Be Kind Challenge

Being chronically stressed puts our health at serious risk and wreaks havoc on both our mind & body. In this state we suffer more anxiety and depression leading to headaches, migraines or insomnia. We also become more likely to gain weight and increase our blood pressure, worsening our chances of developing diseases such as type II diabetes, or having a heart attack or stroke.

So we’re all in a bit of a pickle. Life is fast paced & relentless and our health is finite & fragile, we really are walking a stress tightrope! This is why we aught to be taking our stress management just as seriously as we take our other important aspects of life.

Sleep, nutrition and exercise are some of the power tools in a good stress management toolbox, but there’s several other tools in there as well which might not get lifted out as much, but are still very powerful. In particular, you should consider the well evidence-based 5-Ways to Wellbeing:

1. Connect
2. Be Active
3. Keep Learning
4. Take Notice
5. Giving

Today, I’d like to draw your focus on the fifth of these, the power of giving and the benefits of being kind. Have you read the book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Macksey? One of my fondest memories of the Christmas holidays was watching the beautiful animation on the BBC (still available on iPlayer until 24th Dec 2023). There’s several fantastic lines throughout this heart-warming story, but one that stands out is when The Boy and Mole are together on a branch of a tree.

Mole: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Boy: (pause) …Kind.

Kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity often creates win:win scenarios for both giver and receiver, so others can benefit from just one person showing a bit of consideration. Acts of kindness are a great thing. Doing them releases Oxytocin - our happy hormone which helps to reduce stress! Even just witnessing an act of kindness brings health & wellbeing benefits. In a 2021 study, recovering patients were given kindness-media to view and it rapidly increased self-reported feelings of happiness, calm, gratitude and being inspired. These are all antidotes to chronic stress & inflammation. In turn, the viewer also became significantly more generous themselves.?

Just thinking about being kind works too! Research published in 2019 revealed that a group of college students felt happier, less anxious and more connected to others just by taking a 12 minute walk around a crowded building and thinking “I wish for this person to be happy” for everyone they saw (and they had to mean it!). What shocked the researchers most however, was that all personality-types benefitted from this exercise, not just those that were more naturally compassionate to others.

In another 2019 study, researchers examined the benefits of pointing kindness chatter inwardly. Practicing self-compassion (versus self-criticism) produced lower heart rates, less sweat and higher heart-rate variability (a healthy sign) which was the exact opposite physiology for the group of self-criticisers. They concluded that using self-compassion by how you talk to yourself (internal) and about yourself to others (external) may help to lower the risk of illness, through better management of stress.

Individuals who report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy. Research into actions for promoting happiness has shown that committing an act of kindness once a week over a six-week period is associated with an increase in well-being, compared to control groups.

Acts of Kindness Ideas:

• Show someone your appreciation
• Do something for someone
• Give someone your time and attention
• Do something for the environment
• Lend something to someone
• Offer to pay for something
• Be humble or courteous
• Volunteer your help or services
• Give blood (if you can)

This week’s challenge is to (i) practice more self-compassion and talk more kindly to / and about yourself (ii) think warmly about others and wish for them to be happy (iii) do at least one act of kindness this week.

Have a great week being kind to yourself and others - and keep up all the #healthyhabits

Need more inspiration? ?? I enjoyed this TedX talk on How one act of Kindness a day can change your life. delivered by Mark Kelly ??

Sources:?

Caring for Others Cares for the Self: An Experimental Test of Brief Downward Social Comparison, Loving-Kindness, and Interconnectedness Contemplations

Soothing Your Heart and Feeling Connected: A New Experimental Paradigm to Study the Benefits of Self-Compassion?

Kindness as a Stress Reduction–Health Promotion Intervention: A Review of the Psychobiology of Caring

5 Ways to Wellbeing Evidence