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Solera Diamond Valley View September 2022

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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | SEPTEMBER 2022 9 indne K LISTEN - CARE - SHARE By Linda Weiss, Resident Be Kind: It's Good for You, Science Says So The human heart is a wonderful tool – it tells us instantly when we've been unkind. That blush, the thud in the chest, the lurch of shame in the stomach. The fact that our bodies respond so physically after we've committed a (no doubt accidental) act of unkindness demonstrates how the human natural condition prefers kindness to cruelty. The helper's high. While it's not exactly a scientific term, the helper's high has been identified as a physical rush of pleasure that occurs after indulging in a kind act. After studying a number of Japanese undergraduates, The Journal of Happiness Studies, 2006, reported that not only did subjective happiness increase after counting one's acts of kindness but also that happier people became kinder and more grateful through the act of counting their acts of kindness. It is cheering to learn that, according to a 2010 study in The Journal of Social Psychology, those who performed acts of kindness or acts of novelty experienced an increase in life satisfaction. Participants were either assigned acts of kindness or acts of novelty, or nothing to perform over a 10-day period. Pity those poor participants who weren't assigned these acts, for their satisfaction in life was not enhanced. Looking at it from a purely selfish point of view, scientists wondered whether being kind to strangers or close family members had more or less effect on the happiness of the kind-giver. 'Happily,' a 2019 study in the Journal of Social Psychology reported that being kind to all people, regardless of whether they shared strong or weak social ties, had equally positive effects on happiness. Go, kind people! "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." Martin Luther King, Jr.

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