Be Kind to ME - World Kindness Day

Hello and welcome to Believe in ME with Rhona Barton.

This podcast is about all things Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) related!

I'm Rhona and I lived with ME for almost 10 years during which time, I was bed-bound and wheelchair-bound, welcome to my Podcast.

World Kindness Day is Sunday 13th November. In this week’s episode I’m going to be chatting to you about Being Kind to ME.

You can head to www.rhonabarton.co.uk/media for more information about me and my story.

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Ok, let’s jump straight in and start with some of the basics around World Kindness Day.

World Kindness Day was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement and is observed by a number of countries.

The day highlights good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power of kindness and aims to increase the value of kindness in society as well as increase the amount of kind acts that take place.

Have you ever done something nice for somebody else just because you could? Not to repay them for anything or because you had to, but just because you could and you wanted to. If so, then you’ve done a random act of kindness! Congratulations!

Kindness is a valuable trait to have. We like kind people and being kind can help us be liked. Being kind has been shown to boost other’s well-being and also our own personal well-being. Some researchers have proposed that happiness is just the emotional experience we have when we act in ways that promote our survival. Evolutionary psychologists believe that kindness makes us happy because it helps us survive & thrive. This may be especially true when we help family, friends and spouses.

Some people are more likely to practice random acts of kindness than others. Seeing our parents engage in random acts of kindness makes it more likely that we will too. If someone tells us that we’re kind, we might also be more likely to engage in random acts of kindness.

Many of us want to try random acts of kindness but we’re just not sure how. There are a variety of ways that you can carry them out and they don’t need to cost an arm and a leg.

Here are some examples:

1. Give a compliment

2. Show gratitude

3. Write a handwritten card to someone to say thank you

4. Tell a friend what you love about their children

5. Pick up rubbish from the ground and pop it in the rubbish bin

6. Pay for somebody’s tea or coffee the next time you are at a coffee shop.

7. Sign up as a volunteer for a charity.

8. The next time you are clearing out your house, donate items that you no longer want