After all that, perhaps we should do something easy.

No old rings. No tarot cards. No wondering whether your brain is receiving information from the great UUUUuuUUuuUUuuUUs. No ankles.

Let's buy some sweeties.

We tend to think that changing somebody's day requires effort. A phone call. A visit. A present. A grand gesture.

It really doesn't.

Sometimes it takes three seconds.

You can try this yourself. Actually, no. Try makes it sound like homework. Play with it.

Next time you're out, say something nice to somebody you don't know. Not something creepy. Don't follow a woman around Tesco trying to find an appropriate moment to tell her she has magnificent ears. Just notice something. Her earrings. His fabulous purple trainers. The woman on the till whose nails must have taken hours.

And say it.

Then watch. Not because you're looking for proof — we're not collecting data for my Nobel Prize. Just watch what happens.

Very often, a face changes. It opens. There's a smile. Perhaps a laugh. Sometimes you get a story. My daughter bought me these. I've only just had them done. I wasn't sure about this colour.

For three seconds, two people who were complete strangers aren't quite strangers anymore.

Then you walk away.

And perhaps that's the end of it. But perhaps it isn't. Because now she's smiling. Maybe she's a little warmer with the next person she meets. Perhaps that person responds to her differently. Perhaps they carry a little of it onwards too.

How far does it go? I haven't the faintest idea. That's why we're playing.

You can do the opposite too, of course. Most families can demonstrate this experiment extremely efficiently. Walk into a room in a foul mood. Clatter something unnecessarily. Sigh. Answer a perfectly innocent question as though the person asking it has personally ruined your life. Give it fourteen seconds. Congratulations. You have changed the energy in the room. Nobody needed to believe in anything.

So perhaps the question isn't whether we affect one another. We plainly do. The interesting question is what we choose to do with that.

You don't have to spend a day being relentlessly lovely. Let's be fair, you'd be exhausted. Spend an hour if you fancy it. Ten minutes. Or do what the lady in Tesco did. Spend three seconds.

Make somebody laugh. Send the stupid message. Tell somebody their hair looks fabulous. Let the harassed parent with the screaming toddler go ahead of you. Buy the sweeties.

And then carry on with your day. Don't wait for a reward. Don't expect the universe to send you a cheque on Thursday because you complimented somebody's handbag on Tuesday.

Just notice. Notice what happens to them. And perhaps, more importantly, notice what happens to you.

Because that's the funny thing about giving this particular stuff away. You don't necessarily end up with less. Sometimes it comes back. Sometimes there's more of it. Sometimes somebody else picks it up and carries it somewhere you'll never see.

Three seconds. That's all.

You don't have to change the world. Just change the energy in the tiny bit of it you're standing in.

And if you are god, stop waiting for god to improve Tuesday.

You've got Tuesday.