For humans at least, “survival of the fittest” means survival of the kindest.

“This new science of altruism and the physiological underpinnings of compassion is finally catching up with Darwin’s observations nearly 130 years ago, that sympathy is [humanity's] strongest instinct.”

“Sympathy is indeed wired into our brains and bodies; and it spreads from one person to another through touch.”

These are the findings reported by Dacher Keltner, psychologist and author of “Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life,” and other researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Their research puts a fine point on Darwin’s theory – which to me is no longer a theory – that humans have evolved in ways that promote the propagation of kindness and compassion into future generations. For humans at least, “survival of the fittest” means survival of the kindest.

“Because of our very vulnerable offspring, the fundamental task for human survival and gene replication is to take care of others,” said Keltner. “Human beings have survived as a species because we have evolved the capacities to care for those in need and to cooperate. As Darwin long ago surmised, sympathy is our strongest instinct.”

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Organizations and businesses are wise to invest in employee personal happiness.

“The benefits of a psychologically well work force are quite consequential to employers, especially so in our highly troubled economic environment,” Kansas State University researcher Thomas Wright said in a recent article published in the Journal of Management. “Simply put, psychologically well employees are better performers. Since higher employee performance is inextricably tied to an organization’s bottom line, employee well-being can play a key role in establishing a competitive advantage.”

Methods to improve well-being include assisting workers so they fit their jobs more closely, providing social support to help reduce the negative impact of stressful jobs, and teaching optimism to emphasize positive thought patterns.

None of this is new to those NLP practitioners and coaches working with organizations. The importance of this report is as it relates to a business’ competitive edge. In today’s market of rapidly diminishing returns on investment (ROI), perhaps the best ROI is that invested in employee job satisfaction. And to do that, organizations and businesses are wise to invest in employee personal happiness.

The job is not entirely what makes people happy. People can make themselves happy with their jobs. To be happy you must either do a job you love or love the job you do. Either way, you love your job. And when you love your job, magic occurs. Oh, yes, indeed!!

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My thanks to John Phillips for this little jewel.

“If I had my life to live over again, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I’d limber up. I’d be sillier than I’ve been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would, perhaps, have more actual troubles but fewer imaginary ones. You see, I’m one of those people who was sensible and sane, hour after hour, day after day.

Oh, I’ve had my moments. If I had it to do over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else- just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I could do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances, I would ride more merry-go-rounds, I would pick daisies.” –Nadine Stair at age 89

Increased well-being from an £800 course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being.

Research by Chris Boyce of the University of Warwick and Alex Wood of the University of Manchester in the UK finds that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money. After comparing large data sets of thousands of people, they showed that the increase in well-being from an £800 course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being.

Over the last 50 years developed countries have not seen any increases to national happiness in spite of huge economic gains. Mental health on the other hand appears to be deteriorating worldwide.

Chris Boyce: “We have shown that psychological therapy could be much more cost effective than financial compensation at alleviating psychological distress. This is not only important in courts of law, where huge financial awards are the default way in which pain and suffering are compensated, but has wider implications for public health and well-being.”

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Here’s a great exercise for self improvement! According to new research by Prof. Avi Karni and Dr. Maria Korman of the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Haifah, a ninety minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of long term memory consolidation. Now that is a self-help regimen I can get on board with!

“We still don’t know the exact mechanism of the memory process that occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation, and in the future, we may be able to do it artificially,” said Prof. Karni.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Artificial sleep! (What? Like hypnosis or Rapid Eye Technology?!!)

In the study, the group that slept in the afternoon showed a distinct improvement in their task performance by that evening, as opposed to the group that stayed awake, which did not exhibit any improvement. Following an entire night’s sleep, both groups exhibited the same skill level. “This part of the research showed that a daytime nap speeds up performance improvement in the brain. After a night’s sleep the two groups were at the same level, but the group that slept in the afternoon improved much faster than the group that stayed awake,” stressed Prof. Karni.

A second experiment showed that another aspect of memory consolidation is accelerated by sleep. It was previously shown that during the 6-8 hours after completing an effective practice session, the neural process of “how” memory consolidation is susceptible to interference, such that if, for example, one learns or performs a second, different task, one’s brain will not be able to successfully remember the first trained task. However, when a group of participants was allowed a 90 minute nap between learning the first set of movements and the second, they did not show much improvement in the evening, but on the following morning these participants showed a marked improvement of their performance, as if there had been no interference at all.

“This part of the study demonstrated, for the first time, that daytime sleep can shorten the time “how to” memory becomes immune to interference and forgetting. Instead of 6-8 hours, the brain consolidated the memory during the 90 minute nap,” explains Prof. The elucidation of the actual mechanisms involved, say the researchers, could enable the development of methods to accelerate memory consolidation in adults and to create stable memories in a short time.

Until then, if you need to memorize something quickly or if your schedule is filled with different activities that require learning “how” to do things, it may be worthwhile to find the time for an afternoon nap. Or you could learn self-hypnosis or Rapid Eye Technology (RET)