5 Free Ways to be a Nicer Person

I’ve made a little agreement with myself. I’m going to be kinder, nicer, more giving. It’s funny isn’t it, it’s one of the few things in life we can actually be in a free way. Reality is, it doesn’t cost to be nice. If anything, maybe some time, some patience but all in all no monetary cost. So here’s 5 Free Ways to be a Nicer Person:

Offer Time

Whether it’s offering someone 5 minutes to listen to their day on Whatsapp, or heading round to your pals for an hour one of the best ways you can be a kinder person is to offer someone time. Listen to their thoughts, their problems, their happiness… everything. I’ve found for me it’s a huge comfort for someone to listen to my thoughts for 10 minutes, so I’ll be ensuring I d the same. If someone reaches out to you, there is often a reason why. If you’re busy at the time, then it’s always worth explaining why and offering time later on when you’ll be free. If I have a few less minutes a day for watching Netflix, it isn’t going to hurt me. However, it could seriously make someone’s day.

Take One Job off their hands

If I ever see a friend struggling, I’ll often say ‘What can I do to help?’ The reality is, there are a lot of small tasks you could take off someone’s hands to make their day just a little bit easier. If they have a dog, offer to walk them. If they have a baby/child maybe offer an evening of babysitting. I know that for me, as a new parent, anyone offering me an hour or so to sleep was my best pal. Whilst it didn’t cost anyone any money, it gave me a wealth of refreshment.

Share a Good Recipe / Story

As humans, it’s in our nature to need companionship. I attend a crochet group weekly and in this group I’ve learnt a lot about loneliness, friendship and the art of growing older. Whilst these ladies are at times lonely, they have a few hours at this group where they can talk, share stories/recipes and laugh. Sharing a recipe is perhaps my favourite thing to do (other than making it myself) as you know they’ll get joy out of making something delicious and thinking of you!

Help a Person in Public

Have you ever seen someone struggling with their shopping bags? Perhaps you’ve seen a new mum struggling to unfold her pushchair? How often do you feel it’s appropriate to offer a hand? Sometimes I fear I’ll offend by asking but I’ve decided to do it more often now. I’ve been in situations where doors have shut onto me as people haven’t held the door open, Jasper has screamed at me whilst I struggled to put the pram away, bags of shopping have fallen onto the floor because I actually just needed a little help. I’m a stubborn one, but whenever someone offers me a hand I feel absolutely overwhelmed with kindness.

For every complaint, find a compliment

I once read about swapping your complaints for compliments and this made such a difference to me. Funny isn’t it? It’s so easy to complain or moan about something, yet so hard to find the good at times. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Instead of looking in the mirror and saying ‘Look at your eyes, you look tired’, how about ‘Your hair looks fab today’. Instead of ‘the buses are always running late’ how about ‘thank goodness we have a public transport system’. It’s small switches that can make a difference.

Violet x

Twitter | Instagram