In a World Where You Can Be Anything, Be Kind | Dr. Kelli Harding

Today’s guest is Kelli Harding - a medical and public health doctor based in New York City whose goal is to make the world a kinder and healthier place for everybody. She wrote a critically acclaimed book about social connection and health, The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness. As a medical doctor Kelli believes everybody deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion, and kindness while receiving the best evidence-based medical care.

She is Board-certified in Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, and trained in psychiatry and research at Columbia University, where she continues to teach. She also has a degree in public health from Columbia University.  Kelli's work has been featured across media outlets including on Today, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Medscape, BBC World, Oprah.com, The World Economic Forum, LA Times, Parents Magazine, and Prevention. She’s also the co-founder of Our Kind of Club, a global, inclusive, action-oriented kindness movement—you can learn more and sign up at kellihardingmd.com

Kelli shares:  "All my years of education and research have taught me that the best care comes down to treating every person with kindness."

In today’s episode we dive deep into Kelli's work around kindness, including: 

• Kelli’s journey in medicine, how she found kindness, and why it’s become a central focus in her work, and everything she does
• The health implications of kindness
• Practices for incorporating kindness into the busyness of everyday life
• Kelli’s incredible story of meeting a Nobel Peace Prize winner and what she learned from her about kindness and compassion
• Kelli’s thoughts about kindness as a form of courage, including responding to harsh circumstances and adversity with an open heart
• Kelli’s views on whether kindness has a role in high performance cultures in healthcare and beyond
• The role of kindness in a life well lived and why kindness may be what matters most at the end of life

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The Practicing Courage Community launched last week. This is a free space where we are dedicated to exploring what it means to live well, and engaging in practices that support finding the courage to do so. In less than a week hundreds of people around the world have already joined the community. If you’re a part of it, thank you for joining. If you haven’t joined yet, but are curious about it you can find all the details and sign up for free at practicing courage.com/join-community

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