Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #133 BITESIZE | Why Kindness Is Contagious and How to Make It Spread | David Hamilton

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

Every act of kindness is significant and has more impact than you can imagine. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my new weekly podcast for your mind, body and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my best former guests. This week’s guest is pharmacist-turned-author Dr David Hamilton. David explains why kindness is contagious and how just one small act of kindness is proven to have a ripple effect that reaches over 100 more people. When you’re kind to someone, it’s not just that person who benefits. Kindness makes you happier. It’s good for your heart and helps support your immune system. It slows ageing and it also improves relationships. He explains why your kindness matters and how you can take up the 7 Day Kindness Challenge. Kindness is important now more than ever – let’s help it spread. Show notes and the full podcast are available at drchatterjee.com/104 Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. 

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10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size. This is a brand new format that I'm experimenting with each week on a Friday. I'm going to release a very short inspirational clip from one of my previous podcast conversations. The goal is to inject a little bit of optimism and a feel-good vibe into your life and get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is only five minutes long

and it's from episode 104 of the podcast with the brilliant pharmacist turned author, Dr. David Hamilton. Now David explains why kindness is contagious and how just one small act of kindness is proven to have a ripple effect that reaches over 100 more people. I hope you enjoy. You said that kindness is contagious.

A study between Harvard and Yale, they looked at, they did a clever little business game simulation. A lot of these studies are done in little simulations. You create a game and what you're secretly measuring is kindness or cooperative behavior. And what they found is if you be kind to someone, then because of how that person feels, they call it elevation. That person feels either connected to you or they feel uplifted or they feel grateful. It doesn't really matter. It's a feeling, a changed feeling. That person will likely be kind or kinder to someone else because of how you made them feel. Now that person now is at one social step from your one degree of separation, but that person will be kind or kinder to someone else because of how they were made to feel. That's at two degrees of separation. But then that person will be kind or kinder to someone else at three degrees of separation or three social stops. But that isn't real practice because in reality, given the average amount of interconnectedness, amount of interactions that we have in any one day, you might well probably say that if you be kind to someone, if you were to follow them around, which hopefully you don't do,

but if you were to follow a person around with a camera, you would probably find that the person you've just helped will be kind or kinder to five people over the course of the rest of the day because of how you made them feel, given the average amount of interconnection. But those five people will be kinder or kinder to five more. And now we're at two social steps, 25 people. But each of those five people will be kinder or kinder to five further people, which is 125 at three social steps. You really have this ripple effect, just like you drop a pebble in a pond and the wave goes out in all directions and a lily pad at the opposite side of the pond goes up and down and it doesn't know why it's going up and down but it's going up and down because of the wave but the same is happening to lily pads at the other side of the pond the wave goes out in all directions so what this

research shows is that kindness spreads out in all directions so it's not just one person that you help but it ripples out in all directions and if it's not just one person that you help, but it ripples out in all directions. And if you were to track it that way, you would probably find somewhere, given the average amount of social interaction most people have, you probably find around about 125 people, probably more given a densely populated area,

are benefiting from every single time you do, even say something nice, you pay a compliment, you help someone, you hold a door for someone. It sounds so, you know, preposterous, so simple. But I put it to the listeners that if you ever feel small, if you ever feel that you don't contribute, you don't make a difference, you're doing it every single day, even with the little things that you don't think matter,

but they matter to the person that you've helped who will then spread it out by to three social steps yeah david i i mean i absolutely love things like this um it it makes me think of in this in this time where many of us feel powerless to make a change and we don't like the way society is heading it reminds me that phrase is i don't know if it's candy i can't remember who is um be the change you want to see in the world when we're kinder to other people when we're more compassionate to other people we and they get more out of their lives i wonder if you could leave my listeners with some of your very top tips things that they can think about applying into their own life immediately wait how about why i often find people enjoy

is the seven day kindness challenge and you've got to do an act of kindness every day for seven days but there's three ground rules the first one is you can't count the same thing twice so for example if you start on a Monday and you make someone a breakfast in bed or a cup of tea or something, you can do that again during the week, but it only counts the first time. So you can't count it the other day.

So you've got to do seven different things. Another ground rule is at least once, you've got to push yourself a little bit, push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit. And the number three is at least one of those acts of kindness must be completely anonymous no one must ever know what you did or if something was done no one must ever know that it was you that did it and that takes yourself or the need for recognition out of the equation so that's the ground rule so seven day kindness challenge something different every day push yourself out of comfort zone at least once and one thing has to be completely anonymous

hope you enjoyed that super short feel better live more bite size your weekly dose of feel good before the weekend please do let david and i know what you thought of today's show. But also, I would love to hear what you think of this new format. Do you think you'd enjoy a weekly five to 10 minute podcast like this every Friday? Have you got a better name for it than Feel Better, Live More, Bite Size? I honestly would love to know what you think. Please also do sign up for my weekly newsletter at drchatterjee.com forward slash subscribe, where I share each week things that I don't share on social media. Topics that I'm thinking about, quotes that I'm pondering, articles that have moved me that I think may move you as well. And sometimes even music that I'm listening to. Around 100,000 people already subscribe.

So if you'd like to join this online community and learn more about the things that are going on in my life, head over to drchatterjee.com forward slash subscribe. And of course, do share this episode with your friends and family to spread the optimism and spread the joy. And of course, next week, I'll be back with the long form conversation on Wednesday and the short bite-sized dose of feel good just before the weekend. Thanks for listening and have a wonderful weekend.