Act of kindness #25: Celebrating World Kindness Day

Happy World Kindness Day!

There’s been a huge ripple effect of kindness on social media these past few days leading up to today’s World Kindness Day. And I have to confess I’m feeling very excited about it.

I loved making up my World Kindness Day Goody Bags and placing them on cars in the hospital car park on Friday, and I’m ecstatic about the positive reaction to my Kindness Advent Calendar I posted yesterday (at the time of writing over 250 kindness warriors have downloaded it already, woohooo!!)

So it’s no surprise that due to my limited energy from the CFS, I’m feeling pretty wiped out today.  I have a family birthday dinner to go to shortly, but really wanted to do just one more kindness act in honour of #WorldKindnessDay.

So today’s is a simple one.

I wanted to enjoy today’s gorgeous sunshine and autumn colours so took a gentle soul stroll down to our local shops.

And I bought this cheerful autumn bunch of flowers.

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I thought I’d split the flowers and place a single flower onto windscreens of cars parked at the restaurant. And to each flower, I’ve attached one of my kindness cards with the message: Celebrating World Kindness Day – Sun 13th Nov.

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And I decided to take my own advice and be kind to myself as well. So I treated myself to the same colourful bunch of flowers… I know they’ll keep me smiling all week long.

I also wrote a happy message on the back of one of my kindness cards and will stick it onto the restaurant’s bathroom mirror for everyone to enjoy.

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And this message is for you too 🙂

☆♡☆

p.s. If you found one of my kindness flowers, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below…

Day 79: Nottingham Post

Being grateful to have my kindness mission featured in the local newspaper:

What an exciting couple of days!

I’m absolutely thrilled to be featured in today’s newspaper, the Nottingham Post, about my acts of kindness.

Back in the summer, the Post kicked off a ‘Good Deeds’ campaign encouraging 1,000 readers to do an act of kindness and tell them about it. So, I wrote to them about my kindness acts around the city but I certainly didn’t expect to be featured like this! What a bonus!!

I was interviewed and photographed yesterday, and told it would be in today’s paper.

Yikes!

As I searched through the newspaper this morning, I got a bit of a shock to see such a big close up photo of me, revealing warts and all. But this isn’t about my vanity, it’s about spreading the kindness message throughout my county!

I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the result:

Nottingham Post full page

I have to admit I was a little nervous because my brain fog was quite bad yesterday and I stumbled over my sentences and struggled to find the right words. I hoped I’d come across coherently. And on the whole, I think I did-ish 🙂

I particularly love and am bowled over by the print version’s byline: “… a one-woman mission to make the world a brighter place.” How fantastic is that!

It’s also exciting to see the article in the News section of the online edition.

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As I’ve mentioned before, when I do my acts of kindness I think it’s really important to keep my intentions pure: I simply want to bring a smile to someone’s face. And I never expect anything in return.

One of the unexpected bonuses that continues to surprise me is the response from others. And I really appreciate that people take the time to write such kind comments. Thank you 🙂

My mission is to continue spread kindness and keep the ripple effect going…  even more so in light of the recent terror attacks in Paris. It’s easy to lose faith in humanity, but we all must continue to shine our light and continue to spread love and kindness.

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being grateful to have my kindness mission featured in the local newspaper.

Day 36: Coffee’s on me

Being kind by anonymously paying for a stranger’s coffee:

Yay! Today I got the chance to use another of my Kindness Cards. Feeling well enough to go out for a couple of hours, I walked into my local town for a coffee.

The friendly manager took my order, and I shyly asked if she’d do me a favour. I explained that I’d like to anonymously pay for a customer’s coffee and would like her to pass on one of my Kindness Cards, which on the back I’d written: You are an incredible person. Enjoy your coffee xxx

Kindness Card: Coffee's on me

What I didn’t anticipate, however, was the manager’s response: she was genuinely touched and moved to tears by the gesture.

The crazy thing is that her response made me feel a little uncomfortable.

It made me realise how much easier it is to show kindness to others than it is to accept kindness ourselves. What a learning experience.

She accepted my payment for the coffee along with the Kindness Card and promised to pass it along.

I didn’t stay long enough to see who was given the free coffee, but that was the idea really. I want to give without expectation of getting anything in return.

This is the first time of using my Kindness Cards that involved asking for someone else’s help. Not realising it at the time, it has shown the bountiful benefits of kindness: this one small act has made two, hopefully three, people happy: me, the manager, and, hopefully, the recipient of the free coffee.

So my happy for today is being kind to a stranger by anonymously paying for their coffee.

Day 11: Flower power

Being kind by giving flowers to a stranger:

Today I took a big scary step into the wonderful world of being kind to a stranger: face-to-face.

As I’d taken myself into the city for a yummy brunch, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to face this fear.

I bought a pretty little bunch of orange gerbera’s and asked the flower seller to attach my kindness card to it, with the words: Enjoy the flowers… you deserve them.

Ok, that’s the easy part done.

Now to find someone to give them to…

Gulp!

Call me crazy, but I thought an older lady – in her sixties or seventies – would be a good choice for my first attempt. I felt a younger person might be suspicious of my intentions and a man may take my gesture the wrong way: especially as I was so nervous. As I grow more confident, my intention is to do face-to-face acts of kindness to all, regardless of age or gender.

With butterflies flitting and fluttering around my tummy, I walked up and down a couple of busy shopping streets. I focused my search to those sitting on benches or waiting at bus stops, as I thought it’d be easier to approach someone who wasn’t rushing off somewhere.

I then scanned the seating areas on the city’s Market Square and finally found a couple looking happy and relaxed. The man was doing a crossword, and the lady was watching people go by.

She smiled at me as I walked by, and I knew she was the one.

My heart pounding, I approached her and told her I’d like to give her the flowers. I explained that I’m doing acts of kindness and asked if she’d accept the gerbera’s from me.

She graceful accepted them without question.

Phew, I was so grateful. I’d expected a little suspicion as to why I wanted to give a stranger flowers, and was relieved to find an open and willing recipient.

The lovely lady explained how they’re just visiting the city, and so sadly didn’t have anywhere to put them. But as she was meeting her sister-in-law later, she would pass them on: spreading the kindness, she told me with a knowing smile. WooHooooo it works!

I walked away my heart feeling happy and proud of myself for putting myself out of my comfort zone.

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being kind by giving flowers to a stranger.