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A smile, a thank you, it’s the small acts of kindness that make the difference to the experiences of staff, patients, families, and carers. Start your day with this question: “How am I going to practice kindness today?”

We don’t need a special event to remind us to be kind. Kindness can be embodied in a million simple ways but kindness is more than behavior. The art of kindness involves harboring a spirit of helpfulness, being generous and considerate, and doing so without expecting anything in return.

Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood. It can decrease blood pressure and cortisol, a hormone directly correlated with stress levels. People who give of themselves in a balanced way also tend to be healthier and live longer.

Kindness can increase your sense of connectivity with others, decrease loneliness, combat low mood and improve relationships. It also can be contagious, encouraging others to join in with their own generous deeds.

When sharing kindness, it’s not just how you treat other people — it’s also about how you extend those same behaviors and intentions to yourself. Could you be kinder to yourself? 

People are good at verbally beating themselves up which does not work as a pep talk. Rather, negativity often causes you to unravel and may even create a vicious cycle of regularly getting down on yourself. If you wouldn’t speak to someone else that way then don’t say it about yourself.

NSW Health’s Gathering of Kindness is celebrated annually during November, using World Kindness Day on November 13 to continue a conversation about kindness and compassion in the delivery of healthcare. It is brought about thanks to a collaboration between the NSW Health Nursing and Midwifery Office, The Division of Health System Strategy and Patient Experience, and the Hush Foundation.

The Gathering of Kindness is a Hush Foundation movement focused on bringing together all voices in healthcare to envision and work towards a kinder, safer and better healthcare system for all.