David R Hamilton PhD

Kindness isn’t just a nice idea. It’s a biological function.

This is something that’s becomes really clear through over 20 years of studying the psychology and biology of kindness.

We’re supposed to be kind. And I mean that from a species perspective - we have ‘kind genes’. These are genes related to our natural tendency to care.

They’re some of the oldest genes in the human genome, which tells us they’ve played (and still do) a crucial role in the survival and thriving of our species.

Over long periods of time, caring behaviours became linked with a number of important biological functions in a way that caring behaviour benefited health and wellbeing.

Nowadays, when we show compassion or kindness, we reap these rewards. The body doesn’t stay neutral when we’re kind. It responds.

Research shows that kindness can:
-lower stress hormones like cortisol
-activate the vagus nerve
-improve heart rate variability
-reduce inflammation
-strengthen immune function
-support cardiovascular function
…and much more.

In other words, kindness quietly shifts the body from defence into healing.

This is one of the reasons I’ve spent so many years exploring the science of this - because what we feel, what we intend, and how we treat each other are not “soft” forces, as some might think.

They are deeply physiological.

For me, that’s not just hopeful… it’s empowering.🙏🩵😊

Some references:

Compassion reduces inflammatory response to stress: Pace T.W.W. et al. (2009), ‘Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune, and behavioural responses to psychosocial stress’, Psychoneuroimmunology, 34, 87-98

Kindness lowers blood pressure: Whillans A.V. et al, ‘Is spending money on others good for your heart?’, J. Health Psychol., 35(6), 574-83

Kindness impacts CTRA gene expression: Nelson-Coffey S. K., et al. (2017), ‘Kindness in the blood: A randomised controlled trial of the gene regulatory impact of prosocial behaviour’, Psychoneuroendoscrinology, 81, 8-13.

Do you ever feel like your mind jumps about more than you’d like? I find that checking my phone is a distraction and I noticed that it was affecting my focus - even my ability to focus.

So this post is about a simple way to train your brain to focus more. It’s based on meditation. It’s not exactly rocket science, but I find that the simple things are often the most effective.

Basically, when you gently focus on your breath, you activate and strengthen the brain circuits responsible for attention and concentration.

You can think of it like training a muscle. This focus system gets stronger the more you use it.

The practice on this carousel is simply a meditation technique where the goal is to focus. Literally focus on your breath, the whole way to the top of the inhale and all the way to the bottom of the exhale.

Count back from ten to one, so you’re doing ten breaths. Silently say “ten” on the first exhale, “nine” on the second exhale, and so on.

The reason for counting numbers is to help you focus - given that focusing is the point of this practice. Focusing on the breath alone can be difficult (but feel free to do that if you want to), so having a number to silently or mentally say gives you something clear to focus on.

The practice can help to literally train your brain circuits for focus and concentration.

Give it a go - a couple of times a day for a week (it only takes 2-3 minutes) - and notice if your focus and concentration has improved.

Your breath is always with you - which means your brain gym is always open. 🧠✨

There’s growing scientific evidence showing the really positive and powerful effect of kindness on the immune system.

One of the most impressive studies was a randomised controlled trial where people were either kind to others (12 acts in a month), kind to themselves (12 times in a month), or just noted events (as a control group).

Kindness to others resulted affected the genetic activity of circulating immune cells (leukocytes) in a way that reduced inflammation and bolstered natural antiviral activity.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that self kindness isn’t healthy too because it definitely is, but those effects are more mental health and nervous system related. There’s a reason why kindness to others has this effect (see below).

Other studies have found that just watching compassionate or kind behaviour or even holding a feeling or care and compassion boost levels of s-IgA - an antibody that lines our mucous membranes and serves as the body’s first line of defence.

There’s a reason why kindness has such powerful effects. In the distant past, our ancient ancestors learned that caring, compassionate, and kind behaviours helped them survive and thrive. Helping each other was much more effective that just helping themselves.

And so they lived longer and thus kind and compassionate behaviours gradually became associated with activity in systems of the body that were involved in health and wellbeing… including the immune system.

Being kind isn’t just a positive choice, it’s also a healthy choice.

Reference:
A. Regan et al. (2022), ‘The genomic impact of kindness to self vs others: a randomized controlled trial’, Brain Behaviour and Immunity, 106: 40-48