The Kindness Protocol

Today, a name for what I often offer as advise to my friends came to me.

The Kindness Protocol. 

What is this? How does it work? Why would you think of that?

It stems from this post I wrote around the holidays, which came about because of something another friend was doing, which she had heard about from another friend, and so on......

It is Mercy in a Ziploc, but on a smaller more personal scale.

So say you are having a really bad day. I mean like your babies diaper exploded all over your new boots and couch, while you cleaned it up your lunch caught on fire, your best friend called and you were rude to her and she decided never to speak to you ever again because she's sick of your shit, and then your favourite aunt dies, your car won't start, and your checking account is at -6$ with payday 7 days away and no milk in the fridge.

Friend, many of us have had days like this.

It is easy to get online and pick fights or say "It must be nice" to someone who had a good day and start the bringing them down too cycle, because it spreads like a viral plague, and leaves no one unsullied.

If you let it.

So, when a friend listed off her mindblowingly bad day and then asked.....What do I do now? That is when the Kindness Protocol was born.

It goes something like this:

1)Start small. Go to 5 friends' facebook walls and tell them how much they mean to you, what you like about them, why you are grateful for their friendship.
2) Do it again.
3) Make a meal for someone you know, for no reason, and bring it to them. Or cookies. Cookies work.
4) Make a list of nice things you could do for people in the next week.
5) Do them.
6) Ask people about their lives, not just how are you? but how is xyz going for you? 
7) Call someone you miss and tell them that.
8) Hold the door open for others.
9) Pay for a stranger's coffee.
10) Make an effort to say/do/be kinder when folks are having a rough day and are outwardly rude. They need grace, love, kindness more at that moment.
11) Push a kid on a swing, blow bubbles for a baby, read a book to a toddler. 

*Listen when someone starts to share what is on their heart.
*Pay attention to people around you. Start seeing their suffering. Be the person that brings calm instead of adding to the pile. Even if you are just as broken, this effort will turn others to you as well. 

You get the idea? You can take a friend out to lunch. You can send someone a post card, just because, you can do all sorts of small things with great love that make a huge impact.

You know what? These things come back to you, when you are kind, when you make the world better by your own actions and words and deeds and self.......people reflect it back on you and are there for you when you need it. This is how community is built, this is how we can begin to heal.

This is the Kindness Protocol.
It works. It makes the world a little better instead of worse.