Kindness Correlates with Wellbeing

The Positive Feedback Loop of Happiness and Kindness

In 2006 Keiko Otake published a study researching the effect kindness has on happiness HAPPY PEOPLE BECOME HAPPIER THROUGH KINDNESS: A COUNTING KINDNESSES INTERVENTION, Otake et al. Otake and his colleagues obtained a baseline level of subjective happiness, experiencing positive emotions, kindness, and gratitude from participants and then participants were asked to engage in a 1-week intervention during which time they logged every act of kindness they engaged in and report the number of daily acts of kindness - ultimately leading participants to become more acutely aware of their own kind behavior.

The results concluded that there is a strong correlation between kindness and happiness and that a simple intervention like the one noted above can evoke greater levels of happiness, kindness, and gratitude.

From Dr. Amit Sood's work pertaining to stress resilience we know that service and love capture our roles in our life and encompassing those two domains is kindness. Every day we interact with people - colleagues, family members, cashiers, doctors, strangers, and that list goes on - and with every interaction there is room for kindness; we can demonstrate grace through patience, we can pay for the stranger in the car behind us in the drive through a coffee, we can use words of compassion as means to try to build someone up, we lend an ear to listen, we can give someone a genuine compliment about their smile, shoes, service, and we can also display kindness through the expression of our gratitude - "I appreciate you [Insert name]. Has someone ever told you "I appreciate you?" I remember the first time I was told that and I didn't quite know how to respond, all I know is that I was filled with warm fuzzies.

Sometimes it's the simplest thing that can spark a light in someone's day, after all, no act of kindness is every wasted (if you haven't, read Aesop's Fable about the mouse and the lion). Again, I recall a time, about two years ago, when I was at a local gas station and for whatever reason it was packed. I had pulled up to the gas station not needing gas but rather needing to get some essentials like bread, milk, etc., and when I came out even more people had pulled in! I could not back out my vehicle - a truck - because I couldn't quite gage the proper distance of a vehicle at a gas pump behind me, not to mention the two vehicles I was sandwiched between and I didn't feel like bumping into someone's vehicle so I waited...and waited...and waited; I was dismayed that folks weren't leaving, and then after about 10 minutes a person walks out, sees me trying to back up and decided he would guide me so I didn't bump into the vehicle at the gas pump - a tiny act of kindness, something insignificant in the history of time, but something not insignificant to me.

If we want to be happier, to experience more gratitude and positive emotions, then perhaps we ought to start our own kindness inventory - not to pat ourselves on the back but rather to create greater awareness about intentional acts of kindness. We never know the ripple effect we may have through a subtle act - we might encourage someone, we might make someone's day, we might give someone a glimmer of hope when they are fighting an invisible battle no one else can see.

Through kindness we not only impact others but we also improve our own wellbeing. Research has shown that experiencing positive emotions like gratitude, joy, etc. aide in lowering stress, improving happiness, cultivating stronger and more authentic relationships, improved ability to filter out negativity, improved focus on the positive events in our life - all domains that encapsulate wellbeing.

Maya Angelou once said "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Today, choose kindness.