Reduce Your Anxiety

Doing acts of kindness makes people less anxious, a study has found.

20:49 13 April 2016

Anxiety tends to turn people inward making them less socially engaged, tired and cranky. Previous studies have found that people who are more self-focused experience greater levels of anxiety. 

 

So, two psychologists from the University of British Columbia have conducted a test to see if being more socially open and doing random acts of kindness, which have already been proven to increase a person’s happiness, can also curb anxiety. 

 

In their study published in the Journal Motivation and Emotion, Lynn Alden and Jennifer Trew described their experiment that involved 115 socially anxious college students. They found that those that engaged in three acts of kindness over the period of four weeks “experienced a greater overall reduction in avoidance goals” and that they’ve experienced fewer instances of avoiding social situations because of their fear of rejection or conflict.

 

Trew and Alden concluded that "acts of kindness may help to strengthen social relationships, increase social engagement, and broaden social networks."

 

"We found that any kind act appeared to have the same benefit, even small gestures like opening a door for someone or saying 'thanks' to the bus driver," Alden said in a statement.