Mindful Acts of Kindness

Mindful Acts of Kindness

           

Although kindness can be misunderstood as an ineffectual or even superficial nicety, it’s neither. Like many amazing practices I've learned through mindfulness training, kindness is inspiring, powerful, courageous and wise. It’s also disarming, compelling and trans formative. In any given moment, the kindness you offer to yourself or to others affects what happens in the very next moment. 

Like mindfulness itself, kindness is a natural human quality that requires intentional action to realize it’s potential. And like mindfulness, research shows that kindness is good for our physical and our emotional well-being.

Studies show that thinking about, observing or practicing a kind act stimulates that vagus nerve, which literally warms up the heart and may be closely connected to the brain’s receptor networks for Oxycontin the soothing hormone involved in maternal bonding. Kindness also triggers the reward system in our brain’s emotion regulation center releasing dopamine, the hormone that’s associated with positive emotions and the sensation of a natural high. 

Kindness—which reduces stress, anxiety and depression—can literally put us, and others, at ease. It works wonders in the relationships we have with ourselves and with everyone else, even with people we don’t know. 

Try it next time you are out and about. Offer a kind word or gesture to someone you meet, or to someone who works in town or serves our community. Notice what happens. From a learning perspective, you’ll see that the effects are cumulative.

The more we practice, the better we get at it. This seems to be especially true in our most difficult moments. All of sudden, something shifts and we've chosen kindness instead of our habitual reaction.

Source:  Mary Ann Christie Burnside teaches us how the kindness we offer ourselves and others affects what happens in the very next moment.