Archive for November, 2009

A few months ago I needed to call Sains­burys as the inter­net deliv­ery was sent with around £30 of unde­liv­ered  (but charged for) food. A few bags must have not made it too our door.

I always aproach these calls with a calm and polite demeanour and, most impor­tantly,  with a smile in my voice. Yes, there were gro­ceries miss­ing, but no point get­ting my knick­ers in a twist about it. I spoke with a friendly chap who helped sort out the prob­lem and refund the money. We had a lit­tle chat while we waited for his com­puter to do stuff and it was a pleasant interaction.

Dur­ing the call I could not help think­ing about help desk peo­ple who must get some irate callers. I realised this chap sounded glad to be deal­ing with some­one polite and I hung up the phone feel­ing incred­i­bly happy. I was happy that I’d han­dled the call the way in which I did. I was happy that he sounded happy and that I’d made it pleas­ant. Being nice to him made me feel good. I had a pretty big smile on my face and a lot of warmth in my heart for a while after.

This post has been in my drafts box for a while. I have not found the time to fin­ish writ­ing it and on Wednes­day it became clear why.

I received a newslet­ter from Dr David Hamil­ton, whom I saw speak a few months ago in Bath. He is inspir­ing and his work and knowl­edge are fan­tas­tic! Below is the newslet­ter and it’s self explana­tory why I felt so good after that call. (Check out all the mind expand­ing arti­cles on his site)

Why Kind­ness is Good for You

Did you know that when you are kind to some­one it actu­ally ben­e­fits your health? New sci­en­tific stud­ies show that kind­ness, and also com­pas­sion and grat­i­tude, pro­duce chem­i­cals in the brain that impact the body. One of these chem­i­cals is a neu­ropep­tide known as oxytocin.

Recent research shows that oxy­tocin is car­dio­pro­tec­tive. Know what that means? It means that it pro­tects the heart from dam­age. In other words, when you’re kind to some­one you are actu­ally doing your heart some good.

Many stud­ies have shown that a kind nature reduces the chances of your arter­ies becom­ing hard-what is known as ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis. A 2008 sci­en­tific study inves­ti­gated the process of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis and actu­ally found that oxytocin-the chem­i­cal pro­duced when you’re kind to someone-halted it in its tracks.

Kind­ness, grat­i­tude and com­pas­sion also impact the brain. A few good deeds here and there actu­ally cause struc­tural changes to the brain in a ben­e­fi­cial way.

So not only do the peo­ple we’re kind to ben­e­fit from our good deeds, but we ben­e­fit too. It has been said that you get back what you give out. Well, a host of recent sci­en­tific research is now show­ing the phys­i­o­log­i­cal truth in this.

This is a snap­shot of some of the mate­r­ial from my new book, Why Kind­ness is Good for You (avail­able from Hay House UK, 1^st Feb 2010). I’m also speak­ing on it in Birm­ing­ham on Sun­day 8^th Novem­ber. Come along if you want to learn more.

This arti­cle will soon be archived on my web­site feel free to visit the site to read other inter­est­ing arti­cles in the health and mind-body field.

Please feel free to share this arti­cle with others.

David R. Hamil­ton PhD
www.drdavidhamilton.com