It’s all about improving your moo-d. From the Netherlands and Switzerland to the U.S., cow-hugging farms are sprouting up everywhere. The Dutch even have a name for it: koe knuffelen. The idea is to benefit from good old-fashioned human-animal touch, except with cows not cats. Apparently cows’ slow heartbeat and warm body temperature makes them great for hugging. Chew on that.

Struggle to sleep without your partner next to you? Technology has a fix so bizarre it’s almost creepy: breathing robots that fool your sleepy brain into thinking you’re not alone. Oh, and the robots come with birth certificates. Breathing easy?

Would you lock yourself into a closed space with temperatures as low as minus 230°F for three minutes? It’s a Japanese practice that took off in the 1970s to treat inflammation and arthritis, conditions for which cryotherapy is shown to work. That was before Hollywood stars like Jessica Alba and Jennifer Aniston more recently decided to jump on the bandwagon, with unproven claims that it helps keep you young. A whole new way to chill out.

Scientists began studying the happiness of 268 Harvard sophomores during the Great Depression. The study’s search for clues to a happy life continues — although only 19 of its original subjects, all in their mid-90s, were alive as of 2017 (among its deceased members: John F. Kennedy). Waldinger, 71, heads the research today, and is now studying the more than 1,300 baby-boomer children of the original subjects. That is, when he’s not working at Massachusetts General Hospital, meditating as a Zen priest or delivering viral Ted Talks.

The 35-year-old Wales-based sociologist argues that focusing too much on mindfulness and meditation can distract us from changing the real-world circumstances that contribute to unhappiness. As an Ojibwe teenager spending her summers on a First Nations reservation in Canada, Frawley originally thought she was wrong to feel sad about the poverty and troubles she saw — before realizing that she had “a right” to feel bad. Now she’s hoping her approach will help people gain greater agency over their lives and feel better. And her Marxist-inspired writings are finding unlikely audiences — including on conservative British platforms.

A trained epidemiologist, Yamamoto has served in multiple health-related positions in the Japanese government and worked at the WHO. But it’s as a member of the Global Happiness Council — a collective of scientists and researchers focused on happiness and well-being — that she’s proposing the most radical shift for Japan. Yamamoto believes the Dutch de-stressing method of doing nothing (called niksen) is the need of the hour. The inability of her Japanese compatriots to accept stillness might explain why the country is so unhappy.

A melancholic sense of longing for the past, for a person or simply for a dream world doesn’t sound very happy. Yet scientists have found that a tiny dose of sadness actually helps us heal better, and feel happier in the process. That’s where this Brazilian emotion comes in. It’s such a central part of the country’s culture there’s even an annual day — Jan. 30 — for it.

No one word or phrase in English can do justice to this beautiful and rich Javanese concept: that a sense of community is central to fostering happiness. So if you’ve lost your job, know that others in your Indonesian society will look after you while you’re searching for work. Broken-hearted? You’re never alone.

Or do it the Dutch way. As identified earlier, niksen or “do nothing” is a philosophy that encourages you to just stare at nature, laze around or listen to music ... you’re fine as long as you’re not looking for any purpose. After all, shouldn’t happiness be a purpose in itself?

on The Carlos Watson Show, season 4!

What better to listen to while you meditate than music from the home of meditation? At the heart of Indian classical music’s long and glorious history are ragas — pieces of music that each speak to a different mood. So let the soothing sounds of the sitar or the fluttering flute take you to a state of meditative Nirvana.

It’s the music of the Tuareg people, a nomadic Berber ethnic group in Algeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Also known as Tuareg Rock, traditional Tuareg instruments started being replaced by guitars beginning in the 1970s, providing a unique blend of traditional Berber sounds and bluesy Western notes. Get hypnotized.

Okay, some may argue that binaural beats aren’t music. But however picky you are about definitions, psychedelic vibrations may in fact help you curb your anxiety and stress. Sound waves rooted in science, binaural beats emit varying frequencies to your brain. Start with the theta frequency, ideal for relaxation, meditation and creativity.

What are your favorite ways to stay well? Share your thoughts with us at [email protected].