by Ron N. Sullivan

Created on: March 08, 2009   Last Updated: March 16, 2009

Love may make the world go round, but kindness keeps the human spirit spinning.

One day, future newspaper headlines might read: Kindness makes Health Problems Drop Dramatically; Kindness Clinics Open World Wide; Soldiers Trade Weapons for Kindness; The Church of Kindness Opens its Doors.

A fantasy? Wishful thinking? Memoirs of a madman?

Unicumque homo est, ibi beneficio locus est. (Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for a kindness). Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

As stated in the book, The Healing Power of Doing Good by Allan Luks and Peggy Payne, kindness can induce in us many health benefits: a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, better circulation, reduced coronary disease, reduced cancer activity, and relief from asthma and arthritis.

Aside from the health benefits of kindness, your general well being can give you a sense of euphoria and exhilaration, while increasing your energy levels and decreasing your feelings of loneliness, helplessness, and depression. Helping others allows you to have fewer fixations on your own life. Let's face it, when you're kind and considerate to people, your self-esteem and well being escalates, and you feel incredibly good about yourself.

Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard cardiologist who has been involved in research for over 30 years, says in his book, The Relaxation Response, that we initiate in ourselves what he says is the helper's high. This response is due to the release of chemicals called endorphins - a natural occurring morphine-like substance made by our own bodies. In tandem with this occurrence, endorphins also reduce the intensity of pain messages that are sent to the brain. These acts of kindness needn't be on a grand scale. In fact, brief, yet regular acts of kindness produce the highest levels of the helper's high.

If you could begin and end each day with one act of kindness, you might soon discover that the roots of kindness would spread rapidly throughout your entire day. It is never too late to begin a regular routine of acts of kindness in your life. The results will be infectious and will be passed on to each and every one of us. Can you imagine how our planet earth might change for the better?

So embrace this fascinating phenomenon and be witness to its magical effect on all those around you. Treat kindness as though your life depended on its practice. Then, and only then, will you feel its powerful magic.

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