{"id":522,"date":"2023-09-25T05:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/?p=522"},"modified":"2024-06-04T02:33:20","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T06:33:20","slug":"kindness-a-double-sided-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/2023\/09\/kindness-a-double-sided-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindness: A Double-Sided Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Sometimes the world can just get me down, or a specific event makes me really sad, or a problem keeps me up all night filled with stress. In this blog, I\u2019ve talked about lots of ways I, and researchers who are way smarter than I am, have found to fight back against depression and stress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"265\" height=\"190\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/files\/2023\/09\/rainbow2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-523\" style=\"width:323px;height:231px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>But here\u2019s another one that researchers have identified, and I love it.&nbsp; Kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Random acts of kindness&#8211;like paying for a stranger\u2019s coffee at the coffee shop, or calling an old friend out of the blue, or leaving homemade cookies for the mailman\u2014have been scientifically shown to improve mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers compared the effect of three different things on depressed or anxious thoughts\u2014planning fun activities twice a week, keeping a journal of thoughts that trigger depression and anxiety, and doing random acts of kindness for others.&nbsp; The good news is that all three strategies improved people\u2019s mood. But the kindness strategy did as well or <em>better<\/em> than the other two, and had the added bonus of increasing social connections, which didn\u2019t happen with the other two strategies (remember how I talked about the importance of social connection for wellbeing in my post <a href=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/2023\/04\/just-five-minutes\/\">Just Five Minutes<\/a>?).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading about this finding on kindness, I can\u2019t help but think about the verse from Proverbs 11:17 \u201cThe merciful man does good to his own soul.\u201d Kindness benefits the person you help, but it is so good for our spirit as well. It\u2019s a two-for-one benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine what would happen if each of us woke up every morning and thought \u201cI am going to take 60 seconds today and do something kind for someone else, for no specific reason.\u201d&nbsp; Everyone around us would be a little bit happier. And we would feel less sad, less stressed, and more like we were thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kindness\u2014a one-minute, two-sided stress buster. &nbsp;Something everyone has time for and can do. Try it and see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read more about the kindness study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/a-new-study-finds-that-performing-acts-of-kindness-improves-mental-health-symptoms\/\">here<\/a> if you\u2019re interested<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes the world can just get me down, or a specific event makes me really sad, or a problem keeps me up all night filled with stress. In this blog, I\u2019ve talked about lots of ways I, and researchers who are way smarter than I am, have found to fight back against depression and stress. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/thriving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}