Originally published: June 2024
The benefits of kindness are amazing! Kindness is linked to decreases in stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, blood pressure, and can even ease pain. It’s also linked to increased happiness, improved overall well-being, and has the potential to help you live longer. Evidence shows that kindness can help children to learn and do better in school.
It feels good when people are kind to us, but being kind to yourself and others, or even just watching an act of kindness can be good for you too. That’s right…kindness is contagious! Kindness can be spread simply by seeing or feeling it—when someone is kind to you, you’re likely to act in kind ways toward others.
Kindness has no boundaries. Everyone has the ability to give and receive kindness. Model kindness in your interactions with your child and others. How you show kindness to yourself and to those around you will teach your child how they can do it too. So, practicing kindness towards yourself is a great place to start. Here are some ways you can support your child, by starting with yourself:
Show yourself some grace
Speak to yourself with kindness. How you talk to yourself is very likely how your child will talk to themselves, especially during harder times.
Set goals you can reach for yourself. Blaming yourself for things that you did or didn’t get done, will make it hard to feel good about yourself. Taking things one step at a time and being realistic about the things you expect from yourself shows your child how to do the same. Remember that during difficult times, you may not be able to achieve the same goals you normally could. And that is ok!
If and when you make mistakes in life (and we all will), you can learn from them. Choosing to see them as ways to learn rather than reasons to be hard on yourself is building a growth mindset (check out our article for families called A new year. A new mindset. to learn more). This helps your child build a growth mindset too.
Self-kindness is a great place to start. Here are some ways you can help your child show kindness towards others:
Smile
Smile at others. Smiling is contagious and has a positive effect on our well-being. It makes us feel acknowledged and that helps us feel good. Also, when you smile it makes your brain believe you’re happy, which can then spur actual feelings of happiness.
Compliment others
Say something nice to others to show kindness. Giving compliments helps others feel seen, and releases endorphins—the ‘feel good’ chemicals in our brains. Both the person giving and getting the compliment will get a boost of them!
Grow their circle
Encourage your child to be kind to someone outside of their small circle of friends or family, like a new student in their class or a senior citizen in the community. It’s important to show them that being kind should go beyond their social network.
Overall, there are a couple ways you can help your child give and receive kindness:
Make it a rule
Include kindness as part of your family rules or talk about kindness as one of your family values.
Practice makes perfect
As the old saying goes, the more we do it, the easier it becomes. As a family, try doing random acts of kindness in your neighbourhood or volunteer with a community organization. Challenge your family to an act of kindness a day for the entire month and watch the positivity grow!
Now that you know a little more about kindness, give it a try.
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