Why Being Kind Can Make You Healthy | World Humanitarian Day | practice English with Spotlight

[music] >> Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Adam Navis. >> And I'm Katie Blake. Spotlight uses [music] a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world [music] they live. >> Imagine a long dirt road. The country around it is dry. Small brown plants grow from the dry ground. A man lies on the side of the road. He is very hurt. Thieves have taken his money. They have beaten him very badly. Without help, he will die. Soon, two people from his country walk by. But they do not stop to help. Both believe they are too busy. Then a third man passes by. He is not from the man's country. Instead, he is from a foreign country. In fact, these two countries are at war. But instead of passing by, this third man stops. The third man shows kindness. He helps the injured man onto his donkey. He takes him into his home. He cares for the injured man and nurses him back to health. It does not matter to this third man if the injured man is from a different country. He sees someone who is in trouble and he helps. >> This is a story from the Christian Bible. It is called the story of the good Samaritan. It tells Christian believers to be kind even to their enemies. Most religions have stories like this. Most religions tell us to be kind to each other. These may seem like commands given with little reason. But did you know there are also scientific reasons why a person should be kind? Kind people are happier. And they may even live longer. Today's spotlight is on the science of being kind. >> Most people know that being kind feels good. Helping someone in need makes us feel positive. And giving a gift to a friend feels as good as receiving one. But for most of human history, no one could say why. Giacomo Rizzolatti is an Italian scientist. He studies how the brain works. In the 1980s, he and his colleagues performed an experiment that showed a lot about kindness. Rizzolatti used electrical scans to examine the brains of monkeys. When a monkey did something, part of the brain would show activity. >> Then, Rizzolatti discovered something amazing. Sometimes, the monkeys would watch each other. When watching, their brains were also active. But, they were active in the same way the other monkeys were. When one monkey reached out his hand, the other monkey's brain looked as if it would doing the same. It was not reaching out. But, the watching monkey's brain experienced the event as if it were. Only special parts of the brain acted this way. Rizzolatti called them mirror neurons. Soon, he and his colleagues discovered the same thing in humans. >> Mirror neurons are very important to the science of kindness. Mirror neurons are the part of our brain that lets us feel what other people feel. They allow us to empathize. V.S. Ramachandran is a neuroscientist. He studies mirror neurons. He spoke to Greater Good magazine about why he thinks mirror neurons are important for empathy. >> These mirror neurons are involved in empathy for pain. To really empathize with your pain, I need to experience it myself. That is what the mirror neurons are doing. They help me to feel your pain. I experience the same pain as if someone were to hurt me directly. That is the basis for all empathy. >> Empathy is the first step toward kindness. It lets us know when people are sad or hurt. We know mirror neurons help us feel other people's pain. But mirror neurons also allow us to feel when other people are happy. When we see others smile, we also smile. In being kind to others, we feel their happiness. >> The happiness we get from being kind also may be good for our health. When we are kind, our brain releases chemicals called neurotransmitters. Some neurotransmitters make us frightened >> [music] >> or angry. But the neurotransmitters released in kindness have positive effects. They make us feel good about our relationships and more confident. But they also help our bodies. Oxytocin is one neurotransmitter released during a kind act. Oxytocin prevents stress, but it also lowers blood pressure. Marci Hall is a psychiatrist at University Hospitals in Ohio in the United States. She spoke to the Healthy at UH podcast about the benefits of these neurotransmitters. >> Kindness [music] actually protects your heart. It improves your body's disease-fighting system. It improves your energy. It reduces aches and pains. It can lead to a longer life. In the process, you also feel better about yourself. >> Kindness and empathy are also very important to human society. They keep our relationships healthy. The good feelings we get [music] from kindness make us want to help other people. And they encourage different groups of people to work together. Without empathy, our communities would be very different. They might not exist at all. >> One well-known theory is described as survival of the fittest. >> [music] >> This idea is based on a theory by Charles Darwin. This theory says that the strongest and best people are the ones who will survive and continue. But Helen Reese disagrees with this idea. Reese is the director of a program that teaches people how to use and improve empathy. She wrote a paper called The Science of Empathy. In it, she explained why people have empathy. >> Why is the human brain designed this way? If life were only the result of survival of the fittest, we would only fight people. We would not care about responding to suffering. Our ability to see others suffering allows us to feel and understand their pain. The personal distress we feel often influences us to show kindness. The survival of humans depends on helping others. Being kind reduces our own distress. >> Kindness is not just something nice you do for someone. Kindness is part of what makes us human. Without it, we would not be able to work together. We would not want to. Henry James was a famous English and American author. He wrote many books [music] that explored the human experience. In 1902, James spoke to a young family member. James told the young man these wise words. >> Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is >> [music] >> to be kind. >> Do you think kindness is important in your life? Tell us about one time you were kind. How did it feel? You can email us at contact at spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. >> The writer of this program was Dan Chrisman. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called Why being kind can make you healthy. >> Visit our website at www.spotlightenglish.com to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye. >> [music]