Random acts of kindness day takes place each year on February 17th. If you want to prepare for the next time this rolls around, or if you don’t want to wait for a special day to carry out a random act of kindness, then you might be wondering just what you can do.
A random act of kindness is something you do for someone else. Perhaps a stranger. Although it could be someone you know – for no reason except because you want to and because it will put a smile on the other person’s face.
The more people who take part in this kind of act, the better place the world can be.
As you might know, I’m a bestselling author and happiness researcher. I wrote a book called Happy Habits.
In my research for this book about building positive habits, I learned about how doing altruistic acts for others boosts the happiness of both the giver and the receiver of kindness.
It creates something called “helper’s high” – where the helper’s mood gets boosted.
My Happy Habits book also shares specific principals of “habit formation” – to make sure you follow through on doing kind acts for others.
In this article I’ll be sharing ways to get started doing random acts of kindness on a regular basis.
Doing random acts of kindness is a beautiful idea. And you don’t have to plan your act of kindness. You can just do it when the feeling takes you. If you’re wondering what you can do, here are some useful ideas to get you started. Once you begin, you’ll want to keep going; it will make you feel great.
One of the best ways to begin when you want to carry out a random act of kindness is to start near home so you don’t have to go out of your way, and you can incorporate your kindness into your daily routine. In this way, you can get used to doing whatever it is you’re going to do.
Your neighbors are the ideal people to begin with, even if you don’t know them very well, or at all. Some things you could do for them include:
It could be anything at all, and you can even do it anonymously if you prefer; sometimes it’s fun just to do these things and not tell anyone, and getting praise for your act isn’t part of a random act of kindness anyway.
Imagine a gift arriving at your door for no reason at all other than someone wants to do something nice for you. Gifts for special occasions are lovely, of course, and always lovely to receive. But there is something extraordinary about receiving a gift because someone saw something and thought you would like it.
In this vein, why not do the same for someone else? The recipient is going to have their day made so much better, and you can be sure you’ve carried out an amazing random act of kindness.
With this in mind, I create a gift book, called Open When Letters – a unique collection of interactive, illustrated letters, perfect to send to friends, family, and loved ones. The gift recipient flips open an envelope flap to read the encouragement inside whenever they need a pep talk, inspiring wisdom, or a quick mood boost.
What’s great about this gift idea is that you don’t have to plan it. You don’t have to spend hours searching for the perfect gift (unless you want to, of course). It’s more about seeing something and knowing that someone you love would appreciate having it.
For example, if they love to read, you could buy them the new bestseller you spot when you’re shopping for something else. If you both have pets and you visit PetSuppliesDelivered.com for the best discount pet supplies, supplements, and medications online to buy something for your dog, cat, or other animal, you can pick something up for a friend as well.
You don’t have to spend money to carry out a random act of kindness; some of the very best are free. One such idea is to pay someone a compliment. It costs you nothing, but it makes the person receiving the praise feel great; you can completely turn their day around by complimenting their outfit, their new hairstyle, how they handled a situation, and so on.
There is, of course, a fine line to tread when giving a compliment; you don’t want to come across as ‘creepy’. Think about what you would like to hear and how you would like to hear it, and work from there.
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