There was this kid who sat behind me in math class who was SO ANNOYING—his name was Pat. He happened to look uncannily like Napoleon Dynamite...and would constantly bug me with questions, dumb jokes, all that stuff. He drove me batty.
One day I came into class and he said to me, pretty nonchalantly, "You sure do complain a lot."
It stopped me in my tracks. He was right. I did.
And was that the person I wanted to be? And in that moment, instead of bristling in defense and complaining about him complaining about my complaining (lol)...Something miraculous happened, and I instead became incredibly grateful to him. He told me something no one else had told me, and I respected him for that. I started learning how mindset is so important for happiness. Believe it or not, we actually became good friends after that and I started looking forward to math class so I could see him!
It was around that time that I began doing Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs). Putting flowers on random people's cars. Leaving inspirational notes on their windshield. Paying people's expired meters or for the drink of the person in line behind me. During a high school field trip to NYC, I remember writing inspirational messages next to some hateful grafitti on the subway and a classmate rolling his eyes at me and saying, "You're gonna get shot." (Aw, so young, yet so jaded).
I did it not just for the joy of spreading kindness...but because it made ME feel good. I'm reminded of the quote,
"There's no such thing as a selfless act."
—Bill Crawford.
We receive in the act of giving kindness.
I was so inspired by my experience with random acts of kindness (RAKs) that in my early 20s, the thing that most inspired me was starting an RAK non-profit, and I spent hours writing and planning about it. Life had other plans for me, however.... 😏
Now that Rasa has a platform, I'm very excited to use it not only to change people's energy, but also to boost the Overall Global Kindness Quotient™. Because when we have more energy for ourselves, we have more energy to give others and make the world a better place, as well.
"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
—Anne Frank