Kindness has become really important in recent years, notably since the #BeKind movement, where people realised online bullying was still actually bullying. Since then, the world online has been littered with people videoing themselves buying lunch for a homeless person, giving a stranger a compliment or paying for someone’s shopping – after all, if you didn’t film it, what’s the point? #Growth.
If you’re looking to radiate positivity, can I suggest moving beyond token good deeds and checklist-esque acts of kindness? Sure, there are the basic things like gifts, compliments, hugs or letting someone tell the same story you’ve heard 12 times already, but everything you buy, give, and consume could be kind, too.
As we approach Christmas – the time where people inexplicably empty their bank accounts to buy everyone a bath bomb – there are even more opportunities to surround yourself with kindness, starting with the gifts you give.
It’s easy enough to participate in ‘unkind shopping’. By this, I don’t mean being a b*tch to the cashier in Primark, but instead buying and gifting things like fast fashion, animal-tested cosmetics, and unsustainable gifts, all of which can all do more harm than good.
Another opportunity to spread kindness this festive season is to keep in mind those who are less fortunate than you. Christmas is undeniably a materialistic consumerist society’s dream (I write, using my MacBook), but it doesn’t have to be; take other people’s situations into account and maybe suggest this year that you go for a New Year’s Day lunch together, instead of the usual exchanging of your entire December wage slip.
Last year, Covid decided that 2020 was just not quite rough enough, and made me spend most of my Christmas in isolation. There was one thing though, which made it bearable and that was a Marks & Spencer’s Cheese Board. Oh wait actually there were two things: that, and a call from my mum. If you know anyone who’s not surrounded by people this year, spread your kindness by giving them a ring. If you have a cheese board knocking about, send that too.
Merry Christmas. Shop green and call your Nan x