Helen

Act of kindness #5: Appreciating good service

Being kind by writing a thank you message for my lovely waitress:

I’ve just enjoyed a yummy brunch at Bills, thanks to a much appreciated Christmas Gift Card from a thoughtful friend.

My waitress was really lovely. She was kind and friendly and I felt very well looked after.

Having been a waitress in my mid-late teens, I know how hard work it can be. I also know how much a simple thank you from a customer can mean. I can’t bear it when people don’t acknowledge waitstaff or treat them discourteously. And so I always make sure to smile and show my appreciation.

So as well as thanking my waitress personally, I decided to write her a thank you message on one of my kindness cards.

Thankfully, I always carry a blank kindness card or two in my bag. I wrote a message and propped it up on my table as I left so she would discover it when she was preparing the table for the next (hopefully appreciative) customer.

More days of happy: Red Red Robin

Being mindful by looking out for robins:

I love robins. I really really love them.

I’ve loved them ever since I performed a tap dance with my dance school to the brilliant Red Red Robin song when I about 8 years old. Yes, me… on a real stage with real people watching!! Argh!!

I love everything about the nation’s favourite bird. I love their bright red breasts which makes them out from the crowd. I love their year-round melodic birdsong which really cheers my day. I love their loyalty to the area in which they were born, rarely straying. And I love their presence around Christmastime, on cards, jumpers and all-things festive.

Surprisingly and disappointingly I don’t see them very often. We used to have a robin visit our garden occasionally, but I haven’t seen him for a while.

It’s one of the few birds I consciously look out for on my soul strolls.

And I’ve been lucky enough to spot two in the last few days!

WooHoooooooooo!!

On our way back from the health shop we stopped for a short soul stroll through a park, and I heard him before I saw him. I was over-the-moon to spot him and pleased-as-punch to be able to capture him before he flew away.

And I laughed when I got home when I realised I was wearing my robin jumper – now christened my ‘good luck robin jumper’!

This morning was a real treat. On my regular walking route into town, I’ve spotted a robin a couple of times. But he’s always flown away before I’ve been able to snap him – such a tease!

As I passed the spot today, I started to sing the Red Red Robin song as I kept my eye open for this seemingly elusive bird. And to my delight, he appeared a little further along, sitting on a branch, singing his heart out. Clearly he was showing me how the song is really sung! Again I managed to quickly capture him before he flew away.

Happy red robin days.

Act of kindness #3: Sisterly love

Being kind by inviting my sister to join me for a film preview:

As part of my 100 Acts of Kindness I vowed to include kindness acts that I do for people I know as well as strangers.

These are the kind of acts that we all do on a regular basis without really thinking about, and we usually don’t pat ourselves on the back for.

But I strongly feel we should honour and celebrate all kinds of kindness, and while this one feels a bit uncomfortable to write, here we go…

A couple of days ago, I was excited to be offered free preview tickets to see the new Eddie The Eagle film. I was delighted to see that it was a pre-lunchtime screening as mornings are the better time with my limited energy levels, which speed quickly downhill after lunch.

I usually take mum with me as my plus one, but knowing that my sister could do with a bit of cheering up, I decided to offer her my plus one ticket.

As a busy mum of two boys, aged 7 and 3, my sister doesn’t really get much time to herself – something I’m sure lots of mums identify with. She works three days a week and the other days are spent looking after my nephews, so I thought it would be brilliant to be able to offer her a morning away from the madhouse!

She was keen, but unfortunately the time conflicted with her hubby leaving to play in a football match. It was only a frustratingly short 20 minute gap, but obviously the boys can’t be left on their own in the house!

So she sadly had to decline my invite.

Thankfully our very kind mum came to the rescue and offered to look after the boys, and cover the short gap between their daddy going out and mummy coming home.

Hooray for our fabulous mum ♡

As the cinema is only a short drive from home and is manageable for me with the CFS condition, I offered to drive in order to give my sis a break from driving.

It was really nice to see her enjoying the luscious countryside views that she drives frequently past on her way to work but is unable to properly enjoy as she has to concentrate on the road.

Thankfully we both really enjoyed the film – we laughed, we cried, we gasped – and I think it’s safe to say that we both appreciated our rare 1-2-1 sister time together ☺︎

I’m so happy that I could share my good fortune of the free cinema tickets with my little sis, and for having such a lovely, kind and thoughtful mum to help make it happen.

Act of kindness #4: Flowers for mum

Being kind by buying my mum a bunch of flowers:

My lovely mum is going through a difficult time at the moment.

And as you’ll know, it’s really hard to see someone you love upset.

So as well as keeping her in a constant supply of heartfelt hugs, I bought her this bunch of bright cheery flowers to lift her spirits a little and to remind her how much she is loved and treasured.

Act of kindness #2: Warming messages

Being kind by putting up kindness messages around town:

On this chilly foggy morning, I needed to visit my favourite health food shop to pick up a few essentials and thought I’d sprinkle a little kindness around in the hope of bringing a warm sunny smile to the early morning shoppers.

Armed with some of my kindness cards upon which I’d written my favourite message: “You are AMAZING – if you forget that, please read this again” and a blob of Blu-Tack, my lovely mum and I ventured into the town centre.

Here’s where I stuck my kindness cards:

Kindness Card #1: The car park’s Give Way sign

Kindness Card #2: The pillar facing the main doors of supermarket

Kindness Card #3: A lovely ornate lamppost between the supermarket and the high street

Kindness Card #4: Inside a cafe’s menu

Kindness Card #5: Another ornate lamppost on the busy high street

Kindness Card #6: The bark of a tree in the middle of the town’s square

Kindness Card #7: And perhaps my favourite place of all-time, on the lapel of the brilliant ‘Beeman’ sculpture

If you spotted one of my kindness messages this morning, I’d love to hear if it made you smile in the comments below…

Act of kindness #1: Spreading a little kindness on Facebook

Being kind by starting a kindness community on Facebook:

As part of my continuing kindness mission, I’ve set up a community page on Facebook called ‘Spreading a little kindness’.

~ ‘Spreading a little kindness’ is a place where we can share kindness stories and experiences, whether it’s a kindness act we have done, or an act of kindness we have received.

~ ‘Spreading a little kindness’ is a place we can celebrate:
1. Being kind to people we know: these are the kind acts we do for friends, family, and folks we already know. These are the acts we all do without really thinking about them and it’s important to honour the kindness already within us and celebrate it.
2. Being kind to strangers: these are the acts of kindness we do whether they’re anonymous or face-to-face for people we don’t know. And,
3. Being kind to ourselves: As we can be sometimes be too hard on ourselves – I know I am – being kind to ourselves is really important for our own wellbeing and we will be celebrating this too.

~ ‘Spreading a little kindness’ is a place where we can share ideas and to help inspire and motivate each other to keep spreading kindness.

~ And ‘Spreading a little kindness’ is a place where every ‘like’ or ‘share’ generated from this page, creates an incredible ripple effect of kindness.

I truly believe we can make the world a better place, one kindness act at a time.

I’d really love to see you and your friends there and I’m looking forward to spreading a little kindness with you…

☆♡☆

More days of happy: 7 things I love about March

Being grateful for the month of March:

It’s finally here: one of my favourite months of the year.

I woke up feeling pretty excited this morning. And after making sure the first words I spoke were “white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits” to bring good luck for this shiny new month, I couldn’t wait to turn the page of my wall calendar and say a big fabulous Hello! to March.

Here are my top 7 reasons why I love this marvellous month:

1. Spring is here
After the cosy hibernation of the long winter months, there’s a delicious scent of fresh starts in the air. As spring arrives, I feel myself going through a metamorphosis and am ready to spread my wings.

2. Mother Nature in bloom
After the barren tones of winter, it’s such a joy to spot lush green leaves sweeping over the bare branches and bright colourful flowers popping up everywhere. I’ve already been excitedly spotting snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, and even some early spring blossom. Bring it on!

3. Dawn chorus
As migrating birds begin to return and year-round birds start singing for mates, it’s such a treat to hear the skies come alive with the sound of morning birdsong and I continue to enjoy their joyful tunes all day long.

4. Lighter longer days
Hooray for longer and lighter days as we head towards Daylight Savings. Waking up to an earlier sunrise and enjoying a later sunset is an instant mood booster and I love that it starts to bring people outside once again.

5. Warmer temperatures
As we leave behind the winter chill for the warmer days of spring, I’m always relieved to shed my heavy winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves, as well as the winter blues. I love being able to get out into nature so much more, feeling lighter and brighter with a spring in my step.

6. Easter
As well as enjoying the 4-day holiday and treasured family time, I have to confess I do look forward to lifting my year-round ban on sugar to enjoy a yummy Easter Egg and a Hot Cross Bun or two.

7. My birthday
There are a fair few celebrations in March: birthdays, anniversaries, and Mother’s Day to name a few. And the excitement builds to my birthday which falls on the 29th. I’m happy to admit I’m a real Birthday Princess and think birthdays are a wonderful opportunity to do something really lovely – the CFS condition has made this a challenge over the last few years, but I still try to enjoy this special day.

So these are my favourite things about March. What do you love about March? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below…

Day 100: my 100th happy day

Being grateful for reaching 100 days of happy:

I’ve made it! I’ve done it!

100 happy days!!

WooHoooo!!!

I’m so thrilled to be writing my 100th happy day (and I have to confess I’ve been stringing it out a little bit as I didn’t want it to come to an end!).

I set out “to encourage myself to look for and write about something that has made me happy every single day”. And to be honest, once I started looking I’ve found it surprisingly easy to find something to be happy about.

In fact, most days it’s hard to choose which one to write about!

And that’s not meant to sound like my life is like a bed of roses. It certainly isn’t.

What I’ve realised is that we all have things around us that can make us happy – if only we allow it to.

And it really is the everyday little things.

For me it’s a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the melodic sound of birdsong, a soul stroll in nature, a tree blowing in the wind, a delicious meal, a hug with my mum, connecting with a friend, a yummy yoga session, playtime with my nephews, getting crafty, and so many more.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learnt throughout this is that happiness is an attitude: it is a choice we make every single day.

Even when I’m feeling crappy, wiped out or a little blue, or all three at once, as soon as I look for something to be grateful for, it instantly lifts my spirits.

It really is as simple as that.

Of course there are days when I’ve felt disgustingly crappy and to be completely honest, I haven’t felt like looking for something to cheer myself up. I’ve chosen to wallow in it, and that’s ok. As long as I acknowledge it and accept that it’s my choice.

I used to beat myself up for having ‘negative’ feelings, but now I’m trying to embrace both the light and the shadows. They’re all part of life and what makes me who I am, who we all are.

I know I need to honour how I’m feeling, as pushing it away can become pretty toxic. So now, when I feel awful, I try not to fight it. Instead I try to accept it and allow it and let myself feel it, and to trust that this too shall pass. For it will.

Of course, I’ll continue to have my blips and feel rubbish and lose my happy, and that’s ok. I can’t expect myself to be happy every single moment of every single day, so why beat myself up when I’m not? And as long as I’m aware of this and know that I can chose to be happy is the key.

Another thing I’ve learnt is that happiness isn’t a switch that once it’s on it never goes off: it’s a daily practice. It takes effort, which at times is not easy, but it’s so worth it.

So now I’ve reached the end of my 100 days of happy project, what next?

To be honest, I’m still not sure. But I’m really excited do see what’s around the corner.

I have lots of ideas floating around in my head which I can’t wait to explore and put into action. But as I’ve learnt with the rollercoaster nature of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I have to take each day, each hour, as it comes: slowly and surely.

And I completely trust that when the time is right, I will take the next step. And then the next.

In the meantime, I will continue to write about finding the happy in the everyday little things, just without the numbers as I feel I need to leave the 100 days as it is. So my new posts will be under a new heading: more happy days.

I can’t not mention the positive impact my kindness acts have had on my wellbeing. It’s been truly amazing and life-changing. Being kind really does benefit the giver as well as the receiver, and for that I’m truly grateful.

And I never expected the incredible response I’ve had from others – the reaction and feedback from some of the receivers, the interest from my local newspaper and radio station, and all the wonderful comments from lovely you.

They’ve been a lovely bonus.

I have so many ideas on how to continue my kindness mission, and I’m really excited to be delving into this a lot more going forward. But all in good time and I will definitely be writing about them when the time is right.

And most of all, I’d like to say a huge big THANK YOU to everyone who has visited my blog, I’m so thankful and it’s always so lovely to see you. And I am ever so grateful for my lovely subscribers, THANK YOU. I get so excited when I see your comments and appreciate every single one. I always feel such a thrill and a deep sense of gratitude when a new subscriber signs up. You are all AMAZING. THANK YOU!

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being for reaching 100 days of happy.

Day 99: My kind Valentine

Being kind by leaving love-filled goodie bags on car windscreens in the hospital car park:

Happy Valentine’s Day! And Happy International Random Act of Kindness Week!

So why not combine the two, me thinks!!

How about some Valentine’s Day Kindness Bags filled with love-themed goodies?

And being joined by my helpful nephew Callum, I have all the ingredients for the sweetest Valentine’s Day EVER!!

I’ve been planning this ever since my Random Act of Christmas Kindness. One of my favourite kindness acts so far, I loved choosing what to put inside my festive goodie bags and it gave me such pleasure leaving them on car windscreens at my doctor’s surgery.

But most of all I was incredibly moved by a response I received from a lovely lady who received one of these bags (see the comments section if you’d like to read it).

So the day is finally here, hooray!.

And I’m over-the-moon that my seven-year-old nephew Callum wants to help me. I love what a big heart he has and how his teacher is always commenting on how kind and helpful he is.

So earlier this morning we spread our loot across my bed, and had fun packing our 20 kindness goodie bags.

Into each clear bag, we popped: a red foil-wrapped chocolate heart, a mini packet of Love Heart sweeties, a mini chocolate bar, a highlighter pen, some heart stickers, a handful of heart-shaped jewels, and a feather or two.

We wrote kindness messages on my Kindness Cards. Callum carefully writing: You are amazing, and adding his name and age on a few. So sweet. And we also included a ‘You Are Loved’ card I’d made using one of my favourite nature photos I took last year, with a little explanation about our Random Act of Kindness on the reverse.

Excited and ready for action, we drove down to the City Hospital and parked up.

Although it was freezing, our hearts were warmed as together we placed our kindness bags on the car windscreens.

We even had the chance to give someone one of our kindness bags face-to-face: we spotted a lady heading into the hospital and ran across to hand-deliver a goodie bag. She seemed really happy to receive it.

We hope that when the owner/s returned to their cars after their appointment or visit or work-shift, they will be surprised.

And we really hope our little act of kindness will make a few people smile and feel happy, especially on this love-filled day.

Last week, I told the Nottingham Post about our little Valentine’s adventure, and we were interviewed and snapped by our city’s newspaper while in the midst of our good deed. Once the feature goes out, I will post the link here:

We then celebrated with a trip to our local Costa for a well-deserved sugar-loaded treat!

What really warms my heart is that Callum wants to take a kindness goodie bag with him into school next week for his ‘show and tell’. My heart is so happy to think that this small act of kindness may help inspire this younger generation to continue the ripple effect of kindness.

What a brilliant way to celebrate the start of International Random Act of Kindness Week!

Now back home, I’m shaking with exhaustion and about to switch-off and have a long soak in a yummy Epsom salt bath.

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being kind by leaving love-filled goodie bags on car windscreens in the hospital car park.

ps if you have received one of our Valentine’s Day Kindness Goodie Bags, we’d really LOVE to hear from you in the comments below. If you’d prefer me not to publish your comment on the blog, please let me know.

Day 98: Friends

Being grateful for my friends:

Friends.

Just thinking about them makes me smile.

I’m sure you’ll agree that friends enrich our lives. We support and inspire, console and motivate, have each other’s back, and believe in each other.

Whether it’s a giggle over something silly, or a pour-your-heart-out kind of chat, friends comfort each other during tough times, and are there to celebrate the good times.

And what’s more, they know you and still love you!

I feel so blessed to have had some amazing friends throughout my life so far. I am truly grateful for every single one: longstanding and new, young and young-at-heart, near and far, lost and found.

Friends can really feel like family: they’re the family we choose for our ourselves.

I came to realise this even more so having lived in various places around the world. Having to start from scratch quite a few times, it’s not easy and can be pretty lonely at first. But slowly and surely, friendships form and blossom.

But then it’s heartbreaking when one of us – which usually happens to be nomadic ole me – moves on and we have to say goodbye.

So that’s why I say, thank goodness for technology!

I am forever grateful to be able to stay in touch via Skype and FaceTime. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how incredible is it to sit and have a face-to-face catch up over a cuppa with a friend on the other side of the country or the world!

And while I’m not a huge user of Facebook, I’m glad to have it so I can have a quick scroll through friends’ pages now and again to see what they’ve been up to.

I have to confess, I used to be doubtful how you could make real true friends through social media. But thankfully my eyes, and heart, have been opened thanks to an amazing daily gratitude app. This like-minded community filled with kind-hearted, happy souls make me smile every day and I’ve formed some truly special life-long friendships. Even though we haven’t met in person yet – and I stress the yet as I know it will happen – I know that these friendships are just as real and just as true.

While new friendships are all shiny and exciting, I’m really sad to have lost connection with friends from the past, as we both moved on or grew apart. But I’ve come to accept that this is part of life.

As with any relationship, they can be difficult and challenging at times, but hopefully you can work through it together and come out stronger.

Sadly, there are some friends we have to let go of, or they let go of us. No matter how painful it is when this happens, I try and remind myself to be grateful for all that we’ve shared together. And whenever I think of them to remember to smile and send them love ♡.

Having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome makes it frustratingly difficult to stay in touch and keep friendships going. As much as I want to connect, the nature of my symptoms make it a challenge.

It’s safe to say I’m reliably unreliable when it comes to making plans for a get-together be it in person or via technology. I find I have to reluctantly cancel planned chats at the last minute, due to not feeling well enough. And this is really upsetting and I never feel great about it.

But my friends are always in my thoughts and in my heart, and I hope they know that. I hope once I’m well enough, we can reconnect and make up for lost time.

I just love how great friendships are those where you can simply pick up where you left off, even though you haven’t spoken for a while.

And I know that we are always there for each other. After all, that’s what friendship is all about, isn’t it.

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being grateful for my friends.