Kindness makes the world go round...

Random acts of kindness are a hot topic nowadays. Research has proven that being compassionate, generous and kind are not only great for the recipient, but the giver as well. Here are some interesting facts I found online from various studies on (random) acts of kindness:

On happiness:
* The most powerful way to increase your short-term feelings of happiness is to perform random acts of kindness to others.
* Five random acts of kindness in a week will increase your happiness for up to three months.
* Being grateful and performing an act of kindness often results in ‘helper’s high’: a rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of inner calm, during which the body releases its natural painkillers, the endorphins. Once ‘helper’s high’ subsides, it is replaced by a longer period of improved emotional well-being, clarity of thinking and a heart full of love.
* Those who spend money on others report much greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves.
* We increase children’s feelings of happiness and well-being, reduce bullying, and improve their friendships by teaching them to be givers of kindness.

Community:
* ‘Passing it forward’ is not just good for another, but in the long run benefits everyone around you.
* When people benefit from kindness they ‘pay it forward’ by helping others who were not originally involved, and this creates a cascade of cooperation that influences dozens more in a social network.

For your health:
* The health benefits and sense of well-being that follow an act of kindness return for hours or even days whenever the helping act is remembered.
* Helping may decrease both the intensity and the awareness of physical pain.
* Physiological benefits of kindness include:
– Once we establish some sort of positive bonding with someone, we feel emotions that can strengthen the immune system.
– Increase in energy
– Lower heart rate by feeling inner calm
– Balanced cortisol levels which result in less internal stress
– More likely to live a longer and more satisfied life
– Laughter and inner joy resulting in decreased stress hormones; lower blood pressure; diminished pain.
* Giving not only makes you feel good, it also makes you stronger, feel happier and boosts your self esteem, while decreasing helplessness and depression.
* 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 a host of physical and emotional problems.

However small your acts of kindness are, you will feel good about it. But the bigger, the more long term benefits you’ll have. I can still very clearly remember helping someone a couple of years ago. I was going shopping with my sister and drove with my car towards the highway. On the round-about to get onto the highway, I saw a disabled man walking, with lots of people driving past him. I was afraid he was from a local community where disabled people live and had lost his way. It was way too dangerous to walk there. I couldn’t stop immediately, since there were too many cars behind me, but I went around. Unfortunately the round-about didn’t go fully round, so I had to drive back to a traffic light, did a U-turn there, went back and stopped (while blocking all traffic) to ask the man if he needed any help. He told us (his speech was impaired, and sounded almost like an older man I used to know) that he thought his car was out of petrol, because it stopped. So I asked him to get in, and said we would drive him to a petrol station. He was very happy with that. He had money with him (else I would’ve given him the money with pleasure too) and got a canister with petrol. We went to his car, he filled it up and luckily the car started again. As we said goodbye, he said to me and my sister: ‘Sorry for ruining your day.’ I literally got tears in my eyes (and right now as well, still do…), shook my head and said: ‘No… you máde my day…’