{"id":1837985,"date":"2023-02-07T09:57:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T14:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1837985"},"modified":"2023-02-07T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:00:17","slug":"feeling-anxious-being-kind-can-change-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/feeling-anxious-being-kind-can-change-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Anxious? Being Kind Can Change That"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffeeling-anxious-being-kind-can-change-that%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1837985&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/shutterstock_118975627-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Instead of worrying about your anxiety, think about what you can do to help others. Recent research suggests this might work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWalking around and offering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-kindness\">kindness<\/a> to others in the world reduces anxiety and increases happiness and feelings of social connection,\u201d Douglas Gentile, Iowa State University professor of psychology. \u201cIt\u2019s a simple strategy that doesn\u2019t take a lot of time that you can incorporate into your daily activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three different methods were tested to see if they could reduce anxiety or increase happiness. The researchers had college students practice the following strategies for 12 minutes in a set environment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Loving-kindness:<\/strong>\u00a0If you look at people and think about them, \u201cI wish for this person to be happy.\u201d Students were encouraged and challenged to think it like they mean it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Interconnectedness:<\/strong>\u00a0The people they see can help us to think about our connections with each other. Students might consider the feelings and hopes they may share, or even take a similar class.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Comparison of social status:<\/strong>\u00a0Consider the people you see and consider how they could be better off than those they met.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10902-019-00100-2\">Study<\/a>, published in the\u00a0Journal of Happiness Studies, also included a control group in which researchers instructed students to look at people and focus on what they see on the outside, such as their clothing, the combination of colors, textures, as well as makeup and accessories. To measure anxiety, happiness and stress, empathy and connection, researchers surveyed all participants before and after the walk.<\/p>\n<h2>Which Technique is Best?<\/h2>\n<p>Researchers compared the results of each technique to the control group. They found that those who showed love-kindness and wished others well felt happier and more connected. The interconnectedness group had more empathy and was more connected. The loving-kindness technique was more effective than the downward social comparison, but it did not show any benefit.<\/p>\n<p>Students who compared their lives to others felt less empathy, compassion, and connected than students who extended good wishes to others. Studies have shown that social comparisons can be a buffer against feeling negative about yourself. Researchers found the reverse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt its core, downward social comparison is a competitive strategy,\u201d Dawn Sweet is a senior psychologist and coauthor. \u201cThat\u2019s not to say it can\u2019t have some benefit, but competitive mindsets have been linked to stress, anxiety, and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also looked at how different people responded to each technique. People who are naturally mindful may benefit more from the loving kindness strategy. However, narcissists might find it difficult to wish for happiness. Somewhat surprising were the results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis simple practice is valuable regardless of your personality type,\u201d Lanmiao, a psychology graduate student, is the coauthor. \u201cExtending loving-kindness to others worked equally well to reduce anxiety, increase happiness, empathy, and feelings of social connection.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Our Versus Them<\/h2>\n<p>Social media can be used as a platform for comparing: She makes more than me; he has a better car. Gentile said that while the study didn&#8217;t specifically focus on social media, the results showed that comparisons are risky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is almost impossible not to make comparisons on social media,\u201d Gentile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study didn\u2019t test this, but we often feel envy, jealousy, anger, or disappointment in response to what we see on social media, and those emotions disrupt our sense of well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gentile believes that comparisons are useful when learning or making decisions. As children, we learn from watching others and comparing our results to theirs. But, when it comes down to happiness, comparisons are not as effective as loving-kindness. This consistently increases happiness.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.iastate.edu\/news\/2019\/03\/27\/happiness\">Iowa State University<\/a>. Republished via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/\">Futurity.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Instead of worrying about your anxiety, think about what you can do to help others. Recent research suggests this might work. \u201cWalking around and offering kindness to others in the world reduces anxiety and increases happiness and feelings of social connection,\u201d Douglas Gentile, Iowa State University professor of psychology. \u201cIt\u2019s a simple strategy that doesn\u2019t &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1837988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[17896,5103,15036],"class_list":["post-1837985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-anxious","tag-change","tag-feeling"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1837988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}