‘Be kind!’ This is something which we have heard right since childhood. Nevertheless, with several pressure, pain, and misery around us, we tend to forget the simple notion of kindness. November 13th is recognized as World Kindness day. The introduction of World Kindness Day happened as an observation by the World Kindness Movement. Moreover, they registered this organization as an official NGO under Swiss law in 2019. However, its history dates back to a Tokyo-based convention in 1997. Numerous institutions in countries like Australia and Thailand assembled at that conference for the dedication to promote kindness in society. The purpose of this day was to highlight good deeds in the community by focusing on the positive power and the common thread that binds one and all.
After the formation of this day, various events associated with it have gained global recognition by garnering attention from different organizations. Various activities such as concerts, fun activities, tasks, and dance mobs take place on World Kindness Day 2020. People can start with helping their significant others or parents with household chores, younger siblings with their studies and activities. Moreover, they can make the environment clean, water plants, reduce pollution, and help needy people. It is a common argument that you don’t need one day to be kind and celebrate kindness. Nonetheless, this day can mark the summation of all positive and good deeds done for mankind.
“No one is born hating another person…People must learn to hate,and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” —Nelson Mandela
Sometimes it’s easy to feel like the world’s getting harder, but if we look closer: on the news, on the web, on the street, we are anything but unkind. Every day we hear new stories of people trying to make the world a better place. And together we can make the world a little bit kinder for all of us. It all starts with just one person: you.
The thing about kindness is that it’s just about the only thing in the world that doubles when you share it. And it’s a fact backed by science. Studies have shown that if you perform just one random act of kindness a day they will not only reduce your stress, anxiety, and depression, but your body will be flooded with the same hormones that make you and the person you have helped calmer, healthier, and happier. Serotonin heals your wounds helps you relax and makes you feel good. Endorphins reduce pain and Oxytocin which reduces blood pressure and makes you feel more loving and loved.
You will both be more energized, feel less aches and pains, more confident, and could even live longer. And when other people see you helping someone else, they will be filled with those same feel-good hormones, meaning they are significantly more likely to pay it forward. Like taking that extra moment to hold the elevator for someone, completing a stranger’s food bill that is just a few amount short, giving your neighbor a hand with their groceries. Even just smiling and meaning it. It doesn’t take much but it can make a huge difference for everyone. Those people you have helped will help other people and those other people will help even more people. And those random acts of kindness can start a chain reaction that can spread across an entire community, city, a country! And with enough of us, the world! Now isn’t that the world we all want? And it all starts with one.
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward,
safe in the knowledge that one day someone might
do the same for you.” —Princess Diana
A.D Williams once said: “Imagine what 7 billion humans could accomplish if we loved and respected one another” Just imagine, Imagine if there was no greed, imagine if there was no comparison, If everyone was running their own race, but cheering for all others at the same time. Maybe we will never see that in our lifetime. But what we all can do is start with ourselves. Start with yourself, choose to lift others up, choose to set the example, the example of kindness and integrity, the example of compassion and understanding. There is a quote that says;
“No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you
believe you are, how you treat people
ultimately tells all”
Kindness and integrity is everything, it really is. Who you are is far more important than what you have, and it will always be. Who you are can be measured by how you make others feel. Be kind to each other, in a world where you can be anything! Be kind. Choose to be the change you wish to see in the world. Decide you will not wait for someone else, you will set the example. Be kind, because you never know how much that person is suffering inside. You may never know the difference your words can make, the difference your presence can make, the difference you can make to one human life. Be the reason someone believes in the goodness of humanity. Be the reason someone else decides to make a difference in others. Be the influence you want to see more of. Always do what is right, not what is easy in the moment. Kindness spreads like a virus, when you do good to another, that person does better to those they come into contact with. You really can make a big difference in the world, today, and every other day. Anne Frank said;
“In the long run,
the sharpest weapon of all
is a kind and gentle spirit”
No one has ever made themselves great by showing how small another is. Be kind and always build others up to the best of your ability. Treat everyone with the same level of kindness that you would like for yourself. Not because everyone is nice, but because you are. Because there is no mistake in kindness, because it is right, because you have integrity, because you want this world to be better when you leave than when you arrived. Who were you kind to today? Who will you be kind to tomorrow?
Happy World Kindness Day!
BE KIND!
