The Gratitude Diaries is a weekday podcast that explores how gratitude can transform our lives. Host Janice Kaplan uses extensive research and anecdotes to give us practical tips and data to add an attitude of gratitude to our everyday lives. With the election returns still coming in, the whole country is feeling a little frazzled, so on this episode, she talks about being kind – to ourselves and to others – to help relieve stress and increase our happiness, enabling us to face the week with calm rationality instead of fear or anger. “We often associate being kind with being warm or gentle,” she tells us, “but there’s nothing soft-minded or soft-hearted about being kind.” It takes courage and strength to show kindness and compassion.
A study out of Japan found close links between happiness and kindness, Janice says – simply counting their own acts of kindness over a week increased participants’ happiness during that week as well as going forward. Psychologists have tried to discover how much of kindness is innate and how much is learned; people who start out happy certainly find it easier to be kind. But kindness, like gratitude, is a practice – the more you do it, the stronger you’ll make that “kindness muscle.”
And it’s important to be kind to ourselves, as well as others. No matter how hard we try to be kind all the time, we’ll still get anxious, worried, stressed out, or angry, and lash out as a result. So if you’re trying to be kinder, “put your emphasis on ‘trying,’” Janice says. The hardest time to express kindness or gratitude is when we’re angry or stressed, but it’s also the most important time; a little kindness lowers your level of stress and allows you to think more rationally. Listen to this episode of The Gratitude Diaries for more about how to add compassion and kindness to your everyday life, and increase your happiness, too.
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