Why being kind makes you happy?

Research links kindness to a wealth of physical and emotional benefits. Studies show that when people are kind, they have lower levels of stress hormones and their fight-or-flight response calms down. They’re less depressed, less lonely and happier. They have better cardiovascular health and live longer.

How does kindness increase happiness?

It’s been shown that even witnessing acts of kindness can produce oxytocin, which is often called the “love hormone.” Oxytocin helps to increase our optimism, confidence and even lower blood pressure. Kindness can also stimulate the production of serotonin, which can help you to feel happy.

Do acts of kindness increase happiness?

Two recent studies suggest that giving to others makes us happy, even happier than spending on ourselves. What’s more, our kindness might create a virtuous cycle that promotes lasting happiness and altruism.

Why is kindness so undervalued?

Why is kindness so undervalued? In part, because kind people can be perceived as “enablers” by some, or worse, as “suckers” by those more cynical. In fact, kindness is linked inextricably to happiness and contentment—psychologically and spiritually— and it requires courage and strength.

What Makes a kind person?

A kind person is loving and giving out of the goodness of their heart. Kind people have good self-esteem and because they love themselves as much as they care about others, they expect to be treated with respect. Nice people are desperate for approval, so they’re often mistreated or taken advantage of.

Is there a difference between being nice and being kind?

Being nice is when you are polite to people and treat people well. Being kind is when you care about people and show you care. Sometimes you can be kind to someone even though you aren’t nice to them and you can certainly be nice to someone but also be unkind.

Does kindness make people happier?

But the ones who did feel happy were overwhelmingly more likely to double down on altruism. The results suggest a kind of “positive feedback loop” between kindness and happiness, according to the authors, so that one encourages the other.

Why do people like being kind to other people?

Being kind is likely to make someone smile and if you see that smile for yourself, it might be catchy. A key theory about how we understand other people in neuroscience suggests that seeing someone else show an emotion automatically activates the same areas of the brain as if we experienced that emotion for ourselves.

How does being kind make you feel?

In one recent study, even children in their first year of secondary school recognised how being kind can make you feel “better as a person … more complete”, leading to feelings of happiness. This effect is even more powerful when the kind act links with other aspects of our personality, perhaps creating a more purposeful feeling.

Do kind acts make you happier?

“The practical implications of this positive feedback loop could be that engaging in one kind deed (e.g., taking your mom to lunch) would make you happier, and the happier you feel, the more likely you are to do another kind act,” says Lara Aknin, a graduate student in psychology at the University of British Columbia and the study’s lead author.