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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Nottingham chapter.

Have you had any small, random acts of kindness happen to you recently? Did you notice the difference that it made to your day? After having received one myself, I realised the difference it made on not only my day, but my week.

A couple of weeks ago, me and my friend went into town for a little day out shopping. Walking into a cafĂ© in Nottingham, we spotted a bouquet of flowers sitting outside on the bench in the rain. As we approached the flowers, we noticed a little note attached reading “Something to make your day a little brighter”, with the flowers there for anyone to take. We were so stunned at this random gesture and looked around to see if anyone was there but there wasn’t. For the rest of the day, we both walked around town with the biggest smiles on our faces and a spring in our step. It really amazed me the impact that such a small, but beautiful, gesture could have. So, lets dive into the power of what a random act of kindness can have, and maybe why we should all look to do it more often.

What can the main impacts of random acts of kindness be?

  1. Paying for someone’s coffee – realistically this gesture would only cost you a couple of pounds but the impact it might have on someone’s day could be priceless.
  2. Improved well-being – a random act of kindness, big or small, can have such a positive impact on both the giver and the receiver. It can have a positive impact on your mental health, releasing all the ‘feel good’ hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. Whilst the receiver feels valued and grateful, the giver experiences a sense of warmth and satisfaction.
  3. Inspiring others – after receiving our flowers, we wondered how we could pay this forward. Being influenced and inspired by such a lovely gesture, we wanted to make others feel like this too. We then may even inspire them to do it for the next person.

So, with this is mind, how can we implement some random acts of kindness into our week?

  1. Ripple effect – while me and my friend walked around town with a smile on our faces, we were immediately so much nicer to the people around us. When we got home, we put our flowers in a vase in the kitchen, which our housemates also loved and made them smile too. It just goes to show the ripple effect this bit of positivity had on the environment around us.
  2. Complimenting a stranger – if you think something nice about someone, tell them! It might not make a difference to you but could make the world of a difference to them. It’s such a simple thing to do and takes less than 30 seconds.
  3. Leaving a kind note – just spreading small amounts of positivity, possibly through a little post it-note with some uplifting words. Again, something that doesn’t take much time and costs nothing to do but has such a lovely impact on the people around you. These are only a few examples, but as you can see, you don’t have to spend much or any money and minimal time on these gestures. But regardless, the impact it will have will be amazing, both for the person receiving it and for you too. So, this week, I challenge you to do something nice for a random stranger and see the impact it has – you won’t regret it.
Amelia Clow

Nottingham '27

Amelia Clow is an England Karate Athlete and sports ambassador for the University of Nottingham. She writes about sport and wellness, as well as new opportunities and events in and around Nottingham. She is currently studying Business Management in her second year at the University of Nottingham. In her spare time Amelia enjoys keeping active with any sport she can try, including surfing and running, as well as trying anything new and travelling to as many places as she can.