{"id":2439,"date":"2020-04-29T13:10:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2021-07-22T09:10:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T09:10:55","slug":"three-ways-that-kindness-impacts-the-brain-and-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/three-ways-that-kindness-impacts-the-brain-and-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Three ways that kindness impacts the brain and body"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2440\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2440\" class=\"wp-image-2440 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/kindness_yellowJumper_redHeart-e1601028906301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/100;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2440\" class=\"wp-image-2440 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/drdavidhamilton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/kindness_yellowJumper_redHeart-e1601028906301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" \/><\/noscript><p id=\"caption-attachment-2440\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">image: iStock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In light of the coronavirus pandemic, I\u2019ve found myself speaking and writing a lot more about kindness recently. You can catch loads of my videos on my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/davidrhamiltonphd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media pages<\/a>, plus I share lots in my <a href=\"https:\/\/david-hamilton.mykajabi.com\/personaldevelopmentclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Personal Development Club<\/a> monthly live talks and in my free online course, &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/david-hamilton.mykajabi.com\/thebiologyofkindness\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Biology and Contagiousness of Kindness<\/a>&#8216;.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I\u2019ve spoken much about is how kindness produces many beneficial effects in the body, mind, and spirit, some of which is the opposite of what stress does. In many ways, we are helping to counter some of the stress and worry during these times by the kindness and care we show each other. So as a summary, I thought I\u2019d share three of the important healthy consequences of kindness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Kindness supports the immune system<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Research shows that kindness (due to how it feels when you\u2019re kind) boosts levels of an important immune system antibody known as \u2018secretory immunoglobulin A\u2019 (s-IgA for short). One of the most amazing facts of this research is that the effect is turned on simply by watching kindness. Yes, \u2018watching\u2019 kindness. It works because the immune boosting effect is due to how kindness <em>feels<\/em>, which is the same whether you do kindness or witness kindness. The opposite is in how stress supresses immune function and, similarly, that\u2019s due to how stress feels, whether you experience something stressful or whether you\u2019re feeling stressed from watching negative online content.<\/p>\n<p>So, in addition to being kind, why not reduce your exposure to negative online content, or even reduce how much News you watch! Increase the amount of inspiring content you watch instead. Watch and share videos and clips showing acts of kindness and compassion. Follow social media accounts that lift you.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t just a psychological feel good. It has immune boosting consequences.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2) Compassion reduces inflammation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Compassion is close to kindness. It\u2019s the feeling that usually motivates a kind act. Amazingly, compassion has anti-inflammatory properties. It rests on the fact that compassion stimulates the vagus nerve, also known as the \u2018caretaking nerve\u2019. Since human infants are born technically premature compared with the young of other animal species, human parents have to care for their babies for long periods of time before they are able to fend for themselves. Just as the nervous system has evolved to respond to stress and so protect us in times of danger, over millions of years of evolution, a portion of the human nervous evolved in concert with the caring and compassionate feelings of parents such that, today, we have a portion of the nervous system that responds quickly to compassion. It turns out, that this portion also controls the \u2018Inflammatory Reflex\u2019, which helps control inflammation levels in the body.<\/p>\n<p>Modern research confirms that compassion stimulates this portion of the nervous system (the vagus nerve) and also reduces inflammation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3) Kindness supports mental health<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lots of research shows that kindness increases happiness. Studies that compare people asked to do more kindness versus people acting as normal show that those doing more kindness usually feel happier as a consequence. Other research shows that kindness offers some protection against depression. Studies comparing people who do regular volunteer work with those who don\u2019t show much lower rates of depression in the volunteers.<\/p>\n<p>The happiness-boosting and depression-countering effects seem to have their roots in the neurological effects of how kindness feels, but in addition kindness taps into something deep and spiritual in us.<\/p>\n<p>Brain imaging studies indicate that kind and compassionate feelings cause physical changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, biased to the left-hand side. That\u2019s the portion of the brain behind and above the eyes. This left hand portion is known to be an area associated with positive emotion. With kindness and compassion practice, the area grows much as a muscle grows when we exercise it. The result is that anything that area is used for becomes easier to access, just as anything that a muscle is used for becomes easier if it\u2019s been strengthened through exercise. And so kindness and compassion build this brain region, making positive emotion easier to access.<\/p>\n<p>But kindness can be a spiritual act too. Being kind taps into something deep inside of us, a knowing that what we are doing is the right thing to do. Perhaps that is the real root of why kindness feels good and perhaps, on some deep level, the physical effects on the body are nature\u2019s reward to us for expressing the best in us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><br \/>\nAll studies mentioned can be found in my two kindness books, &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Five-Side-Effects-Kindness-Happier\/dp\/1781808139\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MSKBR36V62E2&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=the+five+side+effects+of+kindness&amp;qid=1588165171&amp;sprefix=the+five+side%2Caps%2C198&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Five Side Effects of Kindness<\/a>&#8216; and &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Little-Book-Kindness-Connect-transform\/dp\/1856753913\/ref=pd_sbs_14_2\/257-3307190-9425358?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=1856753913&amp;pd_rd_r=951635d7-c410-4999-aa0e-e0f7cbbcdc48&amp;pd_rd_w=swi1T&amp;pd_rd_wg=QoNVz&amp;pf_rd_p=2773aa8e-42c5-4dbe-bda8-5cdf226aa078&amp;pf_rd_r=761JTP9Z221FJ0SXM202&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=761JTP9Z221FJ0SXM202\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Little Book of Kindness<\/a>&#8216;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In light of the coronavirus pandemic, I\u2019ve 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, &#8216;The Biology and Contagiousness of Kindness&#8216;. One&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,56],"tags":[77,177,85,33,313,193],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three ways that kindness impacts the brain and body - David R Hamilton PHD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In light of the coronavirus pandemic, I\u2019ve found myself speaking and writing a lot more about kindness recently. 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