Kindness is part of human nature. Scientists have found that children as young as 18 months are willing to help others.

I found this article so interesting I wanted to share it with you.  I have edited parts of the article and included some of my own thoughts.

 When we feel compassion for the suffering of others, our brain’s “empathy circuit” lights up.

Real kindness goes beyond the desire to free people from suffering but also includes an intention to improve their well-being without expecting anything in return.

Yet when you and I give with purpose, something in our helpfulness engenders beauty in our own inner world.  Nothing we do for ourselves can compete with the warm afterglow we experienced through engaging in acts of kindness.

Naturally, kindness cultivates happiness.  An article published in The Journal of Social Psychology, researchers found that people who performed kind acts every day for seven days experienced a significant increase in happiness. Interestingly, whether people were kind to their family or to strangers, the kinder deeds they did or observed, the happier they were.

Furthermore, kindness affects more than emotions—it influences one’s DNA—shaping how the immune system works.

Good Deeds Change Your DNA

A group of scientists from the University of California set out to discover whether being kind to others changes our bodies at the genetic level.

At the beginning and end of this experiment participants gave blood samples. The scientists looked for changes in a set of genes linked to inflammation and stress. Genes that, when overactive, are associated with a higher risk for diseases such as heart problems, gastric upset etc.

But when the participants simply incorporated small acts of kindness toward others into daily routines it proved to be sufficient to alter leukocyte gene regulation!  That’s our DNA

Therefore, our acts of kindness not only benefit those we serve but gives our DNA an extra boost.

                        Kindness is indeed good for us!