thesis statement about kindness

Essay on Kindness

500 words essay on kindness.

The world we live in today has been through a lot of things from world wars to epidemics, but one thing which remained constant throughout was resilience and kindness. Moreover, it was the spirit to fight back and help out each other. Kindness must be an essential and universal quality to make the world a better place. Through an essay on kindness, we will go through it in detail.

Importance of Kindness

Kindness towards nature, animals and other people has the ability to transform the world and make it a beautiful place for living. But, it is also important to remember that kindness towards you is also essential for personal growth.

Kindness is basically being polite, compassionate and thoughtful. Every religion and faith teaches its followers to be kind. Most importantly, kindness must not limit to humans but also to every living creature.

Even nature has its own way of showing kindness. For instance, the trees grow fruits for us and provide us with shade. One must not see kindness as a core value but as a fundamental behavioural element. When you are kind to your loved ones, you create a stable base.

As people are becoming more self-centred today, we must learn kindness. We must try to integrate it into ourselves. You might not know how a small act of kindness can bring about a change in someone’s life. So, be kind always.

Kindness Always Wins

There is no doubt that kindness always wins and it has been proven time and again by people. Sid is a greedy man who does not share his wealth with anyone, not even his family members.

He also does not pay his workers well. One day, he loses his bag of gold coins and loses his temper. Everyone helps him out to search for it but no one finds it. Finally, his worker’s little son finds the bag.

Upon checking the bag, he sees all the coins are there. But, his greed makes him play a trick on the poor worker. He claims that there were more coins in the bag and the worker stole them.

The issue goes to the court and the judge confirms from Sid whether his bag had more coins to which he agrees. So, the judge rules out that as Sid’s bag had more coins , the bag which the worker’s son found is not his.

Therefore, the bag gets handed to the worker as no one else claims it. Consequently, you see how the worker’s son act of kindness won and paid him well. On the other hand, how Sid’s greediness resulted in his loss only.

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Conclusion of the Essay on Kindness

It is essential for all of us to understand the value of kindness. Always remember, it does not cost anything to be kind. It may be a little compliment or it can be a grand gesture, no matter how big or small, kindness always matters. Therefore, try your best to be kind to everyone around you.

FAQ of Essay on Kindness

Question 1: Why is it important to be kind?

Answer 1: It is important to be kind because it makes one feel good about oneself. When you do things for other people and help them with anything, it makes you feel warm and that you have accomplished something. Moreover, you also get respect in return.

Question 2: Why is kindness so powerful?

Answer 2: Kindness has a lot of benefits which includes increased happiness and a healthy heart . It slows down the ageing process and also enhances relationships and connections, which will indirectly boost your health.

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Acts of Kindness and Happiness in Human Life Research Paper

Introduction, research methods, chapter 1. importance of acts of kindness for happiness, chapter 2. how acts of kindness promote happiness, chapter 3. use of acts of kindness in everyday life and treatment.

Even though happiness is an essential component of human life, there is no clear definition of what it is and what a person can do to achieve it. Different theories suggest a whole number of approaches that converge in some points and diverge in others. However, it is commonly accepted that an individual is likely to become happier and release negative feelings through an act of kindness towards another person (Della Porta, 2012; Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). An act of kindness is understood as a generous deed (benefiting certain people) that requires some effort on behalf of an agent but does not bring him/her any profit (Layous & Lyubomirsky, 2014).

The research at hand is aimed to prove that, to boost happiness through receiving positive emotions, a person should commit more actions that can be referred to as acts of kindness.

The present paper is based on the extensive literature review of the sources investigating the issue of happiness as well as various activities that help enhance personal satisfaction. These studies are analyzed to answer the following research questions: 1) How are acts of kindness related to happiness? 2) Which of them are the most happiness-boosting and what mechanisms do they use? 3) How can acts of kindness be applied to everyday life and treatment?

Happiness is rather a vague notion having a lot of subjective definitions. Some researchers regard it as “experiences of frequent positive emotions and relatively infrequent negative emotions” (Della Porta, 2012, p. 1), while others define it as “a skill that can be cultivated” through the development of such important human qualities as benevolence, altruistic love, and compassion (Richard, 2011, p. 275). For the convenience of research, it will be understood as a state of mind characterized by a person’s total satisfaction with his/her current well-being, which makes him/her adopt an optimistic way of thinking (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011).

According to the construal approach to happiness, this condition is not self-regulated and can be achieved through positive emotions and cognition as well as various acts of kindness that are defined as positive behaviors. According to Richard (2011), such kindness-oriented behaviors are primarily based on the creation of appropriate inner conditions that allow diminishing self-centeredness and increase altruistic intentions in individuals. It is worth mentioning that such acts have to be neither random and spontaneous nor classified into a particular category (e.g. an anonymous act of charity). Kindness is rather a continual and intrinsic orientation towards ethical and human values that makes people more emphatic and stimulates them for the engagement in “prosocial, generous behaviors that promote goodwill and the well-being of others” (Richard, 2011, p. 277).

The most important and sole condition of kindness is that “the giver” must be selfless in his/her intention to do good to “the recipient” (Rudd, Aaker, & Norton, 2014). However, to enhance the effectiveness of acts of kindness, a person should try to engage in different activities instead of repeating the same actions regularly. For example, Lyubomirsky and Dickerhoof (2014) observe in one of their studies that when a person performs different acts of kindness throughout an enduring period, e.g., “do a new household chore one week, surprise their pet with a treat another week,” he/she attains a greater level of well-being than those people who continuously perform similar acts of kindness (p. 13). Therefore, it is possible to say that when kindness is expressed spontaneously and is triggered by intrinsic motivation rather than prompted by the external situations, it leads to more positive outcomes including happiness and promotion of both individual and common welfare.

From the Buddhist perspective, happiness is not given to a person as a gift but must come as a result of a particular behavior (Richard, 2011). From the perspective of positive psychology, happiness is directly linked to individual positive emotions, behaviors, and perceptions which can be formed either by the external life events and circumstances (the “bottom-up perspective”) or by a person’s biological and temperamental factors (the “top-down theory”) (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2010, p. 230). In this way, based on the bottom-up principles of positive psychology, happiness can be achieved through performing pleasant activities (e.g. communicating with a company of close friends). However, from the Buddhist perspective, the satisfaction derived from such actions is incomparable to the condition achieved by committing a selfless act of kindness. Thus, happiness is understood as an active process rather than a final result. Active happiness implies that a person can contribute to shaping his/her well-being through various actions including meditative practices (Ricard, 2011), expression of gratitude (Della Porta, 2012), and development of optimistic thinking (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2010).

Acts of kindness have no negative side effects. Besides, it has been proven by research that, in comparison to other activities enhancing happiness, they give the most impressive results. Acts of kindness manage to increase satisfaction by reducing negative feelings and are likely to give the person who performs them with a sense of achievement and self-significance (Della Porta, 2012). But Della Porta (2012) identifies an important factor that defines a positive effect of different acts of kindness on personal well-being – it is intrinsic motivation and the autonomy-supported environment. His findings are also supported by ideas outlined in Richard’s (2011) article which refers to “the enhancement of intrinsic values” (p. 278). It is possible to say that the improvement of individual inherent values can be encouraged by different social and religious actors, but, to increase the effectiveness of acts of kindness, people should not be forced to perform them but should rather be provided with the environment in which their orientation towards the performance of good and kind deeds will be increased.

Despite the evident advantage of acts of kindness, there exists an opposing point of view. A lot of people tend to believe that virtuous behavior is particularly hard to practice because some improvement activities may require additional expenses, time, and development of skills; moreover, many people tend to believe that happiness practices may be “of little use” as their results are not evident and, in most cases, rather questionable (Della Porta, 2012, p. 4). However, this vision of kindness is deluding virtue does not lack its rewards and benefits, both short- and long-term (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2011).

Though it is evident that acts of kindness contribute to the level of personal happiness, the ways of promoting it are not quite clear. A series of experiments were conducted to identify what mechanisms underlie an act of kindness and which of them are the most effective.

In one of such experimental studies, participants were asked to write a letter expressing gratitude. Their emotional reaction to this simple act was analyzed afterward. The results of the research showed that the more letters people wrote – the greater emotional gains they received. Therefore, gratitude as a particular act of kindness turned out to be a powerful tool in enhancing happiness and life satisfaction. Besides, it was assumed that expressive letter-writing might help people struggle with symptoms of depression (however, it is difficult to say whether acts of kindness are effective in eliminating the causes of depression) (Toepfer, Cichy, & Peters, 2012).

Although the study mentioned above proves the positive cumulative effect of acts of kindness, it does not manage to answer how such acts should be designed to ensure happiness boosting. Another study on the topic involved a series of laboratory experiments with the purpose to trace the dynamics of performing acts of kindness. It found out that those people who were given a more particularly-framed prosocial goal (e.g. were assigned to make another person laugh by telling a joke) felt much more content with performing their actions and achieving positive results than those who were given an abstract task contiguous in its function (e.g. to make a person feel happy) (Rudd et al., 2014). Such outcomes are explained by the discrepancy between reality and the participants’ expectations. Unlike the second group, those who had a concrete task could see the actual result of their performance, which matched their expectations (Rudd et al., 2014). Thus, to enhance happiness, an act of kindness must be designed in such a way that its outcomes are predictable and observable. When a person planning to perform an act of kindness is more or less sure what results are going to be obtained and what emotions the receiver will get, he/she feels sure that no side consequences will emerge to spoil good intentions (Rudd et al., 2014). Thus, the giver feels happier through the development of higher self-confidence.

Besides the immediate effect of satisfaction from a good deed, an act of kindness has long-term benefits. The concept of “pay it forward” suggests the idea of achieving happiness by starting a chain of acts of kindness (Pressman, Kraft, & Cross, 2015, p.2 ). The point is that the agent receives more positive emotions if his/her action manages to foster the altruistic behavior of the recipient making him/her repeat a similar act to other people rather than simply repay the giver. The results of the study by Pressman et al. (2015) contradict the findings obtained by Della Porta (2012) who claim that autonomous motivation is a necessity for gaining psychological benefits of an act of kindness because the pay-it-forward activity is a forced kindness intervention. As mentioned by the researchers, the study participants who performed a forced pay-it-forward activity reported increased “optimism, gratitude, life satisfaction, and joviality” (Pressman et al., 2015). However, the positive effects were rather short-term than stable. Either way, the findings make it clear that an act of kindness can encourage further positive behaviors (Pressman et al., 2015).

Acts of kindness are capable of boosting happiness not only as a temporary context-dependent condition but also as overall life-satisfaction. An experiment carried out by Buchanan and Bardi (2010) aimed to prove that conducting new acts of kindness every day for a certain period (10 days) is capable of increasing the total life satisfaction of people regardless of their gender or age. A control group consisting of 38 males and 48 females aged from 18 to 60 was randomly selected, and they were asked to perform either an act of kindness, an act of novelty or restrain from any actions towards other people whatsoever (Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). Before and after this intervention, their life satisfaction was measured. The results demonstrated that life satisfaction increases in cases of experimental conditions and remains unchanged when the action was controlled or refrained from (Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). Thus, the experiment allows concluding that novelty is a pivotal component in happiness-boosting activities. Layous and Lyubomirsky (2014) express a similar viewpoint in their study stating that “people instructed to perform different acts of kindness each week (e.g., do a new household chore one week, surprise their pet with a treat another week) showed larger gains in well-being than those instructed to perform the same acts of kindness (e.g., do new household chores each week)” (p. 479).

The importance of variety in doing acts of kindness has already been mentioned: a person who performs the same act for a long period gets used to it as to a part of his/her routine and fails to derive any satisfaction from it after a while. On the contrary, varying acts of kindness (doing something new every day trying not to repeat the same action in sequence) gives a cumulative effect and boosts happiness much more effectively (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). However, no matter how diverse acts of kindness might be, it is highly important to commit them regularly as the effect they produce should constantly be reinforced and enhanced for the agent to feel satisfaction (Layous, Nelson, Kurtz, & Lyubomirsky, 2016).

Thus, an act of kindness that can be classified as happiness-boosting is not merely an action of a certain sort but a part of a long-lasting habit. According to Lyubomirsky and Della Porta (2010), individuals who regularly express optimism frequently report “experiencing more positive events that linger with them;” moreover, it is found that the positive experiences provoked by optimistic behaviors increase happiness (p. 18). For instance, people who perform such acts regularly receive gratitude from the recipients, which makes them happier. It is also observed that a habit of conducting acts of kindness can even produce situations in which new friendships are likely to emerge (Lyubomirsky & Della Porta, 2010).

Acts of kindness apply not only to everyday experience but also as a tool used in conjunction with various therapies that aim to mitigate the consequences of psychological disorders. Healthy people naturally use adaptive strategies that help them cope with symptoms of depression and apathy: they try to avoid pessimistic thinking, interpret upsetting circumstances in a positive light, etc. (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). At the same time, Toepfer et al. (2012) observe that unlike healthy individuals, people with affective disorders are unable to adapt to the changing reality and tend to feel unhappy every time things go wrong. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that a pessimistic predisposition can be alleviated not only in healthy individuals going through a hard period of life but also in people suffering from various disorders such as depression or generalized anxiety.

However, “practicing positive, intentional activities may directly combat the effects of negative construals (which characterize generally unhappy people), while simultaneously promoting the effects of positive construals” (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011, p. 236). These findings are consistent with observations made by Toepfer et al. (2012) who suggest that the acts mentioned above of kindness (expressing gratitude, showing generosity, prompting others to act kindly, etc.) may help depressed individuals enhance self-satisfaction and feel happier. Social connections that are established in the process of performing a good deed assist perfectly in treating social anxiety decreasing negative emotions provoked by the idea of communicating with new people. As far as depression is concerned, acts of kindness help shift attention from introspection to other people’s problems and concerns. When a person gets distracted, he/she is more likely to recover from this condition (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). Thus, targeting positive patterns of behavior can assist in the process of eliminating and preventing maladaptive self-perception as well as the perception of the environment.

The research at hand was aimed to explore acts of kindness as an effective method to enhance happiness. It focused on the ways personal satisfaction, positive emotions, a life-asserting perception of the world, and general well-being can be attained through performing particular actions and developing habits. Understanding the significance of acts of kindness (especially in their relation to happiness) is useful and can be applied not only to everyday life but also as a complementary therapy for treating social and affective disorders.

The research has shown that a person should produce as many acts of kindness as the circumstances allow, trying to diversify them as much as possible since novelty contributes to happiness derived from a good deed. The mechanisms that foster happiness through acts of kindness – emotional response, observation of positive results, and involvement in chains of good deeds – have been investigated and explained.

The conclusion that is to be made is that the applications of the acts of kindness techniques prove to be effective no matter what domain is chosen for action and what goals (short- or long-term) is to be achieved.

Buchanan, K. E., & Bardi, A. (2010). Acts of kindness and acts of novelty affect life satisfaction. The Journal of Social Psychology, 150 (3), 235-237.

Della Porta, M. D. (2012). Enhancing the effects of happiness-boosting activities: The role of autonomy support in an experimental longitudinal intervention (Doctoral thesis, University of California, Riverside, CA). Web.

Layous, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness: Mechanisms underlying the success of positive activity interventions. In J. Gruber & J. Moscowitz (Eds.), The light and dark side of positive emotions (pp. 473-495). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Layous, K., Nelson, S. K., Kurtz, J. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2016). What triggers prosocial effort? A positive feedback loop between positive activities, kindness, and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1 (1), 1-14.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Della Porta, M. D. (2010). Boosting happiness, buttressing resilience. In J. W. Reich, A. J. Zautra, & J. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of adult resilience: Concepts, methods, and applications (pp. 450-464). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Dickerhoof, R. (2011). A construal approach to increasing happiness. In J. E. Maddux & J. P. Tangney (Eds.), Social psychological foundations of clinical psychology (pp. 229-244). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Pressman, S. D., Kraft, T. L., & Cross, M. P. (2015). It’s good to do good and receive good: The impact of a ‘pay it forward’ style kindness intervention on giver and receiver well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10 (4), 293-302.

Ricard, M. (2011). The Dalai Lama: Happiness through wisdom and compassion. International Journal of Wellbeing, 1 (2), 274-290.

Rudd, M., Aaker, J., & Norton, M. I. (2014). Getting the most out of giving: Concretely framing a prosocial goal maximizes happiness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 54 (1), 11-69.

Sandstrom, G. M., & Dunn, E. W. (2011). The virtue blind spot: do affective forecasting errors undermine virtuous behavior? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5 (10), 720-733.

Toepfer, S. M., Cichy, K., & Peters, P. (2012). Letters of gratitude: Further evidence for author benefits. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13 (1), 187-201.

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Thesis Format

Kindness as an intervention for student social interaction anxiety, resilience, affect, and mood: the kiss of kindness study ii.

Katie J. Shillington , The University of Western Ontario Follow

Master of Science

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Irwin, Jennifer D.

This research sought to assess the impact of deliberate acts of kindness (DAKs) plus access to a stress management booklet (intervention), compared to the booklet alone (control) on the stress-related outcomes of resilience, social interaction anxiety, affect, and mood of undergraduate and graduate students. Participants’ study-related experiences were explored, as were the types of DAKs. This repeated-measures, randomized controlled trial included 112 students (80 undergraduate and 32 graduate) with 56 in each condition. Four scales were implemented at baseline, immediate post-intervention, and 3-months post-intervention. A linear mixed effects model was utilized with group and time entered as fixed effects. Content analysis of open-ended question responses and DAK logs was conducted. Statistically significant interaction effects in favour of the intervention group were found for all measures, and intervention participants described improvements in mental wellbeing. DAKs were plentiful (1,542 DAKs, 26 types), and show promise for university-based mental health interventions.

Summary for Lay Audience

The mental health of undergraduate and graduate students is concerning, specifically in relation to the rising rates of stress and anxiety in the university student population. University students experience stressors such as academic load, constant pressure to succeed, and competition with peers that can trigger or exacerbate feelings of social anxiety and negatively impact students’ mood, further perpetuating negative affect. Students’ abilities to cope with and respond positively to these stressors can be referred to as resilience, which can act as a buffer in times of adversity. One way to enhance students’ resilience and promote positive mental health, might be performing deliberate acts of kindness (DAKs). DAKs have shown promise in improving individuals’ wellbeing and increasing happiness; however, studies regarding DAKs as a mental health intervention are scarce. To that end, this thesis examined the impact that performing DAKs had on the resilience, social interaction anxiety, affect, and mood of undergraduate and graduate students at a Canadian post-secondary institution. To investigate this, one randomized controlled trial was conducted and consisted of 112 undergraduate and graduate students (80 and 32, respectively), randomized to either the intervention ( n = 56) or the control ( n = 56) group. Both groups were reminded that they had access to a relaxation and stress management booklet from the institution’s Wellness Education Centre. In addition, the intervention group was asked to partake in and log three deliberate acts of kindness per day, and participate in a study-related website to connect with, support, and share experiences/ideas with each other around DAKs. Participants’ levels of resilience, social interaction anxiety, affect, and mood were compared between groups and over time. The KISS of Kindness Study II demonstrated efficacy for intervention group participants through increased resilience, reduced social anxiety and negative affect, and described improvements in mood. Individuals in both groups expressed enjoyment participating in the study and described an overall improvement in their mental health and wellbeing, positioning DAKs as an effective strategy to improve the mental health of university students.

Recommended Citation

Shillington, Katie J., "Kindness as an Intervention for Student Social Interaction Anxiety, Resilience, Affect, and Mood: The KISS of Kindness Study II" (2020). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository . 6953. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6953

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Kindness — Importance of Kindness in Our World

Importance of Kindness in Our World

• Categories: Kindness

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Published: Jun 5, 2019

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

What if Schools Taught Kindness?

Walking to class one day, one of us (Laura) saw a young student crying and waiting for his mother to arrive—he had split his chin while playing. When Laura got to class, the other students were very upset and afraid for their friend, full of questions about what would happen to him. Laura decided to ask the class how they could help him.

“Caring practice!” exclaimed one of the children—and they all sat in a circle offering support and well wishes. The children immediately calmed and they continued with their lesson.

This is what’s possible when kids learn to be kind at school.

Various mindfulness programs have been developed for adults, but we and our colleagues at the Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, wanted to develop a curriculum for kids. Every school teaches math and reading, but what about mindfulness and kindness?

We ended up bringing a 12-week curriculum to six schools in the Midwest. Twice a week for 20 minutes, pre-kindergarten kids were introduced to stories and practices for paying attention, regulating their emotions, and cultivating kindness. It’s just the beginning, but the initial results of our research, co-authored with CHM founder Professor Richard Davidson and graduate research assistant Simon Goldberg, suggest that this program can improve kids’ grades, cognitive abilities, and relationship skills.

Why teach kindness to kids?

The school environment can be very stressful; in addition to any issues they bring from home, many students struggle to make friends and perform well in class. Being excluded, ignored, or teased is very painful for a young child, and we thought it could be impactful to teach empathy and compassion .

When other kids are suffering—like that boy who split his chin—can we understand how they might be feeling? Kindness bridges those gaps and helps build a sense of connection among the students, the teachers, and even the parents. Learning to strengthen their attention and regulate their emotions are foundational skills that could benefit kids in school and throughout their whole lives.

On top of that, having classrooms full of mindful, kind kids completely changes the school environment. Imagine entire schools—entire districts—where kindness is emphasized. That would be truly powerful. Teaching kindness is a way to bubble up widespread transformation that doesn’t require big policy changes or extensive administrative involvement.

Running and studying a Kindness Curriculum

If you had visited one of our classrooms during the 12-week program, you might have seen a poster on the wall called “Kindness Garden.” When kids performed an act of kindness or benefitted from one, they added a sticker to the poster. The idea is that friendship is like a seed—it needs to be nurtured and taken care of in order to grow. Through that exercise, we got students talking about how kindness feels good and how we might grow more friendship in the classroom.

Another day, you might have found students in pairs holding Peace Wands, one with a heart and one with a star. The child with the heart wand speaks (“from the heart”); the other child (the “star listener”) listens and then repeats back what was said. When there was a conflict between students, they used the wands to support the process of paying attention, expressing their feelings, and building empathy.

Our Kindness Curriculum combines creative activities like these, as well as books, songs, and movement, to communicate concepts in a way that is understandable to four year olds. Our instructors taught the curriculum with active participation by classroom teachers.

The Kindness Curriculum is designed around the ABCs—or, more specifically, A to G:

• Attention. Students learn that what they focus on is a choice. Through focusing attention on a variety of external sensations (the sound of a bell, the look of a stone) and internal sensations (feeling happy or sad), children learn they can direct their attention and maintain focus.
• Breath and Body. Students learn to use their breath to cultivate some peace and quiet. Instead of listening to a meditation, we played a song from Betsy Rose’s CD Calm Down Boogie , “Breathing In, Breathing Out,” while the children rested on their backs with a beanie baby on their belly. The beanie provided an object to “rock to sleep” with the natural in- and out-breath, while the breathing calmed the body.
• Caring. Here, we teach kids to think about how others are feeling and cultivate kindness. We read the book Sumi’s First Day of School Ever , the story of a foreign student who struggles with English, and brainstorm ways to help a student like Sumi—as simple as offering a smile.
• Depending on other people. We emphasize that everyone supports and is supported by others through the book Somewhere Today , which describes acts of kindness that are going on in the world right now. Students learn to see themselves as helpers and begin to develop gratitude for the kindness of others.
• Emotions. What do emotions feel like and look like? How can you tell what you’re feeling? We play a game where the teacher and students take turns pretending to be angry, sad, happy, or surprised, guessing which emotion was expressed, and talking about what that emotion feels like in the body.
• Forgiveness. Young kids can be particularly hard on themselves—and others—and we teach them that everyone makes mistakes. A book called Down the Road tells the story of a girl who breaks the eggs she bought for her parents, but they forgive her.
• Gratitude. We want kids to recognize the kind acts that other people do for them, so we have them pretend to be various community workers like bus drivers and firefighters. Then, they talk about being thankful to those people for how they help us.

How to Introduce Mindfulness Practices with Children

According to Pinger and Flook, beginning a personal practice provides a foundation for sharing with others. For those who are interested, the Center for Healthy Minds offers many resources to explore , including books, audio practices, and online or in-person trainings.

Sixty-eight students participated in the research, with about half going through the Kindness Curriculum and the other half measured as a comparison. To investigate the impact of the curriculum, we tested children before and after the training period.

The results of our study were promising. Students who went through the curriculum showed more empathy and kindness and a greater ability to calm themselves down when they felt upset, according to teachers’ ratings. In an exercise with stickers, they consistently shared about half of them, whereas students who hadn’t gone through the curriculum shared less over time. They earned higher grades at the end of the year in certain areas (notably for social and emotional development), and they showed improvement in the ability to think flexibly and delay gratification, skills that have been linked to health and success later in life .

This was a small study, and we’d love to see deeper investigations into our Kindness Curriculum in the future. For example, what happens over a longer time if we support students’ practice throughout the year and into the next school year and beyond? If parents got involved in the curriculum, they could provide powerful support as well.

“Kindfulness” in daily life

Mindfulness and kindness go hand in hand, so much so that the phrase “kindfulness” accidentally (but aptly) came out in one of our conversations and has stuck with us. While we administered a specific curriculum for the purposes of our study, any teacher or parent can bring the principles behind it to bear on their interactions with children.

The first key is simply to model mindfulness and kindness. For example, what quality of attention do we bring when we interact with our kids? Do we give them our full attention—eye contact, kneeling down to speak with them, asking questions—or are we distracted? Kids are extraordinarily observant, and they pick up on whether we are paying attention to them. By modeling behavior, and through our interactions, we show them what it’s like to be seen and heard and to be compassionate with others.

Another simple activity is to relax and feel the natural breath for a few moments during the day. Kids need to be active and run around, of course, but they can also benefit from cultivating a bit of stillness. For example, when Laura enters the classroom, she or one of her students rings a bell, which signals students to listen until the sound ends and then feel five in- and out-breaths together. This practice settles students and gathers their attention so they are more ready to learn.

We can also help kids reflect on their emotions, which sometimes feel overwhelming, and change their relationship to them. After a child calms down, we can sit with them and reflect on that feeling. Which part of the body felt angry, happy, or upset? All emotions are natural, so kids shouldn’t feel bad about experiencing them; we can teach them to cultivate a kinder attitude. For example, a parent might say, “When I feel sad or angry, it doesn’t feel good in my body. But all people have feelings. Feelings help us learn about ourselves and others. I can be kind to myself no matter what feelings come. I can get better and better at learning from my feelings.”

And, by the way, practices like these are equally useful for parents and teachers, who are struggling with stressful workplaces or busy classrooms. For teachers, brief practices with students many times during the school day allow everyone to pause and be fully present to themselves, each other, and what is happening, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. For parents, mindfulness and self-kindness training allow them to be more present with their spouse and children at home and with their coworkers at work.

Finally, to combine the concepts of mindfulness and kindness, we can teach caring practice to our kids. These phrases work well for children: May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be peaceful.

When the boy split his chin, the other four-year-olds got together to do this practice: May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful.

And these wishes can be extended further: To my entire classroom, my school, my neighborhood, my whole community…May we all be safe, may we all be happy, may we all be healthy, may we all be peaceful.


In the midst of their distress, the children found comfort and support for themselves and their friend rather than feeling upset and worried. They later shared with him that they had offered him these wishes. It’s these small changes, spread across classrooms, that could make schools more kind—and educate a new generation of more compassionate and connected citizens. 

About the Authors

Laura Pinger

Laura Pinger completed her M.S. in communication sciences and disorders and is currently a Senior Outreach Specialist at the Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the Waisman Center. She develops and teaches research-related mindfulness-based curricula for educators, students, and parents.

Lisa Flook, Ph.D. , is currently a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute, where she conducts research to inform educational practice and policy.

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Kindness Matters

How it works

Being a good person ultimately boils down to one thing: how well you treat others; race, social status, and religion are not the deciding factors they are made out to be because we are all born with a good and loving mind and can be friends with everyone. Not a single person has ever been born with a mind that is already ‘mean’ or ‘not kind’: it is the treatment of others that turns someone bitter. The statement, ‘All People are the Same and Should be treated the same has been tested many times throughout history.

As stated in the bible, ‘There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women: you are all in union with Jesus Christ, (Galatians 3.28).” These statements seem so easy and understandable, but many times people let hatred and judgment get in the way and take over. We have such a responsibility for others through how we treat them, if we all treat each other with kindness and respect it will come back around. There should be no reason at all we treat our classmates with any less respect than how we treat our family members.

Many people find these statements favorable and right but on the controversy, some people believe that it is almost impossible to treat everyone with the same respect and love for which you would treat a family member. Some examples of these types of people we can not treat with the same respect would be a criminal, rapist, or murderer. All these types of people are not accepted by society and are therefore seen in a different light and because of this, we treat these people with a lower amount of respect. This leads me onto the topic of how we should treat people in a school environment, no one you are learning with has committed any crimes of this degree, so therefore we have no reason at all to treat any other student or teacher with any lower respect then we treat our family members. In personal experience, I find it near impossible to treat everyone with the same respect and kindness, especially in school, due to the fact of how we see the world. What is the first thing your brain does when you meet someone new? Your brain judges the person and this judgment is what leads us to how we treat this person. Of course, I’m going to treat my close friends differently than people I barely know. But even though we find this so hard to do we must push ourselves to treat everyone equally, for this is what will make us move on as a united society.

I know everyone has heard this line from the bible at least once in their life, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’. This idea of equalization is so well known and ancient that one would think that we, as a society, should finally understand how to treat everyone the same after all these years. Yet is so hard for some people to grasp due to the fact that plain and simple, the world is not an equal place. Although this is the overwhelming truth about the world we have to see past this and overcome those thoughts of thinking you are higher or better than another human.

Now one might ask, what are the benefits of treating others equally? When we get to learn about others and when we get to respect others’ similarities and differences we learn so much more about the world and all its opportunities. These opportunities can be friendships, work prospects, travel possibilities, or a wider understanding of the world in which we live. People who are scared of others are not so because they have any sense of rejection towards them but because they’re not sure how to go about communicating with them and also because they fear that their own little ‘cocoon of protection’ might be threatened. This is simply not true. What is important is that everybody is entitled to a viewpoint or opinion and we should respect that right even if we don’t necessarily agree with it.

Tolerance is the key but you can still maintain your own identity and still have valid viewpoints. Remember, even identical twins have their own individual experiences and opinions and you probably don’t agree with everything your parents or children say but do that necessarily compromise you?

There are many things we can do to move towards accepting other people’s opinions and respecting our differences. At a very basic level, we should treat others with the same degree of respect as we would like to be treated ourselves. We should embrace our differences, not be afraid of them and we should never judge a person on our first impression which is often about how he or she looks. Taking the time to get to know the person within is a far better indicator than pre-judging them on appearances alone.

Getting to truly know a new person who we may feel is quite different from us can be a very rewarding experience. It’s true that when we’re looking to make friends or start relationships that we tend to gravitate towards people we believe are similar in outlook to ourselves but in restricting ourselves to that mindset, we can often miss out on many interesting experiences.          

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25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make Writing a Breeze

Understanding what makes a good thesis statement is one of the major keys to writing a great research paper or argumentative essay. The thesis statement is where you make a claim that will guide you through your entire paper. If you find yourself struggling to make sense of your paper or your topic, then it's likely due to a weak thesis statement.

Let's take a minute to first understand what makes a solid thesis statement, and what key components you need to write one of your own.

A thesis statement always goes at the beginning of the paper. It will typically be in the first couple of paragraphs of the paper so that it can introduce the body paragraphs, which are the supporting evidence for your thesis statement.

Your thesis statement should clearly identify an argument. You need to have a statement that is not only easy to understand, but one that is debatable. What that means is that you can't just put any statement of fact and have it be your thesis. For example, everyone knows that puppies are cute . An ineffective thesis statement would be, "Puppies are adorable and everyone knows it." This isn't really something that's a debatable topic.

Something that would be more debatable would be, "A puppy's cuteness is derived from its floppy ears, small body, and playfulness." These are three things that can be debated on. Some people might think that the cutest thing about puppies is the fact that they follow you around or that they're really soft and fuzzy.

All cuteness aside, you want to make sure that your thesis statement is not only debatable, but that it also actually thoroughly answers the research question that was posed. You always want to make sure that your evidence is supporting a claim that you made (and not the other way around). This is why it's crucial to read and research about a topic first and come to a conclusion later. If you try to get your research to fit your thesis statement, then it may not work out as neatly as you think. As you learn more, you discover more (and the outcome may not be what you originally thought).

Additionally, your thesis statement shouldn't be too big or too grand. It'll be hard to cover everything in a thesis statement like, "The federal government should act now on climate change." The topic is just too large to actually say something new and meaningful. Instead, a more effective thesis statement might be, "Local governments can combat climate change by providing citizens with larger recycling bins and offering local classes about composting and conservation." This is easier to work with because it's a smaller idea, but you can also discuss the overall topic that you might be interested in, which is climate change.

So, now that we know what makes a good, solid thesis statement, you can start to write your own. If you find that you're getting stuck or you are the type of person who needs to look at examples before you start something, then check out our list of thesis statement examples below.

Thesis statement examples

A quick note that these thesis statements have not been fully researched. These are merely examples to show you what a thesis statement might look like and how you can implement your own ideas into one that you think of independently. As such, you should not use these thesis statements for your own research paper purposes. They are meant to be used as examples only.

• Vaccinations Because many children are unable to vaccinate due to illness, we must require that all healthy and able children be vaccinated in order to have herd immunity.
• Educational Resources for Low-Income Students Schools should provide educational resources for low-income students during the summers so that they don't forget what they've learned throughout the school year.
• School Uniforms School uniforms may be an upfront cost for families, but they eradicate the visual differences in income between students and provide a more egalitarian atmosphere at school.
• Populism The rise in populism on the 2016 political stage was in reaction to increasing globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
• Public Libraries Libraries are essential resources for communities and should be funded more heavily by local municipalities.
• Cyber Bullying With more and more teens using smartphones and social media, cyber bullying is on the rise. Cyber bullying puts a lot of stress on many teens, and can cause depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Parents should limit the usage of smart phones, monitor their children's online activity, and report any cyber bullying to school officials in order to combat this problem.
• Medical Marijuana for Veterans Studies have shown that the use of medicinal marijuana has been helpful to veterans who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Medicinal marijuana prescriptions should be legal in all states and provided to these veterans. Additional medical or therapy services should also be researched and implemented in order to help them re-integrate back into civilian life.
• Work-Life Balance Corporations should provide more work from home opportunities and six-hour workdays so that office workers have a better work-life balance and are more likely to be productive when they are in the office.
• Teaching Youths about Consensual Sex Although sex education that includes a discussion of consensual sex would likely lead to less sexual assault, parents need to teach their children the meaning of consent from a young age with age appropriate lessons.
• Whether or Not to Attend University A degree from a university provides invaluable lessons on life and a future career, but not every high school student should be encouraged to attend a university directly after graduation. Some students may benefit from a trade school or a "gap year" where they can think more intensely about what it is they want to do for a career and how they can accomplish this.
• Studying Abroad Studying abroad is one of the most culturally valuable experiences you can have in college. It is the only way to get completely immersed in another language and learn how other cultures and countries are different from your own.
• Women's Body Image Magazines have done a lot in the last five years to include a more diverse group of models, but there is still a long way to go to promote a healthy woman's body image collectively as a culture.
• Cigarette Tax Heavily taxing and increasing the price of cigarettes is essentially a tax on the poorest Americans, and it doesn't deter them from purchasing. Instead, the state and federal governments should target those economically disenfranchised with early education about the dangers of smoking.
• Veganism A vegan diet, while a healthy and ethical way to consume food, indicates a position of privilege. It also limits you to other cultural food experiences if you travel around the world.
• University Athletes Should be Compensated University athletes should be compensated for their service to the university, as it is difficult for these students to procure and hold a job with busy academic and athletic schedules. Many student athletes on scholarship also come from low-income neighborhoods and it is a struggle to make ends meet when they are participating in athletics.
• Women in the Workforce Sheryl Sandberg makes a lot of interesting points in her best-selling book, Lean In , but she only addressed the very privileged working woman and failed to speak to those in lower-skilled, lower-wage jobs.
• Assisted Suicide Assisted suicide should be legal and doctors should have the ability to make sure their patients have the end-of-life care that they want to receive.
• Celebrity and Political Activism Although Taylor Swift's lyrics are indicative of a feminist perspective, she should be more politically active and vocal to use her position of power for the betterment of society.
• The Civil War The insistence from many Southerners that the South seceded from the Union for states' rights versus the fact that they seceded for the purposes of continuing slavery is a harmful myth that still affects race relations today.
• Blue Collar Workers Coal miners and other blue-collar workers whose jobs are slowly disappearing from the workforce should be re-trained in jobs in the technology sector or in renewable energy. A program to re-train these workers would not only improve local economies where jobs have been displaced, but would also lead to lower unemployment nationally.
• Diversity in the Workforce Having a diverse group of people in an office setting leads to richer ideas, more cooperation, and more empathy between people with different skin colors or backgrounds.
• Re-Imagining the Nuclear Family The nuclear family was traditionally defined as one mother, one father, and 2.5 children. This outdated depiction of family life doesn't quite fit with modern society. The definition of normal family life shouldn't be limited to two-parent households.
• Digital Literacy Skills With more information readily available than ever before, it's crucial that students are prepared to examine the material they're reading and determine whether or not it's a good source or if it has misleading information. Teaching students digital literacy and helping them to understand the difference between opinion or propaganda from legitimate, real information is integral.
• Beauty Pageants Beauty pageants are presented with the angle that they empower women. However, putting women in a swimsuit on a stage while simultaneously judging them on how well they answer an impossible question in a short period of time is cruel and purely for the amusement of men. Therefore, we should stop televising beauty pageants.
• Supporting More Women to Run for a Political Position In order to get more women into political positions, more women must run for office. There must be a grassroots effort to educate women on how to run for office, who among them should run, and support for a future candidate for getting started on a political career.

Still stuck? Need some help with your thesis statement?

If you are still uncertain about how to write a thesis statement or what a good thesis statement is, be sure to consult with your teacher or professor to make sure you're on the right track. It's always a good idea to check in and make sure that your thesis statement is making a solid argument and that it can be supported by your research.

After you're done writing, it's important to have someone take a second look at your paper so that you can ensure there are no mistakes or errors. It's difficult to spot your own mistakes, which is why it's always recommended to have someone help you with the revision process, whether that's a teacher, the writing center at school, or a professional editor such as one from ServiceScape .

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Rudeness and the Power of Kindness

Hi everyone,

Last week’s Grand Rounds by Gurpreet Dhaliwal came at the right time. During a week of news dominated by the trial of a former president, chaos on campus, and relentless war, Dr. Dhaliwal invited us to turn away from the troubles for an hour to consider the power of kindness.

Medical centers are microcosms of society. Like warring countries or polarized parties, we also have siloed groups with competing pressures and priorities. Too often, we abandon civility. How many of you saw yourselves in Dr. Dhaliwal’s videos? How many of you recognized the rude consultant or identified with his victim? How many of you felt uplifted by the second consultant, who was patient, curious, and kind?

Rudeness wrecks our psyches. It divides us and makes us defensive and irrational. We may delay calling consults to avoid being insulted. We may stop speaking with colleagues, staff, or patients to avoid being demeaned. We may defer asking questions, giving feedback, or resolving disputes to avoid being attacked. And maybe people avoid speaking with us sometimes for the same reasons.

But rudeness challenges us to respond with kindness. Rudeness often reflects internal distress, like fear, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and burn out. And kindness can disarm rudeness, defuse tension, and repair relationships.

Admittedly, it’s hard to be kind when you’re being attacked and feeling vulnerable. Sometimes you may need to extricate yourself. It demands discipline and practice to respond to rudeness with kindness, but kindness packs a superpower. Warm words, gentle smiles, and genuine empathy can deliver us from strife and shield us from despair. True kindness elevates us, allowing us to learn, discover, and heal.

So, let’s aim to be kind, even on our most difficult days, and even when—no, especially when—it seems impossible. May the world follow our lead.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. Today, I’m driving to Bar Harbor, where I’ll be spending the next two weeks, followed by a week in Nova Scotia. As always, pics to follow.

Take care and stay kind,

P.S. H/T to Dr. Dhaliwal for recommending this podcast: How Rude!

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Cannes Film Festival 2024: the 11 films set to cause a splash on the French Riviera from Furiosa to Bird

Cannes , the impossibly glamorous film festival on the French Riviera, opens today, bringing glitz and glamour – and a line-up of hugely anticipated films – from around the world.

The 77th edition of the festival promises dozens of illuminating and thought-provoking films, including sci-fi, thrillers, dark comedies, meditations on womanhood, explorations of marginalised lives, and various love stories.

Disappointingly, there are just four films directed by women competing for the Palme d’Or, against 18 by men, down from six last year. Those hoping to cause an upset in 2024 are Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (starring Dennis Quaid, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley), Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, Andrea Arnold’s Bird and Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond.

Still, women’s voices are expected to make noise: French actor and author Judith Godrèche, one of the most outspoken advocates for #MeToo in France (where the campaign didn’t make as much impact as it did elsewhere) will be sharing Moi Aussi (Me Too), a short film documenting hundreds of women’s stories of sexual abuse. It will be screened during the opening ceremony of Un Certain Regard.

Also sparking interest is Yolande Zauberman’s documentary The Belle from Gaza, which was written and filmed before the war and tells the story of a trans woman who chose to move from Gaza to Tel Aviv. There’s the extraordinarily well-timed The Apprentice, a biopic about Donald Trump, starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, and directed by Ali Abbasi – the director behind the phenomenal 2022 thriller Holy Spider.

This year’s jury of nine includes actors Lily Gladstone and Eva Green, director Nadine Labaki and script writer Ebru Ceylan. It is being led by Barbie director Greta Gerwig.

To celebrate the advent of the festival, here are 11 of this year’s most exciting films – one for each day of the competition.

In competition

Kinds of kindness.

Following hot on the heels of Oscar-winning Frankenstein comedy Poor Things, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is releasing another thought-provoking and challenging project – one that’s also starring Emma Stone , Margaret Qualley and Willem Dafoe . This time the film is a "triptych fable" set in the modern day, which promises, like all Lanthimos’s projects, to disturb and delight. The trailer alone, with shots of the starry cast cackling, licking, dancing, slapping and kissing to Eurythmics’s Sweet Dreams, sets the tone for the three chapters which are titled The Death of R.M.F, R.M.F. is Flying and R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich.

Paolo Sorrentino hit gold in 2013 with The Great Beauty, his opulent, cynical, Oscar-winning meditation on ambition and beauty. Ever since, fans of the Italian director have embraced his subsequent films, even if none have managed to hit those exalted heights. Perhaps Parthenope, a “feminine epic” set in Naples, following the life of a girl from 1950 till today, will mark that return to form.

All four of British director Andrea Arnold’s feature-length films have told stories of women; three specifically of young women. Now she once again applies her glorious, vivid filmmaking style to the story of 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) who is squatting with her single dad Bug ( Barry Keoghan ) and brother Hunter (Jason Buda) in Kent. The one British representative in competition this year.

Megalopolis

It’s been 13 years since Francis Ford Coppola released a film, 27 since The Rainmaker, his last celebrated release and 50 since The Godfather Part II. It means all eyes are on Megalopolis, a five-decade-long passion project written and directed by the 85-year-old legendary filmmaker (who, reportedly, spent $120 million of his own money making it happen). Adam Driver is Cesar, an architect with the power to control time, who is rebuilding a destroyed metropolis. He stars alongside Aubrey Plaza , Dustin Hoffman , Talia Shire, Jon Voight and Jason Schwartzman.

The Shrouds

Cronenberg, the master of body horror, brings another spine-tingling thriller to Cannes, this time telling the story of widower Karsh (a silver-haired Vincent Cassel) whose technology allows the dead to be monitored by their loved ones. Things go from sinister to truly dark when several graves on his land – including that of his wife – are desecrated, and he sets out to find the perpetrators.

Emilia Pérez

Starring Selena Gomez and billed as a musical-crime-comedy about a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes sex reassignment surgery, Jacques Audiard’s latest certainly has a strong hook. The French director’s record precedes him; his stellar CV which includes The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), A Prophet (2009), Rust and Bone (2012) and Dheepan (2015), have won numerous César Awards , the Palme d'Or and the Grand Prix at Cannes.

The acclaimed American Gigolo director, who also wrote Taxi Driver and co-wrote Raging Bull, presents Oh, Canada, an adaptation of a Russell Banks novel. Schrader’s first film in two years, it stars Richard Gere , Uma Thurman , Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi , and tells the story of a celebrated Canadian documentary filmmaker giving a confessional interview on camera to one of his students.

Out of Competition

Installation artist, director and screenwriter Guy Maddin, one of Canada’s most celebrated filmmakers, and his frequent collaborators Galen and Evan Johnson, present a bit of light relief. Set during a G7 summit, world leaders get lost in a wood together while preparing a joint statement. Cate Blanchett , Alicia Vikander and Charles Dance star.

Furiosa, A Mad Max Saga

George Miller ’s fifth Mad Max instalment is a revenge tale. The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor Joy is Furiosa, a girl snatched from her verdant childhood home by some biker warlords, who then spends the following years in the desert wasteland both plotting her escape and planning retribution. Also starring Chris Hemsworth , this is a much-anticipated return to Miller’s world for the origin story of the character played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road: fans will be thrilled to see more of the same aesthetic – orange sand, steampunk vehicles, shouty bald people, eccentric make-up, and lots and lots of explosions. 

Le Deuxième Acte

Simply say the words Louis Garrel and Lea Seydoux and the crowds will come running. The fact that the director is Quentin Dupieux, the director of the strange Deerskin (2019) and the joyfully silly Incredible but True (2022), still perhaps best known for his massive contribution to electronic music as Mr. Oizo, is the icing on the cake. Le Deuxième Acte is a screwball-esque scene: a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a spanner-in-the-works friend, and a dad and all go for dinner.

Cannes Premiere

C’est pas moi.

Leos Carax’s films are a blast of ideas and emotions; nearly always a thesis on love, nearly always bonkers. His last film, rock opera Annette, won Carax Best Director at Cannes in 2021; his 2012 film, Holy Motors, was described as “a lunatic odyssey” and “pure pleasure”. It means that this 40-minute self-reflective film, in which Carax looks over his oeuvre and reflects on key moments in his stellar career, has piqued a lot of interest.

Cannes Film Festival , May 14-May 25; festival-cannes.com

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