Projects involving acts of kindness have taken place in various countries of the world. Mahatma Ghandi advised us to ‘Be the change you seek.’ so if we want to live in a kinder world we need to start with ourselves. Doing something good for someone else releases endorphins which make us feel happy. Mirror neurons in our brains allow us to feel what someone else is feeling, the experience we call empathy.

Our hearts play a part in assisting us to live in a more compassionate way. Synchronising our breathing and heart rhythms can enable us to achieve a state of coherence where we are clear headed, calm and empathic. Have a look at the HeartMath website for more information: www.heartmath.com. Oxytocin, the hormone of love and bonding is also produced in the heart. Kindness leads to happiness as studies have shown. Materialistic and selfish attitudes lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life.

So let’s make Norfolk a place of greater kindness by doing some random acts and passing on the card to encourage others to join in. Feel free to photocopy them or make your own to pass to others.

Please email me reports of your Random Acts of Kindness so I can post them to inspire others. Include photos if you have them and if it is OK for people to be featured.

Some ideas for RAOKs taken from Danny Wallace’s book of that name plus a few of my own examples are:

Smile at the driver in the car next to yours at the traffic lights.
Compliment the bus driver on his or her skills as you leave the bus.
Leave some books you don’t want any more on a bus, or train or in a café.
Give a homeless person a flask. Coffee shops often give away coffee at the end of the day.
Pay for the tea or coffee of the person behind you in the queue.
Introduce a free hugs day at your workplace.
Arrange work meetings where people start by appreciating something about the people present.
Smile at as many people as possible.
Tell people who have helped you or supported you how much you appreciate them and their actions.
Send a Valentine’s card to someone who might really appreciate it.
Buy a pensioner an ice cream or cake.
Offer a chocolate to a Big Issue seller.
Take a coffee to a busy receptionist or secretary.
Encourage your mates to club together to sponsor a child. Various charities do this such as Action Aid.
Go carol singing in the local pubs at Christmas for a charity of your choice. You may well be treated to some free drinks.
Put a surprise gift under someone’s pillow.
Arrange a surprise party or night out for a friend who is having a hard time.
Clean up the office before the cleaner comes and them offer her tea and cakes!
Give a packet of peanuts to a cab driver or a postman
Get a bird feeder and feed them all winter.
Offer to help a blind person over the road.
Ask to help someone carry their shopping home.
Be friendly to everyone you deal with.
Really listen to your spouse, child or friend when they describe their problem.
Compliment your nearest and dearest on their choice in clothes or nice qualities.
Bring something healthy into the office to share, especially for the weight conscious.
Offer to go for a walk with a friend or family member to talk and get some good exercise.

Patrick Holford founded the Institute for Optimum
Nutrition and has written many books about diet and supplementation. Here are his top ten
tips for a healthy diet:

Take one heaped tablespoon of ground seeds or one tablespoon of cold pressed seed oil.
Eat two servings of beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu or seed vegetables.
Eat three pieces of fruit such as apples, pears, bananas, berries, melon or citrus fruit.
Eat four servings of whole grains such as brown rice, millet, rye, oats, wholewheat, corn breads or pasta or quinoa as cereal.
Eat five servings of dark green, leafy and root vegetables such as watercress, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, green beans, peas and peppers.
Drink six glasses of water, diluted juices, herb or fruit teas.
Eat whole, organic, raw food as often as you can.
Supplement your diet with a high strength multivitamin and mineral preparation and 1000mg of vitaminC a day.
Avoid fried, burnt and browned food, hydrogenated fat and excess animal fat.
Avoid any form of sugar, also white, refined or processed food with chemical additives, and minimise your intake of alcohol, coffee and tea.

Foresight's Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project has drawn on state-of-the-art research from across the world to consider how to improve everyone's mental capacity and mental wellbeing through life.

Evidence suggests that a small improvement in wellbeing can help to decrease some mental health problems and also help people to flourish.

The Project commissioned the centre for wellbeing at nef (the new economics foundation) to develop "five ways to wellbeing": a set of evidence-based actions to improve personal wellbeing.

The Five Ways are: Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Take Notice and Give. To discover more about their possibilities, click Here.

Here is a meditation on loving kindness that would be great to start every day with. Imagine if it were done in schools, workplaces and homes all over the UK on a regular basis! The steps are simple - you don’t have to be seated in a meditation pose. You can do this anywhere, anytime.

Get comfortable and relaxed and deepen your breathing. Pay attention to your breath and ensure a long outbreath which increases relaxation.
Now bring compassion to yourself with these words: May I be happy, may I be well, may I be full of loving kindness.
It may help to picture a guardian angel, spirit guide or dear friend giving you positive messages of appreciation or focus on a colour of warmth and compassion and breathe it into all your cells.
You could in your imagination step into being this person bringing warmth and kindness to yourself and really absorb it by stepping back into yourself to receive the good feelings.
If you find it difficult to feel kind to yourself as you believe you are not worthy, focus on bringing forgiveness to yourself understanding that whatever you may blame yourself for was done most probably without any intention to harm anyone.
Now that you have accessed compassion for yourself you are ready to bring it to someone dear to you. Picture the person before you and send them warm and caring energy. You may want to focus on the words: May they be happy, may they be well, may they be filled with lovingkindness. Again picture a colour of lovingkindness filling them and making them smile without knowing why. To help this process you can bring your awareness to your heart (you may like to place your hand over it) and imagine you could breathe through it. Now connect to a memory of feeling compassionate and kind. Let this feeling flow right through your body.
After a little while (these stages may take five to ten minutes or much shorter depending how much time you have available) change your focus to a ‘neutral person’, someone you don’t know well and only see occasionally. It could be a neighbour or person at work or in your community. Bring compassion and lovingkindness to this person with the same words and colour. See them smile as they feel the touch of your warm ‘vibes’.
The final person to bring kindness to is someone you find difficult to deal with. You may have some resistance to doing this but stay with it and it will become easier. You may not wish to choose the most difficult person in your life to begin with so you can practise it first with someone easier. Consider why they may have behaved in the way they have, what mistaken beliefs they may have as you focus warmth onto them in the same way as before. Use the words too.
Now it is time to extend the lovingkindness energy to all the people around you. I like to picture a blanket woven together by everyone who is focused on warmth and compassion - a blanket that extends over the whole of Norwich, the whole UK and then the whole world. I imagine people in different countries suddenly smiling as they receive the energy of caring without realising what has happened.

Taking this further you may like to log onto the Global Coherence website at www.glcoherence.org which co-ordinates sending heartfelt compassion to parts of the world where there is great suffering. You can download their free sheet on reducing stress too. Buddhist centres and retreats teach the lovingkindness meditation. Contact the local centre on www.norwichbuddhistcentre.com for details of how to learn to meditate or attend retreats.

Contact Sue at: sue@sulisconsulting.com © Sulis Consulting 2006