Help Others To Reduce Your Stress Levels

A team of researchers advise that you help others to reduce your stress levels, especially during the holiday season when they tend to go through the roof. It’s a beautiful time of the year, but it can be equally stressful. Family, shopping, crowds, delays on everything due to the holidays, end of the year reports, or anything else could be a source of stress this time of the year.

Researchers at Yale University conducted a study on a number of 77 adults, between the ages of 18 and 44 years old. They targeted the effect of altruism on stress levels. There have been previous studies showing that receiving help or social support through difficult times could be beneficial. However, it appears that similar benefits could be gained from being kind to others as well.

The participants were required to fill out a form on their phones for a period of 2 weeks. At the end of each day, they would report the stressful events of their day, be it personal, work, health, etc. At the same time, they were also asked to mention whether they had helped anyone during that day, ranging from holding a door open, or just asking if they needed anything.

Last, the participants were required to rate their own mental health for the day, with a slider that went between 0, poor, and 100, excellent.

The researchers noted that  stress levels during the day decreased after helping others. In fact, they were able to nearly eliminate the negative effects of stress on the end of the day’s mental health rating. According to lead author of the study, Dr. Emily Ansell, a stressful day would lead to poorer mood and bad mental health status. However, altruism seemed to nullify that cause-and-effect relationship.

Their study suggested that proactively doing something good for others may benefit you in the end as well. It will aid in coping with stress, and might actually diminish the chances of reacting negatively. Those who did not did anything to help others reported higher negative emotion in response to daily stress.

The participants who did take the time to offer their help, on the other hand, experienced a lower level of negative reactions. Even more, it did not seem to influence their positive emotions during or at the end of the day. According to Dr. Ansell, this was a surprisingly uniform format.

It could be helpful in building therapies around people who suffer from mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression. By encouraging them to engage in helping others, they might feel a bit better as well.