this episode is sponsored in part by
Skillshare the other day I was in a
coffee shop and the guy in front of me
yelled at the barista because his grande
caramel Frappuccino was a double shot
instead of a triple being a jerk may
feel gratifying in the short term but I
started to wonder does it actually make
us happier when you think of things that
would make you happier what comes to
mind is it going on a vacation spending
more time with your friends or winning
the lottery it may surprise you but
research shows that a major way we can
boost our own well-being is by being
kind to others kindness can increase our
life satisfaction decrease pain and even
affect our bodies at a cellular level
I'm Vanessa and you're watching brain
crafts where we explore the psychology
in your everyday life now to explore how
kindness impacts your mood researchers
at the University of California assigned
two undergrad students to spend an hour
and a half doing kind acts on campus
these acts included giving compliments
paying for parking meters and carrying
items fathers afterwards students
reported increased optimism and life
satisfaction their findings suggest that
kindness can improve your mood but if
you don't have an extra hour and a half
for kindness today that's alright too
research shows people assigned to
perform just one act of kindness each
day for 10 days reported increased life
satisfaction compared to a control group
that didn't intentionally perform kind
acts and adults aren't the only ones who
benefit from being nice in another study
children assigned to perform three kind
acts per week gained more friends over
the course of a month this all goes to
show that just a few kind acts per week
can also have benefits but there's more
to kindness than just improving your
mood a lot of research has explored the
impact of something called loving
kindness based meditation a buddhist
practice where you focus on extending
unconditional unselfish affection and
kindness towards all people studies
suggest that just three sessions of this
meditation can improve focus and
eight sessions were shown to decrease
pain in a group of patients with chronic
low back pain though perhaps most
surprisingly - may even affect how fast
our cells age one study found that women
who practiced a loving-kindness
meditation had relatively longer
telomeres than non practitioners so
telomeres these caps at the end of our
chromosomes they get shorter and shorter
as we age and shorter telomeres are
associated with earlier mortality
scientists aren't exactly sure why
loving-kindness meditation is associated
with longer telomeres but chronic stress
is known to shorten them they think this
meditation it may reduce stress
therefore leading to relatively longer
telomeres so how can you learn to be
kind and reap all of these benefits for
yourself one way is to simply set
kindness goals performing just one act
of kindness each day is enough to see
measurable benefits and it doesn't seem
to matter who you're kind to people
assigned to perform acts of kindness to
either friends or strangers report
similar increases in happiness and acts
of kindness can be big or small give a
stranger a compliment call your mum to
say hi buy a coffee for a co-worker
donate blood or maybe like this video we
don't often think about how being kind
to others can have all sorts of benefits
for us but if you want a boost in
happiness even feel less pain and maybe
even age more slowly stop being a jerk
start being kind recently I've been kind
to myself by working smarter with my
inbox it used to be a complete mess but
now I've set up a daily email routine
automated filters and a folder system
thanks into the email productivity
course from Skillshare Skillshare is the
sponsor of today's video they're an
online learning community where you can
take thousands of classes and everything
from marketing to photography an annual
subscription is less than ten dollars a
month but for braincraft viewers you can
get the first two months free if you
not using this link or the code in the
description and now if any of you email
me I might actually reply thanks
[Music]