One day when Isa was little, we were shopping, and she very quickly became unwell. Her temperature spiked up and she was sick all over herself, me and the land on which we stood in that moment. It’s like time froze. I wasn’t sure what to do, where to start, and Isa was distressed. I started cleaning her up and then a lady appeared. She gave Isa a bottle of water and helped clean us up (and the space) enough for us to be able to head home. Her kindness overwhelmed me. I thanked her but didn’t get her number to really be able to show my full gratitude. The moment has always stuck with me. That was a big act of kindness in my life. It made a very big difference to Isa and me.
Other times in life, a stranger has walked past and smiled – it lifted my mood and gave me a boost of energy. I see and experience kindness all around me, all the time. The other day a man opened my boot when my hands were full. People have chased after me, after one of the girls has thrown their shoes from the pram. These are all small examples of the many kind things that happen each day.
Be Kind, Do Kind
The 13th November is World Kindness Day. And as I’m sure you’ve guessed; this week’s message and freebie is all about kindness.
This weeks Freebie is a Kindness Day Planning Sheet. As we have provided this before, we've also attached a Five Kindness Postcards that your kids can colour in and give to someone they would like to spread their kindness or gratitude to.
On the planning sheet, your kids can plan (helping them build hope) and do kind acts (build relationships and positive emotions). It doesn’t need to be on the 13th, you could do it early this weekend or leave it till the next weekend. What we are looking for though, is doing the Five Acts of Kindness, all on one day.
We want to make a ripple effect of kindness, so we would love to see all the fab things you do with your kids! The more people who share, the more people who are likely to give this a go! Please share with us on Insta or Facebook!
It Changes Lives – Your Life and Others
I believe (and many may debate this) that we are all born inherently kind. We do kind things every day, not for the personal benefit, but for the benefit of others.
There is also mounting research on the benefits of both being kind and acknowledging kindness directed towards yourself. This we’ll cover more below.
Your Life
When you reflect on how others have been kind to you (this is the practice of gratitude) and how you have been kind to others, it builds positive emotions, engagement, meaning and relationships, these are pillars of well-being described within Seligman’s PERMA Model.
Kindness Reflected
In the kids book ‘Kind’ by Alison Green she share’s about building a kindness jar. Our kids can put a bead into it for every kind act that they do. It’s a simple and effective way to get them reflecting on their own kindness and building positive emotions.
Kind Acts
Being kind, and specifically, regularly doing 5 acts of kindness on one day has been found to boost your happiness.
Kind, Happy and Well Kids
Is happiness important? Yes. Especially when you view happiness as an expression of well-being.
‘Happiness’ has been found to help in many areas of our life including:
- Building stronger relationships
- Better work outcomes and goal attainment
- Greater flow and energy
- Greater ability to cope in stressful and hard times
- Greater ability to bounce back from adversity (resilience)
- Longer and healthier life (Lyubomirsky & Della Porta, 2010)
And
- Increases pro-social behaviour (Lyubomirsky & Della Porta, 2010)
And
- Buffer against trauma
- When directed inward can also help increase optimism, social connectedness, goal achievement and decrease anxiety, self-criticism and perfectionism. (Niemic, 2017)
It Starts at Home
We talk a lot about building new routines/healthy habits at home and this is another great one that can be included as part of your family routine. It’s our family meeting again this weekend (pancakes, dress-ups and together talks)
Our agenda is:
- Gratitude (month past)
- 5 acts of Kindness (agree activities and date – even though we’ve already discussed a little)
- Birthday cake and birthday food (finalise so I can organise)
- Anything the kids would like to talk about!
It’s a fun way of building new habits into your family routines. Five Acts of Kindness doesn’t need to be completed each week but research has shown that regularly performing them (and all on one day), can increase your happiness and therefore contribute to your well-being.
Be Kind, Do Kind
What I love about kindness is that it’s simple and inside all of us. It is something we can do if we’re young and if we’re old. Also, I love that lots of small acts of kindness, make big change in ourselves, in others and in our world.
Remember, Wednesday 13th November is World Kindness Day. Join us in creating a kindness ripple across the globe!!
References
Fredrickson, Barbara. (2009) Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release your Inner Optimist and Thrive. Oneworld Publications.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Della Porta, M. (2010). Boosting happiness, buttressing resilience: Results from cognitive and behavioral interventions. In J. W. Reich, A. J. Zautra, & J. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of adult resilience: Concepts, methods, and applications (pp. 450-464). New York: Guilford Press.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005a). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111–131
Niemic, Ryan. (2017) Character Strength Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners. Hogrefe Publishing.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association/New York: Oxford University Press.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, R. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410–421