Kindness, the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

Kindness costs us very little, yet it is an action that I find isn't as common as it could or should be. I don't know why this is, and I'm not going to spend my time deep diving into the lack of kindness around us.

Instead, I will focus on the impact being kind can have on you and on others around you.

• Your kind act can change the course of someones life - Taking the time to listen to someone, sharing stories with someone or just smiling in someones direction truly can change the course of their day, or their life overall.
  I know that if I've been having an average day and I'm feeling a little down a genuine smile from a stranger can lift my mood!
  In other cases, I have a friend who had an encounter with with a stranger. This conversation inspired him to quit his corporate world and start a non-profit giving back to communities across the world, this one person changed his life. He crossed paths with her a few years later and she didn't remember him, or the words they'd shared, but her kindness had had an unprecedented impact on his life.

• You do not know the influence you have on others - it's still a bit strange to me when people reach out and say "because of you I did X/you inspired me to do X/thank you for saying that it made me do X". It's strange because I didn't consciously act in order to change their behaviour, I was just being kind and I often forget that our actions do impact others, in the same way that we are influenced by people around us.

• It feels good - there's not much explanation needed here, at least for me being kind feels much better than being unkind. Seeing someone else smile, always makes me smile too.

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason, everyone crosses our paths for a reason. You may not see the reason in that moment, but trust the universe.

In Spanish we say "la vida da muchas vueltas" which literally translates to "life takes many turns" . You don't know when you will need kindness from someone else so whenever you can -

Be kind.

A quick personal story:
Yesterday my mum started Hosting on Airbnb, she got her very first request and realised she'd made a mistake on the pricing and had applied a double discount! She messaged the Guest and explained the situation. The Guests response was so kind and understand that my mum decided to accept her reservation at the reduced price, letting her that her kindness had been the reason. Everyone was happy and I'm sure the Guest will go on to share this story with others to inspire more kindness.