Week 2 of the kindness challenge was to notice kindness going on around you.

I’m a positive person so my mind is naturally wired to look for the good stuff anyway – but I was pleasantly surprised at just how much good stuff you see when you decide to focus on it. I noticed many small acts of kindness – offers of help, kind gestures and words of support; but one act sat deep within my heart.

As a therapeutic play worker I spend a large proportion of my day sorting out friendship issues – most of them involving teaching empathy and compromise.

This week I observed a group of children on the playground playing a game of cricket. One child was sat a little distance away from the group clearly upset. When I asked what was up, he said that he had missed his turn to bat and now the group had said he would have to wait until it came around again. As I was speaking to him, a few boys from the group came over (probably fearful they were going to be in trouble!) I explained to the boys what the child had said, noting how upset he clearly was and wondered if anyone could come up with a solution to the problem.

Three boys walked away instantly.

The rest stood silently.

Then one boy said that the upset child could take his place in the line and have his turn at batting. The child agreed, thanked the boy and the game resumed play.

This sounds great doesn’t it? But no big deal – it happens daily on playgrounds across the world, yes?

But what if I told you that this particular child, the one who gave up his turn, was a child that was regularly in trouble for fighting, found maintaining relationships difficult and had very little concept of compromise or empathy.

Later in the day, after praising the boy for his actions, I asked him what had prompted him to act in that way. He replied that he remembered a time when someone had helped him when he was upset and how it had changed his day for the better and even though he really wanted his turn he knew that it would help the other child have a happier day and it was the right thing to do.

He was right, it was the thing we encourage children to do – but the fact that he realised, without prompting, the impact his actions would have on the young mans happiness was astounding to me. Because I was the person who had helped him when he was upset, unsuccessfully I thought until now, to improve his behaviour and understanding this past 8 months.

Kindness does change people – even if you have to spend a long time undoing learned behaviour first.

If you look for it, there is a lot of kindness going on around you. It’s easy to focus on the dramas at work, crisis in our lives and chaos in our world.

Take a moment to look, really notice kind the gestures that happen every day. Ignore the news, forgo reading the newspaper and enjoy the little things in your lives.

When you notice them, I hope they warm your heart, soften your words and increase your belief that people are fundamentally kind.

Sending kind vibes your way to see you through the week.

If you’ve felt inspired to join the challenge – check out Niki’s blog The Richness of a Simple Life for all the details.

The Kindness Challenge – week 1

This week was all about starting the day with kindness – to yourself. In principle, I’m pretty good at self kindness; I get up early so I can have some time to write, exercise or just sit and enjoy the quiet.

However, I found initially, I was trying to ‘do’ kindness to myself. I felt the pressure to say something nice or think kind thoughts about myself – which was ridiculously hard. I had set my intentions a little high. So, after a couple of days of unsuccessful trying, I went back to the list I had written in my first post and decided to pick 1 and start from there.

I like affirmations and quotes but find them difficult to say out loud. So I spent some time finding quotes and adding them to some of my photographs – it was a great way to start my day.

Later in the week I felt inspired to put together a display at work with the children, exploring being your own kind of beautiful and do some art journaling.

After a few days, I decided to start someone else’s day with kindness – so every morning I sent one person a ‘Hope you have a good day‘ message. Everyone replied back with wishes of the same or a heartfelt ‘Thank you‘and I felt I had shared the love. It shows how by just adding one element of kindness into my day, I then felt inspired to do more and reach more people.

How do you show yourself kindness?

Can you find time to slot a little more into your day?

Can you afford not to?

My tip is to just start – add one moment of self kindness into your day. It’s not always easy, but allowing yourself some ‘me’ time will show your body and the people around you how important it is.

It’s so important to reflect, recharge and realise how important we are.

Next prompt is all about observing kindness around you – check back in a week to see how I got on.

Want to jump on board the kindness train?

Check out Niki’s blog –  The Richness of a Simple Life for all the details.