Being kind to others is beneficial to our own health & happiness

A review of 216 research papers that looked at almost 200,000 participants from around the world found that people who are kind report higher feelings of wellbeing. Researchers found that people who are kind have higher levels of ‘eudaimonic happiness’ (a sense of meaning and purpose in life).
The review found that kind people have higher levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy and lower levels of both depression and anxiety. Self-esteem is important and widely understood whilst although less is known about the importance of self-efficacy it is proving to be hugely important for wellbeing. Self-efficacy is defined as an individual’s belief in his or her capacity ‘to exert control over one’s own motivation, behaviour and social environment’ which is important for resilience especially when things happen that are out of our control especially during a difficult period.

Interestingly the review also showed that people who performed informal random acts of kindness, like bringing food to a grieving friend, tended to be happier than people who performed more formal acts of kindness like volunteering in a soup kitchen.