There’s Something Five Times as Contagious as Covid
But it’s something we want to spread
Last Saturday there was a knock on the door.
Amazon, I figured, because after spending the better part of the last year in lockdown, Amazon delivery tends to be my most frequent visitor.
But then I opened the door to a FedEx package. This wasn’t an Amazon delivery...
The box was addressed to me, and when I opened it, the first thing I noticed was a hand-written note. It was a thank you from one of my clients. Inside the box was a personalized gift, containing things my client knew I would like.
I was so overwhelmed with the thoughtfulness and the personal touch that went into the gift. It put a spring in my step for the rest of the day – and made me curious about the company (Knack) that offered the chance to ‘curate’ a gift.
A few days later, I decided to use Knack to curate a gift for a friend. She wasn’t expecting it – and I hoped it would brighten her day and convey my appreciation for her.
It did.
And that’s the thing about kindness. It feels good – and it’s contagious. But unlike Covid, it’s the kind of thing you want to catch – and spread.
My curiosity about kindness led me to Dr. David Hamilton, who holds a PhD in organic chemistry and has written several books about the benefits of kindness.
I watched an interview where he spoke about practicing ‘Kindfulness.’ It’s like mindfulness, he said, but instead of focusing on your breath, you focus on ‘thoughts of kindness and compassion.’
Dr. Hamilton became interested in the benefits of kindness when he discovered a study about it years ago. Scientists had researched the effects of a group of people who spent 20 minutes a day ‘wishing kind thoughts for people’ over a six-week period.
The scientists discovered that thinking kind thoughts improved the participants’ health and happiness – in a way that was ‘comparable to what you might get from an experimental medicine.’
Researching the Benefits of Kindness
Hamilton began devouring medical journals to learn the different ways kindness and compassion affect our mind, body, and emotions.
He compares the body’s reaction to stress with the body’s reaction to kindness. When we feel stressed, we produce hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. When we feel kindness, our bodies produce hormones like oxytocin (which Hamilton refers to as ‘kindness hormones’).
The hormones we produce when we’re stressed increase our blood pressure – but the hormones we produce when we feel kindness can do the opposite, and reduce our blood pressure. Stress hormones can make us age faster – kindness hormones can slow that down. Physiologically, Hamilton says, ‘kindness has the opposite effect of stress.’
The hormones kindness produce have many benefits – from helping with digestion to regenerating blood vessels and skin. Kindness can improve your overall happiness and protect you in the long-term from depression.
Of course it’s a bonus if you DO kind things, but Hamilton says you can still enjoy the benefits by just thinking kind thoughts – or even witnessing acts of kindness. You also experience the benefits when you are the recipient of kindness – as feeling gratitude and connection produces oxytocin, too.
Practice ‘Kindfulness’ and Take the 7 Day Kindness Challenge
To start your ‘kindfulness practice’, focus on thinking kind thoughts, reasons you’re grateful for people, and why you value them. Maybe you know someone who is going through a hard time – focus your mind on having compassion for them and wishing them well.
If you want to strengthen your kindness muscles, here’s a simple 7-Day Kindness Challenge Hamilton suggests:
For 7 days, do something kind for someone each day. This could be as simple as paying someone a compliment or phoning a friend to let them know you’re thinking about them. Do a different act of kindness each day.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Stretch your kindness muscles by doing something you might not normally do.
During the 7 days, do one act of kindness anonymously. That removes ego and praise from the equation.
Kindness Is Contagious
Doing these acts of kindness benefits you – but it also benefits others. Hamilton says the ‘R’ for kindness is between a 4-5, meaning your one act of kindness is passed on to four to five others. And then they pass it on – and again and again. Hamilton says one act of kindness can affect 125 people.
“Every time you do something kind, you are making a difference. You may not see it, but it’s having an impact,” he said
“Trust that you’re changing the world, and know that the quality of people’s lives improves because of something you did.”