What if there was a road map you could follow to become happier?
What if someone had taken the time to map out a succession of acts of kindness that, taken each day, could contribute to the happiness of other human beings as well as your own?
I noticed such a map (actually, a calendar) on the Happiness Lab Classroom Facebook Group page for the month of December. Posted by Victor Walle, one of the group’s members, the calendar shows each day in December in bright colors with one act of kindness written in it to complete each day.
The first, on Dec. 1, is to share the calendar with others.
Each subsequent day has additional suggestions such as: Listen wholeheartedly to others without judging them; See how many different people you can smile at today; and, Call a relative who is far away to say hello and have a chat.
The final day of the month suggests, Plan some new acts of kindness to do in 2021.
It’s an inspired notion.
Research shows that helping others helps us feel better. Helping people identify small but meaningful acts of kindness each day could be the coordinated approach that might just start a movement of kindness — one that could spread through our communities faster than any deadly virus.
A movement is what Action for Happiness, the creator of the ‘Kindness Calendar’ is all about, according to the British-based organization’s website. Action for Happiness describes themselves as “a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society.”
“We want to see a fundamentally different way of life - where people care less about what they can get just for themselves and more about the happiness of others,” the description reads.
If you’d like to learn more about the organization or see the calendar for yourself, check out their website here. There’s also an app in Apple’s App Store.