A random act of kindness
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, kindness is the quality of being generous, helpful and caring towards other people. A random act of kindness is a selfless act without asking or expecting anything in return.
Why act randomly kind?
Research shows that random acts of kindness (and other positive actions) improve mental well-being by increasing positive emotions. It improves a sense of belonging, contributes to community and has a positive effect on reducing feelings of stress and negativity. (1)
In addition, random acts of kindness are linked to our sense of relatedness, which boosts our general well-being (see my previous article on motivation).
One way of thinking about kindness is the belief that we can strengthen our ‘kindness muscle’ in the same way that moving our arm strengthens the muscles in that arm. When you move your arm, it causes chemical reactions that strengthen connections (between brain and body) that affect the muscles in the arm. If you think about moving your arm up and down, it has a similar effect on the brain. Now, if it doesn’t matter what we think about (the chemical reactions in the brain are happening anyway), why not use this belief to think kind and compassionate thoughts? If we get into the habit of thinking kind and compassionate thoughts, we can change the wiring in our brain that affects our emotions. (2) How cool is that?!
Interestingly, people who perform random acts of kindness underestimate the positive impact of their act on the recipient. (3) This is why I think it is important to (continue to) spread kindness.
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
We often forget or have forgotten, how to be kind to strangers just for the joy of helping another human being.
So what can you do?
I hope this will inspire you to do a random act of kindness today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and beyond. You can start with people whom you interact with daily: family members, friends, neighbours, people on the bus etc. Just reach out. Notice what it does to you and perhaps what you experience from the receiver of your kindness.
Here are some ideas to get you started.
+ Send a positive text message (or several).
+ Hold the door open for the person behind you.
+ Donate some items.
+ Acknowledge and say thank you to the person behind the checkout.
+ Bring a drink to a homeless person.
+ Smile genuinely at strangers.
+ Appreciate a colleague and share this with them.
+ Volunteer
I hope you give it a try and see what it does for you and your community. Have fun!
1 Paviglianiti, N.C. and Irwin, J.D., 2017. Students’ experiences of a voluntary random acts of kindness health promotion project. Youth Engagement in Health Promotion, 1(3).
2 Regan, A., Fritz, M.M., Walsh, L.C., Lyubomirsky, S. and Cole, S.W., 2022. The genomic impact of kindness to self vs. others: a randomized controlled trial. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 106, pp.40-48.
3 Kumar, A. and Epley, N., 2023. A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(1), p.236.