Page 60 - Charlotte Summer 2017

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by Priya Advani
Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
My daughter and I were on our way the chance to help others, and by the
back to our apartment when she sud- display of kindness that I received, it
denly slipped on wet concrete in the seemed that others felt the same way.
garage. She would be confined to a My medical mind began to ponder. I
wheelchair and crutches for the next wondered, “What happens to our bod-
several weeks. A week before her fall, I ies, physiologically, when helping others
had severely sprained my left shoulder. through random acts of kindness, and
I wasn’t able to get her wheelchair into what are the mechanisms that are ac-
or out of my car without assistance. For tivated when this happens?” I was on a
weeks, I had to ask random people to mission to find my answers.
help me. I was incredibly touched by Research reveals that doing good deeds,
how everyone was so helpful, without or kind acts, can make socially-anxious
any hesitation. There were times when people feel better. For four weeks, the
people would offer assistance, without University of British Columbia research-
me even asking.
ers assigned people with high levels of
I know how happy I feel when I get anxiety to do kind acts for other people