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David R Hamilton PhD

Using Science to Inspire

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Recent posts

  • How to write a book
  • Visualise illness becoming wellness (and the science of why it works)
  • Mind and Weight Loss
  • 3 ways to practice Kindfulness
  • Channel Kindness

Welcome

Channel 4, Sunday Brunch, August 13th 2017

Some #TuesdayThoughts from @DrDRHamilton who tells us exactly how being kind to other people can literally improve your health! pic.twitter.com/4ofZOjE5KB

— Sunday Brunch (@SundayBrunchC4) August 15, 2017

A few of my books

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Dr David R Hamilton
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SchoolofKindSchool of Kindness@SchoolofKind·
13 May

Made by a child in one of our School Kindness Workshops, for another child being bullied. Thank you so much @NBBRecycledFurn for supporting these workshops and making all this possible #kindness

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DrDRHamiltonDr David R Hamilton@DrDRHamilton·
13 May

It’s #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek The theme is nature. The human nervous system is actually ‘wired’ for nature as our species has spent 99.99% of our time in natural surrounds (only 0.01% in modern built up surroundings). Our nervous systems ‘recognise’ nature and relax.🌸🌳🐝

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runnergirl1953runnergirl1953@runnergirl1953·
12 May

Updated News and Events page..Check it out! https://www.marymcmanus.com/newsandevents @DrDRHamilton @BernieSiegelMD @DV7radio @HealDocumentary @BrooklineTAB @BillRodgersRACE

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DrDRHamiltonDr David R Hamilton@DrDRHamilton·
12 May

#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

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GillH1973Gill💙Archies mum 💞🐶🐾@GillH1973·
7 May

Another great little piece in @PsychologiesMag Proof that being kind is healthy💜. Words from a man with knowledge 👍
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Dr David R Hamilton
This is mental health awareness week. You may reme This is mental health awareness week. You may remember that the theme last year was kindness. The theme this year is nature. We need nature. And I really mean the ‘need’ bit. The human brain and autonomic nervous system is actually wired for nature. Our ancient ancestors evolved over eons in natural environments. As such, the human species has spent 99.99% of time surrounded by nature and only 0.01% of time in ‘modern’ built up surroundings. Evolution is slow to catch up with the change. Lots of research shows that nature has an automatic calming effect on the nervous system. Being in the presence of trees, plants, flowers, the sounds of birds, running water is instantly recognised by the human nervous system, causing the brain and body to enter a relaxed mode. It’s not just the contrast - that nature seems slower in contrast to our busy lives. There is an actual inbuilt effect on the brain and nervous system!! In fact, research now shows that people recover faster in hospitals when they have a window view of nature than when their view is of another building, say, or a car park. So much so, in fact, that some researchers have now stated that not only is nature beneficial to us, but being deprived of it is actually harmful. I thought I’d share this wee bit of science today because sometimes just knowing that something can benefit us without us having to do anything, is really helpful. When I say, ‘without us having to do anything’, I mean, without any effort of thinking. If you can, spend even just a few minutes in a green, natural environment today. Hug a tree if you like (I do - and believe it or not, it actually releases oxytocin, which will benefit your heart).🧡🌳🌸🦢🐜🪴🐝 #natureishealing #nature #natureisbeautiful #natureisgoodforyou #mentalhealthawareness
I’m doing a free online talk on 12th April. It’s the Bank of England Flagship seminar, where I’ll be interviewed by BoE chief economist, Andy Haldane, and the subject is kindness. I’m so pleased to be invited. To be honest, when the invite came through on email from Andy’s office, I sheepishly responded with, “Are you sure you have the right person?” 😂😂 It’s because it’s usually famous people or people very well known in the public eye who do this seminar. For example, @judymurray_ has done one, as has Prue Leith, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Billy Bragg, Sir Cary Cooper, and others. It turned out that Andy had heard me on a BBC Radio 4 podcast, ‘Don’t tell me the score’ hosted by @simonmundie and loved it and immediately decided that the seminar should focus on kindness. It’s funny how things work. It’s interview style, but it’s just me answering so it’ll be a lot like a talk. As I said, it’s free to the public. There’s only 1,000 spaces available and it’s expected to fill up, so you need to register. It’s April 12th at 12 noon. The link is in my bio. 😊
Just thought I’d post a wee reminder that today Just thought I’d post a wee reminder that today (31st March) is the last day that my book is available on Kindle for 71p (99 cents). In case you’d thought about it and forgot. That’s the sort of thing I do all the time.😂 It covers different strategies for building self esteem, including how posture and body language can ‘wire’ better feelings into the brain, as well as exercises for self compassion and self forgiveness. It’s the book that took me longest to write and also the one I still have to dip into the most, to remind myself to put into practice some of the strategies.🙃😅 . . . #iheartme #selflove #selfcare #selfcompassion #begentlewithyourself
After I posted a video a few days ago about Covid After I posted a video a few days ago about Covid vaccines and that I had just had mine, I received a large amount of abuse and personal attacks. Some friends had been worried because they thought the vaccine would give them Covid, or because they were just a bit uncertain how vaccines work. So the video was to help people with concerns of this nature. My motivation was to help. That’s all. I didn’t imagine the post would descend into increasingly more personal and abusive comments and assaults on my character and integrity. I found the judgement, harshness, and personal attacks increasingly hard to take. Despite the work I do on myself, I am only human. I felt increasingly anxious as the day went on. It brought up memories of being bullied at school. Once one person posted something nasty or personal, others seemed to think they could too, and it gradually descended into a landslide of attacks and abuse. Some were shocking. I got RIP in capital letters. One claimed my page is full of lies and deceit and the video is ‘proof’ that I’m building it so I can push an ‘agenda’ onto innocent people. The words, ‘proof that’ and ‘clearly’, were aplenty as some made false assumption after false assumption. I was accused of only replying to people who agreed with me. Actually, I mostly chose to respond to comments made with respect and kindness, but not ones that made aggressive demands of me! As an act of self care, to protect my own mental health, I took the decision to block a significant number of people from my page, the worst offenders, which also thankfully erased their comments. I do not wish to have such nasty, abusive and aggressive content on my page. Differing in opinion is fine, but we don’t need to be aggressive and abusive about it. And for those still labouring under the belief that I’m pushing a dark agenda, no I’m not working for Nike or secretly being paid by any ‘big corporates’. I just happen to have a Nike t-shirt, like millions of other people around the world. I got it online for about £20 and like to wear it when I play sports, which I plan to do later.
Today is #internationaldayofhappiness The theme t Today is #internationaldayofhappiness The theme this year (it’s the 8th annual one since it was founded by the United Nations General Assembly) is, “keep calm, stay wise, and be kind.” Happiness is actually one of the side effects of being kind. I think most people have had the experience that helping others feels nice. When done consistently, it’s been shown to boost happiness. Some countries have cultures and ways that naturally lend themselves to happiness. In Southern Africa, Ubuntu basically translates to, “I am because you are.” It recognises a deep interconnectedness between us all, and that part of life is about helping others to live and be happy. In Japan, there’s Omotenashi. It doesn’t really have an English translation, but it promotes thoughtfulness, politeness and generosity. It is embedded in the culture, in the way many behave and live their daily lives. I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are. And if you can contribute to helping someone else to be happy today, then all the more to celebrate on this day. 💛💫🙏😊 . . . #bekind #kindnessquotes #behappy #benice #begentle #love
Did you know that it’s #worldbookday today? To c Did you know that it’s #worldbookday today? To celebrate, my publisher @hayhouseuk have arranged for the e-book (Kindle) version of my book, ‘I Heart Me’ to be on sale for 71p in the UK and 99 cents around the world! Yes, 71p (£0.71) ... I had to check the email twice myself.😂 I think it’s going to be that price for the whole of March. It’s the book that teaches different techniques and strategies for self love, like the 3 stages of self love, use of visualisation, posture, self compassion, self forgiveness, and how to make practical, positive changes. ✨😊
I’m pleased to say that there’s a new way you I’m pleased to say that there’s a new way you can listen to my books on audio. Hay House recently launched their new ‘Hay House Unlimited Audio’ app. The link to the app is in my bio. I have audiobooks there of ‘How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body’, ‘I Heart Me’, ‘The Five Side Effects of Kindness’, plus my ‘Quantum Field Healing’ meditation. The app is free for 14 days, then it’s £9.99 a month, so you can take it for a spin, so to speak, and see if you think it’s worth it, keep it if you do or just cancel it if you don’t want it. All Wayne Dyer’s stuff is on there, books, old lectures, etc, plus Louise Hay’s, Joe Dispenza’s, Anita Moorjani’s, Kyle Gray’s, Robert Holden’s, and all other Hay House authors. I occasionally dip into a Louise Hay meditation or listen to Wayne. 🙂 Anyway, just thought I’d give the app a wee shout out.😊
Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day. I created th Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day. I created the above image a while ago. It took me over an hour using Powerpoint. lol. But it shows how contagious kindness is. When we think of random acts of kindness day, most of us might intentionally do one or two kind things, but we don’t see what happens next. Every act of kindness is like dropping a wee stone in a pond. It creates waves that move outwards in a circle, soon lifting lily pads all around the pond. The lily pads are lifted by the waves, but the waves were created by the stone. In the same way, each time you show even a little kindness, it generates a ripple effect. Kindness is circularly contagious, like the wave created by the stone. And research suggests that its R-number is somewhere between 4 and 5, which, like sars-CoV2, depends on where you live. But with such a high R number, it means that kindness is highly exponentially contagious. The diagram is based on some research at Harvard and Yale, combined with a few other pieces of research demonstrating the contagion effect, and I’ve shown an R-number of 5. It shows that the kindness wave goes outwards to at least ‘3 degrees of separation’. That’s what researchers call it. It means that when you’re kind to one person, what you don’t tend to see, mainly because you’re not following the person around all day, is that they will most likely be kind or kinder to 5 people over the next day or so because of how you made them feel. That’s one degree. But each of those 5 will likely be kind or kinder to 5 people. That’s now 25 people at 2 degrees. And each of those 25 will likely be kind or kinder to 5 people. That’s 125 people at 3 degrees of separation from you. You’ll probably never meet those 125 people, yet their day is a little sweeter because of that single thing you did for one person. This is how kindness works. That’s how much you can affect the world! You never need to feel small. You make a much bigger difference than you think. 💛🙏✨ . . . #bekind #kindnessquotes #rippleeffect #rakday #kindnessday
Did you know that it’s random acts of kindness w Did you know that it’s random acts of kindness week? Random acts of kindness ‘Day’ is on Wednesday (the 17th), but the whole week is celebrated as reminder to be kind. I thought I’d share the 5 side effects of kindness on Day 1. 1) Kindness is good for mental health 2) Kindness is good for the heart 3) Kindness slows ageing 4) Kindness improves relationships 5) Kindness is contagious Of course, we don’t do kindness to receive a benefit. These are simply natural side effects, things that happen alongside, as a result of, being kind. Nature’s catch 22 actually ensures that we don’t benefit when the goal is to benefit. The health benefits of kindness come due to how kindness FEELS and the then physiological (and psychological) effects of that. The warm feeling of connection, for example, produces kindness hormones, which act on the cardiovascular and immune system. And the only way to get the feeling is to MEAN what you do. So, technically speaking, the only way to actually gain from an act of kindness is to not try to gain from it. Bit of a paradox. The point is - be kind because it’s the right thing to do. If you know someone who is struggling, lend a hand, even a supportive word. Something seemingly small to you could be big for them. Practice patience and compassion, gentleness and forgiveness where you can. Listen to people. Give them your undivided attention. Smile at people as you pass them and privately think a kind thought about them or say a prayer for them. And I hope, sometime this week, that you also receive some kindness.🙏💛 . . . #kindnessweek2021 #rakweek2021 #bekind #kindness #kindnessweek #kindnessiscool
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“David Hamilton is an expert on how our thoughts and minds can physically change our bodies.” Daily Express

“David Hamilton displays natural communication skills and adaptability in successfully engaging with business audiences.”  Drew Pryde, Chairman of the Scottish Institute of Business Leaders

“Very Impressive!” Red Magazine

Kindred Spirit Magazine, “Best MBS Writer Award 2016”

Banner photo by Shambhala Wolfhaart
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