I have often written here about compassion and kindness on my blog.

A while back I wrote about how to carry out random acts of kindness every day and how each act of kindness leads to another.

Being kind to someone is always a win /win situation. The person you are being kind to benefits through your help. You feel good for having helped someone. And the world is a better place through your kindness. Every little bit helps.

I bet you can all think of a time in your life when you helped someone and you felt so much better about the world afterwards. The time when you gave some directions to someone lost and put them on the right track. That time when you saw someone drop something and you eagerly ran after them to give it back.

We are all capable of such great acts of kindness that I often wonder why we all don’t do so more often!

Maybe sometimes we think it would not be “cool” to be doing something kind. How often do we walk past someone who is clearly in distress or in need of help. So often we feel the tugs on the strings of our heart and yet we choose to ignore that sixth sense as we have “better” things to do and are just so busy getting to our next point of call.

I suggest that the way forward is to look out constantly for ways of helping others and being kind. It is indeed cool to be kind!

Regardless of what we are told is the right thing to do, the kindess acts always come from the heart. When one is genuinely kind and coming from a place of compassion, the recipient really “gets” this and a whole new space opens up between the two people.

I would like to share how this happened to me a couple of months ago when I was helping a friend at his exhibition stand. My friend was also promoting my book “Get the Life you Love and Live it” and I got talking to a young lady who said she was going through a nasty divorce and was looking for direction and inspiration in her life.

I felt the strings to my heart tugging and I was called to gift her my book and she and her sister were really chuffed. It was as if she was just not used to any such acts of kindness and also as she was going through a really tough time, I imagine that she would have appreciated any act of kindness, no matter how small.

We had a really human connection for those few seconds and I had an extra bounce in my step for the rest of the day.

I thought nothing more about it and had forgotten about the gift of the book, when 4 days later I received a lovely email from this lady. I have got her permission to share her words and this is what she said:-

“Hello Arvind, I met you at the Olympia on Saturday 1st March when I came and looked at you stress management stall. You gave my sister your book to give to me.

It has been a life saver,it has made me feel so much better. I have found my purpose in life at last. I am going through a horrible hostile divorce and bringing up my two small children.

I do a lot of charity work and helping others and this is where I am me. My father was from India and died when I was a teenager he always told me I would heip others that were less fortunate than me as he did in schools in India, I now know that one day I would love to do the same.

I am really interested in helping in some way for the Nirvana school – it looks like you do great work. Next year I am hoping to do the China treck for a children’s charity and in a few weeks I am doing a skydive for a children’s charity.

What has happened to me at the moment has left me with no self asteem but reading your book has made me look at the good things about me, thankyou. If there is any way I can be involved in helping the school please let me know.”

So there we are – from one simple act of kindness I seem to have started a virtuous circle and this lady may one day soon visit the charity school I am involved with in South India – Nirvana School.

Never underestimate the impact of a single act of kindness.

What goes around is sure to come around – happy helping 🙂

Be cool to be kind – and be kind to be cool!

PS – Please do share your own ideas of being cool and kind today….