At MomsGetReal™.com, we all care deeply about making a difference in the world. This month, in keeping with the fervor of Valentine’s Day, MomsGetReal™ is celebrating Relationship Month and all things related to affairs of the heart. We’ll be sharing our thoughts and ideas about improving the relationships in your life, and we’re honored to launch our celebration with a list of wonderful ways to create positivity in the world around us from Getting Real With Lisa Van De Graaff.
Doing nice things for others creates an atmosphere of respect, thoughtfulness, and joy that spreads quickly and effectively through the streets of our towns, leaving people with contented hearts and smiles on their faces. We find that the most rewarding gestures of kindness are those for which there is anonymity or no return of graciousness expected. In that spirit, we have created a list of ideas for small gestures of kindness with huge rewards for recipient and giver.
Pocket Change: Take those quarters jangling in your pocket and make someone’s day by paying the toll for the car behind you. Alternatively, put money in a meter for someone about to get a parking ticket or leave a couple of extra quarters at the Laundromat.
Lend a Hand: Get up early and shovel your neighbor’s driveway for them, open the door for a mother with her hands full, grab something on the top shelf at the supermarket for someone vertically challenged, do as the Boy Scouts do and help an elder to cross the street.
Smile: Really, just walk with a smile on your face and a spring in your step. Others will follow, and we will all be humming a tune in no time. If you are online most of your day, treat others as if you were next to them and be thoughtful with your words.
Finish the Task: Offer to return a shopping cart for a stranger, push your chair in at a restaurant (or at home), pick up a piece of trash and toss it in the waste or recycling receptacle. It is easy, simple, and quick.
Road Respect: Give someone else the perfect parking spot, let someone merge in front of you, move to the right and let someone in a hurry go by, it feels great to let go and enjoy the journey.
Gratitude: Say “thank you” to those who help us every day, folks like the bank teller, your postal carrier, and the driver of the trash collection truck. If stopping them for a conversation is too much, simply wave and smile.
Make it a habit to do nice things for people who’ll never find out. We try to do this every day, knowing that with each deed, a ripple of kindness spreads out to the world.
