Back in October I wrote a little post entitled “reasons to be cheerful – part 1” and I talked about how life gets in the way sometimes.
Today I have been reading about the launch of Action for Happiness. A movement that aims to boost joy in the world by being kind to others. This is not a new concept to me. Many years ago I read about Danny Wallace and his movement known as Join Me. The basic premise of that movement was that members had to pledge to do one random act of kindness every Friday. It could be whatever the person felt to be a kindness and also it could be for strangers or people they knew. It could be done anonymously or blatantly obviously. I quite liked this idea so I jumped on the bandwagon and started to generate my own little field of happiness around me. I didn’t restrict it to a Friday I would just do things when I felt like it. Some of my deeds included
- buying the staff in the building society a box of chocolates on the day that their computers were down and everybody in the queue in front of me shouted at them.
- taking the homeless person for a cup of tea in the cafe rather than putting money in their cup
- sending my Mum flowers, just because
- bringing some shopping home for the lady across the road because she had the flu.
- better customer service than I had ever had in a bank or building society from that day on
- insight into how lucky I was and how few problems I truly had
- a happy Mum
- a new friend in the neighbour
I hope so too 🙂 it's a beautiful concept, I will try a little harder too Kandi x
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Thanks for your thought provoking post. For me it all begins with showing someone that they are valuable. When you talk about a reason to get up & a purpose, I'm reminded of the need to be empowered. Life & people so often disempower. Empowering rather than using power over someone brings hope. Yes, I agree, connection & belonging is so important. Again our society can be so isolating. Acts of kindness are great & can be powerful, but can also be an easy option I suppose, rather than truly taking time to connect, form a relationship, listen, care – there's more of a cost involved (but more return too).
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