance and prioritize what you value most.
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it 1000 times: Physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your brain. Immediately after an exercise session, people often say they feel better emotionally and their performance on tests of working memory and other cognitive functions improves. But the real benefits of exercising consistently over time are that people who do so have a lower risk of developing depression and dementia.
How can exercise do all this? Scientists believe that moving the body causes extra blood flow and the release of chemicals in the brainwhich can help create new connections between neurons.
Many of these connections are lost in both depression and dementia, so a strengthened brain can serve as a shock absorber against deterioration.
In survey after survey, many Americans say they have anxiety. If you can relate, there are ways to control your tendency to worry:
- Face your fears. Research suggests that directly facing the things that make us anxious can help break a pattern of fear and avoidance. You can do it with a therapist, in a process clinicians call exposure therapy, or you can do it on your own.
- Focus on your values (instead of your anxiety). Think about the personal traits you admire and then do something meaningful to embody them. For example, if being generous is important to you, consider volunteering in your community.
- Try not to be catastrophic. Ask yourself: Was all my worrying about a specific problem worth it? How did I overcome my worries and what was the most important thing I learned? Write down your observations so you can refer to them if excessive worry or fear reappears.
There is still debate about whether crossword puzzles and brain training games can actually make you smarter or significantly reduce the risk of dementia. But experts say they don’t hurt. The same goes for other cognitively stimulating activities, such as playing board games, reading books or newspapers, or learning another language.
If something is mentally challenging, “chances are it’s pretty good for your brain.”says Lesley Ross, professor of psychology at Clemson University.
Americans live with chronic sleep deprivation: A third of adults say they sleep less than seven hours a night. And when people have trouble sleeping, this can affect how they experience stress and negative emotions. They are also more likely to ruminate, get angry more quickly, have more negative thoughts, or have a harder time coping with stress.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia It is more effective than sleep medications in the long term: up to 80 percent of people who practice it see improvements in their sleep. If you want to try it, check out the workbook “Quiet your Mind and Get to Sleep” by Colleen E. Carney and Rachel Manber. Or download the Insomnia Coach app, created by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
From time to time, we all feel stuck at work or in our relationships, but there are small things you can do to give your life a boost:
Try doing a ‘friction audit’. Identify the things that create obstacles and add complications or stress to your daily life and try to eliminate them. To start, ask yourself: Am I repeating certain patterns that aren’t helping me? Are there things I usually do that I don’t like?
Try to ‘project the future’ Think about what it would be like to ‘disengage’. Then think about concrete steps that would help you make that vision a reality. Write down those steps, ideally by hand, and try to take at least one step each day.
Summer may seem far away, but keep in mind that when the temperature rises, the heat can take a serious toll on the brain. Studies show that hot days impair our cognition and make us more aggressive, irritable and impulsive.
“Your tendency to act without thinking or to be unable to help yourself from acting in a certain way” appears to be affected by heat, said Kimberly Meidenbauer, an associate professor of psychology at Washington State University.
When July and August return, take the heat seriously and prioritize staying cool and hydrated. Air conditioning, sitting under a fan while spraying yourself with cold water, taking a cool shower, or finding a cooling center or station near you can help keep your brain functioning at its best.
If you often feel like you never measure up, it may be time to accept what is “good enough”. Experts suggest letting go of that nagging feeling that you could or should have done more. Instead, give yourself credit for your daily accomplishments.
Distancing yourself from your thoughts is also helpful. Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michiganhas discovered that we perceive more positively and constructively using the word “you” or our name in internal dialogue, instead of saying “I.”
So instead of saying, “I can’t believe I made that mistake. It was stupid of me,” consider saying this: “You made a mistake. But your mistake is something that has happened to a lot of other people, too, and you don’t mind.” You’ll feel bad about it forever.”
We know that our brain and body are connected, but it’s easy to forget the extent to which one can influence the other. Researchers at the McCance Center for Brain Health Hospital General de Massachusetts have shown how important physical health is for the mental well-being and cognitive using a unique format: a questionnaire that estimates the risk of dementia, depression and stroke.
Most questions ask about common health measures (such as blood pressure and cholesterol) and behaviors (such as exercise and diet), illustrating the fact that the healthier your body, the healthier your mind. And if your score isn’t as high as you’d like, it’s not too late to make a change.
Feeling alone and isolated can harm our mental health and it can also alter our brain. In fact, more and more research shows that there is a relationship between loneliness and Alzheimer’s disease. Experts believe it may be because loneliness triggers the body’s stress response, which increases inflammation. Over time, chronic stress and inflammation can damage brain cells and the connections between them, which can contribute to dementia.
To combat loneliness, reach out to a friend or family member– Even a brief phone call can have a powerful benefit. If you want to make new friends, joining a club or support group is a good place to start. Ellen Lee, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diegoadvises looking for those based on a shared identity, such as those of widows or new mothers; that can give you something immediate to create a connection with.
Much has been written about why forgiveness is good for us. But therapists, writers and scholars are questioning the conventional wisdom that this is always the best way.
In the book “You Don’t Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms”, which will be released in February, trauma therapist and author Amanda Gregory defines the forgiveness as an emotional process and not as an end point. The process can help you experience fewer negative emotions or thoughts about the person who hurt you. But it doesn’t mean you have to like that person. “You can forgive someone without having any kind of relationship with them,” he said.
And, he added, if you prefer not to forgive or are not prepared, that’s okay too.
©The New York Times 2025
