“If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be scientific about the interventions we take in life,” says Professor Laurie Santos, below

The sourdough we baked came out like a brick; the Year 5 ancient Greeks project has been hurled on to the floor; Houseparty is gobbling up our evenings. If it turns out that many of the activities you have embraced to try to stay sane and good-humoured are making you feel inadequate or overwhelmed, Professor Laurie Santos may have the solution.

Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale University and is a world expert on happiness. She says that it is possible to be happy even though we are stuck at home, facing uncertainty, not to mention grim daily statistics. We might just be going about it in the wrong way.

Laurie Santos rose to fame when she devised an academic course for stressed students at Yale GETTY IMAGES

“It’s well known that living through hard circumstances can make us happier because