a special feature from Kay & Leslie, founders

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” Dalai Lama

Does kindness matter? Yes, kindness does matter, and there are compelling reasons to make it a priority in our lives, for the world needs it now more than ever.

7 reasons why kindness matters
Research shows that repeated acts of kindness:

1. Make you happier.
2. Improve your immune system and health.
3. Lower the rate of depression.
4. Make you feel more creative.
5. Cause employees to want to work harder for employers.
6. Increase the endogenous opioids in the brain, giving us a natural high.
7. Create the feeling of “emotional warmth,” producing the hormone oxytocin which in turn helps reduce blood pressure and protects the heart.

Ways to Manifest Kindness
Kindness to ourselves
This is probably the hardest thing for a person to achieve. Kindness to self includes:

• Self-care.
• Learning when to say, “no.”
• A healthy diet.
• Getting a good night’s sleep every night.
• Stopping negative self-talk.
• Giving yourself compliments every day!
• Laughing regularly.
• Letting yourself cry.
• Playing
• Meditating

Kindness to strangers
On a personal level, everyone we meet is facing some kind of challenge we know nothing about. A simple smile or act of kindness might make their whole day, and it costs us nothing.

Look strangers in the eye and give them a smile and a thank you. The clerk behind the checkout counter at the grocery store – did you look them in the eye? Would you recognize them again if you passed them on the street?

A simple greeting for someone new in the neighborhood, will make them feel welcomed and helps create a sense of community.

Exhibiting kindness to strangers can go a long way towards solving the world’s problems.

Whatever you choose to do today, add a little kindness to your daily routine. You’ll never go wrong when you do!