Being kind to others is good for your health
21–30 of 277 posts
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#22Does kindness include lying by omission?
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article, “There is research suggesting that people who are in better health are more likely to volunteer, but because scientists are very well aware of that, in our studies we statistically control for that,” says Sara Konrath
I wonder how it is possible to control for that? They mentioned only controlling for health, but what about thousands of other things? Few as an example: 1. Individuals who do high risk activities might be less likely to do volunteer work. 2. Individuals who simply have bad habits in life might be less likely to volunteer. 3. People who die earlier won't even make it far enough to be in position to donate. 4. Poor pe…
Exactly, it's not possible to control for that, just propaganda to promote volunteering as a good thing.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#24They mention only controlling for health reasons. How do they control for that? Is it even realistic to control all the health reasons? And what about thousands of other things, such as 1) People who like to take high risks, might be less keen on communal activities, like volunteering. 2) People who have bad habits might also be less likely to volunteer. 3) Depressed, stressed out, cynical people may be less likely t…
Yeah I was skeptical about the effectiveness of their statistical controls. But the study with high school tutors allowed to tutor or assigned to a waitlist seems like pretty conclusive evidence that volunteering actually benefits health.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#25in theory this looks good. reality is a bit different. I constantly have problems with my left and right neighbor (middle of pandemic and this a hole is doing a barbecue with loud music since yesterday) about their lack of consideration (this in my parents house, where I am right now). In my apartment is no different... loud music, stumping on the floor... that kind of problem you have on a building. my father have a…
That sentiment is quite understandable. But I think the health benefits of this outlook is more about being able to let go of these hang-ups and injustices that you attribute to other people. Victim-hood is mostly a state of mind. There reaches a point where you choose to stay there.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#26I was doing all these things this week, and had a realization that the older I get more and more rely on me. I don't know how it got to be that way. But it was probably doing one kind thing followed by another. And now I'm getting all kinds of help requests. Just in the last week, I helped my cousin move (ridiculous amount of stuff), donated to my other cousins gofund me for his restaurant and stayed up 3 hours talking with him about his problems. Fixed a family friends laptop. The list go on. Its like snowball. I'm just accumulating connections I guess. So I suppose thats good, but on the other hand I probably spent 2 days last week on just doing things for people. If I reflect on it, I can see how this would improve someones mental health to be kind. You are connecting with people and interacting with them. So you definitely feel less lonely for example.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#27in theory this looks good. reality is a bit different. I constantly have problems with my left and right neighbor (middle of pandemic and this a hole is doing a barbecue with loud music since yesterday) about their lack of consideration (this in my parents house, where I am right now). In my apartment is no different... loud music, stumping on the floor... that kind of problem you have on a building. my father have a…
That sentiment is quite understandable. But I think the health benefits of this outlook is more about being able to let go of these hang-ups and injustices that you attribute to other people. Victim-hood is mostly a state of mind. There reaches a point where you choose to stay there.
Lol no it isnt. Way to blame the victim.
People who play loud music in residential areas should go to prison for disturbing the lives of others.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#28in theory this looks good. reality is a bit different. I constantly have problems with my left and right neighbor (middle of pandemic and this a hole is doing a barbecue with loud music since yesterday) about their lack of consideration (this in my parents house, where I am right now). In my apartment is no different... loud music, stumping on the floor... that kind of problem you have on a building. my father have a…
This is accurate. More often than not, trying to do something good for others will end up making you feel like an idiot. For the person on the receiving end, you are a jackpot. Instead of being shown gratitude, you're likely to be exploited.
But then again, would it really be a genuine gesture on the giver's end if they were to filter based on the receiver's character or whether they will be grateful for it?
The positivity from you is likely to be absorbed by the negativity, never to be seen again, instead of snowballing into a boulder of positivity as you'd hoped. I feel the only answer is to be an endless source of positivity. In that case you're not worried whether the drops of positivity from you end up somewhere they're appreciated or not. The negativity sponges might suck you dry, so it's not for everyone. For most of us the answer might be to constrain our positivity outlets into safer, more controllable spaces (volunteering for an organization, etc.) where it is less likely that we might feel anything negative for our efforts.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#29I was doing all these things this week, and had a realization that the older I get more and more rely on me. I don't know how it got to be that way. But it was probably doing one kind thing followed by another. And now I'm getting all kinds of help requests. Just in the last week, I helped my cousin move (ridiculous amount of stuff), donated to my other cousins gofund me for his restaurant and stayed up 3 hours talki…
Completing this many quests will definitely cause you to level up.
Re: Being kind to others is good for your health
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article, “There is research suggesting that people who are in better health are more likely to volunteer, but because scientists are very well aware of that, in our studies we statistically control for that,” says Sara Konrath
How on earth can they control for that in short term studies? Is it even possible to get any statistical significance on that? Smells like bullshit, there is no way there is causation on health from volunteering. Think about it, if you are volunteering you are likely to not just have good health, but afford good health care, have plenty of free time for various activities, less stress in life, enjoy and seek social a…
If you read the article, it gives more details. For example, they did a controlled trial on two groups of students: one group was put on a waitlist, the other group given tutoring tasks. The tutoring group had lower levels of inflammatory markers.