Have you perpetrated a Random Act of Kindness today? Well, what are you waiting for?! Going out of your way to be kind to someone today will not only cheer him or her up, but will make your day as well! An act of kindness is a two way street; it warms two hearts?both yours and the recipient of your kind act. Oftentimes one act of kindness will lead to another, and then another, until kindness itself gains momentum, creating an enormous wave of do-gooders. Should you feel inspired to set such a wave of warm fuzzies in motion, here are some ideas to help you begin:

1. Send Fruit Gift Baskets to Needy Nursing Home Residents

Call the nursing home in your neighborhood and ask an available nurse for the names of some residents who do not have attentive families nearby. The nurse will be happy to supply you with some names as well as an idea of what types of goodies a resident might like. If you don?t have time to put together a gift basket yourself, you can choose from among a variety of flower, cookie, fruit, and even specialty gift baskets on-line. And, should you order a gift basket on-line, you can have it sent anonymously to the nursing home to create the effect of a truly random act of kindness. Then, follow up your act of kindness with a personal visit to the nursing home; spend some time talking, walking, or reading with residents. You will be amazed at what a positive impact your thoughtfulness will have on both you and the residents!

2. Help your Children Write Letters of Thanks to their Teachers

The days of showing appreciation for a teacher with a shiny apple are not long gone! Send your kids off to school with hand written thank you notes and bright apples for their overworked teachers. Such a simple act of kindness will go a long way; in brightening their teachers? days you will also be enhancing the classroom atmosphere for your children and their classmates. Your children will come home from school in high spirits, and that is bound to make your day as well!

3. Stop to Lend a Hand to a Person in Need

If you set off in the morning with this objective in mind, you will be amazed at how many opportunities to help someone in need you pass up everyday. We encounter such situations so often that we have become accustomed to overlooking them! Just think of your morning commute to work?there is the car stalled on the side of the road; the woman fumbling for change at the bus stop; the elderly man loitering outside the coffee shop in hopes of a hot cup?if you look for occasions to lend a hand, you will find them everywhere. You will also discover, in pulling over to help a stalled car, in offering some spare change, or in sharing a cup of coffee, that your perspective on your own community will be positively enhanced.

4. Smile and Say Hello

The simplest way to really improve your, and everyone else?s, day is to sincerely smile at and greet people you interact with in your everyday affairs. Compliment a unique hairstyle; ask how the cashier is holding up on such a busy day. Make an effort to connect with all the people you encounter in a given day?a simple smile and kind word will have a profound effect!

Put these ideas into practice and you will soon find that everyone around you?including yourself!?is a little more cheerful; eventually random acts of kindness will begin to seem a little less random and become a part of your daily life!