It is officially the holiday season, which is simultaneously fun and festive yet sometimes frustrating and fatiguing. While this time of year is often joyous for many, these next few weeks can be incredibly challenging for some. One way to help care for those around us amidst the busyness is to practice acts of kindness. Both small and not-so-small deeds can have a tremendous impact as kindness and generosity are contagious. Physical benefits of helping others include reducing stress, lowering cortisol levels, improving heart health, and boosting immunity. Here are fifteen simple, everyday acts of kindness that you should consider trying out this holiday season:
- Send the elevator back down to the first floor upon exiting
- Pay for the person behind you in the drive-thru or toll
- Call an old friend or close family member for no other reason than to catch up
- Say “thank you” to everyone who provides you a service
- Pick up trash around your campus and throw it away properly
- Tip a little extra than expected for your meal
- Promote a friends’ blog, business, or website on your socials
- Find a charity or cause of choice and donate
- Walk the shopping cart back up to the front of the grocery store
- Shovel snow off the sidewalk for your neighbor
- Keep an extra blanket in your car and give one to a homeless person
- Prepare and deliver a meal to a shut-in
- Compliment the person standing in front of you in line
- Donate coats, hats, and gloves you no longer wear to a local school or church
- Give up the parking spot you were planning to park in
“A generous person will be enriched; whoever provides for others will be refreshed.” – Proverbs 11:25