Everyone loves a bargain. We'll do an extra lap of the supermarket for a yellow sticker and tell anyone who'll listen that our coat was half price. But some of the best things in life are completely free…and we walk straight past them.
Maybe it’s due to how we’ve learnt to judge worth. We're used to price being the measure of value, so if something costs money we assume it must be good, and if it's free it's easy to assume it isn't worth much.
But almost everything that makes us feel actually good is free. A hug or a long walk doesn't come with a marketing budget, but both have more science behind them than most things you can add to a basket.
Why we overlook the free stuff
Most of what we see about health online is attached to something for sale, whether that's a sleep tracker or an £8 matcha latte. But when something is free, it’s not being marketed because there is no profit to be made. So over time wellness starts to feel like something you buy rather than something you already have. This is why the wellness industry is valued at around £6.8 trillion and expected to hit nearly £10 trillion by 2029. Because the more people feel like they need gadgets and powders to feel good, the more money they spend.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend money on your health - there are loads of great things in the wellness industry that are great for your wellbeing. But the things doing the heavy lifting for your happiness are consistent doses of things that are free.
The best things in life are free: 27 free activities that are great for your health
Some of these you'll already do without thinking about it, and some might be new. We've grouped them by who you do them with and where, and every one of them costs nothing (or very little).
With other people
- Time with people you love: The longest-running study on happiness has followed the same group of people since 1938, and its biggest was that the strongest predictor of long-term health is human relationships. The people who were most satisfied in their relationships at 50 were the healthiest at 80.
- A hug: The good ol’ hug triggers oxytocin, lowers stress and boosts your mood. And it might help you fight off a cold too. People who got more hugs were better protected from the effects of stress and had milder symptoms when they were exposed to a cold virus.
- Laughing with friends: Laughter is a natural medicine. Laughing elevates your mood and happiness and we're around 30 times more likely to laugh when we're with other people than when we're on our own. Laughing together releases endorphins, the same feel-good chemicals behind a runner's high.
- Talking to a stranger: Chatting to someone in a queue or on the train can feel scary, but it almost always goes better than we expect. Studies show that people who engage in small talk with strangers (even just a short exchange) report a stronger sense of belonging and improved mood and happiness.
- A phone call instead of a text: Most of us avoid calling because it feels like more effort or a bigger deal than sending a message. But people who caught up with an old friend over the phone felt closer to them than people who texted.
- Sharing a meal: People who eat with others more often are happier with their lives, and the World Happiness Report found that link in every region of the world it looked at. Sharing meals is a huge part of many cultures for a reason.
- Singing in a group: We don’t mean being in band or a choir if that’s not your jam. But singing with friends on a car journey or at a party releases endorphins and makes you feel part of a group.
- Helping someone out: Doing something for someone else is good for you as well as them. Volunteering is linked to lower rates of depression and higher life satisfaction. It can be as small as picking up a neighbour's shopping or giving a few hours to your local food bank.
- Stroking a dog: Ten minutes of stroking a dog or cat is enough to lower your stress hormones. If you don't have one, offer to walk a friend's dog and you'll get the stroking and the walk
Outside
- Spending time in nature: People who spend at least 120 minutes a week in nature are much more likely to report good health and wellbeing than people who don't get out at all. It doesn't matter whether you do it in one long walk or in short bursts across the week, and your local park counts. If you want to go further, try forest bathing.
- Sunshine and daylight: Getting outside in daylight is one of the easiest ways to feel better and sleep better. In data from hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, every extra hour spent outdoors in daylight was linked to lower odds of depression, less tiredness and fewer sleepless nights.
- A long walk: Walking is the best thinking time there is, especially in nature. It’ll boost your mood, and even make you more creative. People came up with around 60% more creative ideas while walking than while sitting down, and the boost carried on after they'd sat back down.
- An awe walk: An awe walk is a normal walk where you go looking for things that make you stop and stare, like a huge old tree or the sky going pink. Awe makes your problems feel smaller as you feel connected to something much bigger than yourself.
- Stargazing: A clear night sky is one of the quickest ways to feel awe. All you need is a dark spot away from streetlights and twenty minutes for your eyes to adjust. We've put together a guide to star bathing if you want to get into it.
- Being near water: Looking at water makes us feel calmer and lowers our stress hormones. Whether it’s the sea, a river, a waterfall or a canal - just being near water can make you feel great.
- Wild swimming: Outdoor swimmers swear by it, and the science is starting to catch up. A wild dip has been linked to better mood, motivation and body health. Add the time outdoors and the people you swim with, and it's easy to see why it's so popular.
- Grounding: Grounding (or earthing) means standing barefoot on grass, sand or soil. It’s been linked to better sleep, improved mood and lower inflammation.
- Noticing birds or birdwatching: Engaging with birds, whether that’s just watching your resident Robin or listening to them from a window, shifts your attention away from daily stressors and triggers positive biological changes.
- Run or parkrun: parkrun is a free 5k that happens every Saturday morning in parks all over the UK, and you're allowed to walk it. In a survey of 60,000 parkrunners, almost eight in ten said it had made them happier. You also meet new people and make friends if you go regularly.
On your own
- A good night's sleep (and a nap): Sleep is the cheapest health boost going. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time every day makes the biggest difference, followed by putting your phone down an hour before bed. If the night was rubbish, a 20-minute nap before 3pm makes up for a lot of it, and NASA found naps improved pilots' alertness by 54%.
- Stretching: Most of us spend the day hunched over a laptop, and five minutes of stretching undoes a lot of that. Roll your shoulders down away from your ears and give your hips a stretch after a long sit. You'll feel the difference straight away, and it's a good excuse to get up from your desk.
- Slow breathing: Slowing your breathing down is one of the fastest ways to tell your body it's safe. Breathing at around six breaths a minute (in for five seconds, out for five) is linked to a calmer heart rate and lower anxiety. You can do it on the bus or in the queue at Tesco and nobody will know.
- Doing nothing: Staring out of the window looks like wasted time, but there are so many benefits for your brain when you do nothing. Mind wandering is when your brain sorts through memories and joins up ideas. That's your brain's default mode network at work, and it only gets going when you stop feeding it new information.
- Writing down your thoughts: Keeping a diary or writing down things that went well that day is an easy and free way to boost happiness and mood. People who did this every night for a week were happier and less depressed for up to six months afterwards.
- Drawing or doodling: You don't need to be any good at drawing for it to work. 45 minutes of making art lowered stress hormones in three quarters of people, and how much art they'd done before made no difference.
Free places
- The library: Libraries are one of the last places you can spend a whole afternoon without anyone expecting you to buy something. Reading is so good for you, it reduces stress and builds empathy.
- A free museum or gallery: Most of the UK's national museums and galleries are free to visit, from the Natural History Museum to the National Gallery. People who spend time looking at real art have higher health and longevity.
Free doesn't mean worth less
We'll still go hunting for yellow stickers, but nothing in the reduced aisle comes close to the deals on this list. We've got so used to price telling us what something's worth that it's easy to forget most of what keeps us well never had a price tag in the first place.
So next time you feel like adding something to a basket to make yourself feel better, try a phone call to a friend or an hour outside first. If it doesn't work, the basket will still be there.
