3 Simple Exercises To Boost Your Mood During Global Uncertainty

Wall Street has been in an erratic yo-yo pattern since Donald Trump announced, held off, implemented, augmented, and paused worldwide tariffs. Combined with cuts and layoffs in critical government offices, mass deportations , and threats to invade other sovereignties , the situation is leaving many people feeling anxious and depressed. There is global uncertainty due to a looming economic recession, political instability, and possible future discontinued access to goods and services.

People generally do not deal well with uncertainty. Instead, we prefer predictability, stability, and control. To illustrate, during the COVID-19 pandemic, depression and anxiety worldwide shot up by 25%. We have seen a similar depression trend since the 2024 election . You might feel there is little you can do about world affairs. But you have control over your mood and your outlook on life. The following three simple exercises can give some reprieve on particularly gloomy days.

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Act of Kindness

Human beings are social animals. In a group setting, helping each other increases the chance of survival. The tendency to help others is thus literally in our genes. We thrive when we feel loved, but also when we give love. Helping others can, therefore, be the perfect remedy when you are feeling down. Professor Curry from the University of Oxford proved this point. His research team combined the results of 27 studies, including more than 4,000 participants, and found that acts of kindness improve the actor’s happiness, life satisfaction, and mood. A helper thus feels happier after doing something nice for others.

Professors Mark Bolino and Adam Grant reviewed a series of studies of kindness at work, concluding that helping colleagues can boost mood, especially when the act of kindness is voluntary and, ideally, effective. They add that helping others at work can give the helper a sense of meaningfulness, which then acts as an energizer.

Doing something nice does not have to be difficult. It can be a small gesture, such as opening the door for someone who has their hands full, cooking dinner for a friend, or checking in with a relative. Acts of kindness remind us that there is more than our own sorrows and that we can have a positive impact.

Three-Good-Things Journal

The three-good-things exercise is another evidence-based tool to boost your mood. The exercise is simple. Write down three things you are grateful for, or think of three positive things that happened. You can easily add this exercise to your daily routine as a bedtime reflection. Skeptics might argue that contemplating good things doesn’t take away the bad. But that is not the point of this exercise. The goal is to change your outlook. Here is how that works.

Writing down or actively recalling positive things fights the tendency to focus only on the negative. Thinking about positive events reminds you that your life is not all misery. Listing positive things also breaks the human habit of taking what we have for granted. People get used to their circumstances and quickly fail to notice what is going well. The three-good-things exercise also helps to relive a positive experience, making it more likely that it is accessible in your memory and that you share it with others. In other words, by reliving the event, the positive feeling gets prolonged and imprinted in your brain.

The three-good-things exercise has more benefits. It can also help manage work stress. Professor Bono from the University of Florida and her colleagues monitored 61 healthcare workers for three weeks. On days when participants completed the three-good-things exercise after work, they reported lower stress levels and fewer health complaints. Carving out a few minutes daily to focus on three positive events thus pays off. This habit can increase your mood, shift you into a more positive outlook, and lower stress.

Short Version of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the moment, paying attention to your internal state and surroundings without judgment. Whereas mindfulness is often associated with breathing meditation, several brief exercises also lead to a calmer and happier mind. An example is the body scan, whereby people imagine a band of light moving from head to toe, detecting sensations in each “scanned” body part. The mindful check-in is an even quicker tool. At any point throughout the day, you ask yourself what is happening inside your mind, in your surroundings, and what you feel in your body.

Mindfulness is assumed to pause negative thoughts and foster more positive thought patterns . Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones repeatedly can give people a more positive outlook on life. A meta-analysis of more than 5,000 participants confirms that mindfulness can effectively curb negative moods, although the effect is modest.

The potential of mindfulness to change people’s outlook also pays off at work. In two studies , Assistant Professor Toniolo-Barrios and I found mindful employees view their work tasks as challenging rather than threatening. Due to this more positive outlook, their stress levels went down. Thus, even if meditation is not your cup of tea, brief reflection moments on how you feel can be efficient tools to battle negative moods and work stress.

The three tips are simple: do something nice, focus on the good, and be in the moment. These exercises help you regain some control over your life when everything else seems out of control. An act of kindness shows that your actions matter; by reflecting on the positive, you control your outlook; mindfulness exercises train your mind to stay calm and positive. Especially during global chaos, taking control over things you can control is crucial to maintaining some level of happiness.

By Lieke ten Brummelhuis, Contributor