Monday is Random Acts of Kindness Day and for many it’s the time to help people out. However, it turns out, providing others with kindness can also help your own health.

Michelle Buglas a Mental Health and Addictions Manager with the Saskatchewan Health Authority says that kindness can go along way for someone who receives it, but also has benefits for the person being kind.

“When we’re feeling kind, or when you increase sort of your happiness in your body, it releases things like serotonin and other endorphins , that are going to help our mental health. It can help with depression and anxiety by improving our mood. It can help with pain, by releasing endorphins , it can help reduce stress, reduce our blood pressure. There’s just a number of physical and mental benefits that we get from spreading kindness.”

Buglas mentioned that small gestures can go a long way to making someone’s day and in turn paying that feeling forward.

“If someone let’s you in, in traffic, let’s you merge or waves you ahead of them at a four way stop. That too increases your feeling of happiness and contentment and you’re going to spread that to someone else, maybe let someone else in, and maybe then they’re happier when the get home. So it can be as simple as a kind gesture.”

Even witnessing an act of kindness will increase our own happiness, which will make us feel better and hopefully encourage us to pay it forward.

While the day itself spreads a great message, Buglas hopes that this can continue any day at any time.