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A 1-minute summary of the guide
The Why: Performing acts of kindness can protect against feelings of anxiety. A growing body of research is showing that kindness has huge benefits for the person being kind (that’s you!).
The How: Find small acts of kindness that you can implement on a consistent basis. We understand it can be hard to start being kind (people are scary!), which is exactly why we create Kindness Projects. Each month, we rally our community together to do creative and exciting acts of kindness. This gives everyone an opportunity to have a big impact from the comfort of their home. For example, we created a custom children’s book for a 7-year-old boy battling brain tumors, then invited our community to be characters in his heroic adventure.
The Who: We’ve seen first hand how a properly planned act of kindness can have a huge impact on the giver. Speaking personally, I used to think a kindness-first attitude on life was a bit too optimistic, but the feelings & experiences you have will quickly motivate you to make continued growth through kindness.
Think of kindness like a muscle…. would you walk into the gym and try to lift 500 pounds? I sure hope not. On the other hand, maybe you are already a VERY kind person…does that mean you stop growing?
Because of this kindness spectrum, it’s difficult to suggest a one-size-fits all method of kindness. Instead, I’ll break down a few different levels. Take a look at the examples and find something that would be difficult to achieve, but not impossible.
Beginner Acts of Kindness
Easy Acts of Kindness
Hard Acts of Kindness
This is not a complete list of ways to be kind, but should instead be looked at for inspiration. The most important thing is you do something that shows appreciation or empathy for a nothing living being. Then, to really get the benefits of your hard work, reflect on your role in making the world a little bit brighter. Every act of kindness helps.
The long and short of it is simple: research from across the world has proven that doing acts of kindness can ease anxiety, release feel-good hormones, protect your heart, help you live longer, and reduce stress. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll focus on research specifically on the common causes of anxiety.
As with most mental health conditions, anxiety can come from a number of places. Namely brain chemistry and traumatic experiences. We’ll break these down and provide empirical evidence explaining how kindness interacts with each cause of anxiety.
Kindness and Brain Chemistry
Researchers at the University of British Columbia found that participants who did a kind act displayed significant increases in positive moods (joy, interest, alertness). The best part? That improvement was sustained over the four weeks of the study – all it took was at least six acts of kindness!
Cortisol, menacingly known as the stress hormone, is a huge contributor to prolonged feelings of anxiety. A study from 1998 saw that people who took a kindness-first mindset saw a 23% reduction in cortisol.
Kindness and Experiences
Anxiety can train your brain to obsess over negative experiences. Why not combat those feelings by recalling kindness? As it turns out, the act of recalling an act of kindness has the same positive effect as performing the kindness! That means you get two boosts of feel-good for one action! Keep this in mind when considering your next opportunity to be kind.
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