Ever felt that warm fuzzy feeling that you get when someone has done something nice for you? Or when you do something nice for someone else? Well guess what? It’s now official that this warm fuzzy feeling is actually good for you. Studies have shown that when we give or receive, or even when we witness an act of kindness our serotonin levels rise giving us all nature of wonderful health benefits.
Now you don’t have to become Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama, even simple acts such as opening a door, offering your seat to someone, or just telling someone that they are appreciated and that they look great will give you a respectable dose of serotonin to benefit both you and the recipient.
It’s too easy these days to plough on through the day, focusing on what we have to get done, with hardly enough time to do it. We hardly have time for a smile or a nod, but perhaps it’s time to MAKE time. The day will certainly go smoother and if you smile at people long enough and often enough they will eventually smile back! It really is an infectious state of mind. Teach your children to smile.
The Dalai Lama has said that if children were taught to meditate for just one hour a week on being kind, all world aggressions and war would end….hmmmm food for thought. Perhaps some enterprising play station game designer would like to take that on board? Then perhaps we would have some recreational tools that encouraged our offspring to be decent human beings, instead of partaking in virtual reality games that give you points for blowing peoples heads off!
Numerous scientific studies show that acts of kindness result in significant health benefits, both physical and mental. Here are some key points:
• Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders serious and minor, psychological and physical.
• A rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of calm, after performing a kind act is often referred to as a “helper’s high,” involving physical sensations and the release of the body’s natural painkillers, the endorphins. This initial rush is then followed by a longer-lasting period of improved emotional well-being.
• Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. A drop in stress may, for some people, decrease the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
• Helping can enhance our feelings of joyfulness, emotional resilience, and vigor, and can reduce the unhealthy sense of isolation.
• A decrease in both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain can occur.
• The incidence of attitudes, such as chronic hostility, that negatively arouse and damage the body is reduced.
• The health benefits and sense of well-being return for hours or even days whenever the helping act is remembered.
• An increased sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism, as well as a decrease in feelings of helplessness and depression, is achieved.
• Once we establish an “affiliative connection” with some one - a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding - we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
• Adopting an altruistic lifestyle is a critical component of mental health.
• The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.
“No Act of Kindness, no Matter How Small is Ever Wasted” Aesops fables: The Lion & the Mouse
Kim Patra is a qualified registered nurse and midwife who has been living and working in Bali for almost 20 years. She now runs her own private practice and medical referral service from her Kuta office. Kim is happy to discuss any health concerns with you and she may be contacted via e-mail at info@chcbali.com or Hp. 081 2366 0000.
