Kindness is contagious. A 2010 study conducted by Harvard University found that being kind had a ripple effect. If you’re kind to someone, it makes both you and the recipient feel good. Feeling uplifted or grateful creates positive change, and whether consciously or not, encourages you to be kind to someone else, creating kindness at one degree of separation.
However, research suggests that each recipient of kindness is kind to an average of five more people, meaning at three degrees of separation that single act of kindness has created positive change in 125 people. We and they get more out of life.
Dr David Hamilton (pharmacist turned author) has harnessed this concept in his ‘seven days kindness challenge’. He encourages us to carry out a random act of kindness over seven consecutive days and to follow three simple rules.
1) You can’t count the same act twice, i.e., you can only count making someone dinner once.
2) At least one act needs to push you out of your comfort zone.
3) One act needs to be completely anonymous (without the need for recognition).
We are living in a time where kindness has never been more crucial to our health and wellbeing and the wellbeing of others, whether part of our community or complete strangers. I challenge you to give kindness a go and see where it takes you.
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