Well-being is an omnipresent issue in our lives. Now scientists are trying to study the social effects the pandemic has left behind. Getting people to focus more on their mental health by avoiding potential dangers to their well-being. Meena Andiappan, a researcher at the Policy Institute in Toronto, Canada, has studied the intersection of behavioral ethics and well-being.

For this, Meena Andiappan compared people who chose to spend money/time as a way to achieve happiness and people who, instead of looking at themselves, helped others.

give in to sympathy

You results, according to the researcher, were surprising. People who did not change their behavior experienced no change in their well-being. However, for those who changed their behavior and routine, acts of sympathy had a major impact on their mental health, reducing levels of anxiety and depression.

Scientists believe that spending energy on others, especially those with harder lives than ours, makes our problems less important. Others believe that when we are in the presence of other people, we are “forced” to smile and put on a good face, which leads to feeling positive emotions more often. Another of the findings was that when we lead a meaningful life, it is an indicator that we will be happier.

Trying to increase our level of happiness, and therefore our mental state, doesn’t have to be difficult, time-wasting, or even expensive. In fact, it can be done in a minute: hold the door for a stranger or congratulate a colleague.

While acts of kindness aren’t a panacea for emotional needs, these small acts can be boiled down to a popular saying: by helping others, we can help ourselves.