Be Kind by Melissa Burmester, Jaclyn Lindsey

Be Kind

by Melissa Burmester and Jaclyn Lindsey

Produced in partnership with the nonprofit organization kindness.org, Be Kind emboldens you to try an act of kindness every week for a year, benefiting others and yourself while deepening connections in your community.

Each of the 52 weeks of kindness includes a dose of inspiration (a story about when a small act of kindness, an authentic personal gratitude letter that had a big impact, a Q&A, or a quote from a notable thinker); a fascinating statistic or fact about kindness that has been researched by Kindlab, the research arm of kindness.org (e.g. Kindness improves the well-being of both the giver and the receiver.); and a suggestion for an act of kindness to do in one of the following areas:
  • Kindness toward those around you (service workers, colleagues, neighbors)
  • Kindness to self
  • Kindness with kids
  • Kindness as a group
  • Kindness to the environment
  • Cyber-kindness
Fully illustrated, engaging, and inspiring, Be Kind will have you changing not only yourself and your communities, but also the world, one week at a time.

In support of Verizon's A Call for Kindness campaign, we are offering a limited time price reduction on the ebook of Be Kind, available for $2.99 now through July 31, 2021. You can learn, reflect, and do kind acts with the guide of the founders of Kindness.org with 100% of the net profits going to support their classroom curriculum.
 

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Be Kind: A Year of Kindness, One Week at a Time is a tutorial and action guide arranged around week by week prompts for changing our interactions and lifestyle over the course of a year of actively choosing to be kind. Released 14th April 2020 by Quarto on their Rock Point imprint, it's 240 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a beautifully written book. I personally have curtailed much of my interaction with the outside world because it's so distressing and violent (and in a pandemic, dangerous). Everything I see on TV/media/facebook is more hostile, ignorant, mean spirited, hateful, spiteful, and awful. The authors have written a book with a sensible and realistic plan including exercises which will create ripples of kindness and positivity and not least, make us, ourselves, happier and more content.

The introduction (which includes some short and general discussion of the physiological and mental benefits of altruism) is followed by a week by week spread, arranged in a 4 page layout with a three main themes: reflect, do, and learn, appealing pastel graphics (I want this as stationery or a bullet journal color scheme). The lessons and guidance are short and easy to understand and digest. There's quite a lot to process and assimilate.

I think that using this book over a long period of time (months to a year) and actively trying to incorporate kindness in our day to day lives has the potential to make a profound difference.

Five stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 6 May, 2020: Finished reading
  • 6 May, 2020: Reviewed