It was exciting to watch Peyton Manning at the Colts’ game yesterday, but Peyton gave the lingering crowd an added bonus as he walked off the field at the game’s end.

Peyton was the last player to leave the field. A crowd had gathered on the bleachers near the exit off the field. As Peyton looked up to the crowd, he waved his hand, his face radiating sincere appreciation and warmth for his lingering fans.

Suddenly a young boy somehow broke out of the stands and ran onto the field to encircle his small arms around Peyton’s leg. Peyton reached down, tossled his hair, and hugged him back. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Peyton must have caught a glimpse of someone (probably his stunned mother or father) trying to snap a quick picture.  

Peyton paused to pose. Picture taken, Peyton’s eye caught something else, and the next thing we saw was Peyton motioning as if to say, “Come on, quickly. It’s OK.” Now another little boy ran to Peyton to hug his other leg, and Peyton patiently posed with the two boys while another camera flash ensued. Then, with a turn, he exited the field.

As we ascended the stairs to exit Lucas Oil Stadium, I’m pretty certain we weren’t the only ones commenting about Peyton’s kindness to those two little boys, or the genuine glowing warmth that radiated from his eyes as he acknowledged the crowd. Every single person seemed to be engaged in a similar discussion. We had just received an important lesson about gratitude and kindness.

Grandma used to say, “What goes around, comes around.” The sincerity and kindness expressed to the crowd and those two little boys makes it easy to understand why his fans love him and support him. Gratitude and kindness extended to others is surely to find its way back to the sender.

Research has demonstrated that when someone merely witnesses a kindness extended to another person, the observer equally benefits physiologically. In that one minute of Peyton’s kindness, the benefits rippled out to every single person in the crowd.

Kindness has a way of melting away stress, slowing the breathing, relaxing the body…and the adrenals get a breath of fresh air.

When you find yourself stressed, two wonderful techniques for adrenal health include:

1)      Stop what you are doing. Make yourself pause and express gratitude for the situation you find yourself in, or for other parts of your life for which you are most grateful.

2)      Stop what you are doing. Take a quick break to do something nice for someone else. Make a phone call, send an email, or just walk around to someone’s cubicle and say something nice.

Gratitude and kindness are two tools for adrenal health that have a reciprocal benefit to the sender as well as the receiver. Thanks, Peyton, for reminding us of that lesson.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 4:43 am and is filed under Adrenal Stress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.