World Kindness Day

Nowadays there is a calendar day for every event...Talk like a Pirate Day, National Doughnut Day etc.  But did you know that there is a day to show that Kindness Counts?  It is coming up this week!  World Kindness Day is a day that gives all of us even more reason to celebrate the big and small kind acts that all of us can show to each other.

A healthy dose of kindness is good for everyone in many ways.  Kindness stimulates the production of a natural antidepressant called serotonin.  This happens not only for the person receiving the kind act but also for the giver and the witnesses.  Kindness also boosts the production of feel-good endorphins and the cuddle hormone oxytocin (which promotes social bonding and strengthens the immune system).  Kindness also slows the aging process and decreases stress levels.  I can't think of any reasons not to practice kindness on a daily basis!

There are many ways to be kind - as a family you can show kindness to others by putting together holiday food baskets, shopping for holiday gifts for those who are needy, donating used toys and clothes to those who need them, and talking together at dinner about something you each did that day that was kind.

If searching for a good children's book about kindness try Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson or The Kindness Quilt by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  This week I will be reading the book Each Kindness to the 3rd grade classrooms and they will have the opportunity to state a kind act that they have done for someone else.  As they state their act of kindness they will drop a stone into a bowl of water to show the ripples that as the story states, "portray what kindness does, each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world."

Take this opportunity to talk to your children about World Kindness Day this November 13th - the opportunities are endless!