What’s one of the easiest ways to lift your mood?

I’ll give you a clue, it has nothing to do with you.

If you guessed helping or performing a good deed for someone else, then you’re correct.

While performing a good deed for another person is not a solution for all your life’s problems, it can change your mood almost immediately.

But how does helping someone else help you?

That’s a good question.

There are several reasons that helping others lifts your own mood. Here are a few that might help you do so.

The first is that it shifts your attention from the issues you might be facing to assistance you’re providing the other person. You temporarily forget about your own challenges.

The second is that you feel more connected to the broader community. Even if you’re the loner or introverted type, it’s natural for you to desire a sense of connection, and helping others fulfills that innate longing for connection.

And last is reciprocation. In his book Influence, author Robert Cialdini writes about reciprocation as one of the pillars of influencing others. Not influencing them in a manipulating manner but enrolling them as part of your tribe. Think of reciprocity as give and take. I’m not suggesting that you only do so that you can receive, but collaboration and helping each other is, in the long run, beneficial for all of us.

So, the next time you find yourself having a bad day or in the doldrums, see if you can motivate yourself to shift your focus, even temporarily, away from yourself and towards the service of someone else. You might find that while helping others doesn’t change or eliminate your own challenges, a slight lifting of your mood can help you better deal with the problems you’re facing.

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