Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Have you ever been to a quiet

pond where no wind is blowing and the water is crystal clear and there's not a ripple

on the surface and then you reach back and throw as hard as you can and a rock lands right in the middle.

And then after that, you see the ripples

spreading out further and further,

until the initial ripple from your rock reaches you in all the sides of the pond.

It's a beautiful, wonderful experience that I think we've all had.

Well, did you know our actions have the same impact in the world?

When we throw out hate or anger to the world,

that ripples, not only does it go to the people immediately around us, but from them it goes on and on and on.

And sometimes it can hurt a lot of people that one action that we or other people do. In the same way though, when we throw

kindness out and love, that ripple too goes out in places that we may never know, but I do believe that it keeps going

out and out and out, helping those who we give it to, and many, many more. I think there's a real tendency to think that our actions only

affect the people that we direct them to. It does impact them, good or bad, but I do believe it goes much further than that. And I believe when

we realize that, we will think more thoughtfully about what actions, what words, what behavior do I want to direct towards others.

Because we begin to realize that our actions matter, that our words have impact far beyond the

one spoken from our mouths. Think about how true this is on a global level. When we watch

the news and learn about some young man or woman who went

into a school and killed a whole lot of people, of course their families will be devastated

by this murder. But many people, perhaps billions,

feel the effects of those gunshots and how it has impacted our world. But the same is true when we see actions of kindness, of love.

When we learned about Mother Teresa of Calcutta reaching out to the poorest of the poor and giving them love,

...