Kindness is powerful and can have a significant impact on your life as well as others. Allowing yourself to live kind can help you build a new relationship and improve your well-being. Research shows that kindness has many benefits: increasing happiness and energy while decreasing stress. Don’t be afraid to give it a try! Here are some resources to help you get started.
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Take the Live Kind Pledge
Take the Live Kind Pledge!
Sign and post this Live Kind Pledge to give yourself a visual reminder to always live kind.
- Post the pledge in your personal room or workspace as a daily reminder to live kind and be kind to others
- Share the pledge on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and use the hashtag #UCRLiveKind
- Inspire others to take the #LiveKind pledge!
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Live Kind Posts
Live Kind Posts
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get our weekly Live Kind posts. These posts are meant to encourage others on the different ways to spread kindness in our UCR community.
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/UCR-Healthy-Campus
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ucrhealthycampus
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/healthyucr
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Share a Gratitude Card
Download Gratitude Card #1 Download Gratitude Card #2 Share a Gratitude Card
Write a letter of appreciation or check one (or multiple) boxes and send it to a classmate or a faculty member!
What is the purpose?
Expressing your gratitude has shown to be strongly associated with greater happiness. Writing a thank-you letter expressing your appreciation can make yourself happier, as well as the person who has impacted your life. Doing a simple gratitude card is an easy way to increase kindness.
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Take the 30-day Live Kind Challenge
30-day Live Kind Challenge
Challenge yourself by taking the 30-day Live Kind Challenge. The Live Kind Challenge will help increase your happiness and bring fun into your life. Encourage your classmates or colleagues to complete this exciting challenge.
Click here to start your challenge!
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Tips and Benefits on Kindness
Tips on Kindness
Having a difficult time on how to increase kindness in your life? Here are some tips and benefits on kindness! Post these tips on your wall, bulletin board or office to help guide you to increasing positivity.
Review the 6 Easy Ways to Promote Kindness to get some tips on ways to promote kindness.
Curious to know what kind of benefits that kindness have? The Random of Acts of Kindness webpage is an online resource that provides a thorough explanation of the different types of benefits.
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“Love your Local” - Support your Local Businesses
"Love Your Local" - Support Your Local Businesses
Show your support for local businesses in your area. Many local businesses are struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they need our help. Local businesses create a bulk of the jobs and they help to shape our community.
Get your tips on how to support your local businesses!
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Research on Kindness
Armenta, C. N., Fritz, M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2017). Functions of positive emotions: Gratitude as a motivator of self-improvement and positive change. Emotion Review, 9,183-190.
Positive emotions can play a role in motivating individuals to engage in positive behaviors, and it can also lead to many long-term benefits. This article offers evidence that explains how gratitude can lead people to improve themselves.
Grant, A. M., & Gino, F. (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(6), 946.
This study evaluates how gratitude expressions can increase prosocial behavior by allowing individuals to feel socially valued. Prosocial behavior is acts of helping, sharing, and understanding the feelings of others. For example, when someone is thanked for their efforts, they experience a sense of self-efficacy and social worth, which leads them to engage in prosocial behavior.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2020). How to hold on to happiness when your world collapses. Psychology Today.
Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky is the ultimate kindness expert and gives a step-by-step guide on maintaining happiness during this pandemic. Every week will have an activity that will leave you feeling happier and healthier!
Rowland, L., & Curry, O. S. (2018). A range of kindness activities boosts happiness. The Journal of Social Psychology, 1-4.
This systematic review goes into depth about whether performing different types of kindness activities has various effects on happiness. Findings show a positive correlation between the number of kind acts and an increase in happiness.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Layous, K. (2013). How do simple positive activities increase well-being? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 57-62.
This article will examine the positive-activity model and how features of positive activities and of the persons influence a person’s well-being. It will also discuss the model four variables: positive emotions, positive thoughts, positive behaviors, and needs satisfaction.
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Live Kind Online Resources
Podcasts
- The Kindness Podcast – Nichole Phillips is an expert in using kindness to overcome all of life’s challenges. Phillips uses her personal experiences to help spread the message of kindness.
- Connect Kindness Podcast – The mission of Connect Kindness Podcast is to help connect people with nonprofit organizations to inspire kindness. This podcast features various founders and directors to help spread the kindness message.
- Your Daily Dose of Awesome – Your Daily Dose of Awesome is by Cyndi Liming – a mother, wife, teacher and lover of life. Liming’s mission is to share the importance of kindness, which will allow her to help change the world for the better. Liming loves to spread positivity and enjoy making people laugh.
Audio/Videos
- The Power of Kindness – The Power of Kindness is a Ted Talk by Orly Wahba. She takes us on her journey. Wahba's career in kindness began as a middle school teacher educating children to embrace unity, build their self-value and use their power to influence the world for good. More people are experiencing addictiveness in the giving of kindness.
- Why Kindness Matters – Why Kindness Matters is another Ted Talk by John Sweeny – kindness coach. Sweeney's mission is to change society one act of kindness at a time. He says, “No one should ever feel alone when one kind act - something as simple as a smile, a conversation or a cup of coffee – can change the course of their day and even their lives.”
- Live Kind - Zoom Backgrounds
