Is Kindness about good Karma?

Recently I was listening to a Sarah Talk podcast which included Socratic (or Street epistemology) discussion about karma, and it got me thinking about why I am so focused on kindness, do I think it will bring good karma?

The answer may surprise you.

It is actually no, I don’t.

I realize that when I am kind that does not mean in anyway that everyone will be kind back to me. Or the the Universe, or God, or some “Law of Attraction” BS will protect me from hurricanes, getting in an accident, or other generally shitty aspects of life that we all encounter. Let alone make me happy and rich.

So why bother with kindness then? Well even if it doesn’t guarantee a perfect life, it does generally improve the odds of having a better one. Even if nothing changes but the attitude you have, that in itself will help make for a better life.

When I do a Google search on the “scientific benefits of kindness” the synopsis I get back reads “Mortality is delayed, depression is reduced and well-being and good fortune are increased. Committing acts of kindness lowers blood pressure. ... Witnessing acts of kindness produces oxytocin, occasionally referred to as the 'love hormone' which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart-health.” That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I am learning from the study of positive psychology that neither it or kindness promises a perfect, wonderful life, like so many scams (religious and non) do. But it does offer evidence based tools to help make life better. And since all I know for sure that I have is one life, I’d like to try and make it better. So I will practice kindness and learn more ways to make life better, I hope that you will benefit from it.

This site is not fantasy about how to live the perfect, most wonderful life you could ever, ever imagine, hopefully it is a good resource to live a better one.

Keeping kindness real and evidence based.

I invite you to join the Thrive With Kindness Facebook group now!