Day 16 – Do A Random Act Of Kindness

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ― Mark Twain

Day 16 – Do A Random Act Of Kindness

How To Do This: Today do (at least) one random act of kindness. It can be anything. From paying a genuine compliment to the girl who serves your coffee everyday or buying a chocolate cake for the person behind you in the supermarket, to paying the parking for a stranger or keeping the door open for just 2 more seconds so the person behind can enter the elevator or the building.

All you need to do is be present and look around for an opportunity to do a random act of kindness. If you are present and aware You will see these opportunities everywhere. The feeling You get after, priceless 🙂

My experience with this:

A couple of years ago I did an experiment for my birthday. Instead of expecting gifts I offered gifts to complete strangers throughout my day.

1. I bought 10 bouquets of snowdrops (since my birthday is in March, they are in full bloom at that time) and as I walked the streets I offered them randomly, to both women and men, together with a smile and wishing them a wonderful spring. I don’t have enough words to describe  their reactions from being surprised and a bit suspicious at first, to smiling and expressing their gratitude after.

2. As I was standing in line to buy some pastry I was listening to the joyful conversation of the 2 girls behind me. When I got to the counter I bought what I wanted for me and I asked the girls to tell me what they want because I will pay. Both the girls and the man at the counter were so surprised and asked me why am I doing this. I told them it was my birthday and that it was my way of celebrating it. They smiled and expressed their kindest wishes.

Most recently I was with a friend in a coffee shop where we like to go and work. We’ve brought our own cable extension, and happily offered the extra 2 plugs to 2 other guys who needed to plug in their laptops also. And because we heard the guy on the right was hungry and they were not yet serving food at that hour, we offered him the extra fruit that we had.

Like I said, it can be anything, I am sure You will come up with fantastic ideas for random acts of kindness.

The benefits of this exercise are beyond what our imagination can conceive.

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”—Scott Adams

We have no idea how our small act of kindness has influenced the course of the day of that stranger and how things have rippled from there on.

And for the purpose of our challenge this is a great tool to put us in that state of presence and awerness that is the channel to our gut feeling.

In order to observe the people around and feel into which one will benefit from your act of kindness You need to be out of your mind and completely in the present moment.

So that’s my take on today’s exercise. I am so looking forward to read your stories about this in the comments bellow. If You missed yesterday’s suggestion, here it is.

You can start the exercise by sharing this post with a friend, to make the random acts of kindness day extend beyond the pages of this blog 🙂

Thank you for doing this with me.

With all my love,

Raluca

Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon via Compfight cc

4 thoughts on “Day 16 – Do A Random Act Of Kindness”

  1. Thank you for today’s article, Raluca and for being an inspiration.

    And since this post does not have a video, here is one for all you readers out there, to remind us that kindness inspires kindness: http://youtu.be/nwAYpLVyeFU

    Gratefully yours,
    Ovidiu

    Reply
  2. I want to share a story with you. I don’t want to be considered a hero or something, i just want to tell this story. One year and a half ago, one week before Christmas i was with my mother do do some grocery for cooking. After we get out of the market, she forget to buy something and she get back in to buy that thing while i was standing there. I opened my wallet and i put some money in a box in front of the market. On that box was written ”for the hungry children’s ” or something like that. I don’t remember exactly what was written, but i know money from that box were ment to help the children’s. Anyway, i put the money in that box and i sit on a bench thinking:” I will be so happy to see the smile on that children’s face when they are being helped”. I don’t think 5 seconds past by after i think that and a mother with a little girl in a stroller stoped beside me. The mother wanted to put the jacket on his daughter and that’s why they stopped. I smiled to that little girl, and she was scared at the begining, then she smiled too. As the mother put the jacket on his daughter, i smiled at that girl and she smiled back the hole time, and when her mother took her outside, she looked back and she was upset because she was leaving. That little moment was so small, but so memorable. I will remember it for the rest of my life. 🙂 Have a nice day!

    Reply

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