MakeKindnessTheNorm – FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

Welcome to World Kindness Day 2022!

As you probably know from my previous posts, especially these ones about World Kindness Day 2021 (about kindness to others) and World Kindness Day 2020 (about self-kindness), I am a kindness cheerleader.

I just want people to be kinder to themselves and each other. I want society as a whole to be kinder to its individual members. I want governments to be kinder to their citizens. I just want more kindness in the world.

Like Brooke Jones, VP for the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation says in her blog post, I want us all to Make Kindness The Norm.

(For some reason, I can’t insert a caption under the image below. The image is from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and here is the image description: A red heart and text reading ‘Believe there is good in the world’ with a weathered wooden background. most of the text is black but some of the letters are white so an alternate message of ‘Be the Good’ can also be read. At the bottom of the image is text reading ‘Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’ )

A red heart and text reading 'Believe there is good in the world' with a weathered wooden background. most of the text is black but some of the letters are white so an alternate message of 'Be the Good' can also be read. At the bottom of the image is text reading 'Random Acts of Kindness Foundation'

I know I am not alone in my cheerleading mission and in my belief that kindness matters but I also know that there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world. It’s hard to maintain hope and it’s hard to feel that your small, day-to-day kindnesses matter.

That’s why I was so happy to find this video by John Green a few weeks ago because he does a terrific job of summing up a lot of things that I haven’t been able to express succinctly. He’s not talking about kindness directly, he’s arguing for meaning and against nihilism, but his conclusions apply to kindness, too. I especially like his point about how the big picture may be a challenging one but that we don’t live in the big picture, we live in the day-to-day. And in the day-to-day, all of those little connections (or, one could say, kindnesses 😉 ) matter.

I can add a caption here so I will – This is a video from the Vlog Brothers YouTube channel. It’s entitled ‘Against Nihilism’ and the still image features John Green, a white middle aged man with a beard and glasses sitting in his home office. He is facing the camera and he has an intense expression on his face which reflects his passion for the subject.

So, even if there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, it’s still worth it to be kind, to seek kindness, and to encourage kindness. It okay to do it because it helps you feel good, because it helps the people you are kind to feel good, or because it just seems like the right thing to do.

(Hmm, I can’t add a caption to the photo below either but it is another photo from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. This image shows a small child with brown skin and curly hair sitting in a white chair. They’re wearing enormous glasses and smiling big enough that their eyes have closed to make room for their grin. They’re wearing yellow pants, suspenders and a blue shirt that reads ‘I’ve got nothing but love for you.’ The text to their left reads ‘The world is full of kind people…If you can’t find one, be one.)

And since being kind, as the video below suggests, is supposed to help reduce stress and bring you ease, there’s no reason not to keep trying it.

Again, I can add a caption to this video even though I couldn’t add one to the images. Anyway, this is an animated YouTube video from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation entitled ‘The Science of Kindness’ and the still image shows a person with light brown skin with their long hair up in a bun on top of their head. They are wearing white pants and a grey long sleeved shirt and their hands are behind their back. They have a speech balloon with a heart in it above their head.

I’ve got lots of links in my previous World Kindness Day posts about how to be kind to yourself and others so I’ll just include two more links here:

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has a downloadable calendar for teachers or for anyone who wants to add more kindness to their days on a regular basis.

And since I don’t know how much time or energy you have today, I’m just going to link to my results from a YouTube search for Kindness Meditation so, if you are inclined to meditate, you can have an easy way to find one to try today.

And, my friends, as always, be kind to yourself about the whole thing – life, the universe, and everything – if you aren’t up to putting kindness out into the world today then turn that kindness inward and give yourself a break. You are doing the best you can with the resources you have. 💚

It’s World Kindness Day and I thought it would be a good idea to post some resources to help you explore this year’s theme ‘Make Kindness the Norm.’

a promotional image for World Kindness Day that reads 'Kind People Are My Kind Of People' in the center and 'World Kindness Day 2021' in the bottom right. — Image description: Multi-coloured text in the center of the image (against a white background) reads ‘Kind People Are My Kind Of People.’ In the bottom right corner is black text that reads ‘World Kindness Day’ and orange text that reads ‘2021’ with the url inspirekindness.com in black and orange beneath. The black letters in ‘World Kindness Day’ look as if they were cut from an image of the sun rising behind planet Earth. Image source

Encouraging people to be kind to themselves is one of my favourite things to do. I have a whole series of Go Team! posts here on the blog and I wrote a post about self-kindness this time last year.

I also love encouraging people to be kind to others but I tend to do that more in person (and I hope by leading by example) than I do in writing. However, given this year’s theme, I thought I would try to write a bit more about being kind to others.

With the way things are structured these days, it often feels like we are rewarded for snarkiness or snap judgements. There is a sense that we are in constant competition and that it is everyone for themselves.

It takes some effort to look beneath that dominant narrative and see the everyday kindness and the big-picture-positive projects that are happening all around us. It’s worth the work to find them though and once you start noticing them, you will begin to see them more and more often.

Obviously there are a lot of bad things going on in the world and a lot of things that need to change. I would never suggest that you ignore those issues but while we are working on them, we can also work on creating more kindness in the world.

Please don’t get caught up in the idea that kindnesses that you can perform and participate have to be grand gestures and huge tasks. Small acts of kindness can make a huge difference in one person’s life and making a small contribution to a bigger project can have a wide-ranging effect.

Kindness at any scale is incredibly powerful.

Image description: a sepia photo of a country road extending into the distance with trees and bushes on both sides. White text in the center reads ‘Do small things, with great love.’ and a small read triangle beneath the text attributes the quote to Mother Teresa. image source.

During times of difficulty, love and solidarity can help us stay strong.

Saturday’s #WorldKindnessDay is an opportunity to demonstrate how small acts of kindness can create a better world for us all.

🎨: Margaret To pic.twitter.com/cPjlsxQUlF
— United Nations (@UN) November 13, 2021

An image of a tweet from the UN (@UN) that reads: During times of difficulty, love and solidarity can help us stay strong. Saturday’s #WorldKindnessDay is an opportunity to demonstrate how small acts of kindness can create a better world for us all. The tweet includes an image from artist Margaret To which shows multicoloured dots arranged in rows with a yellow heart as the centre dot. The text in the image reads ‘Your kindness is contagious’

I’m not at all suggesting that you flip a switch and turn into a selfless person who operates only from kindness. Instead, I’m inviting you to make a difference for everyone involved by choosing the kindest option whenever it presents itself.

I think it would be good for the health, wellness, and brain space of everyone involved.

Note: a quick google search will produce tons of articles showing how being kind to others benefits us, I like the idea of letting go of that expectation and being kind for its own sake. I’m not suggesting that you dismiss the good feelings that may arise from kindness, those are terrific, but I think that having those feelings as our goal can lead to disappointment.

If you want some specific suggestions for kind actions, here’s a great list from the Random Acts of Kindness website: