I recently took the opportunity of using Valentine’s Day to perform some random acts of kindness. Here were the results:
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.
· 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 someone – a relationship of friendship, love, or some sort of positive bonding – we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
· The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.
