This last week I was unwell with a fluey cold and watched WAY too much Netflix, but was good to get some relaxation time in for my body.
One thing I watched was The Kindness Diaries.
This is a doco about Leon, a guy who travels from Alaska to Argentina in a very old yellow VW Beetle, solely on the kindness of others.
He’s not able to spend or accept any money; instead, he has to ask others for a place to stay, to feed him and to fill up his car.
A lot of people think he’s mad for what he’s doing, until he explains his reason.
He was really badly bullied as a kind, including by teachers and other adults, and says all he saw growing up was how unkind people could be.
In his early adulthood he then volunteered in a school in Argentina, which is where he was shown such kindness that it opened up his heart.
Others in the show who help him share their own kindness stories.
It’s a show that bursts your heart open and makes you cry happy tears often – have some tissues handy!
He then passes on gifts to those he feels deserve it the most… he sends a couple anywhere they want in the world, he builds a school, he helps a girl who used to be homeless as a kid to start a charity helping other kids.
If we can all be more kind to each other, the world will be a much happier place.
How can you be kind to others today?
It doesn’t take much.
Here’s some ideas:
- ️ when you buy your next coffee, buy an extra one to pay it forward to the next person
- smile at everyone you see
- give out hugs to others
- ask people to share a story of the kindest thing they’ve experienced in their life
- rescue an animal or insect you see in need (I found a bee dying in my laundry, going white; put it on a rose outside for what I thought were it’s last moments and saw it’s still alive on the ground under the rose the next day not white anymore)
- send a message to someone who’s had a positive influence in your life and let them know how much they mean to you
- call a long lost friend to find out how they are
- donate some money, time or items to charity
- buy a meal and hot drink for a homeless person, sit down and have a chat with them
- give someone a genuine compliment
- run a bath for your partner ready for when they get home from work
- tell someone the things you appreciate about them
- watch The Kindness Diaries
I’d love to hear your own kindness stories and your suggestions on ways to be kind!
Kindness is my favourite currency 🙂
Catcha on the kinder flip side,
