Be Kind: A Year of Kindness, One Week at a Time

Be Kind: A Year of Kindness, One Week at a Time is a tutorial and action guide arranged around week by week prompts for changing our interactions and lifestyle over the course of a year of actively choosing to be kind. Released 14th April 2020 by Quarto on their Rock Point imprint, it's 240 pages and available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a beautifully written book. I personally have curtailed much of my interaction with the outside world because it's so distressing and violent (and in a pandemic, dangerous). Everything I see on TV/media/facebook is more hostile, ignorant, mean spirited, hateful, spiteful, and awful. The authors have written a book with a sensible and realistic plan including exercises which will create ripples of kindness and positivity and not least, make us, ourselves, happier and more content.

The introduction (which includes some short and general discussion of the physiological and mental benefits of altruism) is followed by a week by week spread, arranged in a 4 page layout with a three main themes: reflect, do, and learn, appealing pastel graphics (I want this as stationery or a bullet journal color scheme). The lessons and guidance are short and easy to understand and digest. There's quite a lot to process and assimilate.

I think that using this book over a long period of time (months to a year) and actively trying to incorporate kindness in our day to day lives has the potential to make a profound difference.

Five stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.