Feeling blue? Snow got you down? Ready to scream? Take a lesson from Joe. Joe Tecce, a Boston College psychology professor, is an oft-quoted expert on the causes and cures of stress. This forwardlooking sage has been meditating since 1974; moreover, he taught meditation in all his psychology classes.

Joe Tecce’s main claim to fame is his ability to tell whether someone is lying by their eye blink rate. He terms this phenomenon the “Nixon effect,” explaining that, “When Nixon resigned in 1974, he seemed, calm, cool and collected, but he was blinking very rapidly.” So Tecce counted the blinks and found that “Nixon was blinking faster than schizophrenics.”

Joe incorporated an unusual approach to stress reduction into his classes: the “Good Samaritan Project.” As he explained to me a few years ago, “I was enduring a very blue Monday, and I came upon this beautiful flower arrangement on campus that spelled out BC. I complimented the groundskeeper, and he was totally touched, telling me that no one had ever commented on it before. So I created the “Good Samaritan Project,” which requires all my students to do something good for another person — preferably a stranger — every day for seven days. Then they have to record the activity in a journal, being sure to record how they felt about doing this good deed and the person’s response. At the end of the week, they have to write about the impact the experience made on their lives. Their comments are truly amazing.”

Here are three examples:

“As the week progressed I began to feel very good about myself. I realized how much power I have in making someone’s day and maybe even life better. It is inspiring to know that on any given day I have the ability to make a difference in someone’s life.”

“My grandmother is 78 and lives in a nursing home. On her birthday I decided to call her. She was very excited that I called, since she lives alone and probably doesn’t get many phone calls. We talked about what was new in each of our lives, and that was it. I told her I loved her, and she said that call made her day. Just to hear those words put a smile on my face and made my day better.”

“I now understand that good deeds are contagious! One small, random act of kindness has the potential to spread like wild fire and once you consistently partake in good deeds you will learn that the people you help out will begin to start doing good deeds themselves.”

Good stuff. But, you might ask, isn’t it hard to give some stranger an unsolicited comment right out of nowhere? Yes…and no. It depends on who you are. My good wife Tina does it all the time, much to her credit and much to the delight of the recipient. A few days ago, for example, we were going up the steps inside the Smith Union at Bowdoin and a worker was scrubbing the steps, a neverending process in the winter, especially this year. She thanked him profusely for doing what he was doing. And he said, “Thank you for walking on these steps; that’s what keeps me in a job.” There you have it: one small exchange which brightened the sweeper’s day, Tina’s day and, I confess, my day.

She always compliments parents we encounter on a train, say, or at an airport who relate well with their children. She knows something about parenting, having spent years as a speech pathologist working with children with special needs in the birth-to-3 age group. Often the parent will say, “Well, you’re seeing them at their best,” but you know they’re delighted to be praised.

Joe Tecce loves to create aphorisms, which reflect his philosophy. Here’s my favorite: “When one gives, two receive.”

I think there’s a tendency for people, especially those of us a bit up there in years, to forget the power inherent in the simple act of giving, especially when the gift — a kind word or a genuine compliment — is so easy, in truth, to give. Such gifts cost nothing and yield great dividends. Just ask Tina. Or Joe.

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David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary as well as suggestions for this “Just a Little Old” column. He can be reached at dtreadw575@aol.com.