The incredible thing about kindness is that it boosts brains in the person who shows kindness, who receives kindness and who witnesses kindness. Helpers high, as it’s referred to, is when positive neurotransmitters that help us feel happy, safe and loved, are released in our brains.

Amazing things can happen in your brain when you make kindness an active practice. (Notice I didn’t say random.) As parents, we need to focus on deliberate acts of kindness. We can strengthen the muscle of kindness, and in the process, help our kids in these three BIG areas.

Practicing kindness can extend your lifespan. How’s that for a big deal. According to Christine Carter, Author, “Raising Happiness; In Pursuit of Joyful Kids and Happier Parents,” people 55 and older who volunteer for two or more organizations have an impressive 44% lower likelihood of dying early. And that’s after sifting out every other contributing factor, including physical health, exercise, gender, habits like smoking, marital status and more. This effect is stronger than exercising four times a week or going to church. Can you imagine if you started planting seeds of kindness with your kids now? We all want to give our kids the best lives possible, and it is pretty evident planning and nurturing kindness will do just that.
Being kind gives you more energy. We often think extending that extra hand of kindness will deplete our energy resources, but it turns out, not so. Christine Carter, UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science Center, highlights a study in which subjects felt stronger and more energetic after helping others; many also reported feeling calmer and less depressed, with increased feelings of self-worth.” Isn’t it great that kindness can help our brains gain energy and decrease feelings of depression?
Kindness reduces stress. Cortisol is a hormone we release when we are stressed or anxious. Prolonged stress circumstances and feelings can result in elevated cortisol levels that lead to chronic disease. Kindness helps to mitigate the cortisol level. It also pumps our brains and bodies full of helpful neurotransmitters: serotonin, which makes us feel happy, oxytocin, which makes us feel safe and loved and dopamine, which naturally rewards our system and has us looking for more kindness in ourselves and the world.
According to RandomActsOfKindness.org, “Perpetually kind people have 23% less cortisol and age slower than the average population while a University of British Columbia study found that when a group of highly anxious individuals performed at least six acts of kindness a week, there was a significant increase in positive moods, relationship satisfaction and a decrease in social avoidance in socially anxious individuals after only one month of increasing kindness practices.

Being kind isn’t just about being nice. It’s about building strong, healthy kids and helping them plant a better future for themselves.

Practicing Kindness: 3 Brain-Boosting Benefits of Being Kind (Free Printable!)