Just Be Kind

This week (18th – 24th May) is Mental Health Awareness Week. With this years theme being kindness it made me think about what I’ve been doing to be kind.

Kindness is something we all love and hopefully appreciate. When we’re on the receiving end, it makes us feel great, loved and like we have been given a great big hug. You know, the kind of hug you get from someone who is built like Jason Momoa. If you don’t know who he is Google him… 😍 Someone who is tall….really tall, muscly and could envelope all of you when he wraps his arms around you…..hmmm… Ok so moving on, being kind makes us feel wonderful.

It could be something as simple as someone complimenting your perfume, clothes, hairstyle, anything that you, don’t really feel is a big deal so when someone notices, it really makes you smile both outwardly and inwardly, even if we do, do the British thing of not accepting a compliment well.

Simple acts of kindness can be a big deal. Letting someone jump the queue at a checkout, as they only have a few items, taking a parcel in, taking the neighbours bins in, We’re not talking huge life altering acts of kindness, just ones we come across regulalry or on a daily basis.

With everything happening at the moment, kindness feels like a bigger deal, it helps make this crazy situation easier, we stop thinking of ourselves and start looking at others, whether less fortunate than us or not. Kindness shouldn’t be something we only do in crisis situations, try to be kind each day.

With being stuck in the house together, are your family being kind? For example has your partner made dinner a night a week – to give you a break, or got up early to feed the cat to give you a lie in? Maybe your kids are making you regular cups of tea throughout the day, not because you’ve asked but because they see how hard you are working.

We are seeing so many great acts of kindness during this Coronavirus from NHS workers doing so much for us all. To Captain Tom Moore – walking his way to raising nearly £33 million for the NHS charities, people are shopping for their neighbours, collecting prescriptions and doing things they wouldn’t normally so people don’t miss out. You’ve got Joe Wicks doing his daily PE workout for children and their parents if they want! It really is incredible what we, our community and our country can do when we pull together to help get us through.

This week I was lucky enough to receive some beautiful flowers from my friend, the doorbell rang and I jumped up, ditched work and went to the door, where a purple box was propped up on my doorstep. It was a beautiful bunch of tulips. This made me smile and I was really touched my friend was so kind. Her act of kindness made my day.

Another friend sent me a lovely card with kind words in it as well as including this quote:

‘Live your life like a butterfly, take a rest sometimes, but never forget to fly’

Unknown Author

It’s about being kind to yourself, sometimes you need to take that break in order to reset your mind, body and soul and then you can take flight and soar once again, just don’t forget too, don’t hide away, do you and do you well.

Your kindness should reach you, it shouldn’t only be for other people. Take time out of your day for you. If you’re running about the house, trying to work, teach the kids, take the dog for a walk and then make breakfasts, lunches and dinners, you are going to run out of steam pretty quickly. Put time in your day, set it aside and do anything you want, just for you. Now, maybe you’ll need to lock yourself in the bathroom to get peace and quiet to do this, but do it. Go into your bathroom or shed or garage, maybe even sit in your car for 5-10 minutes. If you aren’t sure what to do, then talk to your partner or tell your kids that for 30 minutes each day you need time on your own. Or wait until they go to bed. We all need time on our own to think, focus and reconnect, so don’t feel guilty for this.

As you go into this next week, the last week of May, take a moment and just be kind to yourself, to your family, friends, neighbours and community. Being kind shouldn’t just be for extraordinary situations, it should be an everyday occurrence.

To my family and friends, you are all so kind and I miss you all, can’t wait to meet up with you…..hopefully before Christmas. 😆

May your week be filled with lots of love and kindness. Look after you.

Emma xx 😍