12 Jul Kindness can protect you….
Research indicates positive emotions like kindness build physical health, slowing down the aging process, lowering inflammation and free radicals although how this works continues to be a mystery. This research study had participants practice metta or loving kindness meditation to self-generate positive emotions through the twisting path of the vagus nerve which regulates heart rate changes efficiently with breathing. Generally speaking the more “toned” the vagus nerve is the better off we are.
This isn’t just a abstract biological process — the vagus is connected and influenced by how we are with each other. Intimately involved with our ears, speech, and eye contact it regulates emotional expressions. Other studies have shown that the more vagal tone we have the greater closeness we have to others — and the more altruistic our behavior is.
Led by Barbara Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, the study underlined the importance of positive emotions in physical health. Fredrickson a long proponent, and author of books of the same titles, Love and Positivity said, increasing a “daily diet of positive emotion…..helps us get at a long-standing mystery of how our emotional and social experience affects our physical health.”