It is now 15 days until Christmas now making it officially the Christmas Season.  Christmas was traditionally the season of peace and good will. But what is going on now?  In the past few months the credit crunch has caused most people to worry about paying their bills let alone Christmas presents.  We have watched the news and heard terrible stories of children being treated appallingly by the very people that should be cherishing them and planning on how to celebrate this Christmas with them.  We have heard of two grown up daughters that could never have a Happy Christmas growing up and of two other daughters that will never get to spend time opening their presents with their now grieving mother.  Not to mention the riots in Greece and the attacks in India.  There are so many bad things going on in the world that I can understand why people are finding it hard to get in the swing of this season and I would like to share my secret to cheering myself up when I am having a bad day.

I do a RAK. That stands for Random Act of Kindness.  “Now why would doing something nice for someone else make me feel better?” I am sure some of you are asking. But if you think about it those little acts of kindness that others have done for you that made your day gave them happiness just by seeing your delight.  Some of you might be saying “I am a busy person I don’t have time to go out of my way to do something nice for someone else.” But you would be surprised to find out how easy it can be.  I will give you some examples of what I have done in the past.

1) Smile – I made a decision last year that I would smile more.  I make a point of smiling at the elderly people that live in my community.  Often you will find that these people don’t just smile back at you.  They beam.  Add a hello and if you run into this person often enough you might find them becoming your friend.

2) Let someone go in front of you in a queue – I always let the person behind me go first when they only have a few items or they have a screaming kid.  Of course when it is my kid screaming I don’t let someone in as I see it as an act of kindness on others’ ears to get out of there as soon as possible.

3) Go and check on an elderly neighbour - At my old neighbourhood we knew all of the older residents and took turns checking on them.  There are a lot of older people out there that have no family or ones that live far away so they are alone a lot of the time.  You will most likely make them very happy.

4) Give a flower – I didn’t do this, but I saw someone on TV once that walked in downtown Brighton handing out flowers to women that looked sad with someone hidden taping it and I couldn’t believe how happy they looked after receiving their flower.  And they were interviewed later and everyone of them said it had made their day.

5) Do something for yourself – How often do you do things for others?  Take a few hours out.  Get a manicure or a new hair style or you can give yourself a facial.  Yes, I mean you men as well.  I think everyone could do with some pampering.  With all of the stress that’s going on in all of our lives how often have we snapped at our partners or children because of it?  A Random Act of Kindness for yourself might also be one for your family.

Have a Happy Christmas!