It’s important to recognise that you’re not just a potential recipient; being kind to others brings kindness to you. When you’re flying high, be kind to others not because they can’t but because you can; none of these little acts need to be huge. The Campaign to End Loneliness has pulled together some very sobering statistics including the fact that “over 9 million people in the UK across all adult ages… are either always or often lonely”. With this in mind, something as small as just talking to strangers can make such a huge difference. It is easy to just stick to your known friendship group and forget that there are so many people out there who can add value to your life, but you’ve got to put yourself out there to find them.
At the risk of plagiarising the well-known aphorism “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas”, kindness should be for life, not just for Christmas. TV adverts are full of acts of human kindness to each other as the Christmas decorations go up; giving to the homeless, giving our time to the lonely, visiting elderly neighbours. We’re full of warm fuzzy feelings for a few weeks before the cold light of January arrives and season of generosity seems to disappear. Let’s not let that happen for 2019. Let’s make a pledge to be kind and generous with our time and attention across the year, to make a difference to other’s lives and enrich our own.
At FINDRA we want to harbour and nurture a community of positivity and activity starting with our Facebook ‘FINDRA Outdoor Adventures’ group and continuing with our social rides and runs which will continue throughout the year.
To ease us into the New Year, we’re running the ’12 Bright Days of Christmas’ on our Facebook group to encourage each other to get outside, even just for a walk, over the festive period; get involved and post what you’re getting up to and celebrate each other’s successes! Let’s start the year as we mean to go on and be kind to each other and ourselves.
