Meaning and recurrence of the origin of World Kindness Day

November 13 marks World Kindness Day, an anniversary that serves as a reminder of the importance of benevolent beings. “Practicing” kindness not out of fear of being overwhelmed, but out of a desire to make others smile, always and in any case.

World Kindness Day is celebrated around the world on November 13. It was born from the will of the Japan Small Kindness Movement, created in Tokyo in 1988. This movement, born as a local, gradually takes on an increasingly large scale.

In 1996, the Japan Small Kindness Movement became the World Kindness Movement. There is a need for kindness everywhere in the world. In Italy, it expanded in 2000 with the Parma office. Being kind is the ‘watchword’ of this anniversary, with the desire to insinuate care for others, not only on this day but always.

The importance of practicing kindness

In 1982, Anne Herbert wrote on a paper placemat in a restaurant in Sausalito, California, a phrase that quickly became world famous: “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” A phrase that quickly spread on walls, banners, slogans and encourages us to be kind, to show care and attention to others. Gestures of love, which arouse smiles and well-being in those who receive them. As Herbert says, “Kindness can beget kindness as much as violence begets violence.” And there is a need for benevolence today, more than we imagine. There is a need for smiles, for understanding, for interactions that are not triggered by hatred, but by the desire to be ‘loving’ towards others.

Difficult to define but easy to recognize, kindness too. It is not about those actions done out of fear of not being accepted, welcomed or loved. Rather, it is a matter of disinterested gentleness. Speaking of kindness, we could certainly bring many historical references which, with their way of doing and being, have made an important contribution to history and change. One will cite, for example, Gandhi who, out of benevolence and non-violence, made it a philosophical and political doctrine towards which the anti-war movements and the groups aiming at social change would orient themselves. “When moderation and kindness are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible”, affirmed Gandhi and it is also for this reason that the Indian poet R. Tagore gave him the nickname of Mahatma, great soul.

Good for others and for yourself

But the meaning of kindness is that it can be hidden in small things as well as big things and can benefit others and one’s soul. “When you are given the choice to be right or to be nice, you choose to be nice”, says the psychotherapist, defined as the “father of motivation”, Wayne W. Dyer who, in his life and in through his professional experience, introduced the importance of benevolence to find well-being for oneself too.

Because practicing acts of kindness also has positive effects on those who are kind. Smiling produces dopamine, edorphins and serotonin, generating general well-being. Kindness can have a cascading effect, improving relationships and helping to build a path to a better life. For, citing another example of extreme kindness and love, Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “Kind words are short and easy to say, but their echo is eternal.”