Contagious, Powerful Kindness

In the last post, I talked about growing in grace and extending grace to others which will ultimately cause us to focus on God rather than the imperfections inherent in all of our lives. Springboarding from that, today I want to talk about kindness.

Kindness is one of those things that I often feel is overlooked. Not only do I often feel like I see less of it in society in general, but the power found in kindness is easy to underestimate.

It seems so simple, maybe even trite; hold the door open for a stranger, carry someone’s bags, or drop off a card just to let someone know you’re thinking of them. These small, everyday acts of kindness may not have the appearance of something packed with power, but in reality, they truly can be.

Kindness, even small acts of kindness, can give us those warm fuzzies. Those warm fuzzies are actually the result of a release of a chemical known as oxytocin. That sensation of warmth is the result of our arteries opening up which promotes blood flow and reduces blood pressure. Oxytocin also reduces inflammation and aids in muscle regeneration.

Not only does oxytocin have cardiac and muscle benefits, but oxytocin also promotes social bonding. Perhaps this is the reason why it is a well-known player during pregnancy and lactation; it facilitates the bonding process between a mother and her child. But it doesn’t only facilitate this type of bonding. Kindness can promote bonding between anyone at any time. In fact, if you look at the spelling of the word, you will see the word “kin” in it. It’s no mistake that a synonym for the word “family” is in the word “kindness”. The power of kindness is such that if wielded repeatedly within a given relationship, rather than weaken with use, it gainspower and can forge bonds so deep that you can become family regardless of your DNA heritage.

Kindness isn’t just powerful, it’s contagious too. I realize that after the year 2020, the word “contagious” might be a trigger word, but I honestly cannot think of a better term. If anything, living through the year 2020 gave me a deeper appreciation for how quickly and thoroughly something that’s contagious can spread. I can’t tell you how often I had the thought What if we spread kindness as rapidly and thoroughly as this virus? What would the world look like?

Think about it. If kindness is contagious and gains power as it is used, why couldn’t the entire globe be impacted? If each and every one of us made a decision to implement say, five simple everyday acts of kindness every single day to people we came in contact with, imagine the transformation that could occur. Obviously, we would need to use wisdom if we chose to surprise a stranger with a random act of kindness, but still…think about it.

What if each of us created a master list of ideas of free or low-cost simple everyday acts of kindness that we could feasibly implement and chose five per day for five different people? Imagine the impact on others, our relationships, on our environments, and on ourselves. Hmmm…sounds like a great challenge. Why not? Let’s do it, together, for all of us. The Contagious Power of Kindness Challenge: five small everyday acts of kindness for five different people every day.

Elabd, C., et al. “Oxytocin is an Age-Specific Circulating Hormone that is Necessary for
                 Muscle Maintenance and Regeneration.” Nature Communications. 2014. doi:
                 10/1038/ncomms5082

Hamilton, D. The Five Side Effects of Kindness, Hay House, 2017.

Light, K., et al. “More Frequent Partner Huge and Higher Oxytocin Levels are Linked to
                 Lower Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Premenopausal Women.” Biological
                 Psychology, 2004, 69, pp. 5-21 doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2004.11.002