There’s a media phenomenon taking some sections of our nation by storm at the moment.  It’s a reality TV series called Love Island. In a nutshell here’s what happens: the programme makers take a group of youngish adults to a romantic tropical island location and film the ups and downs of courtship.  The public vote people off and the couple left standing at the end of the series win a nice sum of £50,000.

All kinds of people are hooked on this series for all kinds of reasons: some want to see the glamour, some the drama and some are interested in the human psychology and non-verbal behaviour (and probably the drama).

Our own Love Island

The popularity of this programme got me thinking.  We live on an Island. There’s a famous Jimi Hendrix quote ““When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

So perhaps rather than a reality TV show, we should try to make love/kindness/friendship whatever you want to call it, our reality.

Too absurd?

Is it too absurd to think that we could have a Love Island right here?  England, Scotland and Wales have some fantastic beaches. Given the right weather and a little imagination, the beaches on the West Coast of Scotland, Wales and certainly east Yorkshire, could be a tropical paradise.

Could we make our own Love Island?

Obviously, I’m not thinking only of courting couples here and there wouldn’t be any voting off on our real Love Island, but what if we could let the power of love overcome the love of power? What would life be like?

The power of a smile

It’s a fact that smiles are contagious.  If you approach someone with a smile on your face the chances are they will smile back.  There’s chemistry in a smile.  When you smile the very act results in the release of endorphins – feel good hormones.  So, by smiling you are making yourself happier and spreading that happiness to others.

Giving and Receiving

Random acts of kindness are well documented.  We know that we feel good if someone does a kind act for us. There was an account recently of a fire fighter who arrived at a food counter to find that someone had paid for his order.  The fire fighter was positively gushing in his appreciation – quite right too.  Did you know that giving also creates a feeling of positivity in the person doing the gifting?  This doesn’t have to be a monetary thing.  Giving can be a simple as helping someone across the road, checking in on a neighbour or volunteering for a charity. 

The science behind kindness

There has been plenty of research about the effects of kindness.  To be clear the researchers define kindness as “more than behaviour. The art of kindness means harbouring a spirit of helpfulness, as well as being generous and considerate, and doing so without expecting anything in return. Kindness is a quality of being. The act of giving kindness often is simple, free, positive and healthy.”

So you can’t do one random act of kindness each day and then be mean spirited the rest of the time – you won’t get the same results. Kindness has to be your philosophy.   But get this, “Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood. It can decrease blood pressure and cortisol, a stress hormone, which directly impacts stress levels. People who give of themselves in a balanced way also tend to be healthier and live longer”

So having kindness as our philosophy, how we react to situations and face daily life, can actually make us healthier, happier and we’ll live longer.

Love Island – lets go for it!

Now that I’ve researched kindness, happiness and giving I can see that the concept of our Island nation being a Love Island would be wonderful.  I guess we’d have to work at it. We all have bad days when we don’t feel like smiling.  Stuff happens to us all. Perhaps though we could try to work on reducing the amount of bad.  Maybe try smiling. Just turn up the corners of your mouth and let those endorphins flow. We could all be winners on our own Love Island!

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”. Dalai Lama

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