Tips for Being an Agent of Kindness

Despite the heaviness of the news, there are many ordinary people who do amazing things for others. Their efforts serve as points of lights in a dark environment. Their actions enable people to have hope in the good of people.

Each one of us can be agents of kindness, in our personal and professional lives. We can resolve to be kinder to one another, and accumulated small acts of kindness can have a big impact on others and on ourselves.

Consider these tips to inject kindness into our lives daily:

Donate — donate money, or perhaps more importantly, time to a cause we care about.

Smile — offer a pleasant smile to strangers and acquaintances alike.  Give smiles to our loved ones.

Avoid being a Jerk — when something doesn’t work out our way, we don’t need to be ugly to others; we can pause and take a breath, then deal with the situation with more consideration. We don’t have the right to pollute a room with our reaction.

Open and hold doors for others — sounds simple and obvious, but is kind.

Encourage someone — find a way to tell someone, even a person we find challenging, they did something well.

Avoid spewing hateful worlds — social media allows many of us to say the  awful things. We can choose not to participate. We can listen, and if we decide to contribute to the conversation, find a tactful way to to do it.

Pick up a cup of coffee for someone.  Just because.

Write someone a handwritten note.  People still enjoy receiving letters. It is a rare experience these days.