Today, 17th February, is Random Acts of Kindness Day, celebrated around the globe.
Carrying out a random act of kindness for someone else can reduce your own stress levels and help to improve your mental health. It’s not just the warm fuzzy feeling that improves your wellbeing, it’s your brain chemicals too. Research shows that doing a good deed for another person can also bring a sense of belonging and reduce feelings of isolation, one of the triggers for declining mental health.
Some of our favourite random acts of kindness include: sending someone a handwritten note, letting someone jump the queue at the supermarket or telling someone why you are thankful for them.
Noticing and having gratitude for someone else doing the same for you can also have a similar effect. There are studies which show that a regular gratitude practice actually “rewires” the brain. Researchers report that there is a connection between gratitude and good health, improving sleep quality, decreasing stress and building emotional awareness (Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005).
The trick to improving your wellbeing with kindness, is that it needs to be repeated as a practice to have long-term effects – so why not try to incorporate some of these ideas into your daily routine, and give yourself a regular wellbeing boost.
For some great ideas of random acts of kindness, then why not try the random kindness generator from the Mental Health Foundation. Simply click the random number generator and it will give you a number which corresponds to an act of kindness. Good luck!
If you’d like to get more involved in supporting others’ mental health, join one of our MHFA-affiliated Mental Health Champion/First Aider courses. Or get in touch to arrange an in-house training course for your business. Contact Deanne Walsh at info@dewaconsulting.co.uk or call 07832 615751.