Daily Acts of Kindness: Struggled as to where to post this

[SorellaLaBefana]

Given the first few paragraphs, obvious choice was 'Good News'

Reading further, seemed not—for many reasons—the best place. Won't run through the other fora considered. MH seems best, for the article covers so much related to self-healing and the healing of self by kindness to others.

Rewind and be kind: what happens if you do one act of kindness every day?

It has been nearly 14 years since a chance encounter with a stranger in a post office changed Bernadette Russell’s life forever...For weeks...as a series of riots broke out across cities in England, Russell had been inundated with images of young people in hoodies looting, pillaging and setting buildings on fire. Now, standing in front of her at her local post office counter in Deptford, south London, was a young man in a hoodie...

...The moment the idea of carrying out one kind act a day for a year entered her mind, she decided to do it. “It was quite spontaneous. I thought: ‘I’ll see what difference this makes,’” she says. “I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I’m not sure if I’d known what was coming, I would have started it so impulsively.”...

...at the same time, she thinks it’s important to practice self-kindness – and that includes forgiving yourself on the occasions when you fail to be kind. “I think people have so much to contend with, so many personal worries, and then there’s the huge background of climate change and war. Sometimes when we see people suffering, it’s frightening and it creates distance, because feeling empathy for them is so terrifying.”

She also knows...how hard it can be to be kind to people who have been unkind. “I’ve been kind to people who, in the course of a conversation, have told me they have done pretty dreadful things.”...she met one man, who was sleeping rough, who told her he had been violent towards women, which made her feel very conflicted as a victim of domestic violence herself. “He felt able to say that to me because I had been kind to him. I stayed in that conversation – and that was difficult.”...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/30/rewind-and-be-kind-what-happens-if-you-do-one-act-of-kindness-every-day

As Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama) has taught "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

https://www.dalailama.com/messages/transcripts-and-interviews/the-purpose-of-life-is-to-be-happy

[Easterncedar]

1. Good article

Thanks.

[et tu]

2. thank you for posting

and welcome to du

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. You are free to post in more than one forum. This would do well in General Discussion, I think. . . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Governor Pritzker: If you want to find the smart people in a room, look for the kind ones. . . . nt

[Joinfortmill]

5. As an old gal, this is now my mission. It's harder than you might think.

[wordstroken]

6. Excellent! Some understand how critical our kind behavior can be to both self and others.

Thank you so much for posting, SorellaLaBefana.
Great thoughts to start the day.

[defacto7]

7. I totally agree with this philosophy.

I think kindness is an evolving need in all of us that's hindered by the greed and fear perpetrated by modern society. I do my best to offer kind acts daily. Sometimes it's difficult other times I forget, but it gets easier every day.

And I agree, this could easily be in General Discussion.

[TygrBright]

8. "Empathy," he says, "is what underpins socialism".

Whatever you want to call it (I'm not sure "socialism" is very useful anymore, the term has acquired too much conflicting baggage and ambiguity), a culture that values looking out for each other is antithetical to those who value the personal accumulation of wealth and power, and see life in terms of a zero-sum game.

This is why the cruelty is the point in modern American Republicanism. It's not that they believe the cruelty is essential to advancing a particular policy agenda or accomplishing a specific goal, it's that cruelty is important to reorient social values to prevent opposition to the selfish dystopia they are attempting to build and rule.

sadly,
Bright

[SorellaLaBefana]

12. Thank you, and EVERYONE, who has replied/recced. Wow. Had no idea it would resonate so

And do Appreciate the suggestions to post in a bigger forum. However, upon reflection, don't really wish to see it floating amongst the flotsam and jetsam of our foundering democracy. MH seems a safer harbour, and perhaps it being here will lead others to this forum—which is so sorely needed at the moment.

Here's a link to another safe harbour nestled inside a maze of fjords on Norway's northwest coast—often have this playing in a window when at Arctos my newly assembled computer.

Peace

[Clouds Passing]

9. The best reading I've had today. Thank you for posting SorellaLaBefana

“Compassion, an active concern for others' well-being, is not only part of religion, it also belongs to our lives as human beings. From compassion we develop self-confidence; that brings inner strength, allowing us to act with transparency and candour. If a person is happier, his or her family is happier; if families are happy, neighbourhoods and nations will be happy. By each of us working to transform ourselves, we can change our human way of life and make this a century of compassion.“

[erronis]

10. Thank you - great read and thoughts for the new day. "Pay it forward."

[AllaN01Bear]

11. do unto others as they would do unto u.