“Helping others is not limited to providing food, shelter, and so forth but includes relieving the basic causes of suffering and providing the basic causes of happiness.” – Dalai Lama
I experienced this directly this past week when a Coach colleague offered to lead a webinar for me that I had already agreed to do. She heard the exhaustion and strain in my voice and offered to help. I accepted her offer of help with tremendous gratitude (especially since I did not even have to explicitly ask). It reminded me of the incredible power of an act of kindness and she decreased my suffering a lot!
Dual Benefits
One of the six daily habits in the powerful “mPWR10” program (linked) that I deliver to clients is, “Give and Serve: Ways I can put others first with big or small acts of kindness.” It is based on a scientific study of two groups of people, one who tracked their acts of kindness and the other who did not. After just one week, the group who wrote down their acts of kindness had large increases in their happiness scores and in their feelings of gratitude.
So, not only can you help those around you but at the same time these gestures will increase your own levels of happiness!
Small Is Good
You can reduce suffering or provide happiness with small acts; they do not have to be big actions. It can be as small as letting a car merge ahead of you into your lane of traffic or offering to help a colleague solve a problem or taking the time to call a friend who you know is struggling and giving them some positive encouragement or just being a good listener.
Experiment For A Week
Challenge yourself to come up with a new small act of kindness every day and write it out on a piece of paper (writing is better than typing). Notice if you feel different at the end of the week.
Share your experiences of others helping you with small acts of kindness and how it made a big difference in a comment!
photo credit: Pierre Pouliquin via Flickr creative commons