09 Jul Happiness is…in acts of kindness
After a fascinating and personal story of happiness and kindness, Daniel Tomasulo writes for PsychCentral…
A random act of kindness, a phrase that grew out of the lead quote by author Anne Herbert, was a concept that captured our collective awareness. What interested me about this kindness was that the woman was obviously searching for ways to make a difference. She didn_ã_t wait until she was panhandled _ã” she stepped up, noticed where kindness was needed, and did something about it. This means it wasn_ã_t so random. She was poised to be kind.
It prompted me to wonder what we know about this sort of thing. An interesting study out of Japan published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2006 (which included a co-authorship with Barbara Fredrickson, one of the leading authors in the field of positive psychology) showed that if you are a happy person you are more likely to recognize kindness and be kind. But what was really interesting was that they found you became even more kind and grateful if you counted the number of times you were kind in a day.
This one is very much worth reading as we all know that happiness and kindness are linked but in this story we learn that acts of kindness can be quite simple to do. To read more…just click here