The health benefits of love letters and kindness

Random acts of kindness —such as writing love letters to strangers— are mutually beneficial to giver and receiver: this age-old knowledge has been confirmed recently by modern science.

 

Drs. Lynn Alden and Jennifer Trew of the University of British Columbia asked volunteers with recorded high levels of social anxiety to perform multiple acts of kindness —whether giving someone a small gift or visiting a sick friend or simply thanking a bus driver— two days a week over one month.

 

The results of their study, published in the journal Emotion, show that the volunteers overcame their reluctance to deal with others and consequently felt more positive. Although they committed fairly small acts, these had considerable impact on their outlook. Treatment for social anxiety

 

People who are scared of acting or saying something embarrassing in social situations may be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. The standard treatment for this is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form of talking therapy that helps patients manage their fears of social contact by changing how they think about and deal with interpersonal situations.

 

Dr Alden asked a group of anxious volunteers to increase their levels of social contact, perform uncommon tasks, and pay attention to others' responses.

 

Within a month, the participants who performed kind acts were less reluctant to be in social situations and also reported feeling better about dealing with other people.

 

In London, a group called the Kindness Offensive has been advocating kind acts since 2008. Their world record-shattering largest ever random act of kindness consisted of distributing 39 tons of goods in one day.

 

Founding member David Goodfellow says it’s almost impossible to do an act of kindness without feeling better yourself. Love letters to strangers

 

In New York, out-of-towner and new college grad Hannah Brencher was feeling anxious and depressed. So she started writing love letters to strangers, leaving them in various parts of the city, simply addressed: "If you find this letter then it's for you." 

 

The letters contained messages like, “We may never sit and laugh over cups of coffee … never dance in the same circles or yawn together by the midnight hour … I wish you would know on a daily basis: that you are lovely. That you are worthy. That those hands of yours were made for mighty, mighty things … And so I know I am not alone in needing a boost some days, in needing to know that I matter to someone somewhere. You matter to me.”

 

By taking the focus off of herself, Hannah set aside her own feelings of sadness and loneliness in a new city.

 

Dr Alden suggests that acts of kindness performed by people because they want to may just be the first step towards management of social anxiety disorder. — TJD, GMA News