5 Easy Ways to Be More Kind during Kindness Week! | By Steffi Black

It's called Random Acts of Kindness Week and it's a week dedicated to encouraging Random Acts of Kindness Around the World from February 14th to the 20th. As this international week of kindness ramps up, it's also an appropriate time to share the benefits of this important character trait for your clients and the impact it can make upon both their home and work life.

As a coach, some of you may encourage the keeping of a gratitude journal but have you ever also considered encouraging your clients to document a kind action that happened in a day or even at the end of the week? Shawn Acker, renowned psychologist and Harvard lecturer on all things relating to Happiness   has shared in his talks and articles that performing a random act of kindness is one of the ways to rewire your brain for happiness.

Yes, kindness is scientifically proven to make an impact along with meditation and gratitude. And, encouraging intentional action helps people to feel the impact more directly because, as the old adage goes, "Actions speak louder than words."

As well, thanks to many researchers including author and scientist David R. Hamilton, kindness has been scientifically proven to do the following:

  • Kindness Makes Us Happier – it elevates levels of the brain's natural versions of morphine and heroin.
  • Kindness gives us stronger hearts – it can lower blood pressure when we perform a kind act.
  • Kindness makes us feel more connected to the people we work or live with.
  • Kindness is contagious – yes, it's true – you do a kind act and someone else will feel like doing one and so on and so on.

Knowing this, I thought it might be helpful to share a list of suggested activities for the upcoming international week of Kindness.

5 Easy Ways to Be More Kind during Kindness Week #RAKWeek

  1. Buy a coffee for a co-worker or the person behind you in the line-up.
  2. Bake or buy cookies – we know time is tight – for a neighbor you have never met and leave a hello note from your address.
  3. Write a letter to a colleague or relative you have lost touch with and tell them you are grateful for the role they played.
  4. Ask a co-worker who is going through a difficult time if you can buy them a tea and walk and chat with them. Sometimes people just need a sounding board.
  5. Bring in an empty glass jar or cup and ask to start a 'Coins of Kindness' jar to encourage employees to bring in spare change that is collected for a local charity.

What impact can these small actions make? Glain Roberts-McCabe, President and Founder of The Executive Roundtable, a mentorship and leadership organization, has been involved in #RAKWeek the past few years. He has this to say about the power of this character emphasis: "Kindness is something that we seem to have lost focus on as our lives get busier and the pace of work more frenetic. Slowing down and being intentional about kindness has a way of resetting priorities at work. I find that it's easy to get caught up in 'keeping up'. By participating in events like #RAK week, our team has the opportunity to slow down and re-evaluate what's really important. I find the positive energy rejuvenates our team and helps us put other challenges into perspective. It's the ultimate pressure reducer!"

There you go, encourage a #RAK and let your client feel that positive outcome as serotonin is boosted in their brain!

(From Emma-Louise - check out Steffi being interviewed about kindness and coaching
in this 3 minute segment for Global Toronto TV clip - Go Steffi!)

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Contributing Author:

Steffi Black, life and career coach, specializes in helping women in transition and young people standing at a crossroads navigate a clearer path, which includes a core value and life/career momentum plan. She is also the Founder of #spreadthekindness a program for schools and keynote/workshops for businesses that helps to bring in a more caring and connected culture. Learn more about coaching - and kindness - at Steffi Black Coaching

Learn more about Steffi & see all their articles here >>

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