Importance of Kindness.

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9 Dec 2022

We're all familiar with the saying “it's better to give than receive”. What might surprise you is that this is actually backed up by research.

Those of us who are kind and compassionate experience clear benefits to our well-being and happiness. We may even live longer. Kindness also helps reduce stress and improve our emotional well-being.1,2
We all have so much going on in our lives - competing strains and stresses – not to mention the recent coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. This has sometimes pushed kindness to one side, in favour of what is urgent now.
It can be easy to show kindness when posting online, but when it comes to reality it's harder to commit to kindness in our real-life words and actions.
By taking the time to be kind to others, we can benefit from emotional upsides. It really does make a difference, especially for people who are vulnerable or struggling.
With everything that's going on in the world, now is the time to help make a kinder society that improves our mental health.
Kindness should be built into business decisions, government policy, and other official systems in a way that supports everyone’s mental health and also reduces discrimination and inequality. That can start with individual commitments to showing kindness in our words and our actions.

What do we mean by kindness? 

Kindness is choosing to do something that helps others or yourself, motivated by genuine warm feelings.  

Kindness, or doing good, often means putting other people’s needs before our own. It could be by giving up our seat on a bus to someone who might need it more, or offering to make a cup of tea for someone at work. 

Evidence shows that helping others can also benefit our own mental health and wellbeing. For example, it can reduce stress as well as improve mood, self-esteem and happiness.1–3 

There are so many ways to help others as part of our everyday lives. Good deeds needn’t take much time or cost any money.