This week is National Anti-Bullying Week, and the theme for 2024 is ‘choose respect’, aimed at empowering people to do something positive to counter the harm that bullying causes. Bullying affects many people, whether in childhood, the workplace, online or elsewhere, and can cause long-lasting hurt that may still have an impact years after the actual incident.
By promoting kindness and being respectful towards each other, even during moments of disagreement or conflict, we can teach people to better manage their emotions and avoid taking negative feelings out on others, and perhaps ultimately prevent those years of hurt.
But outside of the sphere of bullying, the values of kindness, respect and inclusion are something that we should be championing across all aspects of life. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity, and if we were all a bit kinder to each other, the world would be a much more pleasant place.
What does kindness look like?
It can take many forms: big, meaningful acts that take a lot of time and effort, such as volunteering, fundraising, setting up foundations or running community events; small things like helping a neighbour with their shopping, holding a door open for a stranger or donating to a foodbank; or tiny gestures that don’t cost a thing but can make a big impact, like a smile, a thumbs up or a hug.
Does it really matter?
It can be easy to think of kindness as a nice-to-have, an add-on that we’ll fit in if we have time after all the other stuff we’ve got to do. But there-in lies the issue – it’s exactly this attitude of ‘my time and priorities are more important than everyone else’s’ that has created a world of negativity, competition and conflict.
Generations ago, community ties were strong, and people helped those around them as much as they could in the knowledge that it would be reciprocated when needed. This has lessened over time as we have become more insular and, on the surface at least, more self-sufficient. But by helping each other, we forge threads of compassion that can hold us together in difficult times and create a sense of belonging, trust and connection.
Being kind has obvious benefits to those you are being kind to – they receive help or support, and their day is made easier or more pleasant by your actions. It also has the power to multiply. An act of kindness is likely to lift the mood of the recipient, which makes them more like to pass on that spirit of sharing and giving – that’s why many feel the urge to ‘pay it forward’ when they’ve been on the receiving end of kindness themselves.
But it also has benefits to the giver – making others happy gives a sense of joy and reward, a feeling of fulfilment and appreciation that’s hard to find elsewhere. This general feeling of positivity boosts our mood and our self-esteem, making us feel better about ourselves. It can also help give us some perspective on our own troubles, helping distract and alleviate our own worries for a while.
On a physical level, kind acts have been shown to lower the stress hormone cortisol, meaning you feel calmer and less stressed. This has the knock-on benefits of aiding focus and concentration, boosting overall mood and helping build mental resilience.
Being kind is an education. It teaches positive behaviour, compassion, gratitude and consideration, all the things needed for living as a social group, as humans do. Through kindness, we demonstrate empathy – we learn about others by putting ourselves in their shoes and trying to understand their feelings. This allows us to contextualise their feelings alongside our own, highlighting the similarities between us as humans, which breeds compassion. Once we understand that, despite surface differences, we are all essentially alike, we start to care – and this is the beginning of the ripple, the ripple of kindness and respect that is so vital for the collective functionality and wellbeing of society.
Being kind costs nothing, yet the reward for us all can be huge. We can all contribute to making the world a better place by choosing compassion and respect – that’s why kindness matters.
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