Spread Kindness
Help the world become a better place!
There are so many people out there who need help.
Over fourteen percent of Americans are in poverty. Although that may not sound like a lot, that's over forty-five million people.
Fortunately, we still have hope.
Mother Teresa once said, "If you can't feed a hundred, just feed one." This shows that eve the smallest act of kindness to anybody can make a world of difference. If each person above the poverty rate gave one meal to the homeless, that would be a total of six meals per person with extra left over. This shows that though feeding the hungry appears to be a challenge, all it takes is cooperation from many.
Studies
In a British survey, three groups were asked to answer a happiness survey. The three groups in a survey were given three different instructions. The first group was told to preform one act of kindness every day, the second was told to do something new every day, and the third was given no instruction. After ten days, they returned to the research center where they took another happiness survey. What the scientists found was that the people asked to preform an act of kindness every day and those who were asked to do something new every day had higher levels of happiness while those given no instruction were considerably lower.
With this newly found information, how can I spread kindness in my community?
Although there are many good ways to show kindness in your community, I have a few that I find simple, yet effective.
- Pay it forward. One of my favorite radio shows, the Bobby Bones Show, encourages people to "pay it forward." Basically, if you're in the drive through line at a fast food restaurant, Starbucks, etc, tell the cashier that you're paying for yours and the person behind you. hopefully, that person will pay for the one behind them and so-on and so forth. The longest recorded pay i forward continued 11 hours and consisted of 378 people. Another in Connecticut was said to go for "days" and had over 1000 people participating.
- Spend volunteer time at a homeless shelter, animal shelter, etc. This really is directly helping the community since you really are seeing the work you're doing. I find this a really good motivator to keep working because as I said, you see the result.
- Just be nice to others. I'm sure you've heard that "a smile is contagious." This is something easy, that you can do just about anywhere and is very easy.