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Why being kind to others is good for your health
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Altruistic behaviours promote wellbeing
Formal volunteering, monetary donations and random acts of everyday kindness promote wellbeing and longevity.
- Studies show that volunteering correlates with a 24% lower risk of early death, a lower risk of high blood glucose, and a lower risk of inflammation levels connected to heart disease.
- In one study, participants who showed simple acts of kindness, such as buying coffee for a stranger, had lower activity of leukocyte genes related to inflammation.
- Participants who showed acts of kindness became more pain-resistant.
- Grandparents who regularly babysit their grandchildren have a 37% lower mortality risk than those who don't provide such childcare. That is a larger effect than may be achieved from regular exercise.
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Focusing on others is really good for you
It is not surprising that kindness and altruism should impact our physical wellbeing. People are immensely social. When we are interconnected and are truly useful to others, it influences our wellbeing.
During the first half of 2020, Britons donated £800m more to charity, half of Americans have recently checked on their elderly or sick neighbours. Americans and Australians left teddybears in their windows to cheer up children. A French florist placed 400 bouquets on cars of hospital staff.
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When empathy doesn’t come naturally to you
A third of how empathetic we are is down to our genes. But it does not mean people born with low empathy are lost.
No matter where we start, we can all improve in empathy.
- Try to look at the world from another person's perspective for a moment each day.
- Practice mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation.
- During lockdown, take care of pets or read emotionally-charged books.
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Structure in times of chaos
Human suffering is often about freedom and constraint. We rebel against too much containment (“I need space!”) or if we have too much freedom, we feel lost in space. Fearful. (“Where did you go?...
Move
Our bodies need to stretch, reach, twist, bend, step, and sweat. It's not about staying in shape. It's about your immune health and mental health.
Build movement in your structure. Try for at least 20 minutes per day.
Nourish
You don't have to ban small treats. However, it is essential to set up a daily structure that fills you with nourishing healthy foods.
Make a dietary change, learn to meal prep, or teach your kids to cook.
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Laughter's Physical Power
We learn to laugh at a young age, most at infancy. Being able to laugh during our infancy years helps develop our muscles and upper body strength.
Every time we laugh, it ...
Laughter's Cognitive Power
It's an amazing thing what laughter can do because when we laugh, our brains are actually recognizing the absurdity of a situation. It allows us to take a look at another person's perspective and understand their intentions which can increase the intensity of the current situation.
Most of us have heard "learn to take a joke" once in our lives and to be able to "get" a joke, you need to see the lighter side of things and that other possibilities besides the literal exist.
Laughter's Social Power
We bond with others through many different means and laughter is one of them. We tend to build intimacy with others when we laugh with them and being happy with other people is being able to appreciate your present.
When we bond with laughter we are sharing our feelings and our emotions with others and feel accepted by them instead of feeling rejected or disliked.
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Your body needs dark too
While we are starting to pay attention to how important sleep is, the need for dark is still mostly ignored.
Being exposed to regular patterns of light and dark regulates our circadian ...
Our sleep and wake patterns
On its own, the circadian rhythm takes almost 24 hours. Our bodies rely on the Sun to reset this cycle and keep it at 24 hours, the length of our days. Light and the dark are important signals for the cycle.
During the night, body temperature drops, metabolism slows, and the hormone melatonin rises dramatically. When the Sun comes up in the morning, melatonin has already started falling, and you wake up.
Our bodies in the dark
During the dark, levels of the hormone leptin (hunger control), go up. This means we do not feel hungry while low levels make us hungry.
Ans research found that sleep disruption and turning on lights lowers leptin levels which makes people hungry in the middle of the night.