SLO County of Education

The Benefits of Practicing Kindness

by James J. Brescia, Ed.D., COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS

Educational agencies across the county participated in the “The Great Kindness Challenge” earlier this year. The week was filled with proactive and positive Social Emotional Learning (SEL) activities focused on improving school climate and increasing student engagement. One of the questions asked during the week was, “What can we adults learn from our youth’s actions during the challenge?” This

No act of month’s article summarizes my kindness, no review of some research literature matter how on the benefits of practicing kindsmall, is ever ness and how it will help move wasted.” us forward as one community. - Aesop Throughout the pandemic, I stressed that a focus on flexibility, patience, and kindness is a tangible example of how adults practice behaviors that promote SEL. Research teaches us that kindness benefits the person practicing the kindness and the recipient. Harvard Business School researchers examined happiness in 136 countries and documented that altruistic people reported higher satisfaction levels. The data indicated a positive feedback loop between kindness and joy.

Researchers found that “people, in general, feel happier when asked to remember a time when they benefited someone else — even happier than when they remembered benefiting themselves.”

Another study conducted at the University of British Columbia observed a group of people with high levels of anxiety who performed multiple acts of kindness each week. After two months, the participants demonstrated improved mood, increased relationship satisfaction, and decreased social avoidance. Psychology Today researcher Christine Carter, Ph.D., noted that “people who volunteer tend to experience (report) fewer aches and pains.” Perhaps this is because they are busy or because altruistic behavior mitigates daily challenges.

Unfortunately, today’s fast-paced society often keeps us so busy trying to keep up that we forget to take a moment and be present for others. Recently I was so busy looking down at my phone and checking messages that I nearly walked into a young mother pushing a stroller and struggling to open the shop door. Each day opportunities to practice kindness abound when we take time to notice. Research links six positive health outcomes to the practice of kindness, including increased happiness, improved energy, reductions in anxiety, lower blood pressure, reduced reports of pain, and healthy longevity.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) postulated that, as a strength, kindness has three components: (a) the motivation to be kind to others; (b) the recognition of kindness in others; and (c) the enactment of kind behavior in one’s daily life. Study results showed that: (a) Happy people scored higher on their motivation to perform and their recognition and enactment of kind behaviors. (b) Happy people have more happy memories in daily life in terms of quantity and quality. (c) Subjective happiness was increased simply by counting one’s acts of kindness for one week. (d) Happy people became more kind and grateful through the counting kindnesses intervention. Additional NIH reports supported the importance of kindness in producing subjective happiness.

The same NIH study suggests that motivational and cognitive processes in daily life may create differences between happy and less happy people. The differences may be responsible for some of the consequences of happiness. The research results indicated that happy people might become even happier, kinder, and more grateful following intervention relative to less happy people. Watkins (2004) showed that people who score higher on trait measures of gratitude experience greater subjective well-being and more intense positive effects (happiness, vitality, and hope) as well as fewer adverse effects (depression, resentment, and envy).

Additional NIH research suggests that, like gratitude, kindness is an essential human strength that influences subjective well-being. Kindness contributes to good social relationships and may be adaptive. The NIH results further suggest that a reciprocal relationship may exist between kindness and happiness, as shown for gratitude and joy in studies conducted by (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Educators across our county, state, nation, and the world have expressed the challenges experienced over the past two years. Working to restore our communities with kindness is central to the healing process.

Many thanks to those of you in the community for examining the benefits of practicing kindness. Your dedication to those we serve is greatly appreciated and makes a difference in today’s world. It is an honor to serve as your County Superintendent of Schools. 