31 Days of Kindness: Ready, Set….

…and it’s almost ‘GO!’.

Tomorrow is the first day of the challenge

December first I will kick off a kindness challenge. Are you in?

For the last six years, I have handed out tiny envelopes to yoga students, friends and family with numbered messages; one for each day in December.

Last year, after a few years of urging from others to have an online presence, I set up this blog to share experiences for the kindness challenge. It was my very first blog post a year ago today on November 30, 2019. So in a way this is kind of a blog-iversary too 🙂

Little did I know, at the time, that I would blog beyond the month of December and that having the blog would keep me connected with some beautiful people during a very unusual year. If you believe in ‘meant to be’ this is a great example of it.

If you are new to the challenge, each envelope in past challenges have contained messages numbered from 1-31 for each day in December; like an advent calendar but it runs the whole month. The messages for this online version will include an inspirational quote and an invitation for an act of kindness posted each day. Let’s strive to complete all the acts of kindness. (I will be striving right alongside you).

A few invitations for kindness suggest spending a little money and if that just doesn’t work with your budget right now then get creative on how you can still act kindly that day. Last year, I had people tell me about all kinds of unique things they did instead of what was suggested. I loooooooved hearing the stories. One yoga student gave blood for example. Another called a relative they hadn’t spoken to in years and from there was on a roll and connected with many more on that side of the family. I heard from several people who felt great in the role of Secret Santa and kept it up with sneaky surprises all month.

Some of the kindness activities will stretch you to behave in ways you might not normally and others will come easily. Set the goal to complete them all. Since I am not currently teaching, you won’t catch me outside a class but please feel free to add comments to the blog. I would love to still hear your stories.

Let’s create a ripple effect of kindness.

Like I said on my blog post a year ago today….’Watch it all: your intention to be kind and then the unfolding of kindness. Watch your mind and your body throughout the process. Watch your mind and body on the retelling. Watch your mind and body reading/hearing the kindness stories of others. Be on the lookout for kindness everywhere this month and share that too.’

Good luck and be kind 🙂