… simple acts of kindness like helping someone with their groceries …

According to an article by Dennis Thompson of HealthDay which appeared in the Arizona Republic, a growing body of research shows that simple acts of kindness like helping someone with their groceries, writing a thank-you note or even counting your blessings can serve as a low-cost treatment for depression.  The reason is that performing acts of kindness creates positive emotion.  According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California-Riverside, “The most significant feature of depression is the absence of positive emotion – just a feeling of nothing, of emptiness.”  Performing simple acts of kindness then replaces this emptiness with positive emotion which greatly improves our mood.  This improved mood, in turn results in more positive emotion for us because of the way people around us react to our improved mood – we will be on the receiving end of smiles, compliments, positive thought and acts of kindness directed at us.   This is what Professor Lyubomirsky refers to as a self-sustaining upward spiral of positive emotion.  What this means is that the more you engage in performing simple acts of kindness, the less likely you are to experience depression.