Spreading the Love!

Happy Valentine's Day! Time to spread the love and kindness. Kindness to strangers, sure. But more importantly, kindness to those I take for granted: friends, family, husband and making more of an effort to be kind to myself.

I was excited to see PopSugar's 30-Day Kindness Challenge. See below for the full list.

Let's be realistic, some of these things I will not do. I usually don't have enough change for my own meter, let alone somebody else's. And I don't need to cover for a co-worker or have the opportunity to sit with somebody eating alone. However - there are quite a few things I can do or have already begun to do.

#18 - Let a car merge in front of you and give them a smile or thumbs up. Learning to drive in LA was like learning how to despise strangers. Sure, we're nice enough when actually interacting, but behind the safety of our car steering wheel, we were NOT polite. So, since living in SF, I have made an effort to allow people to go ahead of me. Or let somebody in my lane. It feels good. As long as they aren't driving like a jerk.

#12 - Give someone an unsolicited compliment. My husband recently took me to the theater for a matinee. I was wearing my fave cobalt blue coat. And as we were waiting for the elevator, a very chic young woman said "Great coat!" "Thanks" I beamed! I liked her coat too but felt like if I had something back it would seem insincere. The point is - I loved the compliment. And I see great stuff everywhere and never say anything. Why don't I speak up? I don't know. I'm probably debating whether to say something and then the moment passes. Not anymore. I'm giving out compliments to anybody and everybody.

#20 - Volunteer. #9 - Pick up trash. I'm combining these two. We used to volunteer more. Now I want to focus my volunteering on beach cleanups since it's practically our backyard. I just have to actually do it.

#25 - Cook a meal for someone. My husband does all the cooking; he genuinely enjoys it! He says that when i cook, the food tastes fine, but it's lacking the love! But, he gets home late these days - and I want to show appreciation. So - now is the time to start cooking. Maybe he'll taste the love for him rather than the love for the stove. Even if it is just spaghetti with vegetables, it'll save money, time and energy.

#30 - Spend a day saying only nice things. Ha! OK - since I work from home, this may happen already. I'm usually a very positive person when I'm out and about and the unload when I get home. I was going to attempt a "no-complaints" challenge for a week but failed within the first hour. So, my poor husband hears a lot of negativity from me. I'd like to take one day a week to have no complaints. Just enjoy life. Which is pretty freaking awesome right now.

I'm setting small goals and will try to check off some other Kindness goals from this list. Which ones look good to you?