Acts of Kindness Project

Working Towards a Better Tomorrow

During this pandemic there has been much talk of random acts of kindness. We have seen people go out of their way to donate food, goods, clothes and money. Children have written to older people in care homes, people have sung from balconies in Italy. Random acts of Kindness make everyone feel better; doing good does you good. When you do a kind deed, the person who receives it will feel better; someone has though of them. The giver also feels better; they have offered something.

What is kindness?

Kindness is choosing to do something for another, something you would not normally do. This puts the other person first; their needs before yours. It could be giving up a seat on the bus, or holding a door open just a little longer.

But in times of uncertainty we all have raised feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and even fear. Humans do not do well with ambiguity, we like structure, planning, and to be able to know what is coming. When we are all stressed and our worlds are not what they were, kindness can be a little harder to offer.

Kindness is something that is in each of our gift. It does not have to be a big gesture but something small like a smile, or a cheery 'Hello' especially when you do not feel like it, is an act of kindness.

But what does being kind do for us?

Research has shown that people who build acts of kindness into their day see clear benefits from that; both to themselves and to others. It reduces feelings of harmful stress and so improves emotional wellbeing. It may even add some time to our lives.

Being kind improves connections

Being kind is just one way to make community connections stronger.

It also helps to put things in perspective: We never know, fully, what our actions have on others.

Being kind is infectious; one act of kindness leads to another.