Fill Your Journal with Kindness This Month
What if journaling was more than just a way for you to log your thoughts?
What if journaling was a tool that helped you serve others?
Journaling doesn’t have to be purely introspective—a way to examine yourself. It also allows you to process experiences that involve other people.
And, isn’t that largely what the holiday season is about? Reaching out to others. Making new memories and reminiscing about old ones. Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
So here’s my challenge to you.
What if, for the remaining 21 days left in December, you committed to doing one act of kindness for someone else each day?
This may seem like an overwhelming task, but acts of kindness don’t have to involve large amounts of time or money. Here are several ideas of kind things you can do that are easy and low cost:
- Hold a door open for someone
- Give someone a compliment
- Pay for someone else’s order in the drive-thru
- Shovel snow off your neighbor’s driveway
- Return a shopping cart to the corral
- Do one of your child or spouse’s chores without telling them
- Mail someone a handwritten note
- Offer to watch a friend or neighbor’s kids for a couple of hours
- Roll a neighbor’s garbage can back up to the house
- Buy something from a child’s fundraiser
- Donate used books to your local library
- Let someone go in front of you, either in traffic or in a waiting line
- Smile at everyone you see
- Put a sweet note in your spouse or child’s bag, car or wallet
- Take food to a local food bank
- Call a grandparent just to say hi
- Help an elderly person or mom with young kids load groceries into their car
- Leave your waitress a great tip
- Put quarters in a vending machine
- Leave a gift card with a note in a public place
- Offer to walk a neighbor’s dog when it snows
Use your journal to document each day’s act of kindness. Write down details about what you did, what the person’s reaction was, if applicable, and how you felt after each kindness.
And, if you really want to see an impact, challenge a couple of friends or family members to do it with you.
We’d love to hear how your acts of kindness challenge goes. Share your stories in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
Thank you to our guest blogger, Ashley for this great idea!
