{"id":12381,"date":"2018-06-11T03:46:26","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T03:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2018-06-12T03:48:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T03:48:58","slug":"why-mister-rogers-message-of-love-and-kindness-is-good-for-your-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-mister-rogers-message-of-love-and-kindness-is-good-for-your-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mister Rogers’ message of love and kindness is good for your health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Gunderman<\/a>, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The release of the Mister Rogers documentary, \u201cWon\u2019t You Be My Neighbor?\u201d<\/a> calls to mind the essential message of Rogers\u2019 long-running children\u2019s program, \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u201d Fred McFeely Rogers<\/a>, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to millions of children what his faith\u2019s General Assembly<\/a> referred to as \u201cunconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n

In preaching love, Rogers wasn\u2019t just attending to the moral character of his youthful audience. He believed that he was also promoting their health. As he said in 1979<\/a>, \u201cMy whole approach in broadcasting has always been, \u2018You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.\u2019 Maybe I\u2019m going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Rogers\u2019 death, evidence has mounted that he was on to something \u2013 namely, that love and kindness truly are healthful, and that people who express them regularly really do lead healthier lives. Simply put, people who are generous and volunteer their time for the benefit of others seem to be happier than those who don\u2019t, and happy people<\/a> tend to have fewer health complaints and live longer than those who are unhappy.<\/p>\n

Love gave rise to a calling<\/h2>\n

Born in Pennsylvania in 1928, as a young minister Rogers regretted the messages television was conveying to children in the 1960s. He said<\/a>, \u201cI went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there\u2019s some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen.\u201d \u201cMr. Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood\u201d debuted nationally in 1968 and won its creator and host many accolades<\/a>, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Peabody Awards, and over 40 honorary degrees.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Fred Rogers with Pres. George W. Bush, who is about to place the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rogers in a July 9, 2002 ceremony.<\/span>
\n Kenneth Lambert\/AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rogers believed that the need to love and be loved was universal, and he sought to cultivate these capacities through every program, saying in a 2004 documentary<\/a> hosted by actor Michael Keaton, one of his former stagehands, \u201cYou know, I think everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable. And consequently, the greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know they\u2019re loved and capable of loving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love and health<\/h2>\n

As it turns out, there are many ways in which love and kindness are good for health. For one thing, they tend to reduce factors<\/a> that undermine it. Doing something nice for someone causes the release of endorphins, which help to relieve pain. People who make kindness a habit have lower levels of stress hormones<\/a> such as cortisol. Intentionally helping others can even lower levels of anxiety<\/a> in individuals who normally avoid social situations.<\/p>\n

Carrying out acts of kindness, or even merely witnessing<\/a> them, also increases levels of oxytocin<\/a>, a hormone with health benefits<\/a> as diverse as lowering blood pressure, promoting good sleep and reducing cravings for drugs such as cocaine and alcohol. That oxytocin should have so many health benefits is not so surprising when we recall its central role in stimulating uterine contractions during birth, the letdown of milk during lactation, the pleasure associated with orgasm and pair bonding.<\/p>\n

Acts of generosity and compassion also appear to be good for mood. A 2010 study<\/a> showed that while people with money tend to be somewhat happier than those without it, people who spend money on others report even greater levels of happiness, an effect that can be detected even in toddlers. When people give money to others, areas of the brain associated with pleasure<\/a> are activated, and this response is greater when the transfer is voluntary rather than mandatory.<\/p>\n

Such happiness can have big benefits in longevity. For example, a review<\/a> of 160 published studies concluded that there is compelling evidence that life satisfaction and optimism are associated with better health and enhanced longevity. Another study<\/a> of older people showed that, even after correcting for other factors such as age, disease and health habits, those who rated their happiness highest were 35 percent less likely to die in five years than those who were least content.<\/p>\n

What would Mister Rogers say?<\/h2>\n

Of course, Rogers would remind us that there are reasons to be committed to love and kindness that extend far beyond their health benefits. Rogers was, after all, not a physician but a minister, and ultimately he was ministering to an aspect of human wholeness that cannot be analyzed by blood tests or visualized with CT scans. In a commencement address<\/a> at Dartmouth College in 2002, he focused less on the body than what he might have called the spirit:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say it\u2019s you I like, I\u2019m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n A pair of Mister Rogers\u2019 sneakers at the LBJ Library exhibition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pres. Johnson signing the public broadcasting act in 1967.<\/span>
\n Jay Godwin\/LBJ Foundation<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Rogers encouraged children to be kinder and more loving, he believed that he was not only promoting public health but also nurturing the most important part of a human being \u2013 the part that exhibits a divine spark. As Rogers indicated in another commencement speech<\/a> the year before at Middlebury College, \u201cI believe that appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what\u2019s best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we\u2019re doing what God does; so in appreciating our neighbor, we\u2019re participating in something truly sacred.\u201d<\/p>\n

In expressing such deeply religious sentiments, Rogers was not trying to undermine a concern with bodily health. In fact, he regularly encouraged his viewers to adopt healthy life habits, and Rogers himself was a committed vegetarian<\/a> and lifelong swimmer who maintained a low body weight his entire life. Yet he also believed that health alone does not a full life make, and he regarded the soundness of the body as but part of the wellness of whole persons and communities, which may explain why he was able to face his own mortality with such equanimity.<\/p>\n

Just a few months before he died, Rogers recorded a message<\/a> for the many adult fans who had grown up watching \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u201d In it, he practiced what he preached, saying:<\/p>\n

\"The\u201cI would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger. I like you just the way you are. And what\u2019s more, I\u2019m so grateful to you for helping the children in your life to know that you\u2019ll do everything you can to keep them safe. And to help them express their feelings in ways that will bring healing in many different neighborhoods. It\u2019s such a good feeling to know that we\u2019re lifelong friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Gunderman<\/a>, Chancellor’s Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Gunderman, Indiana University The release of the Mister Rogers documentary, \u201cWon\u2019t You Be My Neighbor?\u201d calls to mind the essential message of Rogers\u2019 long-running children\u2019s program, \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u201d Fred McFeely Rogers, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":12382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[3997,4627,3806,3241,1692],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12383,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions\/12383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}