Compassion and kindness are an act of self-love. Each time we lessen the suffering of another we alleviate the suffering in ourselves.
Today, why not take action within your schools, workplaces and local neighborhoods to help people and communities thrive? It’s so important to look after each other within our communities. This is how we protect and sustain good mental health for all.
1. Helping others feels good
When you help others, it promotes positive physiological changes in the brain associated with happiness. Helping others improves social support, encourages us to lead a more physically active lifestyle, distracts us from our own problems, allows us to engage in a meaningful activity and improves our self-esteem.
2. It brings a sense of belonging and reduces isolation
Being a part of a social network leads to a feeling of belonging. Face-to-face activities such as volunteering at a drop-in center can help reduce loneliness and
3. It helps to keep things in perspective
Helping others in need, especially those who are less fortunate than yourself, can provide a real sense of perspective and make you realize how lucky you are,
helping you to achieve a more positive outlook on things that may be causing you stress.
4. It helps make the world a happier place – it’s contagious!
Acts of kindness have the potential to make the world a happier place. It can also encourage others to repeat the good deed that they’ve experienced themselves – it contributes to a more positive community
5. The more you do for others, the more you do for yourself
Evidence shows that the benefits of helping others can last long after the act itself by providing a ‘kindness bank’ of memories that can be drawn upon in the
6. It reduces stress
Positive emotions reduce stress and boost our immune system, and in turn
can protect us against disease.
7. It helps get rid of negative feelings
Negative emotions such as anger, aggression or hostility have a negative impact on our mind and body. Engaging in random acts of kindness can help decrease these feelings and stabilize our overall health.
8. It can help us live longer
Giving and helping others may increase how long we live. Studies of older people show that those who give support to others live longer than those who don’t.
50 Random Acts of Kindness
1. Call a Friend
2. Offer a genuine compliment to someone
3. Send someone flowers
4. Check in with someone who is having a hard time
5. Walk a friends dog
6. Spend time with a friend, family member or neighbor who is experiencing loneliness
7. Spend time playing with your pet
8. Buy someone a healthy snack
9. Remind the people that you love, that you love them
10. Write a handwritten note to someone
11. Clean out your closet and donate things you no longer use to charity
12. Help with household chores
13. Smile and say hello to people you walk by every day but have never spoken to before
14. Let someone know you’re proud of them
15. Leave a surprise note or drawing on someone’s desk or car windshield
16. Return a lost item to its owner
17. Invite your neighbor over for dinner
18. Give your warm hats or scarves to strangers
19. Bake something for your coworkers (or bring donuts, everyone loves donuts)
20. Let someone go in front of you at the store checkout
21. Take a walk and bring a disposable bag to pick up any trash you see
22. Invite someone on a 10-minute walk and listen to them
23. Sign up to do volunteer work in your community
24. Let someone know why you are thankful for them
25. Offer to babysit for a friend
26. Give up your seat for someone
27. Give little bags of toiletries to the homeless
28. Have a conversation with someone experiencing homelessness
29. Have coffee with someone you haven’t seen a while
30. Make someone a cup of tea
31. Share your change with someone who needs it
32. Pop into a coffee shop and aks to pay for a coffee for someone later that day
33. Take someone out for lunch instead of eating at your desk
34. Bake a cake for a friend
35. Send a motivational text to a friend
36. Send a joke to cheer someone up
37. Send a picture of a cute animal
38. Send an interesting article
39. Don’t use plastic straws today
40. Mindfully recycle
41. Plant a flower or a tree
42. Eat plant-based today
43. Bring your teacher an apple (if you don’t have a teacher bring someone for your boss or manager. It’s not brown-nosing – its being kind.)
44. Put sticky notes of positive mantras in the women’s restroom mirror
45. Open the door for someone
46. Add your change to someone’s meter
47. Donate the books that are collecting dust and leave a nice note
48. Email or write an old teacher who made a difference in your life.
49. Leave a nice comment on your friends’ blog or post
50. When you’re done at the store return your shopping cart to the right place – not next to someone’s car
In a world where there is so much hate, intolerance, and violence; let’s learn to be the change. Let love triumph in your life. Take care of yourself, but don’t forget to take care of your friends, family, and neighbors…. You truly never know what demons someone may be fighting. Your moment of kindness may just be the light in someone’s darkness. Be kind.
I would love to know the acts of kindness you have experienced or seen. Please leave your comments down below.