The power of kindness
Dr David R Hamilton gave the most inspiring talk about kindness and its incredible physiological effects last week to introduce his new book ‘The joy of actually giving a f😊ck’
This great scientist has been talking and writing about kindness for years, and his remarkable passion for it is still highly contagious. We know how good kindness feels, and how wonderful it is just to even witness it, but what he highlighted was the mind-blowing effects of kindness in our bodies.
He demonstrated how, from a scientific perspective, the physiological and neurological opposite of stress is kindness. What he calls nature’s reward for caring or the kindness hormone, and the scientific evidence on what kindness does to our body, including helping our blood vessels and our heart is truly fascinating.
We all loved his concept of kindfulness, and his compassionate approach, especially when we fail to be kind, including to ourselves. His delightful sense of humour is also present in the book, along with his passionate views about kindness as a strength - not a weakness- as he reminds us that sometimes it takes more strength to be kind.
An uplifting and truly inspirational talk, from a highly inspiring, and genuinely kind human being!
If you see me smiling or even giggling on the tube, it’s simply because I am listening to the audio book...a wonderful treat which I highly recommend, especially if you don’t have much time to sit and read😊.
Talking about kind people, many thanks to the brilliant team at Safe In Our World , the video games mental health charity, for inviting me to talk about stress last month. I mentioned what it does to our bodies, and the scientific evidence supporting specific stress management techniques - see why I was so interested in Dr David Hamilton talk two weeks later? -
I loved sharing practical tips and evidence-based techniques, and it was great to see the audience chill and even yawn after the hypnotic relaxation.
Kindness is really at the heart of what Safe In Our World does to support all their colleagues in the games industry. They are running incredible initiatives and offering new perspectives on how video games can help people dealing with mental health issues, and recovering from even the harshest life adversities. Very inspiring!
And to finish on kindness, the joyful celebrations of my British citizenship – with some of the kindest souls I know - made me reflect on my journey in the UK. I fell in love with people’s kindness in Sheffield at Gremlin Interactive, and when strangers would help me every time I was lost (quite often, no changes here😀)
The road has been bumpy, sometimes scary, or tough, but the support and numerous acts of kindness from friends, colleagues, bosses, and complete strangers is still making a huge difference.
Special thanks to all my unsung heroes 🙏
#Powerofkindness