Have a Drink

You’ve no doubt heard that moderate drinking — often defined as not more than a drink a day for women — can do a body good. But did you know that it can even make you smarter? A recent study by researchers at Columbia University found that women who drink moderately scored about 20 percent higher on a mental-skills assessment than women who consumed less than one drink a week. Add that little fact to the many studies showing that moderate drinking may help reduce the risks of heart attack, heart disease, and stroke — as well as other research indicating a lower risk of gallstones and type 2 diabetes — and it all amounts to a pretty great excuse to imbibe. Cheers.

Talk to Yourself

That little voice in your head is actually an indication of a mind working well. Talking to yourself helps you figure out what you’re doing and where you’re going, says Peter Carruthers, chair of the department of philosophy at the University of Maryland. Research has shown that children use self-talk to help themselves master new skills, and numerous studies of adults point to the importance of inner speech — whether muttered out loud or not — in problem-solving and the ability to switch quickly between different tasks.

Hide Something from Your Significant Other

“People in a couple need to have an individual identity,” says Geri Kerr, a marriage and family therapist in Hackettstown, New Jersey. “It’s healthy and important to have things you keep to yourself.” That said, there are certain conditions. Whether or not you need to share the fact that you got an e-mail from your ex, for example, depends on your response. “If you just reply, ‘Hey, great to hear from you — see you at the reunion,’ you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. But if there’s a substantive response and you begin sharing yourself, that’s something to talk about,” says Kerr. How to decide? If you know that not telling would cause distress between the two of you, that’s a good sign you need to talk about it.