Random Acts of Kindness Day (or RAK Day) is always on the same date every year: February 17th. Whereas, Random Acts of Kindness Week (or RAK Week) is tied to Valentine’s Day, so this year we’ll celebrate it from 9th February to 15th February. So to help you get ready to #BeKind, use Random Acts of Kindness Day and Week to spread kindness to others.
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What Are Random Acts Of Kindness?
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Random acts of kindness are acts performed by someone that are selfless, where they wish to help or positively affect the emotional state of another person (Passmore and Oades, 2022). This is very different to the acts of “kindness” you’ll often see on social media, which is often done with the intent of getting views, likes, subscribers, and going viral.
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Unfortunately, unless something goes viral, we rarely hear about acts of kindness performed by strangers in the media, because negativity drives news consumption. We just can’t help but doomscroll and complain about what’s going on in the world.
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But there are good people everywhere. People around the world are engaging in acts of kindness, and they might not even know it. These acts of kindness also have a domino effect, as we’re more likely to behave kindly if we’ve received a kind deed or a kind word ourselves (Baskerville et al., 2000).
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Why Engage In Random Acts Of Kindness?
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A study conducted by Rowland and Curry (2019) illustrated why engaging in random acts of kindness is beneficial to all of us. They conducted a study into acts of kindness using 683 participants, where they were to engage in acts of kindness for seven days. These acts of kindness were to be done for friends and strangers, but also for themselves.
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Their study found that being kind to others, being kind to yourself, and actively seeing kindness happen around us can equally boost our subjective happiness. This study also replicated previous research into the connection between acts of kindness and happiness.
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This is supported by Bellotti, Carroll, and Han (2013), who stated that engaging in acts of kindness for others is rewarding for the person doing it, greatly contributing to their happiness and self-esteem.
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This is further supported by Post (2014), whose study found that altruistic behaviours are associated with greater wellbeing, health, and longevity. It also helps with reducing depression as well.
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When I’m referring to happiness in this context, it’s important to note that not all happiness is created equal. For example, the happiness we might get from eating a bar of chocolate won’t be the same as helping someone who’s struggling with their shopping bags (Gilbert, 2006).
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I don’t know about you, but I have a good recall of the random acts of kindness I’ve engaged in, but when it comes to eating chocolate, that doesn’t leave the same imprint in my memory. Although my saying that is clearly anecdotal, so how many of you can say the same thing? Let me know in the comments section, as I’d really like to know.
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How To Engage In Random Acts of Kindness?
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It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort to engage in random acts of kindness. You don’t have to do something like ‘pay it forward‘ at Starbucks, as that can often put people who can’t afford to pay it forward into a difficult situation.
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It can be as simple as holding a door open for someone or helping someone if you see them in need, such as holding the bus so it doesn’t pull away as someone runs for it. Then there’s also treating yourself with kindness, which often gets overlooked.
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There’s a whole branch of psychology that can help with treating yourself with more kindness, and that’s called positive psychology. I’ve written about positive psychology a few times, and I’ve created worksheets in my blog’s shop that are based on positive psychology as well. Go check out my articles and my blog store. You might also want to check out my articles on happiness as well.
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Time banks
While researching this article, I came across the concept of time banks, which are ways to give to your community, akin to volunteering. It’s pretty simple, for each hour given to helping someone, you gain an hour to be used to get help when you need it (Timebanking UK, 2022).
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All time and labour are treated as equal, so an hour of helping someone do their shopping will be the same as providing a professional service for an hour (TimeBanks.Org, n.d.). Thus, using a time back might be an interesting way to engage in random acts of kindness.
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Summary
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Random acts of kindness don’t have to be big gestures or grand spectacles. They can be the little things we do every day that go unnoticed but nevertheless make someone feel happy. It’s the little things that can make life worth living. That’s why glimmers (microjoys) can be so effective.
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What can you do this week to spread kindness through random acts of kindness? #BeKind Share on XÂ
To learn more about Random Acts of Kindness Day and Week, click here to be taken to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’s website.
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As always, leave your feedback in the comments section below. Also, please share your experiences with random acts of kindness and other acts of kindness in the comments section below. Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, you can sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, click the red bell icon in the bottom right corner to get push notifications for new articles.
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References
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Baskerville, K., Johnson, K., Monk-Turner, E., Slone, Q., Standley, H., Stansbury, S., Williams, M. & Young, J. (2000). Reactions to random acts of kindness. The Social Science Journal, 37(2), 293-298. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0362331900000628.
Bellotti, V., Carroll, J. M., & Han, K. (2013, May). Random acts of kindness: The intelligent and context-aware future of reciprocal altruism and community collaboration. In 2013 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS) (pp. 1-12). IEEE. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Victoria-Bellotti-2/publication/258358624_Random_acts_of_kindness_The_intelligent_and_context-aware_future_of_reciprocal_altruism_and_community_collaboration/links/57ffbeb208aec3e477eac3f5/Random-acts-of-kindness-The-intelligent-and-context-aware-future-of-reciprocal-altruism-and-community-collaboration.pdf.
Gilbert, D. (2006). Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishers. Retrieved from https://www.humanscience.org/docs/Gilbert%20(2006)%20Stumbling%20Towards%20Happiness.pdf.
Passmore, J., & Oades, L. G. (2022). Positive psychology techniques–random acts of kindness and consistent acts of kindness and empathy. Coaching Practiced, 465-468. Retrieved https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/81936/1/Passmore%20Positive%20Psychology%20-%20Random%20Acts%20of%20Kindness%202015%20RG.pdf.
Post, S. G. (2014). Altruism, happiness, and health: It’s good to be good. An Exploration of the Health Benefits of Factors That Help Us to Thrive, 66-76. Retrieved from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Post-AltruismHappinessHealth.pdf.
Rowland, L., & Curry, O. S. (2019). A range of kindness activities boost happiness. The Journal of Social Psychology, 159(3), 340-343. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2018.1469461.
Timebanking UK. (2022, May). How timebanking works. Timebanking UK. Retrieved from https://timebanking.org/howitworks.
TimeBanks.Org. (n.d.). Welcome to TimeBanking. TimeBanks.Org. Retrieved from https://www.timebanks.org.
I sometimes don’t understand why kindness is not noticeable. Kindness is the most beautiful thing in this world. Kindness is better than wealth and power.
Indeed it is. Thank for commenting
Caught up in the hustle and the bustle, we can forget that small gestures, like a smile or simply holding the door for someone or a little compliment, can brighten someone’s entire day. Your post is a beautiful reminder of this.
Thank you, and thank you for commenting