Write a thank you note to someone.

“When I sat down to write my first “official” gratitude letter in January 2016, I considered it a bit of karmic good housekeeping. I was going to celebrate a milestone birthday that year and felt the time was right to express proper thanks to the people who had helped, shaped and inspired me up to that point in my life. In what I would come to call my Thank-You Project, I planned to write a letter each week to acknowledge all I had been given by the people around me over the years. Nothing fancy. Just a thank-you note. What I never expected was how profoundly and deeply my thank-you letter writing practice would impact me, permanently changing the way I moved through the world and deepening my relationships with the recipients of the letters.”

“As the stack of letters piled up, I realized that my weekly thank-you letter writing sessions worked better at managing my stress than antianxiety meds or a crisp double IPA. My shoulders would creep up to my ears from fear or worry or grief, and I would think, “Aha! Time to write another letter.” Partway through my year of writing, it dawned on me that the boost in happiness came as I wrote the letters, not as I mailed them.”