You may be be waking up each day and tirelessly pushing yourself into doing all sorts of meaningless tasks, being the selfless people pleaser to everyone and and feeling the need to constantly criticize yourself for not being ‘perfect.’

As a result, you end up going to sleep each night being consumed with how ‘badly’ your day went and how it could have been better. You fog up your mind with what went wrong rather than all the things that went right, and you end up in a constant flow of life dissatisfaction.

You know that you want to improve but you don’t have the awareness of how or what to change so you can breeze through each day feeling healthy, happy and successful.

FUELLING YOUR DAY WITH KINDNESS

There have been countless studies published concluding that performing acts of kindness has positive psychological effects on your overall well-being. A 2019 publication fro the Journal of Social Psychology cites, ‘performing kindness activities for seven days increases happiness.’ *

Kindness is simply being nice to someone and/or yourself and it is motivated for the sole reason to genuinely want to help someone without expecting anything in return. Also the act of kindness act does not have to be any of grand scale. It can be as simple as opening the door for someone, smiling at a stranger, or acknowledging your very own strong traits and praising yourself for it.

The positive effects of being kind are^*:

• Increases overall subjective well-being
• Improves how others see you and accept you
• It’s positively correlated with self-regulation
• Can lower the effects of stress
• Increases your happy hormones: serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin. 
• Leads to a reduction of risk of disease
• Reduces depression and anxiety
• It is good for your heart health

HEART MATH

Acts of kindness leads to a healthier heart because kindness increases hormones like oxytocin and serotonin which are happy hormones. This positively changes the rhythm of the heart which supports greater cognitive and emotional function of the brain. Research from The Heart Math Institute indicates that there is a heart to brain communication of information that occurs promoting self regulation and good health.*

GRATITUDE AND WELL-BEING

A form of kindness is showing gratitude. Consistently expressing gratitude is linked to more happiness because gratitude helps you feel more positive emotions. It also helps you focus on what you currently have instead of dwelling on what you don’t have. 

Research from Berkeley University provides insight on the psychological effects of expressing gratitude^*:

• Removes toxic emotions – your mental health improves as you begin to feel more positive and become more focused on happy moments. 
• Writing– gratitude lists or letters help you better feel positive emotions and place you in a higher state of well-being.
• Greater life satisfaction – you are happier simply by expressing gratitude for everything you have.
• Re-programs your brain – your brain begins to align itself with all of your positive experiences and functions from a more happier place.
• Kindness – you unselfishly want to help others and spread more compassion.
• Self-control – you become more patient and learn to better regulate your emotions.
• Self-worth – increases self-worth and confidence.

Although the health benefits of expressing gratitude may take time and consistency, it is important to note that each time you receive or express gratitude; dopamine is released in your brain. Like serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins; dopamine is a feel good hormone which influences positive behaviours and thought patterns.

KEEPING A GRATITUDE JOURNAL

A gratitude journal serves many outcomes. By listing or writing about all the things, situations and people that you are grateful for, you have potential to improve your eating habits, decrease your negative emotions and improve your heart health by reducing stress and inflammation levels in your body.

Downloadable PDF

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