Have you ever done something nice for someone «out of the blue»? It wasn’t to repay them or out of obligation; it was simply because you wanted to. So you carried out a random act of kindness. Continue reading to learn how to perform more random acts of kindness in your life to lift your spirits and make others’ lives better.

Random acts of kindness are actions taken by someone who wishes to assist or positively influence another person (Passmore & Oades, 2015). Random acts of kindness are occasionally defined as acts of kindness performed only for people one does not know (Baskerville et al., 2000), but this does not appear to be a magical ingredient (Curry et al., 2018). Being kind is beneficial to one’s well-being (which is what we’re focusing on here). One of the most valuable character traits in Western society is kindness (Binfet, 2015).

We like kind people, so kindness can assist us. Furthermore, kindness has been shown to improve not only the well-being of others, but also our own. For example, spending more money on others makes us happier, and volunteering to help others makes us healthier (Curry et al., 2018).