There’s a lot to be said about noticing what you do. Many of us go about our days largely unconscious, in that while we do the things we do, we’re not so present as we do them. Meditation helps us bring awareness to what we do and also to how we think. Meditation, for example, […]
kindness
Three ways that kindness impacts the brain and body
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve found myself speaking and writing a lot more about kindness recently. You can catch loads of my videos on my social media pages, plus I share lots in my Personal Development Club monthly live talks and in my free online course, ‘The Biology and Contagiousness of Kindness‘. One […]
The most contagious thing is kindness
We’re all thinking of contagion right now due to the coronavirus. Let’s not forget that kindness is also highly contagious. Scientists at Harvard and Yale measured the contagiousness of kindness out to three social steps. That is, when you be kind to someone, that person will be kind or kinder to someone else (1 social […]
As you give, so you receive
I have written a lot about side effects of kindness, that when you give you also receive. Sometimes receiving can be in the form of acts of kindness done for you, or of seemingly random blessings showing up in your life, but they also come in the form of physiological effects. I had an experience […]
Happy dog, happy heart
I find myself writing this piece today because it was 5 years ago on this day that my dog, Oscar (main photo), passed away from bone cancer at the age of just over 2. He came into my life two days before I started writing my book about self love / self esteem, ‘I Heart […]
Kindness is more than the things that we do
I was asked what kindness is during an interview a few weeks ago. It’s something I’m rarely asked as most of us assume we know what kindness is. So I’ve turned it around and since asked a few groups what they think kindness is. The answer I receive the most is about doing helpful things […]
Don’t judge people as you never know what they’re going through
I remember waiting in line a coffee shop once, and a woman drove over my foot on a mobility scooter. She didn’t look back to apologise. At the time I did have a thought that a person would usually have said sorry, but I let it go because, well, you never know. Shortly afterwards, I […]
6 ways your brain can’t distinguish real from imaginary
1) Belief Research shows us that when a person receives a placebo that they believe is a drug, and subsequently experiences a placebo effect, it is because their brain has produced the substances necessary to give them what they expected the drug to do. For example, when you receive a placebo for pain, but you […]
Loving kindness slows ageing at the genetic level
I’ve written a lot about the links between kindness and ageing, and part of my focus has been that kindness is the opposite of stress, at least in terms of how it makes us feel and the physiological consequences of those feelings. Just as feelings of stress produce stress hormones (like cortisol and adrenalin), so […]
How searching for my lost suitcase led me to kindness
I left my suitcase on a train recently. Believe it or not, I was meditating as the train approached the station. The only thing I wasn’t mindful of was that my case was on the rack above me. 🙂 I only realised this when I arrived at my hotel about half an hour later. I […]