Kindness is in everybody

Good morning all, Sam here and today I wanted you to encourage you to look for the kindness around you a little bit more. 

As I mentioned in the previous email - London can be seen as an "unfriendly" place, but if you look for it, kindness is visible wherever you go and witnessing an act of kindness to a stranger can have a knock-on effect to those around. 

A few weeks ago, I was in a Pret where the barista told a customer that the coffee was for free for him today. The customer couldn't believe his luck - he went from disbelief, too joy, and saying to me "today is my lucky day!" - he was so happy that it made me feel all warm inside too! the barista then asked if I also wanted something else as I’d already paid but I was happy without!

On the same week, one morning I saw a man on the other side of the road, stumbling around - by appearances he was homeless and drunk (but I can’t know that for sure) - everybody he walked past gave him a wide birth apart from one man - who happens to be a member at Fitness First Angel - who actually stopped to ask if he was ok (I’m guessing that is what he said to him anyway!) It is such a small gesture but takes seconds.

 Many times, I’ve overheard strangers complimenting strangers on their shoes, hair etc – its such a simple but effective way to lift somebody’s spirits!

There was an incident just before Christmas where there was a collision outside the gym between a bicycle and a motorbike when it so happened that 3 of our members (including some of the SMASH crew) were on the scene and stopped to look after the injured parties. A similar thing happened to me once where I witnessed a cyclist being knocked over by a car – In those situations, so many people have the attitude of "it’s somebody else’s problem" and get on with their day - But imagine yourself in the same situation and it becomes clear that sticking around would help more. I ended up being used for a witness statement and a few weeks later I had an email from the cyclist expressing his gratitude to say that not many people would have done the same. 

Of course, we cannot know how much we affect a stranger with our random acts of kindness but start with opening our eyes more and we will see that kindness is in everybody... somewhere!!

Enjoy the rest of your week and see you at SMASH soon

Sam & Ashley