For the Love of Kindness
Everyone knows that spending time in Forest Park is fun . . . but did you know it can even help you live longer?

The Park provides green space for all St. Louisans to play and relax together. Being together helps us develop empathy, the ability to see the world through others’ eyes. And empathy leads to kindness, which leads to happiness and a longer life.

In fact, scientists have found that simply seeing other people being kind produces the hormone oxytocin, the “love hormone.” Actually being kind yourself produces serotonin, another powerful “feel-good chemical.”

Together, these chemicals lift our mood, improve heart health and lower blood pressure. The long-term effects are real, even for acts as simple as volunteering.

“People 55 and older who volunteer for two or more organizations have an impressive 44% lower likelihood of dying early,” Christine Carter notes in her book Raising Happiness: In Pursuit of Joyful Kids and Happier Parents.

Which leads us to the #1 item on our list of Five Ways Loving Forest Park Can Make You Kinder, Happier and Live Longer!

1.     Volunteering
Forest Park Forever offers volunteer opportunities galore. From clearing honeysuckle to tracking donations, anyone — of any age — can find a way to help the Park.

And if you enjoy working hand-in-hand with others, Fortune 500 companies, church groups and classrooms alike love helping with the Park’s volunteer projects.

However, Forest Park Forever’s many opportunities are only part of the story.

“Forest Park Forever partners with organizations like Explore St. Louis and all of the institutions in the Park to share volunteers and best practices,” Forest Park Forever Director of Community Engagement Anne Grossmann told the Forest Park Forever Blog this spring. “All of the institutions’ volunteer coordinators meet quarterly.”

“We have a niche because many nonprofits have limited capacity for volunteers,” Grossmann added. “We are well connected in the volunteer community, so we can help connect companies to other groups if we need to — though there is always plenty to do out in the Park!” 

2.     Learning to Slow Down
Just making time for a walk in the Park can help us restore natural order within ourselves.

Anne Jay understands this well. A speech therapist and writer, she started walking daily in the Park when her kids were going to school in the Central West End.

After dropping them off, she would take a stroll with her dogs. She became familiar not only with her favorite haunts — Art Hill, the Kennedy Forest, the vast formal spaces — but also with the “regulars.”

“There was a group of men I’d see walking together all the time,” she recalls. “I never knew their names, but I gave them names in my head. We’d check in with each other when we passed.”

One year, Jay broke her ankle, but it didn’t keep her from walking in the Park — on crutches.

“I was going slowly, so that meant conversations were possible,” Jay says. “That taught me that if you want to meet people, you have to slow down.” 

3.     Appreciating People
Big Park events like the Balloon Glow, the GO! St. Louis Marathon and the St. Louis Symphony’s annual fall concert on Art Hill bring tens of thousands of people to the Park.

For some people, the crowds are intimidating. But not for Kelly Kennison.

“I love the feeling of a collection of people being together and interested in the same thing at the same time,” she says.

“There’s something awe-inspiring about seeing that many people, gathered together in peace.”

Kennison’s mother, Bonnie Thompson, agrees.

“Everything is free, and the people take advantage of that in such a good way,” says Thompson, whose full-time home is in North Palm Beach, Florida.

“Everybody is just here to enjoy the Park and each other,” she says. “I’ve never run into rude people. People in the Park are always very kind.”

4. Finding Peace
Kevin Moeller bikes 20 miles around Forest Park every morning before starting his busy day as a chemistry professor at Washington University. But first, he rides five miles to the Park from his home in the St. Louis County community of Overland.

“It’s like a mini-vacation before work,” says Moeller. As leader of the Moeller Research Group at the university, he uses electrochemistry to study how molecules are formed.

Moeller adds that enjoying nature is an important part of his workday, just as working to understand nature is an important part of his life.

“I’m not sure if I ride in the Park because I love nature, or if I love nature because I ride in the Park,” Moeller wonders. “But I know that this Park is one of the things that has kept me here. It’s such a peaceful way to start the day.” 

5.     Joining Forest Park Forever
In 2010, the Harvard Business School found that people who give to charity are the happiest people overall — a finding that held up across 136 different countries!

So to become a kinder, happier person with a longer life, do something nice for yourself today by joining Forest Park Forever at 50 percent off . . . For the Love of the Park!