Kindness strengthens mental health...
Hi everyone Mental Health Awareness Week is in full swing and the focus this year has been on kindness. We hope you have been able to get to some of our bonus classes - who knew you could combine boxing with yoga inspired moves?! There is much more to come in the form of our first online version of SMASHED (a mash-up of some of your favourite classes!), a kindness 'Flip-It' special, the sequel to superheroes vs supervillians in SMASHcamp and the return of the Greatest Showman! We know, it doesn't even sound like they are fitness and well-being classes... but isn't that what makes SMASH so fun?! All the Zoom links can be found in last Saturday's email
We have delved into our archive for one of the many emails we did about kindness. This one was from February 2018 and was in the middle of a month where we focused on kindness...
21st February 2018: 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!!
The start of our month of kindness in 2018 is here if you want to read more!
As always, we are overwhelmed with the kindness of you all, and the love you share with us by recommending us so highly to your friends and family. The biggest compliment you can give us is when you bring others to class, it truly shows that you love SMASH! Talking of compliments, here is your kindness challenge today...
Compliment 5 different people. You could compliment someone's hair or their clothes etc. but we encourage you to dig deep. Maybe you could message your Mum and compliment her on the way she shows her love to you? Maybe to your best friend to compliment them on how much they make you laugh? Maybe a work colleague and compliment them on a skill-set they are great at, and how much it's helped you at work? You may have to think a little before you do this but give it a go and see how it makes you, and them, feel. Kindness can be shown in many ways and it's proven that kindness strengthens mental health. What have you got to lose?
5 people... go!
Have an amazing day and we hope to see you in class this week!
Sam and Ash
