Spread goodwill on World Kindness Day
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Celebrated annually on 13 November, World Kindness Day aims to inspire people to make the world a better place through acts of kindness.
Kindness is deeply connected to our mental health, helping to make others and ourselves feel good. Research has found that kindness helps to create a sense of belonging, deepen friendships, and reduce feelings of loneliness.
You can show kindness through small acts like holding open a door, or bigger acts such as volunteering in your local community. Our blog ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing: Give’, explores how giving to others boosts our wellbeing.
Simple acts of kindness ideas you can do today:
- Gift your favourite book to a colleague.
- Offer to make someone a drink.
- Praise a colleague for something they have done well.
- Invite someone to lunch or for a coffee.
- Introduce yourself to someone you’ve never spoken to before.
- Send someone an e-card to say thank you.
- Help someone complete a task.
- Check in with someone you’ve not spoken to for a while.
- Bring treats into the office to share with colleagues.
- Start an office kindness board. This could be something as simple as colourful sticky notes, or a whiteboard with words of appreciation and encouragement. Invite your team to contribute their own messages to the board.
Read some more kindness ideas and stories from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
The Mental Health Foundation states that “Kindness to ourselves can prevent shame from corroding our sense of identity and help boost our self-esteem. Kindness can even improve feelings of confidence and optimism.”
Don’t forget to be kind to yourself:
- Prioritise some time to relax, think about how you’re feeling and how your day or week has been so far.
- Try and tune out social media for a day, or even a week.
- Treat yourself to something, even if it’s something small.
- Remind yourself that you are doing the best you can.
Author and cartoonist Dr Seuss wrote: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
Health and Wellbeing
Wellbeing means being in a positive physical, social and mental state. Wellbeing is important to us as happy, healthy people who achieve harmony in their work / life mix are more creative, productive and help to create a great place to work.