大象传媒

In this episode Ella Scotland Waters rounds off her week of kindness experiments meeting strangers and asking them about kindness. Today she meets a young man who grew up as a Jehovah's Witness. When he left the faith five years ago he moved to Bristol and relied on the kindness of strangers to settle. He talks about the meaning of kindness as he now sees it having moved away from the religious concept of being a good and kind person. He meets Margaret who Ella met in the corner shop at the beginning of the week and surprises her when she returns home with a small gift of tea and biscuits. He reflects on how he used to knock on doors as a Jehovah's Witness offering eternal life, and how now knocking on strangers' doors to give them a small gift as a token of kindness is an uplifting way of making connections in your community.
The young man who stopped to offer Ella kindness a few months ago returns to reflect on how the story of his act of kindness has reverberated through his workplace with positive results and how the praise he has received for doing something however small for someone has given him a lot to think about.
Professor Bruce Hood of the School of Psychological Science sets out the physical and mental benefits to us of being kind and says that these small acts help not only other people but also ourselves. And if we can practise kindness regularly it can have profound effects on our wellbeing.

Producer: Maggie Ayre