Kindness to others or altruism is the act of promoting someone else’s welfare, even at the risk or cost to our own. Neuroscientists have shown in recent research that when people behave altruistically the same region of the brain that signals ‘pleasure’ lights up as when we eat chocolate or have sex.
As humans we are instinctively wired to behave both selfishly and with kindness towards others. By learning how we can increase our responses to be kind, we can help to cultivate a real and permanent sense of happiness and life satisfaction. The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley have outlined why altruism is so important for individual and societal happiness and how we can become more altruistic.
What's so powerful about kindness?
Nice guys finish last? Hardly. More and more, research suggests that practicing altruism enhances our personal well-being—emotionally, physically, romantically, and perhaps even financially. It’s also crucial to stable and healthy communities, and to the well-being of our species as a whole. Still need to be convinced to be kind? More
Watching a movie about humanity's kindness is always inspirational! Randomactsofkindness.org has put together a compilation of movies to inspire and encourage kindness...
Amelie
Because of Winn-Dixie
Big Fish
The ButterCream Gang
The Children of Chabannes
Chocolat
Dear God
Dreamer: Inspired by a true story.
Driving Miss Daisy
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Forrest Gump
Friendships Field
Good Morning, Miss Dove
Harvey
How The Grinch Stole Christmas