Make Kindness Part of Your Everyday

Have you ever been a recipient of a random act of kindness? Maybe in the line at Starbucks? Which seems to be the most popular response whenever I ask that question. But a more important question is, have you ever performed a random act of kindness? February 17th happens to be National Random Act of Kindness Day. This day is set aside each year to inspire the world to focus on doing a kind act for someone else. However, I am a true believer that we should be more focused on doing this on a regular, consistent basis.

So why aren’t we spreading kindness more often? Maybe we are shy, introverted or think it costs money that we don’t have. Or maybe this is just one more thing to add on our plate. But what you may not realize is that in most cases, the person performing the kind act has a positive reaction too. So, it’s not only benefiting the person receiving the kind gesture, but also the giver as well.

There are so many benefits to doing kind acts. Research has shown that performing kind acts can help reduce stress, pain, and lower blood pressure. It is also proven that doing kind acts makes us happier. If I haven’t convinced you yet to perform a random act of kindness how about this cool new study: it was found that just one kind act has the potential to reach 125 people in just one day. This is creating waves that you never knew possible.

So today, I challenge you to do an act of kindness. It could be as simple as holding the door for someone, saying hello or good morning, paying a genuine compliment, offering the person behind you in the line at the grocery store to go first, leaving an encouraging note for a family member, doing someone else’s chore without being asked. All of these cost nothing and many of them take only seconds.