After the tragic incidents that occurred in schools in the past month adding on to the already stressful atmosphere resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, I started to ask myself what we can do to make every day a day for all of us to look forward to, instead of, dread or be fearful of. The answer is obvious – kindness. It got me thinking, what are some simple acts of kindness we can do for the people around us to make life a little brighter for them? How can these acts of kindness benefit our mental well-being?
In School
Let us start in school. In the morning, the whole class is usually glued to their phones. Perhaps we could start a conversation with someone, especially people we rarely talk to or just someone who appears to have started the day badly. We could do something to help our friends, or offer a cheerful good morning to the people around us. It really is not that difficult.
Outside the classroom, if we see any trash on the floor, we should pick them up. Most people blame others for littering, but do not actually pick up trash when they see it. The cleaners work very hard to keep our school environment clean and the least we could do is to pick up trash that we see when going around the school. Imagine if all of us could help out in this area! Our elderly cleaners will have a much easier time especially with the increased cleaning necessary currently.
The canteen had to be closed for about a week recently as a canteen vendor contracted the virus. We were given catered food courtesy of the school. During that time, I am sure that a lot of us missed the wide variety of canteen food that we all love. It was only for about a week but that availability of variety was sorely missed. We should learn from that episode to appreciate the stallholders who put in their best effort to prepare food for us every day. It is not that difficult to show our appreciation for them. Like our previous suggestion, we could always remember to thank them when we get our food. And when we have the time, we could attempt to strike a conversation with them to show them that we care about them.
At Home
First, our parents. Aside from the obvious greetings and such, (you’re doing that, right?) we should also try to do other things for them, such as helping out with the chores. Surely, we should be able to use a bit of our free time to help out around the house. It could be simple dishwashing or just helping to wipe the tables or even accompanying our parents to get groceries and helping to carry the bags. This could really improve the mood of our parents, especially if they are feeling down or tired that day. On the topic of that, we can simply show kindness by not causing them trouble; a simple way would be to listen and do what we are told so as not to annoy our parents.
Besides our parents, we could also get along with our siblings. Despite the fact that they might annoy us, we must try to compromise and handle the situation without shouting at them and, as much as possible, not annoy them. This will not only improve our family relationship, but also lighten the load on our parents.
Online
When online, it is often tempting to make sarcastic and negative comments especially when we can remain anonymous. We could start to spread some positivity and kindness instead. It is also very important to stop cyberbullying if you see it. Lastly, always think twice before sending a message or posting something on social media. It is often easy to post something but near impossible to delete it permanently. At this point, you might be thinking that doing all these acts of kindness is a waste of time and probably does not benefit you in any way. Well, kindness is meant to benefit others but it can improve our own well-being too. A brand new study featured in Psychological Bulletin conducted meta-analysis consolidating 201 independent research efforts representing 198,213 participants. It found kindness positively affects the wellbeing of people. Just a small act of kindness can go a long way in improving the mental health of a person. If everyone does these small acts of kindness, we can all experience a positive mental health.
