{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Why Kindness Is Great for Wellbeing","description":"This week I'm sharing why kindness is great for wellbeing. Listen in when I talk about Why kindness elevates your mood as well as other people\u2019s. The science behind random acts of kindness without getting too geeky about it How kindness can help reduce stress and improve 4 easy ways to be kind to yourself.   Our brains are wired for us to be kind to each other.  This stems back to very ancient days when we lived together in tribes, when we needed to get along, help each other out.  It was part of our survival strategy.   When we are kind to other people.  It releases the oxytocin hormone.  Oxytocin in commonly known as the love hormone (which is nice an appropriate for the month of February \u2013 when we talk about love a lot because of Valentines day).  When we get the feelings of love or positive regard from those small acts of kindness, it releases that feel-good chemical and oxytocin it lowers blood pressure.  So it\u2019s really good for keeping us healthy.   Did you know that kindness can help reduce stress and improve our emotional wellbeing \u2013 because it changes how we view things, or we feel less troubled or  we feel not so alone. Studies show that helping others is linked to increased feelings of wellbeing.  It reduces stress, improves self-esteem, boosts confidence and can promote changes in the brain that are linked with happiness.   That\u2019s for them AND for you too!   I talked in last episode about helping with exhaustion as we\u2019re all pretty fed up and knackered now.  This lockdown isn\u2019t helping the situation.   As human beings we are often good at beating ourselves up.  We are great at feeling guilty, at doing the must \/ we should chatter to ourselves.   So I want to encourage you to be kind to yourself today and over this week.  Think about the words that you say, the things that you do, check if you\u2019re beating yourself up about something!   Here\u2019s 4 easy ways to be kind to yourself. Which one will you choose? \ud83e\udd4aDon\u2019t beat Yourself Up \u2013 we\u2019ve all done things in the past that haven\u2019t gone well or could be better. The trick is to see what you can learn and be kind to yourself about it. \ud83d\ude00Smile at someone \u2013 think how you feel if someone smiles at you. We never know how much a simple smile or hello can brighten someone\u2019s day. Smiling is infectious. Use it to spread kindness. \ud83e\udd7e\ud83d\udc60Stop Judging \u2013 it\u2019s easy to judge others by what we see \u2013 but what about what we don\u2019t see? If we were to talk a mile in their shoes, I wonder how we would react and respond. Try and stop yourself from judging when you notice it happening. It will also mean you\u2019re less judgemental of yourself too. \ud83d\udc4dOffer Help \u2013 is there someone you can offer to help? There\u2019s always someone struggling and as a nation we do often struggle to ask for help \u2013 so how about offering it? I\u2019m not here to give you more on your to-do list, but picking just one or two of these things this week and seeing what the impact is would be a kind thing to do. Please do make sure you hit \u2018subscribe\u2019 so that don\u2019t miss an episode.     If you haven\u2019t yet  left a review, please do go and find the little button to leave a review and let me know your thoughts, key take-aways and what you value from the podcast.   Join my corporate leadership and wellbeing newsletter HERE    If you want to be increasing your performance so that you\u2019re more resilient in these current times, so that you can focus easily, use tools and techniques to deal with all the current and unknown challenges then make sure that you either drop me an email to emma@emmalangton.com .   Or head over to my contact page and either send me a email from there or book an appointment straight into my diary \u2013 saving all that to-ing and fro-ing that you get when we try to get space in people\u2019s diary.       ","author_name":"Lessons for Leaders","author_url":"http:\/\/www.emmalangton.com\/","html":"