The act of being kind is an simple act to do, however there are many studies that help us have even a deeper understanding of how an act of kindness can impact you as well as others! There are many benefits to being kind and being connected to others; if you don’t believe me, I hope that this blog post will convince you otherwise!
Train Yourself to be Compassionate
According to a study at University of Wisconsin - Madison, compassion can be trained and learned in adults by practicing a compassionate mindset. The young adults engaged in compassion meditation, an ancient Buddhist technique to increase caring feelings for people who are suffering. In the meditation, participants envisioned a time when someone has suffered and then practiced wishing that his or her suffering was relieved. They repeated phrases to help them focus on compassion such as, “May you be free from suffering. May you have joy and ease.” There were also different categories of people they would practice compassion meditation towards. First, they would start with their family and loved ones as it would be easier to feel compassion towards them. Next, they would practice feeling compassion towards themselves and complete strangers. Finally, they would practice compassion towards “difficult“ people in their life such as a disliked co-worker or roommate. Turns out by practicing your compassion “muscle” it actually can strengthen your desire to help others!
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Combat Social Anxiety with Kindness
According to Dr. Lynn Alden Clinical Psychology professor at University of British Columbia and SFU SSHRC post-doctoral fellow Jennifer Trew, preforming acts of kindness may help lessen social anxiety. For this study, Trew and Alden recruited 115 undergraduate students who reported experiencing high levels of social anxiety. The participants were separated into three groups; one group performed acts of kindness, another group was simply exposed to social interactions, and the last group was given no instructions except to record what happened each day. After the four-week intervention, it was found that the group that had the greatest overall decrease in desire to avoid social interactions was seen in the individuals who were asked to perform acts of kindness. Dr. Alden theorized acts of kindness may help counter the socially anxious person’s fear of negative evaluation by promoting more positive perceptions and expectations of how other people will respond.
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Here is a video that has more information! Enjoy!
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