How Showing a Little Kindness Can Change Your Life

Amy Taylor September 05, 2013

Want to feel good? Want to make the world a ‘better place’? Spend as few as five minutes doing someone else a favour, like assisting an elderly to cross the street, sharing your food with a hungry fellow, letting a hurrying person go ahead of you in the line, or calling the manager to provide a positive feedback for a great customer service you just experienced with one of their representatives.

Being kind does not only benefit others, it benefits your health and well-being too. Numerous studies in positive psychology have shown that random acts of kindness promote happiness, good health and the big word: longevity. For instance, researchers at the University of British Columbia found that doing good deeds can make socially-anxious people feel better. In this study, the acts of kindness were as simple as holding the door open for someone, donating to charity, doing chores for other people, and buying lunch for a friend.

What’s so special about being kind? According to Dr David R. Hamilton, author of ’How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body’, and ’Why Kindness is Good for You’, doing acts of kindness create an emotional warmth, which in turn stimulates the release of oxytocin, widely known as the ‘love hormone’. The increase in the oxytocin levels has plenty of benefits, which include lowering of the blood pressure – a major risk factor for heart disease. What else can random acts of kindness do for you?

The Side Effects of Kindness

Who would have thought that being kind and compassionate does have side effects too? Well, we’re not talking about the side effects that are commonly associated with medications. The effects of kindness are something you would love to experience.

It makes you happy.

When you do acts of kindness, you don’t just make other people happy; you also make yourself deeply and profoundly happier! On a spiritual level, it emphasises your sense of purpose and pride. On a biological level, being kind raises the levels of dopamine in your brain, giving you a natural ‘high’ feeling – the same feeling that taking heroine or morphine brings.

It keeps you young.

With happiness comes the spirit of youth. Ageing is a normal biological process but two things speed it up – inflammation and free radicals. Research shows that oxytocin reduces inflammation and free radicals in the cardiovascular system, thus, slowing the ageing process. Another study, published in 2009 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, revealed that oxytocin may have beneficial effects on the vagus nerve – the nerve that controls inflammation levels in the body, as well as the heart rate.

Kindness improves your relationship.

Kindness strengthens the emotional bond between people whilst hatred destroys it. Just a smile can bring you closer to your friends and family, and even to strangers. If you want to improve your relationship with your boss, consider preparing him or her a cup of coffee today. It may just do the trick.

Everyday Acts of Kindness You Can Practise

You don’t have to be a church leader or a rich person to be able to help someone. There are simple acts of kindness you can do with minimal effort that could dramatically transform your life. Here are some examples:

· Listen to a friend with an open and giving heart.

· Assist someone, a friend or a stranger, to carry his or her grocery bags.

· Open the door for someone.

· Share your lunch with someone

· Feed a stray cat.

· Donate to a charity.

· Say “thank you” to someone who has given you a favour.

· Cheer up a sad friend.

You probably have done some or all of these already. By showing even just a little kindness every day, you can change the world and change your life, for the better.