Kindness is something that I wanted to talk about this week as it is one of my most important values in life. But I don’t just want to blabber on about its importance because trust me, you would be scrolling for a long time! Instead, I wanted to share my top 10 favorite actions to show kindness in my everyday life. I try my best every day to show kindness in my community because I personally love the feeling of making someone’s day and to see as many people smile as possible.
#1 – Paying For The Coffee Behind Me. This is my absolute favorite. Since I am a true Starbucks addict, I end up in the drive-thru several times a week. And I know that it can be expensive and that money should not always be the answer, but for our busy workers out there who get a coffee before their long day, it humbles me to know that by this small anonymous act, their smile might just get a bit bigger to start their day off right.
#2 – Waving As You Pass Someone. Now this seems odd, but I do drive around in my car a lot (brings me peace) and it makes me so happy to just smile and wave at pedestrians or even saying thanks to other cars when they let me go first. It reminds everyone that just one small wave can matter in their day.
#3 – Complimenting Strangers. At my old job, I used to get compliments often on my nails because I go to the salon and get those fancy tips with those fun colors. It seriously made me smile from just one small positive comment towards me plus I love having a few hypemen every once in a while (who wouldn’t?).
#4 – Interacting With Seniors. Through this pandemic, I can’t even begin to imagine the stress and loneliness that was experienced in these retirement homes so a few months ago I decided to start volunteering as they were offering outdoor walking to the seniors. Even though they didn’t really want to walk too much, just being able to talk to them for a couple hours will make their day to be able to see an outside face.
#5 – Doing An Extra Chore Around The House. Parents can be very stressed with juggling all of everyday life (I know mine do) and sometimes by just doing the dishes without being told or lending a hand with dinner can help relieve some of their stress and boost their mood.
#6 – Holding The Door. With the precautions of staying six feet apart, I still try to do this act with my family whenever we were going into a building or even just prepping it for the next person to walk through.
#7 – Giving Flowers. Our neighbour was working endless hours in the healthcare field and we wanted to show her our appreciation by bringing her flowers and as she started crying, the thought that we had made her day made me tear up too.
#8 – Baking For Others. This is also one of my favorites and something I want to start doing more often since baking is one of my hobbies, but I love seeing the warmness in the faces of friends and families when they bite into freshly baked cookies.
#9 – Donations. I love it when I have clothing to give away because I always drop them to children’s foundation bins or a nearby school that consists of many refugee families and it makes me happy to know that they are going to good use by going into the hands of someone in need.
#10 – Self Kindness. Being kind to others is super important but being kind to yourself should be a priority. Today’s society creates a sense to be hard on ourselves, but just by doing something you love or taking some time for self-care can be a huge act of kindness for yourself!
I hope you enjoyed reading through this list and I really encourage you to try out a few of these because it can be the biggest uplifting impact in someone’s day:)