CHALLENGE: Be Kinder

Make warmth and gentleness your superpowers this month.

- BY KAITLYN PHOENIX

Take a moment to think about a time when you were struggling and someone helped. Maybe you were a dollar short at the checkout and the person behind you spotted you the cash. Or perhaps as you were making your way to the train with a baby stroller and too many bags, a stranger swooped in to carry the stroller down the stairs to the platform.

The assistance probably saved you a lot of frustration (and tears, if you were especially stressed) but didn't require much effort from the other person. "You never know how a small act of kindness is going to be helpful for someone else, because often you don't get that feedback," says Kelli Harding, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and the author of The Rabbit Effect. "But it's really important to remember those moments in your own life and pay it forward to other people."

When someone aids another person, it benefits both parties. "Acts of kindness and generosity activate the same brain centers as getting money or food or even sex," says Dr. Harding. "It's all the same reward pathway in the brain, which is very reassuring: Kindness is innate to our humanness." This means that doing these sorts of thoughtful things is actually fundamental to our health.

No one is kind 24/7, but we can all look for opportunities to exercise our kindness muscle. This month, sprinkle more generosity into your daily life.

WEEK 1 START WITHIN YOUR HOUSEHOLD.

When you wake up, give your partner or kid a hug if they're open to it, suggests Dr. Harding.

Later, send a text to say how grateful you are for them.