Love and Kindness

"We've learned to fly the air like birds. We've learned to swim the seas like fish. And yet, we haven't learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters." 
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

For many years I have known the impact of love and kindness on our physical health. I have shared stories of this impact. Recently, I read the following in Dr. Kelli Harding's new book, "The Rabbit Effect".

"Our physical health and well-being is intimately connected to our social and emotional health. In the 1970's we found rabbits developed heart diseases like humans if fed a diet high in fat. When fed diets heavy in fat, the rabbits had high cholesterol and high blood pressure. They were destined for heart attack and stroke. All of them were going to die because of their diet. All of them except those that were loved. One group of rabbits had significantly less fatty deposits in their arteries. The rabbits with healthy hearts had been touched, cuddled, petted and talked to by their post doc lab worker. Because they were loved they would live.

Kindness and love make a difference in our overall health and well-being. Ultimately, what affects our health in the most meaningful ways has as much to do with how we treat one another, how we live, and how we talk about what it means to be human then with anything that happens in the doctors office." 

- Dr. Kelli Harding

Social Emotional Learning is intimately connected to our health and wellness. Social Emotional Learning is the convergence point for health, wellness, trauma informed care, diversity, equity, relationships and community. Social Emotional Learning connects love and kindness to how we treat ourselves, how we treat each other, and how we treat our world.