Practice Self Care for Safe Care through Random Acts of Kindness

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Julie Apold

Resilience is our ability to bounce back from the stresses of life. In a new Self Care for Safe Care video, Dr. Alyson VanAhn from Associated Clinics of Psychology describes the impact of the strains from COVID-19 on all aspects of our lives and how we can build our resilience and practice Self Care for Safe Care.

One evidenced-based activity to build resilience is performing Random Acts of Kindness. A Random Act of Kindness is doing something simple for someone else that shows you care. Research shows us that when you do something kind for someone else, it boosts their happiness for up to 24 hours and increases your happiness and resilience for up to two weeks.  Random Acts of Kindness produce the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise that has been tested.

Random Acts of Kindness can be as simple as bringing a co-worker a cup of coffee, leaving a note of kindness on a co-worker’s desk or neighbor’s door, or taking a few extra moments to sit down with a resident and ask them about their day.

Visit the Self Care for Safe Care site to find all the resources and tools for bringing Random Acts of Kindness to your community in September and October. Random Acts of Kindness is the first of six Self Care for Safe Care activities designed to build our resilience and increase our sense of happiness and well-being. 

We all have times when we feel like we’re at our limit—with residents, co-workers, families or in our personal lives—and it’s helpful to have some simple tools that will help us bounce back from these moments. Additional free resources include coaching, small group training, and more funded through a LeadingAge MN Foundation grant.

For more information on Self Care for Safe Care or our other resiliency and mental health support resources, reach out to Jenna Kellerman or Julie Apold.