Improving Mental Health With Kindness

Improving Mental Health With Kindness

Have you ever wondered what you can do to instantly lift your mood?

A simple act of kindness can do just that.

There are many ways of improving mental health with kindness. Two of the most relatable are when you act as a known “giver,” such as helping an elderly person across a dangerous intersection, and the second way is to be the unknown “giver”—this one works as a pay-it-forward act of kindness. It includes things like paying for a stranger’s meal or coffee order without contact with the person you are helping. 

Regardless of which act you choose; it lifts the spirit. As humans, many of us are taught from childhood to be kind, polite, and helpful. After the act is done, there is praise from the authority figure who is teaching the mind of the young.  Smiling, clapping, or giving positive reinforcement, feeds the child’s soul and raises him or her to associate with kindness.

This is no different as an adult. We need to give kindness because kindness is a quality that is essential for mental health.

How does Kindness Improve Mental Health?

According to Professor Shahram Heshmat, when people are kind, it gives them a “helper’s high” which lowers stress hormones like cortisol. This allows the fight-or-flight response to calm down.

We live in a highly volatile world, especially these last several years.  People are rife with angst, frustration, and a “me first” attitude. If you are feeling any of these, it is important to feel like you are part of a world where others sometimes feel the same way. Kindness helps us relate to others. By performing a simple act of kindness, you bring yourself back to a state of calmness, and even joy.

A simple, genuine smile at someone can go a long way for your mental health. Doing kind things will improve your social connection with others, which in turn will make you feel better about yourself. Little by little, mental health can greatly improve.

Improving your mental health with kindness is a cycle. Not a vicious one, but one that is upbeat and inspirational.

Kindness Also Means Accepting Kindness from Others

Sometimes, it could seem that kindness does not come easily to some people, but kindness is a quality, and there are two simple ways to improve mental health with kindness:

• Perform acts of kindness
• Accept acts of kindness from others

For instance, let’s say that you are at a grocery store.  You just finished paying for your goods and go to grab your bag; it splits, and all the contents in that bag fall to the floor. 

As you scramble to rebag the contents, a stranger helps you by grabbing another bag and holding it out for you to fill it up. 

What do you do?

If you decide to smile and tell them thank you, it boosts your positive hormone, oxytocin.  You just took the first step to improve your mental health without realizing it. A genuine “thank you” can be very powerful.

“Your presence is an opportunity for others to do good things. This makes you a very important figure in people’s lives.”

– Inspiring click: 15 small things that make you happy in big ways