A better mood takes 12 minutes

How do you make yourself feel better? You might exercise, you might eat, you might eat while exercising. Or like me, you'll spend hours window shopping online for things you'll never actually buy but it's nice to feel like you could.

But researchers at Iowa State University think they've found a better way to boost your mood, and all you've got to is make other people feel better.

"Walking around and offering kindness to others in the world reduces anxiety and increases happiness and feelings of social connection," said Douglas Gentile, professor of psychology, in a statement. "It's a simple strategy that doesn't take a lot of time that you can incorporate into your daily activities."

Hello you look nice today 👋

For the study, the team practiced one of three techniques to see how effective they were at elevating mood. These were:

• Loving-kindness: — Students were told to look at the people they see and think to themselves, "I wish for this person to be happy." They were encouraged to try to really mean it when they were thinking positive thoughts.
• Interconnectedness: — Students were asked to look at the people they saw and thought about how they might be linked to each other. They were encouraged to think about any feelings or hopes that they might have in common or something as simple as they might take similar classes.
• Downward social comparison: Students were told to think about how they may be better off than each of the people they encountered.

Separate to these three groups was a control group that only focused on what other people were wearing and other physical attributes.

When the researchers compared the three techniques with members of the control group they found that those who practiced loving-kindness and wished for people to be happy felt happier themselves. They well less anxious and felt more connected, caring and empathetic.

The students who compared themselves to others, however, showed no benefits and felt less caring, connected and empathetic than those who wanted others to be happy.

So if you're looking for an easy way to make yourself feel better, go and do something nice for someone, like signing them up for this newsletter!