Introducing #52KindWeeks: Sharing your kindness experiences

Use #52KindWeeks to share anything to do with being kind; it is for EVERYONE. You don’t have to be a blogger, vlogger, Instamum. It is all inclusive. A single ripple created by one random act of kindness can amplify to create a wave.

Tell us when someone is kind to you, or when you perform a random act of kindness. It could be this week, last week, years ago. Whatever it is; just share it with the hashtag whenever you are ready to. Social media can be a double edged sword, let’s help use it to create a community which can give someone that needs it a few guaranteed moments of joy each week. Joy at the simple kindnesses in life.

Yesterday someone was kind to me. In fact, they were more than kind to me, they saved me. Saved me embarrassment, saved me money, and saved me face.

That single act of kindness got me thinking. It got me thinking very, very hard. Two o’ clock in the morning hard. I have been a little pre-occupied in the last few years. It has made me somewhat distracted from the social media and blogging world, except on a professional level. Over the last 6-12 months, I have found my place. I have come through the fog of ill health and found where I belong. This is with thanks to the support of a new employer, an even more wonderful husband, family, and friends (both on and offline), mindlessfulness and a little bit of assistance from the odd doctor here and there.

Knowing where I am the most comfortable is an important part of coping with anxiety and depression.

Social media is about community; but that can get lost in the chaos of everyday life, and the machinations surrounding Fakebook, and Instamums. Spending time on social media can be both damaging, and uplifting. It is what is says; social; about groups of people who want to share. They share for their individual reasons; love, therapy, business, pleasure, pain, anger, or just to keep their friends updated. Most reasons for sharing are perfectly valid, as long as we aren’t attacking or hurting anyone along the way.

We all have a voice. It is fantastic that technology has given us our own little corner of the internet; from blog to vlog to Twitter. We are able to express ourselves whatever our strengths and whatever our motivations for sharing; I rejoice that we can.

Over the last few weeks I have seen social media empower women (and men) to share things that shouldn’t have happened to them with the #metoo hashtag. How we can be in 2017, and this STILL be something we need to talk about makes me despair.

My two o’ clock head was thinking about the power of the social media community, and my own little corner of the internet and I wanted to DO SOMETHING.

Do you ever get that feeling? That there is a wider purpose and you NEED to DO, but you really don’t know what that doing is?

I have tried on this blog before to give something back, and it hasn’t quite worked . Undoubedly my scatter gun approach to life and writing getting in the way again…

This time though, I knew what to do. Even if one person takes part, it’ll make a difference.

Welcome to #52KindWeeks

How to join in with #52KindWeeks?

THIS is something I can believe in.

Why don’t we all try to pop up a status, send a tweet, write a public Facebook post, make a video, or live, or whatever the hell we like about kindness every single week for a year with this hashtag.

It can be a new experience that you wanted to tell someone about. Perhaps something that happened that made you feel that ripple of joy from someone’s else’s act of kindness. It could even be something that you shared, vlogged, or wrote weeks/years ago, as long as it is new to us. Let’s try every week to take part – even just a quick status with the hashtag. That won’t take too long will it?

Let us use social media for the power of positivity.

When I shared my own kindness tale; it was inspiring to hear about everyone else’s experiences of kindness.

Why not keep that going every single week? Let’s see the postive in our feeds, and not worry about comparisons between our and someone else’s lives that send my, and other’s, anxieties into overdrive.

Join in with #52KindWeeks so you can find the kindness whenever you need to

It doesn’t matter who you are; your age, your location, whether you are a blogger, or vlogger, if you are a parent or you aren’t, whether you are married, or single, straight or gay, a grandparent….just use anything social to:

• Tell us when someone is kind to you, or when they were and it mde a difference. Doesn’t matter how old the experience was, or indeed how small. In fact, it might be that the smaller the better. Grand guestures aren’t needed at all,
• Let us know when you have been kind to others, not for the recognition, but to #PassItOn
• Share a picture of you, friends,family or the kids being helpful and kind,
• Share a picture with any other kindness theme, as long as you have asked first, and
• Share with us when there is an event being done to raise money by someone wonderful to help those that really need it.
• Share your ideas on how we can be kind, to give us inspiration, e.g. recipes for baking for friends, or another list of ideas for Random Acts of Kindness, but this time specifically for kids,

Use #52KindWeeks across any social media and we will do our best to find them.

Then we can take a look at the hashtag, STOP and know that life really IS good.

If you want, pop a link to that social media share below this post, but only if you want to. You really don’t have to.

The only rule with #52KindWeeks is that there are no rules.

Comment if you want on the links, read them if you like, taking five minutes to feel uplifted by the kindness there truly is in the world. When I shared that was writing this article, it was a joy to hear of the initiatives around kindness and the postive stories that there are. That is why we are sharing; so we know; nothing more.

If you don’t have time to be active, that is totally OK; Just pass on that kindness ripple next tme you get a chance.

If you do want to get active, we’ve got 100 Random Acts of Kindness ideas, and cards. Perhaps if you give out a card when you are kind, they will #PassItOn. I’d like to think that this ripple will grow.

Thanks so much to everyone for reading this far. That means a lot. I shall comment, pin, retweet, share, regram where I can. And I hope others will too. Let’s help to magnify the joy. I shall come back each week with a new list to add to on a Friday.

We do like to inspire you, so why not check out these movie quotations for more inspiration as well? Some are about kindness, but there are loads of motivational ones for the kids and your you. Let us know what you think too.

This is the Kindness board we have on Pinterest, so you can see the Kindness spreading already…

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!

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