Random Acts of Kindness – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Today, as I write this, is Random Acts of Kindness Day, a day created with the aim of encouraging more positive interactions and kindness between people. These can be big things or little things yet the aim is to do something nice for someone else or something that brightens the day of another person.

Now, of course, this is a lovely idea. And  it’s even more lovely when it becomes your general mindset in your actions and interactions with the people you come into contact with in your community. Recently here in Ely there was Pay It Forward Day (promoted by Spotted in Ely) which has a similar ethos and just yesterday, on my walk into the office I saw a colouring book that had been left for someone lucky to find. As there is a child care centre near my office I’m sure the book found a good home.

And so Random Acts of Kindness Day is all about positively and purposefully sharing positive acts and doing some nice things for others.  These acts of kindness don’t need to cost anything, it can be as simple as saying please and thank you, holding a door for someone or just smiling and offering a compliment to someone else. You get the chance to make someone else’s day that much brighter. And let’s be honest, although this should be how we all set out to interact with others, sometimes a reminder and a recharge is helpful.

And so you get the opportunity to give someone else a bit of a lift and positive energy. Yet, even better, the research suggests that doing kind acts for others actually makes you happier. In fact, if you want to feel happier in your life then kindness is certainly something that you should be actively and purposefully making part of your outlook, intention and actions.

The Benefits of Kindness

All the evidence suggests that kindness can help you to feel happier in your life. There are also positive benefits from gratitude which is where you receive kindnesses from other people. In contrast, kindness involves kind behaviour that you practice towards other people.

Kindness can help you to feel happier which is naturally quite a nice state to experience in and of itself. We all want to be happy in our lives. And being happy brings even more benefits than just feeling good. Research into positive psychology has found that, compared to less happy people, happy people have better and more satisfying social relationships, more pleasant everyday lives, are more satisfied with life and experience more positive events and emotions in their daily lives. Acts of kindness can contribute to your levels of happiness and bring you even more positive results.

The research also shows that even if you are currently experiencing psychological distress, such as anxiety, deliberately practising kindness and doing kind things towards others can increase your optimism and lower your anxiety.

If you want more to know more about the research about acts of kindness then do take a look at these previous articles:

Kindness, Happiness and Mental Health – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Kindness – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

The Benefits of Kindness – How Being Kind Can Make You Happier

Why You Should Be Kind To Yourself – The Benefits of Self-Compassion

All of the evidence I talk about in the above articles points to the conclusion that if you want to be happier then you should work on being kind to others. Paying attention and counting the kind acts you do, as well as just making small gifts to others, can help you to be happier. By also linking gratitude practices to kindness practices, you can find yourself feeling happier, experiencing more of a sense of well being and life satisfaction, and experiencing less distress such as anxiety.

Perhaps even better, the research shows that acts of kindness themselves are the most important thing for happiness rather than who you perform those acts for. And the more acts of kindness you do, the happier you will likely feel.

And so, this Random Acts of Kindness Day do get out there and do some nice stuff (and do let me know what you get up to!) and do enjoy the happiness benefits that you’ll bring to others and that you’ll get to enjoy for yourself.

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Award Winning Hypnotherapy for Anxiety Ely & Newmarket

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