Coursedate Academic Essay

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One Week of Random Acts of Kindness

For this assignment, I completed at least one act of random kindness every day for a full week. I made an effort to include both acts that are anonymous as well as those that involve more direct contact with beneficiaries, and acts that vary in both size and effort. I kept a journal throughout the week to track and analyze the effect it had on me. Performing these acts of kindness had a significant impact on my mood and emotional well-being throughout the week, and provided personal insight into the positive personal effects of kindness.
On Sunday, I prepaid a coffee for the next customer at a café, which was anonymous and required only a minimal amount of effort. On Monday, I wrote uplifting Post-Its and left them everywhere I went throughout the day. These notes included inspiring quotes as well as generally positive messages like “Smile! You are loved,” etc. Some of these were left in obvious places, such as on shelves and on the ATM, while others were tucked in pages of magazines and into pockets of jackets at a store. On Tuesday, I picked up garbage in a vacant lot near my house that was completely filled with litter. This took two hours and several people stopped me to thank me while walking by. On Wednesday, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and brought them along with juice boxes to homeless people in a local park. This required a fair amount of effort and also did involve a lot of contact with those I was helping. On Thursday, I paid an expired parking meter in front of a health clinic- another anonymous and minimal effort act. On Friday, I bought coffee and donuts and brought them to the local fire station. On Saturday, I went through the most effort, which was to assemble a small ‘care pack’ of travel toothpaste, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, some snack foods, and two juice boxes and gave it to an older homeless woman I have seen several times.
Over the course of the week, I found that I felt much more personal satisfaction than usual. I also noted an increase in feelings of self-worth and self-esteem; I felt better about myself for having completed the acts. I anticipated that I might get burnt out on all the effort required to perform bigger acts of kindness, but surprisingly enough I felt almost like I had slightly more energy than usual. In fact, while preparing for the bigger acts (making sandwiches, purchasing care pack items) I actually found myself trying to think of more acts of kindness to do in the future. That said, it did require a lot of effort and would not necessarily be practical to perform so many bigger acts of kindness every week.
I found that, predictably, the highest satisfaction I got was from those acts of kindness that involved contact with the beneficiary. While anonymous acts of kindness were meaningful and fulfilling in a different way, and still contributed to improved mood and feelings of self-worth and value, the gratitude of the beneficiaries of the acts of kindness was incredibly touching. Seeing the positive effect of the acts on others and how much a small act meant to them inspired me to do more and made me incredibly happy that I chose to do them. The most satisfying acts I completed were making sandwiches and handing them out to the homeless, handing out the care package to the homeless woman, and bringing coffee and donuts to the fire station. These were also the acts that resulted in me receiving gratitude from the beneficiaries. While anonymous acts of kindness were satisfying, it is unsurprising that the acts involving contact with the beneficiaries gave me the most personal satisfaction.
I did not feel that performing an act of kindness each day desensitized me to the positive benefits and warm feelings associated with them, however, I did perform the acts that I found most satisfying, those which were bigger acts, on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, therefore it is hard to ascertain whether I would have adapted if they were all smaller, more anonymous acts as those I performed earlier in the week. As I noted above, the time required for those acts might not always be available but fortunately, because the emotional effect of the bigger acts was so positive and resulted in such a sense of anticipation for future acts, I think that one could perform mostly small acts of kindness each day with bigger acts interspersed throughout more occasionally.
Another positive effect I noted was that as I became more focused on the acts of kindness I was completing for others, I became more attuned to the small kindnesses I saw around me; people smiling, complimenting strangers, holding doors open for others, etc. The happiness I felt in being so focused on the kindness of others, as well as the personal satisfaction I gained from being kinder myself, contributed to an increased sense of happiness and positivity in a short time. After the week ended, I have continued trying to incorporate small, simple kindnesses into my daily life and feel that although the boost in happiness is not quite as drastic, my mood has generally improved due to being so focused on the positive interactions I have with others and those I see around me rather than negativity directed at myself or others. Based on my findings, incorporating small daily acts of kindness with a weekly larger acts of kindness is enough to bring about a significant improvement in happiness and emotional health.

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