Sarah’s health notes: The secret of feeling good…
Kindness. ‘Simples’, as that flipping meerkat might say. The Dalai Lama put it succinctly when asked by an eager follower for his philosophy: ‘Be kind whenever possible’. Which he qualified by adding: ‘It is always possible.’
The world can seem a harsh place. But cheeringly, kindness has become a feature in spheres as wide-ranging as bumper stickers (like my favourite ‘commit random acts of kindness’) and YouTube videos to peer-reviewed research. A new study showed that being kind can act as a painkiller: cancer patients experienced less chronic pain when they helped to care for others on the same ward.
Kindness even inspired a Broadway hit musical": ‘Come From Away’ was based on a documentary about the town of Gander Newfoundland, which took in 7,000 stranded passengers during 9/11.
The runaway bestselling Christmas book was The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. And it is all about kindness and love. Sounds schmaltzy? I know, but it isn’t I promise. Every home should have a copy of this enchanting, comforting and profoundly wise picture book. You will thank me for suggesting you give it to yourself and to everyone you know - just as I thank my friend Tracey McAlpine for giving it to me.
In December, I was at a lecture given by Dr. David Hamilton, a motivational writer and (totally inspiring and very funny) speaker. The evening was organised by Talks for Freedom and proceeds all went to YouCanFreeUs, an international human rights organisation set up to help fight modern slavery. To the audience’s collective horror, human trafficking is flourishing in the UK, as well as many other countries round the globe.
David Hamilton was working for pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca when he became fascinated by the placebo effect – the power of the mind to heal the body. Researching this amazing resource persuaded him to quit drug research and spend his time helping people to improve their health by using their own mind.
His main topic that evening was the ripple effect of kindness – how one good deed, even a seemingly tiny one (smiling at someone on a crowded tube, say, instead of kicking them in the shins) can be contagious. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010, researchers showed that generosity can be highly contagious. When we act kindly towards one person, that person is much more likely to be kind to others.
Kindness isn’t just doing helpful things for people, though that's a huge part of it, according to David Hamilton (drdavidhamilton.com). ‘’Kindness is also in how we think about people, whether we judge people in our minds – the conversations we have with people in our minds that might not be so kind.’
‘Just a willingness to allow kindness to colour part of our thinking actually helps us to find softer, kinder, even more peaceful thoughts. It allows us to see issues [that] might have been annoying us from a wider, deeper, or clearer perspective.’
As with the Dalai Lama, David Hamilton says he is often asked about the ‘best’ spiritual practice. ‘Honestly, to think kindly is what I would say. It helps you find that warm, connected, non-judgmental and expansive space. From here, peace is much easier to find.’