News

The benefits of kindness

Thursday, March 1, 2007
Ruth May, R.N., CASC

Did you know that there are health benefits from kindness? I mean for YOU, the giver! Isn't that an awesome fact? When you carry out an act of kindness, you are not only helping someone else, you are also helping your own body, mind and spirit. OK, you say, so what are these benefits?

According to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, when you do something for someone else, stress related health problems improve. Helping others reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. Once we establish a relationship of friendship, love or some sort of positive bonding, we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system. The health benefits and sense of well being return for hours or even days when the act of kindness is remembered.

If you “Google” “random acts of kindness” you will find that there are a number of websites dedicated to this noble endeavor. Many of the websites have examples of and stories about acts of kindness. There are ideas for bringing kindness into your home and family and also into the work environment. Ideas for random, anonymous acts are presented.

Random Acts of Kindness week was February 11-17 this year, but why limit it to one week? Make it a part of your lifestyle. Some examples of simple acts of kindness include things such as saying “Hello”, opening a door, giving a flower, offering your seat, driving courteously, or just smiling at someone else.

And remember that he who smiles first-WINS!!

A story has been told of a time when Mohandas Gandi was boarding a moving train and one of his shoes slipped off and fell upon the track. As he was unable to retrieve it, Gandhi - to the astonishment of his fellow travelers - calmly removed his other shoe and threw it down the track to where the first had landed. "The poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track," Gandhi explained, "will now have a pair he can use."

Victor L. Brown said: The measure of a man is not necessarily his title or his position, but rather how he treats others.” Great men through out time have understood the value of and have been advocates for kindness. Albert Einstein said "The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth.” He also said: “Only a life lived for others is worth living." Aesop said: "No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." Albert Schweitzer said: "Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate." Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."

There are people all around us who are in desperate need of kindness. They long for it and pray for it. Spencer W. Kimball said: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs.” There are opportunities all around us to show kindness. David O. McKay once said: “Life is made up not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things in which smiles and kindness and small obligations given habitually are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.”

I challenge all those who read this to find one way to be kind today--and follow through with it. Notice how you feel afterwards. Doesn't it feel good? That is your body's way of saying “Keep it up-this is good for you!” Continue to be kind and make it a part of who you are. Your health will benefit right along with all those impacted by your kindness.