Kindness Does the Body Good!

Kindness is shown to have huge health benefits. From lowering blood pressure to increasing love hormones, the benefits of kindness are proven to add not only happiness but years to your life.

And because kindness produces health benefiting hormones, it’s important to repeat acts of kindness in order to increase the benefits. (2) It’s not enough to be kind once, but frequently. It will do you good!

Here are some of the health benefits of kindness:

• Witnessing acts of kindness produces oxytocin, occasionally referred to as the ‘love hormone’ which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart-health. Oxytocin also increases our self-esteem and optimism.

• “About half of participants in one study reported that they feel stronger and more energetic after helping others; many also reported feeling calmer and less depressed, with increased feelings of self-worth,” Christine Carter, UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science Center.

• A 2010 Harvard Business School survey of happiness in 136 countries found that people who are altruistic—in this case, people who were generous financially, such as with charitable donations—were happiest overall.

• “People who volunteer tend to experience fewer aches and pains. People 55 and older who volunteer for two or more organizations have an impressive 44% lower likelihood of dying early, and that’s after sifting out every other contributing factor, including physical health, exercise, gender, habits like smoking, marital status and many more.

• According to research from Emory University, when you are kind to another person, your brain’s pleasure and reward centers light up, as if you were the recipient of the good deed—not the giver. This phenomenon is called the “helper’s high.”

• Like most medical antidepressants, kindness stimulates the production of serotonin. This feel-good chemical heals your wounds, calms you down, and makes you happy!. (2)

1. https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/science-of-kindness.html

2. https://www.dartmouth.edu/wellness/emotional/rakhealthfacts.pdf