Kindness guide matter

 We're all familiar with the saying “it's better to give than receive”. What might surprise you is that this is actually backed up by research.

Those of us who are kind and compassionate experience clear benefits to our well-being and happiness. We may even live longer. Kindness also helps reduce stress and improve our emotional well-being.1,2

We all have so much going on in our lives - competing strains and stresses – not to mention the recent coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. This has sometimes pushed kindness to one side, in favour of what is urgent now.

It can be easy to show kindness when posting online, but when it comes to reality it's harder to commit to kindness in our real-life words and actions.

By taking the time to be kind to others, we can benefit from emotional upsides. It really does make a difference, especially for people who are vulnerable or struggling.

With everything that's going on in the world, now is the time to help make a kinder society that improves our mental health.

Kindness should be built into business decisions, government policy, and other official systems in a way that supports everyone’s mental health and also reduces discrimination and inequality. That can start with individual commitments to showing kindness in our words and our actions.

This guide is written to demonstrate the positive effect that helping others can have on your own mental health, including some suggestions that will inspire you.

Take a few minutes, have a read, and think about doing something kind for a friend or a stranger today.