Impact of Small Acts of Kindness on Our World

I am Mother Teresa, a nun and missionary who devoted my life to ‘serving the poorest of the poor and to live among them and like them’. My main goal was to be kind to everyone I meet, and to change people with my kindness.

Today I will be discovering the answer to the question, ‘What impact do small acts of kindness have on our world’. We are going to be looking deep into our hearts and minds to discover the true influence of seemingly small acts of generosity, thoughtfulness, compassion and selflessness.

But first, let me explain how kindness has influenced my life. I was called by God to travel to Calcutta in India because of its overwhelming population of people living in poverty. Wherever you looked in Calcutta, it was dangerous, filthy and overcrowded wit people, many of whom were infected with diseases such as cholera and leprosy, dysentery and other diseases that were often fatal. I started the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation made up of people like myself who wanted to help those in need. Our goal was to make the lives and deaths of those around us more peaceful and fuller of love. “Not all of us can do great things. But we can all do small things with great love”.

But do these small acts of kindness actually have any effect on our broken world? It is my belief that the lives of individuals and the entire world can be transformed by the simplest acts of love and kindness because of the emotional and physical results that occur.

To begin with, kindness affects people emotionally, by signalling parts of the brain and by showing them that someone cares. I believe that “The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” By showing empathy to another person’s situation, you let them know that they are not alone, which is often all they need to persevere through a difficult period. Studies have shown that, like weight training, you can build up your compassion and altruism ‘muscle’ by exercising it. They found that after a period of time where people actively tried to show empathy to people, there was increased activity in the inferior parietal cortex, an area of your brain responsible for understanding others. One act of kindness which has a great effect is complements. Receiving a complement activates the ventral stratum and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that is triggered by reward and pleasure, such as receiving money. It also releases the neurotransmitter dopamine which is associated with motivation, focus and positivity, essentially telling us to “do it again”. For example, if one of the people I was helping told me that my charity work was changing their life, I would be even more motivated to keep going and change the lives of many others. ‘While kind words can be short and easy to speak’, the emotional effects ‘can be truly endless’.

In addition, kindness has many health effects to both those who are kind and those who experience their kindness. Kindness greatly affects people’s mental health and can improve mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Research has shown that kind people have 23 percent less cortisol, a hormone that produces feelings of stress. This means that the best cure for someone with an anxiety disorder may simply be a smile or helping them with something. Kindness and empathy can help mend someone’s depression because they help us to relate to people and have more positive relationships with people, as well as generally make us happier and healthier. I once said, “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier”. One of the reasons that engaging in kindness improves our happiness is that your brain produces endorphins, a ‘feel-good’ chemical which is also produced by exercise and laughter. These endorphins act as a painkiller and a happiness booster. Being kind to someone also lowers your blood pressure, by releasing a hormone called oxytocin. Sometimes, performing a small act of kindness can save lives. 'One day, in a heap of rubbish, I found a woman who was half dead. Her body had been bitten by rats and by ants. I took her to a hospital, but they had told me that they didn't want her because they couldn't do anything for her. I protested and said that I wouldn't leave unless they hospitalized her. They had a long meeting and finally granted my request. That woman was saved.' Carrying out a small act of kindness can improve someone’s physical and mental health.

Lastly, I am going to explain the impact of small acts of kindness on the entire world. In the future, a book will be published called ‘Pay It Forward’, about a 12-year-old boy named Trevor who has the idea to do a good deed to three people, and in return ‘pay it forward’ to three more people. 'So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.... Then it sort of spreads out.' This idea sparked global interest and has created a celebration of kindness on April 24th every year called Pay It Forward Day, where everyone is encouraged to be kind to three people. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is only just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” While you it might seem like the three people you’ve helped is nothing compared to the ocean of suffering in the world, you could make an enormous impact on those three people, and hopefully encourage them to be kind to everyone they meet. When I was in India, I began teaching children because most families in poverty cannot afford to send their children to school. By educating these children, I may have a stop to the cycle of poverty that these children were trapped in, therefore affecting their lives forever, and the lives of their children. Small acts of kindness have a ripple effect and can impact the entire world.

Kindness is so much more than just a few words of encouragement or a donation, it can change the lives of individuals and the world. It changes individuals through a range of emotional and health benefits, and the effects can be passed on to change the whole of society for the better.