It’s official. Kindness is good for you. The Honey Foundation’s research found that 5 acts of random kindness a week will increase your level of happiness for up to 3 months. Not bad. Random acts of kindness have also been found to increase oxytocin, lowering blood pressure and improving heart health. So even if you’re the Grinch, we figure you’ll benefit from being kinder. Join us to discover
- a definition for random acts of kindness
- random acts of kindness examples
- random acts of kindness ideas for strangers
Random acts of kindness definition
Random acts of kindness where did they come from? The movement is widely attributed to Anne Herbert, a writer who wrote “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” on a placemat whilst in a restaurant. Anne later published a book of the same name. Since then, random acts of kindness have become something of a cult; we have a random acts of kindness day each year and schools are even teaching it on their curriculum. Defined as a nonpremeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world, random acts of kindness are a feel good way to increase your own happiness whilst helping someone else at the same time. Sounds like a win – win to us.
Random acts of kindness examples
A random act of kindness can be anything you like that helps someone else. Here are some of our best random acts of kindness suggestions;
- Let someone else in the queue go in front of you
- Smile at a stranger
- Pick up litter
- Buy the person behind you a drink at the coffee shop
- Hold the door open for someone
- Make colleagues a drink (we weren’t thinking cocktails but if you insist)
- Buy flowers and hand them out on the street
- Give up your seat on the bus, train, underground
- Send a ‘Thank you’ email to someone
- Choose not to complain
- Reconnect with a friend
- Do someone a favour
- Feed the birds
- Be kind to yourself
- Encourage someone
- Bake cookies or a cake for someone
- Pay for someone’s meal in a restaurant
- Take time to listen to someone without interrupting
- Give someone a compliment
- Share overheard compliments
- Help other people find the positive
- Donate to a food bank
- Send a letter or card to say you care
- If you’re in business, do some pro bono work
- Donate something you don’t use to charity
- Learn the names of people you say every day
- Check in to see how a friend is doing
- Loan a sum you can afford to an entrepreneur in a developing country through KIVA https://www.kiva.org/lend?gclid=Cj0KCQjwttbWBRDyARIsAN8zhbL6qu7BnYAnGYHNYd0hDI7vEs-NcusnzR6rYrp1L9dRK9ZKQBaef4saAnnoEALw_wcB
- Invite someone to dinner
- If you pass someone who is homeless, stop and say hello
- Become a blood donor
- Answer the questions on Rice http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1501 for each correct response Rice will donate 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme to help end world hunger
You get the idea. There are literally hundreds of potential random acts of kindness that you can get involved in every day. Remember, the magic number from research is 5 so aim for that but as we say top north, ‘owt is better than nowt so don’t stress if you don’t hit 5. Feeling a bit bashful about potential acts of kindness? Don’t. You can practice some of these anonymously you don’t have to draw attention to yourself if you don’t want to. Here are some of our ideas for random acts of kindness for strangers.
Random acts of kindness for strangers
Yes, we know sometimes it can feel a bit on the embarrassing side to be kind to a complete stranger, someone you’ve never met before. I remember the first time I bought a coffee for the person behind me in the queue and my embarrassment when he came up to me and said thank you (who knew that there were 10 shades of red?). If you want to remain anonymous, that’s ok. Here’s how.
- Give up a parking spot
- Leave change in the vending machine
- Let someone out at a junction
- Write someone a thank you card for making a difference
- Leave a bigger than usual tip
- Hold the door open
- Put change in the parking metre
- Send someone flowers
- Share your table in a cafe with someone
- When you’re heading to the bin, pick up litter along the way
- Start a fundraiser
- Foster a pet
- Gift a book
- Leave positive feedback
- Donate your talents
- Pause and reflect before saying something negative
- Say thank you
- Connect people to each other
- Let the small stuff go
What are you waiting for? Let us know how you get on, we’d love to hear from you.