EVERY day, Nancy Havill tries to think kind thoughts about other people. Sometimes, she does this while sitting on a cushion in front of a candle and a bowl of smooth pebbles. "But I also like the informal practice, when I am walking around my neighbourhood, or from the bus stop, and I send random kind thoughts to the people I encounter," she says.
It all sounds rather New Age. But Havill is no credulous crystal-wielding hippy. She is a research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where psychologist Barbara Fredrickson has uncovered a surprising link between meditating on kind thoughts and a whole range of indicators of physical health and mental well-being. It might boost your immune system, protect you from cardiovascular disease, reduce vulnerability to stress, improve thinking and emotional control, and even raise levels of empathy, sociability and self-esteem.
Too good to be ...
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