Helpers High
MendMaker Exercise: Session written and explained by your coach Claire Anstey
Discover The Benefits Of Kindness
Session Length: 3-minute read then 5-10 minute planning of activities.
Note from Claire Anstey: This 'Helpers High MendMaker Exercise' encourages engaging in spontaneous acts of kindness, boosting mental and physical health, sparking a sense of euphoria and sustained joy, and nurturing social bonds and community vitality."
Reflecting on my early healing journey, I developed these MendMaker exercises during a period of profound pain and isolation. The tone of my writing vividly conveys my emotional state back then. I was so hurt. Despite their simplicity, these exercises were pivotal in my healing, offering significant breakthroughs that I hope will resonate and aid others similarly.
MendMaker
So your life is dull, nothing ever happens and when it does you're normally so drunk you don't remember or you happen to be the butt of the joke.
Fancy some virtuous randomness in your day? In fact you're going to get yourself some randomness with benefits and all within the next 24 hours.
Unfortunately, this is not going to get you the same results as my friends with benefits but it will make you and someone else feel good. Confused? Let me explain.
TASK
For no reason you are going to do something nice. The important factor is that you do it for no reason at all. Do not close this page and call your Auntie Greta because you have been meaning to do it since Christmas. That is not a random act of kindness, its something that you should have had a lot more time and respect for and done ages ago. To get you started here are a few ideas on a proper random act of kindness:
- Get a lottery ticket and give it to the first person you see.
- Buy the man sitting on his own in the pub a beer, in fact go wild and get him a double.
- Buy a Big Issue and then give it to someone in a café to read.
- Write an anonymous letter to a neighbor you don't know telling them how great they are.
- Send a poem to a friend, just because you can.
- Clean up a stranger's messy garden.
- Tell someone how stylish they look today.
- Buy a load of toys and take them to your local children's home.
“Why the fuck should I help anyone else when everyone shits on me" you may be saying. Fine, stay miserable, and stay predictable. Is this attitude really going to change your current state of mind? So far all it has done for you is get you to where you are today so maybe changing it will bring around the changes you want in your life. Be the kick you need up your own arse.
FACTS
Numerous scientific studies show that acts of kindness result in significant health benefits, both physical and mental. Here are some key points:
• Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders serious and minor, psychological and physical.
• A rush of euphoria, followed by a longer period of calm, after performing a kind act is often referred to as a "helper's high," involving physical sensations and the release of the body's natural painkillers, the endorphins. This initial rush is then followed by a longer-lasting period of improved emotional well-being.
• Stress-related health problems improve after performing kind acts. Helping reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation that can cause stress, overeating, ulcers, etc. A drop in stress may, for some people, decrease the constriction within the lungs that leads to asthma attacks.
• The practice of caring for strangers translates to immense immune and healing benefits.
Source: Luks, Allan. The Healing Power of Doing Good: The Health and Spiritual Benefits of Helping Others. New York: iUniverse.com, 2001. The Niagara Wellness Council may be reached by email at niagwellness@opticlick.com. Taken from - www.actsofkindness.org.
And whilst I am at it, stop wasting your spare time at work on shit social networking sites looking up your ex, Check out the web to do something positive so many people are getting in on the helpers high. Remember it's free and doesn't involve calling any dodgy dealers at 4am in the morning. Here are a couple of sites to get you started.