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Because the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has introduced significant stressors to people's lives, more research on self‐directed strategies to cope with pandemic‐related stress is needed. In the current longitudinal experiment (N = 614), we investigated the emotional benefits of two self‐directed strategies—belonging affirmation and recalling kindness—during the Delta (October 2021) and Omicron (February 2022) waves of the pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three activity conditions (belonging affirmation, recalling kindness, or control), which they performed weekly for 4 weeks. Contrary to our pre‐registered hypothesis, belonging affirmation and recalling kindness did not promote greater well‐being overall; however, belonging affirmation led to well‐being improvements indirectly via increases in positive emotions. Furthermore, the benefits of belonging affirmation were moderated by …