I’ve been reading things about kindness lately and I was thinking that we sure could use a little more of that stuff in our world to make it a better place. It usually only takes one person to start a domino effect.
It’s not hard to be kind – but it does take a certain mind-set. You can start small. By smiling – and we all know that it takes only 26 to smile and 62 to frown!
Smile at random people for no reason at all. Usually 9 times out of 10 (unless that person is having a really bad day) they will smile back at you. And then you both feel good.
It’s contagious. You walk along thinking about the person who smiled at you and usually you are still smiling. So you end up smiling at somebody else too … and so it goes.
Of course, remember – it’s okay to smile at random people but kids should not stop and chat. And if anybody ever gets too friendly and makes you feel uncomfortable – feel free to tell your parental agent.
If you are at home, or in a shop and somebody drops something. You can bend down and pick it up for them. It takes just a little bit of effort.
You can offer to help your mum or dad without being asked. They might fall over and faint – but try it sometime – I bet they would really appreciate it.
Or maybe if you see somebody at school sitting by themselves looking all sad and lonely you could go and sit with them – even offer them a snack out of your lunch box if you have enough to share.
This is going to sound a little crazy but engaging in acts of kindness actually acts a bit like a medicine chest in your body…
Did you know, it is said that kindness stimulates the production of serotonin. This is a chemical that not only makes you feel-good but it makes you happy and calms you down.
Even better – doing acts of kindness produces endorphins—the brain’s natural painkiller!
They say that people who are always kind have 23% less cortisol (the stress hormone) and don’t get as old as quickly as the average population.
Research has even found that being kind lowers blood pressure.
Go out people and commit random acts of kindness!
Lots of love,
Sibo