BOSTON - Could doing daily affirmations boost your mental health? A new study out of California says yes.

A team of researchers at the University of California Berkeley taught 135 undergraduates how to do a simple finger-tapping exercise or how to perform self-compassionate touch where they put their hands on their heart and belly and said compassionate things to themselves like "How can I be friend to myself in this moment?"  

These activities were then performed 20 seconds a day for one month.  

They found that the students performing the daily self-compassion activity reported lower stress and improved mental health, comparable to more time-intensive practices such as mindfulness and therapy.  

They say learning how to do daily self-compassion could help some people who struggle to find mental health resources. In fact, more than half of people with mental health conditions go without treatment each year