The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is Kindness so our teams have been sprinkling kindness a little more than usual this week. In addition to running online puppy events, canine support sessions to schools, workplaces and hospitals, our teams have been going the extra mile by sending out extra videos and letters of support and even surprising children with socially distanced visits from our dogs.
Kindness matters. And it can make a huge difference to us all.
The Mental Health Foundation has conducted a new survey into kindness, which has found almost two-thirds of us say that when people are kind to them, it has a positive impact on their mental health.
The results also found that almost two-thirds of people find that being kind to others has a positive impact on their mental health and almost three-quarters of us say it is important we learn from the coronavirus pandemic to be more kind as a society.
Forty-eight percent of the people surveyed said being kind “to myself” had a positive impact on their mental health.
Kindness is an important value that CAWG teaches in all areas of our work, be it helping children understand how to build and maintain positive friendships, be kind with their words to others and learn to love and care for themselves.
Kindness also forms part of our wellbeing sessions where self care and self love are an important foundation of the sessions.
The benefits of kindness extend even further than impacting our emotional wellbeing. It can help your immune system, reduce stress, give you energy, is good for your heart, can slow ageing and improve relationships. No wonder kindness makes us feel so good!!