Kindness is a Superpower
The research on the benefits of kindness is clear—being kind to others is as good for you as it is for the person on the receiving end.
Contributing to others’ happiness actually leads to a boost in your own sense of well-being—physically, emotionally & in our relationships. And that’s not all. Kindness has a positive impact on anyone who witnesses it! If you think about it, kindness is a superpower that we all can use to improve our own lives and the lives of everyone around us.
The Science of Kindness
The science of kindness comes from the Positive Psychology movement which began in 1998 headed by psychologist Martin Seligman. Positive psychology studies people who are functioning best, finding out the factors that account for their well-being and resilience. The outcome of this research has led to the discernment of a number of core skills and strategies that we can all use to improve our health and sense of well-being.
Random acts of kindness is one of these strategies along with being grateful, practicing mindfulness, and journaling.
How does kindness work to improve your health and wellbeing
Being kind benefits your physical and mental health and improves your relationships by helping you feel more connected to others.
Here are a few ways kindness can enhance your life and the lives of those around you:
·When you are kind to another person, the pleasure and reward centres of your brain are activated. Your body reacts by producing the feel-good hormones & neurotransmitters (oxytocin, serotonin & dopamine), which lowers your blood pressure, increases optimism, calms you down, and increases your sense of connection to others.
·Engaging in acts of kindness also produces endorphins— endorphins are hormone-like substances produced in the brain that have pain-relieving properties. So being kind actually leads to pain relief.
·Consistently kind people have been shown to produce less cortisol (the stress hormone) and they also age more slowly than the average population.
Everyone who witnesses a kindness towards others benefits from the act. These benefits may lead to further kindnesses towards others. So kindness is essentially contagious!
·The pleasure centres of our brains respond much more strongly to kindness when you get something unexpected according to research conducted by Dr. Gregory Berns, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Emory University, “If you get a present for your birthday, that’s nice. But you’ll like it a lot more if you get a present and it’s not your birthday.” This explains why kindness is very effective when it is random.
Studies have also shown that people who volunteer have less pain and live longer and those who are altruistic (via financial donations) report feeling happier.
How to Get Started
You don’t have to do a lot to reap the rewards of kindness. Small, unexpected acts of kindness is all that is needed to make someone’s day and at the same time achieve the physical, emotional and relationship benefits.
Kindness can come in small packages.
Start with these simple ideas:
give a compliment
write a nice text
invite someone for a coffee or a walk
donate a book
comfort someone
give someone a hug
give up your place in line for someone
offer to help someone with their schoolwork
send someone flowers
·pay for the person behind you at a café or drive-thru
·help someone change a flat tire
offer to help someone cook or clean
take a gift to new neighbours and introduce yourself
let people in front of you when driving
pay for someone’s dinner
give someone your extra shopping bags
smile at the person serving you
Need more ideas?
It can help to think about what other people have done for you that has brightened up your day.
Make a commitment to be kind starting today!
Dr. Lillian Nejad is a clinical psychologist and author and the founder of Skills for Life. Skills for Life offers online mental health skills training programs to help people improve resilience, strengthen their ability to manage and reduce distress, and learn strategies to improve their quality of life.