The ObservatoryOne minute: count today's kindnesses
Count the small kindnesses you have done yourself today. They are easy to miss.
How it works
- CountChoose
- Receive itWrite
Kindness doesn't have to be big: letting someone go ahead of you, answering kindly, holding a door, asking how someone is doing, being gentle with yourself. Go back through the day so far and count the times you were kin …
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Why does it work?
In a Japanese study, a group of women spent a week counting their own kind acts. Afterward they rated their subjective happiness higher than a control group, and they noticed kindness more and were more likely to do kind things. The study is small and was done in a narrow group, so studies suggest it can help, but it is not proven to work for everyone. Source: Otake, Shimai, Tanaka-Matsumi, Otsui & Fredrickson (2006), Happy people become happier through kindness: A counting kindnesses intervention, Journal of Happiness Studies 7(3), 361-375.
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