It’s nice to be recognized for being nice, but the emotional benefits of doing something good for someone else abound regardless of whether the recipient notices. For example, if a man shovels snow off his next-door neighbor’s driveway, the gesture boosts the shoveler’s wellbeing even if the neighbor remains clueless.
Along similar lines, a new study highlights how doing the right thing or the kind thing for your significant other is rewarding in itself. Small, everyday gestures such as changing personal plans for your partner’s sake, doing something that shows you value them and expressing tenderness will boost your emotional wellbeing. If he or she happens to notice, great, but if not, your day will be the better for it. Promise.
For many years, I had a dark and dingy office with a soot-smeared window in a sterile hospital building. It was minimalist, to say the least: a bookshelf, a desk, a chair for me, and a sofa for my patients. Looking back, I think I had an unconscious hope that this no-frills telegraphed how seriously I took my job and that my office was a place for serious work with patients. In my mind, it was a place to get good work done. Period.
Had I known then what I know now about how one’s environment affects our wellbeing, at the very least, I would have had my windows cleaned! Our surroundings influence our bodies and our minds. Especially the amount of light we receive. Study after study shows the benefits of spending time in a light-filled environment:
1. Happiness
Workers with windows are more satisfied and less stressed than those who spend their days in windowless offices.
2. Improved Performance
Students perform better and are more attentive in classrooms with windows. In one studystudents in classrooms with the most daylight progressed 20 percent faster in math over one year compared to their peers with less light, and 26 percent faster in reading.
Patients recovering in sunny rooms have shorter hospital stays and require less pain medication than patients who have lousy views or no window at all.
5. More Ethical
Researchers found that well-lit environments increase honesty while darkness increases morally questionable behavior. As the researchers ask, why are we so stunned when we hear about a crime that occurred in “broad daylight.”
Imagine you are hearing/reading a news story reporting that a person was murdered in broad daylight while sitting on a park bench. Why does “broad daylight” attract your attention? Is it that people believe that good deeds happen when the sun is out? In contrast to the association between darkness and evil, light has always been a symbol of goodness.
Of course, the best way to experience the benefits of natural daylight is to go outside. A Washington, DC-based doctor literally prescribes time outdoors to his patients. No insurance pre-approval or co-pay needed!
While this might sound like a throwback to the good old days when doctors would send their patients to the countryside to recover from Tuberculosis or other ailments, I assure you that spending time outdoors is cutting edge medicine.
Mrs. S couldn’t talk, but she sure could sing. I met her when I was an intern in the neurology department. She had suffered a stroke which destroyed critical pathways on the left side of the brain – the part that controls speech. And yet, while the stroke had left her speechless, it didn’t stop her from belting out “Happy Birthday.”
This was not news to neurologists, though. For over a century, this phenomenon has been observed in stroke patients with left-side brain damage. What is newer is the finding that “singing therapy” can help some of these patients learn to speak again.
In addition to helping stroke victims, the health benefits of listening to music abound:
Music is Powerful
When we listen to our favorite songs, dopamine is released by two distinct areas of the brain—one involved with intense pleasure and the other involved with anticipation. This combinationmay explain why we love music so much.
Listening to soothing music has been shownto increase antibodies important for immunity.
Music Enhances Memory
“If I asked you to tell me a memory from high school, you would be able to tell me a memory,” says Salimpoor. “But, if you listened to a piece of music from high school, you would actually feel the emotions.”
Music is Physical
It enhances a workout and has been shownto increase physical performance.
Music Reduces Stress and Anxiety
One studyshows music is even more effective than medication in reducing anxiety in patients before surgery.
Music Makes us Happy
Music improvesmood. Even sad music has been shown to help people feel better.
Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology and author of “How the Mind Works,”captures the essence of music’s effect on our bodies and mind:
“I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of… our mental faculties.”
Studies have proven that we are what we eat. As in, it registers in our smell. And in a recent experiment, men who gobbled down raw garlic or swallowed garlic pills were asked to wear cotton pads under their armpits for 12 hours. These pads were then evaluated (yes, sniffed) by some very committed-to-science women. The women rated the garlic-eaters body odor to be more pleasant, attractive and masculine compared to garlic-free men.
Caveat: The experiment did not explore how the women felt about the garlic-eaters breath.
