This week is random acts of kindness week and showing kindness to yourself and others helps improve your mood and the community around you.

Mary Morehouse, a therapist from Insight Counseling Therapist, says the best way to start with Random Acts of Kindness Week is to be kind to yourself.

“So it increases oxytocin,” says Mary, “which helps lower our blood pressure, helps our heart rates. And so it actually has medical reasons.”

According to a fun fact Morehouse shared, for people 55 and older, If you volunteer at two different organizations, you have a 44% less chance of dying early.

When helping out others Mary says to focus on doing small things that you would like to happen for you. She also mentions that kindness is contagious, so why not start getting more people to be nicer to one another.