Tara Cousineau, PhD

Clinical Psychologist, Kindness Warrior

kindness

Kindness Changes Everything

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  • Three Degrees of Influence

Mister Fred Rogers, who was born on this day in 1928, is famous for reminding us that in times of crisis to look for the helpers among us.  And there are many. As the response to the COVID-19 epidemic changes on an hourly basis, the bottom line is that we still must follow the same precautions recommended by the CDC, such as washing hands, staying put, social distancing, and helping from afar.  My heart has been warmed on a daily basis with the generosity and goodwill of so many people. In our state (MA) the National Guard has been called in to help with the medical response in setting up hospitals and dispensing food. 

As I wrote last week on my blog, as we take this great collective pause, remember that whatever we insert into our social networks (offline or online) will spread.  That’s the Three Degrees of Influence Rule coined by social scientists Christakis and Fowler, who have mathematically mapped this out. I summarize this in my book, The Kindness Cure, because it is so amazing (Chapter 28: Networks of Generosity):

This [rule] shows that if you demonstrate a kindness even when it is at a cost to you, that generous behavior spreads to your friend (one degree), your friend’s friend (two degrees), and your friend’s friend’s friend (three degrees)—reaching people you don’t even know. Similarly, that third-degree friend you don’t know can influence you too, just by being in a network of shared social contacts. Christakis suggests that we assemble ourselves as ‘super organisms,’ meaning we are organically connected to one another with emotions, beliefs, and memories. Our networks, he believes, are a kind of social capital.

The upside is that acts of kindness, generosity, and cooperation can spread with only a few people. Of course, the opposite can also happen: networks can spread harmful ideologies and behaviors.

Tara Cousineau, The Kindness Cure

We have more influence than we imagine. This human capacity gives us a social responsibility and a choice. Anxiety and fear are natural reactions and can hijack our brains. Yet, we can also notice and respond in ways that are beneficial to ourselves and therefore beneficial to others.  It’s like that airline metaphor: Put the oxygen mask on yourself first before helping the person next to you.

In a time when our emotional lives may be triggered by fear and anxiety, I find solace once again in the spirit of Mister Rogers, who taught on a very basic level that our feelings are mentionable and manageable.

The values we care about the deepest, and the movements within society that support those values, command our love. When those things that we care about so deeply become endangered, we become enraged.  And what a healthy thing that is! Without it we would never stand up and speak out for what we believe.

Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

Of course, one of those shared human values is kindness.

In the online realm, many thought leaders, teachers and publishers are offering online courses and teachings for free. I wanted to share some with you. As more resources cross my radar I will be posting on my special resource page, SpreadTheLove2020. And a final nod to Mister Rogers:

Deep within us–no matter who we are–there lives a feeling of wanting to be lovable, of wanting to be the kind of person that others like to be with. And the greatest thing we can do is to let people know that they are loved and capable of loving.

Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember


Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash

When Joy Arises Savor It

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It’s all too easy to feel overcome with suffering. It may be your own. It may be the headlines of the day’s news. It may be the weight of helplessness seeing homeless people, as I feel every time I ascend from the bowels of the Red Line to the cobblestones of Harvard Square. One recent brisk morning, I turned the corner when one woman’s grin had caught my eye. She is a regular street dweller and has staked her 2×4 foot patch of sidewalk by the CVS with a cardboard sign, Got Empathy. Her bundles of belongings are expertly wrapped as if they could fill Santa’s sleigh.

The cool light was misty and one could see the frothy trails of breath of the passersby. The woman held a bag of pretzels. A hundred pigeons flocked and flapped about her as she laughed and twirled about. “Be patient!” she scoffed. I caught her eye and laughed with her, my meager offering. Yet, I felt her delight. It stayed with me all day.

Don’t Hesitate

Mary Oliver’s poem, Don’t Hesitate, comes to mind. It’s a salve for the caring heart and a reminder to bask in appreciation and joy whenever it arises.

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give into it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Mary Oliver

Sometimes we simply need to pay attention to the good in the world.

Sometimes we need tangible reminders. Check out The Little Deck of Kindfulness.

Photo by Tina Karina

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash


The Inner Critic Deserves Some Respect

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I have the pleasure of teaching a 10-week workshop series to college students, Overcoming Perfectionism through Self-Compassion. All told, 10-12 hours is not much time. Yet spread over two-and-half months, continuity is cultivated just by showing up. Certain ideas begin to sink in. Originally, I based the series on The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown, because I love the 10 guideposts for wholehearted living she delineated.  I threw in some skills from my book, The Kindness Cure, and a few meditations from Making Friends with Yourself, a lovely curriculum based on mindful self compassion practices. I borrowed some concepts from Tal Ben-Shahar’s book, The Pursuit of Perfect. (All good resources for those working on recovering from unhealthy perfectionism). It’s been a mashup of sorts.

My goal was simply to begin a discussion about the tight hold that unhealthy perfectionism can have, how to understand its purpose without self-judgment, and ways to rejigger one’s perception and nervous system for greater acceptance, calm and wellbeing. We need to shine a light on our fears of failure and rejection to offset the false lure of perfectionistic behavior. Every week a core group of undergraduates and grads arrived ranging in age from 19 to 45; and others popped in from time to time, making for lively intergenerational discussion. (Perfectionism is persistent.)

Unhealthy perfectionism is also rather exhausting. We all fall into this trap to some extent because our culture highly values ratings and rankings. Brené Brown’s definition is super helpful to ignite a conversation, especially in a population of high achieving students who are chronically hustling for success and approval.

Here’s what Brown writes in The Gifts of Imperfection:

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be your best.  

Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth.  

Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. It’s a shield. Perfectionism is a 20-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us, when in fact it’s a thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight.

Are you onboard yet? Any notion of “Oh shit. That’s me. I’m definitely hustling for worthiness.”  Wait, there’s more.

Perfectionism is not self-improvement.

Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval and acceptance. Most perfectionists were raised being praised for achievement and performance (grades, manners, rule-following, people-pleasing, appearance, sports). Somewhere along the way, we adopt this dangerous and debilitating belief system:  I am what I accomplish and how well I accomplish it. Please. Perform. Perfect.

And perhaps my favorite point: 

Healthy striving is self-focused—How can I improve? 

Perfectionism is other-focused—What will they think?

One of the first things that students are invited to notice is their negative mind loop. After all, each of us has a chorus of naysayers and judges constantly pointing out every perceived weakness or flaw. Sometimes the voice tells you to quit before even getting started. Yes, that imposter syndrome can keep you playing small. This of course can be ruinous if you close off your gifts, talents, interests, or passions. Often students will refrain from taking risks out of some particular fear, causing enormous stress and unnecessary suffering. (See article on the negativity bias).  

Observing the dialog is a first step in extracting oneself from self-flagellation. When you tune in to your inner narrative, often there is surprise, if not shock, at how demeaning or demanding these voices are.  (Tune in for 10 minutes and write down the words or stream of consciousness.)

We’re all pretty good scriptwriters, actors, producers and directors of our own mental movies. It’s pretty impressive, really. It’s quite a skill set albeit for the wrong use.  Here’s the thing:

We can recruit our imagination for our benefit or for harm. 

In my work with college students it has been useful, and actually fun, to name the inner critic. I even have a third chair in my office for it to join us. My willing students are very creative. For instance:

  • One young woman realized her inner voice was like the character “Monica”, on the show Friends. ….pretty tightly wound up about every detail.  Her inner Monica would pipe up whenever she felt out of control with school work, and she’d find every excuse to tidy up or fix something.
  • Another student realized that his compulsion to join every opportunity or club in order to “optimize his resume” – was really about a fear of missing that one key experience that just might hit the jackpot… for getting that coveted internship or job at Goldman Sachs. He was chronically exhausted. He called his inner critic, FOMO.
  • One of my favorites is from a student who realized that her perfectionism, which caused her an almost paralyzing anxiety, including an inability to let herself to socialize or have any fun was, as she put it – “robbing her of joy.” She called her inner critic “Mooch.”

Think about it, whether it’s an inner bully, or a Judge Judy, or a Nagging Ned, what might the voice be protecting you from? 

It’s probably the usual (and very human) suspects:  failure, rejection, or shame. 

It’s there as a signal and as an invitation to notice and befriend it, and perhaps even to silence it — turn down the volume — and assure it that “Hey, I’ve got this,” or “I’m going to try something different this time,” such as practicing to be less harsh — and even kind — when facing failure, rejection or shame. Tal Ben-Shahar advises us to “practice failure.”  I say fail forward with self-compassion and empathy. Over time you’ll learn that you are stronger than you think you are. 

There is resistance, I assure you, in embracing failure. That’s why — in addition to cultivating a thick skin — it is essential to have a soft heart. 

How? As you may suspect, we also harbor a kind and gentle voice. We need to give it more air time. In fact, it deserves a principal role in our inner theater. As with learning anything new, this requires practice to develop a counter narrative.  It also requires allies, like the students who showed up in my group.

You can create messages of kindness to meditate on and repeat, which calms your body and nurtures goodwill toward yourself. This goes for guys too. This is not a girly thing. It’s essential to care for or “coach” the parts of yourself that are scared, vulnerable and critical, as if these unwanted aspects are friends in need. Treat yourself like you would a loved one, friend or buddy.  

The instructions for creating these mini-scripts are simple:

  1. Be clear. 
  2. Be authentic and true to your experience
  3. Use a kind tone.

Whenever you need bolstering, you can craft a message by asking yourself: “What do I need to feel calm in my body?” or “How can I bring caring (or kindness or grit or courage) to this moment?” 

The answers are typically universal human needs:  belonging, connection, encouragement, love, patience, protection, respect, tolerance, validation, and well-being. 

Here are some self-kindness kickstarters:

I am strong. I’ve got this. 

I hold myself gently.  

I love myself just as I am.  

I trust in myself.  

I am here for me, I am here for you. 

I am enough.  

Even though this feels hard, I will be kind toward myself.  

I am beginning to feel love and kindness expand. 

I will be okay. 

This [fear] will pass. 

Your self-compassion statements can change over time. It is wise to try them on for size, even if at first a statement may not fit or feels awkward. In this case, a wise inner voice might say, “This is how you take care of yourself. It may take some getting used to!”

While the inner critic deserves acknowledgement, it doesn’t belong on center stage. It has a bit part to play once you notice the motivation it has in stopping you from being hurt or rejected.  These inner characters do not like to be demoted to a cameo appearance, so beware of push back. 

The wise voice, however, deserves center stage. The wise voice also doesn’t want you to be in pain or distress but it has a different approach than the inner critic. It helps you take in the goodness of who you really are and treat yourself with care and respect. Allow it to have airtime throughout the day.  After all, practice makes progress. 

Check out my The Little Deck of Kindfulness as a great kickstarter for cultivating a kind and courageous inner voice.

Resources:

Cultivating a Positivity Bias by Taking in What’s Good

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Let’s face it: Life can be hard. Our attention is immediately hijacked by what’s negative. Remember the negativity bias I wrote about? We all have it. It’s a necessary quirk of our fallible human design.

One way to think about this inclination to scan for danger is that your brain is more likely to stick to negative experiences like Velcro, while it lets positive experiences slide off like Teflon. It’s funny, how we tend to let the good moment pass us by, right? But it’s that one nudgy negative experience (amidst all the other good stuff) which can really fester. It’s so annoying.

But guess what? We can purposely cultivate positivity in our life. 

This is not about replacing the negativity bias with a positivity bias. Yet, we need to practice experiencing more beneficial emotions and states of calm so we can lower the volume on the negative mental states!  We need to let the inner critic take a time out so we can do some seriously needed self-care.

Truth be told, it takes some effort and commitment to plug positivity into your daily life. So start to look for those little opportunities each day to highlight a useful or enjoyable experience—and consciously take it into yourself. Take a moment to consider the inner strengths you need the most. Is it confidence, joy, trust, forgiveness, generosity, or patience? 

How do you grow  inner strengths? 

For starters, get grounded in the present moment and become aware of what’s going on.  This non-judgmental noticing is key for engaging the mind in beneficial ways. You can think of this as preparing to go on a journey.  What are all the things that you need to bring along? What gear or supplies might you need in your “neural backpack.” 

Just like learning how to play the guitar or learning a dance routine or excelling at an athletic skill, you need to practice.  The brain learns by repetition. Same goes for positive experiences: If you want to cultivate more calm, peace, happiness, and joy in your life, then you need to first experience moments of calm, peace, happiness and joy!  Not only that, you must engage in these activities consistently so the brain learns from them and creates new neural highways. Make a plan.

Think of it this way: New connections in your brain are being formed in every moment and through every interaction you have. The more you expose yourself to negative or harmful influences or habits, the more they stick. In the same way, the more you expose yourself to positive things and habits, the more these beneficial experiences stick, and become lasting inner resources. In other words, what you choose to focus on and practice will grow stronger. This means you can influence your own brain on a very deep, cellular level on purpose. 

(This is really awesome!)

Noticing the good in your daily life is about increasing what’s already positive OR maintaining what is positive OR creating something new that is positive.

My favorite teacher and psychologist Rick Hanson offers a simple acronym that is easy to remember. H-E-A-L. I teach this all the time with clients because it has been so effective in practice.

Let’s go through each letter.

  • H  = Have a positive or beneficial experience. Notice a positive experience you are already having; or create one by looking for good facts in your immediate situation, in current or recent events. Now keep in mind, beneficial isn’t synonymous with pleasant!!  It’s not about achieving happiness, it’s about promoting wellbeing by noticing and engaging in experiences that are nourishing or uplifting in some way. Beneficial experiences include making or eating a healthy meal, going to bed on time, reading a good book, watching a comedy, getting in a good workout, having unstructured play, meeting a friend for coffee, volunteering, or having a hobby, or noticing things in the lives of others that you feel glad about. You are producing good facts to hook onto. 
  • E = Extend or enrich it.  Stay with the positive experience by noticing the sensations and imagery associated with that great meal or a good workout or that kind friend whose shoulder you cried on.  Really sense and embody it to make it more lasting and intense. Activating such positive experiences helps to build up inner resources (or traits) like connection, resilience, emotional balance, happiness, mindfulness and compassion. Savor it. Don’t let those good moments pass you by.  
  • A = Absorb it.  Intentionally let the good experience sink into you. Here you really want to take it in, in a way that seeps into you. You are installing it into your memory bank and making it sticky.  Kind of like creating a mental snapshot or inner Instagram of a beautiful sunset with the intention of remembering it. 
  • L = Link the positive and the negative.  Or, I like to say it’s like making lemonade from lemons. We all have negative experiences in daily life, like getting a bad grade or being rejected. There’s nothing shameful or embarrassing about this. It just means that you are a normal human being. Remember though, that as long as negative stuff is active in your mind, it starts to stick the longer you dwell on it. So in this optional linking step, see if you can hold BOTH the positive and negative in awareness (the sweet and the sour), so that the positive gradually eases and brings perspective to what is negative, can soothe it, and maybe even replace the negative over time. 

Of course, with anything that’s really tough or triggering, like trauma, it’s helpful to work with a counselor.  But in general, everyday life offers up situations or chances to practice these steps. 

Sometimes I suggest creating an “even though” statement: 

Even though she rejected my invitation, it took courage to get up the nerve to ask her out, and I’m proud of myself for trying. I’ve been taking more risks and that’s good for a shy person like me. Come to think of it, that took some guts!

Even though getting a bad grade really is hard and I’m disappointed, it’s not the end of my college career. Deep down I know I’m going to be ok. I’m glad I’m doing other things. I really feel inspired by the new club project. I feel like I can make an impact.

Even though I feel sad about grandma’s passing, I can sense her love for me; and when I remember her humor it makes me smile. I feel she’s got my back and I can draw on this warm feeling whenever I need.

Remember, what you choose to focus on and practice will grow stronger.  That means you can have a bigger influence in responding positively to your life than you might believe. Just like you can’t unlearn how to ride a bike, you won’t unlearn the inner strengths you grow over time.  

This is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself. So start taking in the good.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

Courage Rising

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For the past two weeks I have been commuting to a new job.

  • Warming up the car in sub zero weather.
  • Hat, gloves, earbuds, lunch bag, and snacks.
  • A lanyard with an ID and building pass.
  • A highway drive to a parking lot, two trains, and a short walk.  

All told: It’s about 2 1/2 to 3 hours per day, four days a week, enmeshed with humanity. This is a big change for me. I am reminded of sending my youngest daughter off for her first day of kindergarten and she didn’t want me to take a photo. I was excited for her.  She was scared.

One of my intentional words for this year is courage. Researcher and storyteller, Brené Brown reminds us that the root word of courage, cour, means “heart.” Writer and social activist, Glennon Doyle, reminds us the courage also contains the word “rage,” where heartbreak can be turned into action. Both teach that vulnerability is a key to connection and transformation — and is necessary in order to be brave when facing the small and big moments in life.

The silver lining in the new commute is that I now have time to listen to podcasts. I find myself laughing aloud or shedding a tear. I use this as my time for meditation and education. In a recent interview about courage with Glennon Doyle and her partner, Abby Wamback (On Being with Krista Tippett), Doyle shared the following:

We say all the time with our kids, everything’s a pattern. It’s first the pain; then, the waiting; then, the rising — over and over and over again. Pain, waiting, rising. And when we skip the pain, we just never get to this rising.

Glennon Doyle

I loved this phrasing. Pain, waiting, rising. It reminded me of Fred Rogers as I was picturing my daughter with her little backpack all those years ago; and me now carrying my backpack and embarking on a new, uncertain journey. How we must we rise to the occasion in spite of fear. It has to do with the word “encourage,” which means to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope; to hearten. Mr. Rogers said,

As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has — or ever will have — something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.

in The World According to Fred Rogers

That’s how I feel about my work when counseling and coaching others. We are all sparks of the divine, and sometimes we need to shine our light on other’s hidden gifts with our presence, patience, empathy, and encouragement. Can we do this for ourselves, too?

First Day

Love Thy Neighbor

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I joke when I say I belong to the church of Mr. Fred Rogers. People close me know how much I admire the late great TV host and often send me quotes, vids or articles about him. So when my husband and I went to the local community theatre to see the new documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, it was as much about being a flock member of his media ministry as it was much needed relief from the recent weeks in our country. Images of children separated from their families and behind wired fences is nothing short of a battle cry for compassion, care and reason. Of course, children the world over are suffering in unconscionable ways. Somehow it hurts more when it’s closer to home and under our country’s watch.

We need you Mr. Rogers.

I was three years old when the first season of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood aired. I was five when I got a FAO Schwarz stuffed animal for Christmas, a spotted leopard named Rango. To me he was a kindred spirit to puppet Daniel Striped Tiger and he soaked up buckets of snot and tears. Decades later Rango was adopted by my youngest daughter, although not with the same passion I once held as a lifeline. Even one glance at the now floppy cub, who is relegated to a bookshelf, infuses me with a love so big that I grin with gratitude every time.

Fabulous reviews about this Rogers documentary abound and you will simply have to see it for yourself. It is a salve for our times. The subtitle is “A little kindness makes a world of difference.”  We all know that’s true. It’s just harder to implement on a moment-to-moment basis as seems warranted now.

When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed. – Fred Rogers

Mr. Rogers didn’t creep me out like some say. I was the perfect age for his pace of teaching and doctrine of love. I needed calm and consistency in order to deal with big questions I could only feel rather than understand when my family was breaking apart. We might all benefit from slowing down enough to listen to our own hearts and hear our own breath.

Fred Rogers’ kindness was fierce and compelling, soft and hard, timeless and true. He respected children: their vulnerability, imagination, and curiosity.  He believed that what mattered — an enduring empathy and respect for the human condition — in all its variations, was also “invisible to the eye.” This is the subtle caring that inhabits the spaces between and within each other. I imagine this belief was also a nod to the 1943 children’s book, The Little Prince, that also impressed me so:

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Mr. Rogers showed us that there is good in this world and we can be part of it: Love Thy Neighbor. Love Thy Self. His numerology was: 1-4-3.

I  L-O-V-E  Y-O-U.

This is heart work. We need his legacy and light to speak loud and clear. It’s up to us.

Your fellow lightworker,

Tara

More Matters in Kind

Kinder Workplaces? A Hard Sell (But Better for the Bottom Line)

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Truth be told, kindness is a good prescription for a life well lived. Kind actions and a compassionate attitude bode well for both physical and mental health. And let’s face it:  We might try to be kinder than we think we are — especially at work.

Why? For one, according the Global Happiness Policy Report 2018, the majority of people are miserable at their jobs even if they say they’re happy to have one. Two, we spend over 30% of our lives working. Might as well try to enjoy it, right? Third, when we behave in kind ways, the positivity that arises spreads to others. It’s just like that old 1970s bumper sticker: Kindness is contagious.

Yet, the topic of  kindness can be a non-starter for most businesses and HR executives. Many organizations operate on the principles for survival, namely finding self-serving ways to get ahead and stay ahead.  In spite of the billions spent in workplace wellness and leadership training, something isn’t sticking very well. It may be that we’ve been conditioned by entrenched beliefs that it’s a dog-eat-dog world. We don’t truly recognize that thriving, instead of surviving, is the key to success. Charles Darwin, after all, observed that we have a stronger instinct for caring and cooperation than for trampling over one another. It just didn’t make the headlines. Thriving means taking care of each other by focusing on wellbeing and cultivating resilience in our relationships — whether in family, at work, or in the greater community. After all that’s how the human species continues to survive.

We’ve just got things a bit mixed up in our heads.

For the skeptic out there, here’s a workplace study that was conducted at Coca Cola Iberia in Madrid, Spain. The researchers randomly assigned over 100 employees into three different groups and the employees weren’t aware of their assignment to the groups or the true purpose of the study. The employees were assigned to be Givers, Receivers, or be in a Control (people who don’t do anything).

The Givers practiced five acts of ordinary kindness a day from a specific list ideas of kind gestures (see below). This was not about flowers, balloons and cake. The Givers could choose when to do the kind acts, and for whom from a list of fellow employees assigned (unbeknownst to them) as Receivers. The Givers did this for four weeks.  Examples of the kind activities included:

  • Bringing someone a beverage
  • Cheering up a coworker who seems to be having a bad day
  • Speaking up on the behalf of another
  • Emailing a thank you note

The people in the Receiver or Control groups were not asked to do anything at all during the course of the study. It was just work as usual for them. All three groups filled out surveys before and after and two months later.

Here’s what the researchers found: Givers and Receivers mutually benefited in well-being in both the short- and long-term. They showed improvements on weekly measures of feelings of competence and autonomy, for example, acting in alignment with core values. Receivers remained happier a full month after the study and Givers became less depressed and more satisfied with their lives and jobs. They also noticed the changes in workplace. Givers’ prosocial acts inspired others to act: Receivers paid their acts of kindness forward with 278% more prosocial behaviors than Controls. That’s right, just like that ‘ol bumper sticker said so.  Surely, this is a prescription for happier workers and workplaces.

Why does this matter?  The most common contributors to low job satisfaction and causes for absenteeism include but are not limited to: bullying and harassment, burnout, stress and low morale, stress of childcare and eldercare, depression, disengagement, illness, and not surprisingly, looking for another job.  I will never forget when I was a psychology intern and was told to forge medical documentation that previous staff had failed to sign. An accreditation was at risk. I refused. My supervisor reprimanded me, “Don’t you know? Shit flows downhill.” I stood my ground and almost left the profession before I barely got started. Later I learned his wife had stage 4 cancer. He was desperate. But still.

Consider that kindness, a prosocial skill that needs to be practiced in order to grow, is about connecting with other people in genuine and transparent ways. Yes, most of us are caring and want the best for others. But life poses daily challenges and we can be easily distracted. So we have to put in the effort. All the co-opted leadership buzz words of today apply: compassion, grit, emotional intelligence, empathy, mindfulness and wisdom. Yet, practicing these skills at work is another matter entirely. 

Moreover, there is a multiplier effect when you do try. Your kind and caring action and the corresponding upswell of positive emotions will spread,  influencing at least three other people like a happy virus.  It’s likely that each of those three people will positively influence others in their social circles. A little kind intention can go a long way. It’s not all that different from raising well adjusted kids, which of course, takes time. It requires courage, consistency, calm, and true connection — no matter the successes and failures along the way. That’s the caring advantage. It flows uphill. If we can’t model such genuine attention to the people we work with every day it will be hard to expect retention, innovation and longevity. 

Survive or thrive. What would you rather do?

*

A version of this article originally appeared on the Whil blog: http://blog.whil.com/make-work-virtuous-viral.

My new book is “The Kindness Cure: How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World.” Drawing on research in psychology and neuroscience, this book will help teach you the benefits of practicing kindness from the inside out. Check it out today! https://www.taracousineau.com/book/

@taracousphd

Photo Credit:

Johnson Wang

Nathan Dumlao

Handprints in the Heart: A Reflection on Love and Loss

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It’s been a raw, rainy and cold spring in New England.  An impatience for summer has taken hold as I feel vitamin D deprived. If anything, the slog of the last few months has been a time for quiet reflection.  

I went on my first 7-day retreat of “noble silence” at the Insight Meditation Society in March.  A week of nothing to do but meditate with 100 women, all strangers to me. No friends. No talking. No technology. No reading. No writing. No obligations.

My family and friends at home wondered:  Was it amazing? That must have been so relaxing! How nice to get away for a whole week.  As if I was napping and reading fashion magazines at a spa.

Not even close. It was a week of sitting in silence, walking in silence, sitting in silence, walking in silence, sitting in silence, walking in silence… in a snowbound building and in the most rural part of the state. It was so bleak that the warm glow of a sunset, like a cherry swirl popsicle, was a gift I didn’t know I desired until it appeared. A deep appreciation settled in.

But by the end of the week a sort of transformation took place—in part because of the contrast with what came after. The minute I left I was hit with a reality of life: the hustle and bustle, the noise, the demands for my attention, a work crisis. Perhaps most poignant were the looming changes ahead: My youngest was about to turn 18 and be off to a college far away. We had also decided to move out of our home after two decades. The proverbial emptying of the nest.

If anything, the week of silence helped me to be present with all the uncertainty, to be patient with discomfort, and to practice the deep work of befriending my own mind. This is not easy.

One evening at the retreat the master teacher, Christina Feldman, read one of my favorite poems, Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

Hearing the poem in the midst of such quietude was a comfort, like the tender hand of a grandmother resting on my shoulder. The young woman next to me began to weep and I wished I could have taken her hand in mine. We were alone, together. And yet the proximity, the felt sense of compassion, was enough for each of us to bear our own thoughts.

The opening lines of the poem linger with me as I clear out closets, discover remnants of child’s play, and make the donation rounds to Savers. Mostly achingly the words sear as I apply and reapply fresh coats of paint to the stair banisters, oily and stained by children’s hands. Covering up the proof of our lives.

The other day my college-bound child flounced on the couch in my home office. She looked up at the ceiling and noticed a dirty hand print. That’s yours, I told her.  “No way.” Yes. You tried on a new white dress for a banquet and twirled on the coffee table feeling so pretty and proud. She didn’t believe that she could have reached that high as a kid. She hopped up and realized that indeed her 11-year old agile self might very well have done just that. One of her nicknames was Jumping Josie after all.  We stared at the smudge for a long while.

…all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

We both knew. Same time next year all this would be but a memory. Childhood is like that. It has a shape, many shapes, and then it’s gone. Even the dirty hand print.

 

Still.  I’m not painting over it.

Not as long as I live here anyway.

 

 

P.S. Hop on over my book page to sign-up for Kindness Cure goodies.

Notes: 

You can listen to the poet Naomi Shihab Nye read her poem Kindness at On Being radio.

Photo credits:

Stairs, Jumping Josie, Hand Print (c) Tara Cousineau, 2018

Sunset

Aaron Andary