Do you feel under a lot of bad stress lately? Does it feel like the world is weighing down on you? A new research suggests a very interesting way to relieve yourself of the unnecessary pressure: altruism.
Yes, being good and kind to others is one of the best ways to be happy, more so when you're under a lot of stress. The study was conducted by researchers from School of Medicine of Yale University and University of California Los Angeles.
The team recruited more than 75 men and women between the ages of 18 and 44 who then had to answer multiple questions each night for two weeks. These questions pertained to their level of stress during the day that might have come from different aspects of life including work and relationships, the kind acts they performed, the different emotions they went through, and their overall mental health.
Based on the results, those who performed many acts of kindness during the day were more likely to have lesser negative emotions and were able to maintain their positive emotions. However, on days when they were less kind, positive emotions went down while negative ones went up.
The researchers want to make it clear that the study doesn't establish any cause and effect. It also doesn't delve deeper on the role kindness plays in lowering stress, which means they are unclear on how these acts of kindness helped bring down negative emotions.
They are also aware that the studies have a number of limitations such as the demographics of the participants. They also need a more comprehensive way of evaluating or measuring stress.
Nevertheless, they believe that altruism may help people cope with stress more effectively by bring down negative emotions, which are the common side effects of too much stress. It's possible that by focusing on other people's problems, they can forget about their own.
