Consider just how terribly difficult life can be:

Life is hard. There are no two ways about it. That said, when we step back and think about the fact that we are here at all in the first place, there is all kinds of room for optimism. In other words: Life may be hard, but we are lucky to be here at all.

Some see a Darwinian approach to life as one that is fully red in tooth and claw. As if Darwin's ideas on evolution and natural selection are all about some kind of all-out competition among all organisms. Truth told, most evolutionary scholars of all kinds would take issue with this take on a Darwinian approach to the human condition.

Based on decades of work in the evolutionary behavioral sciences, research has shed light on such positives of the human experience as:

... and more.

The basic premise of positive evolutionary psychology (see our book Positive Evolutionary Psychology, Geher & Wedberg, 2022) suggests that Darwin's ideas, which focus largely on features of organisms that helped our ancestors to survive and ultimately achieve reproductive success, have a strong capacity to inform the positive aspects of human life.

As we near the end of the first quarter-century of the third millennium (in the modern calendar), it may be time to step back and think about what we can do to help ourselves—along with our loved ones—thrive into the future. Here are five suggestions, all of which are ultimately rooted in a Darwinian perspective and are framed in terms of evolutionary behavioral science.

1. Express gratitude.

Gratitude has been shown to have all kinds of positive benefits. People who express gratitude have been shown to experience better overall well-being, more satisfying relationships, and more. (Sansone & Sansone, 2010).

Given that for the lion's share of human evolutionary history we lived in small, stable groups (see Geher & Wedberg, 2022), steps taken to stay connected with others would have been key to surviving and thriving. In other words, such steps would have been key to living the good life.

Expressing gratitude........

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