Episode 21: Spread Joy Through Simple Acts of Kindness

Description: In this episode, Dr. Tina Boogren shares how small acts of kindness, like giving away Starbucks gift cards while traveling, can boost your mood and spread positivity to others.

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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren, and this is episode 21 of season 5. And this week's invitation is a fun one. It dawned on me that this is something that I have been doing for a little while and I don't think I've ever talked about it here on the podcast. Uh, It's this, I guess you can do it anytime, but I do it when I'm traveling and I travel a lot as you know. I always make sure that I have a couple of Starbucks gift cards with me and I give them away when I encounter someone that's gone out of their way to be really kind and it makes me really happy. 

As many of you know, one of the things that I do, a commitment that I make, and I've been doing this for years and years- it was a way for me to make travel easier- is I commit to engaging in acts of kindness before I get on any airplane. It's me tapping into all of that incredible research around altruism that reminds us that when we do something nice for someone else, we actually make ourselves happier. And as someone who travels. pretty much every single week, multiple times a week for this job, I was really struggling with the travel part of the job.

I love my job. I love my job so much, but the travel is so hard and I had to figure out a way to make it doable. And so one of the things that I committed to is engaging in at least five acts of kindness before I get on the plane. Sometimes I have to dial it down when I don't have a lot of time, but that's always the goal. And I've talked about this before and remember it's small things, but I just keep my eye on the prize of doing kind things for other people. Things like holding the door for them, helping, especially at my airport which is Denver International Airport. If you've been there, you know, it's pretty confusing. So I'm always looking for people that look like they might be having a tough time and I, I try to help them.  

And then I've kicked it up a notch recently. I always make sure that I have some Starbucks gift cards in my pocket. And  when people have gone out of their way to be especially kind, I hand them a Starbucks gift card. And my goodness, you would think that I am handing them a winning lottery ticket the way that they get excited and that excitement makes me so happy. I just used it, I was thinking about this because I just used it two days ago, and it's a funny story. 

So I went to the airport and you guys I travel, as I just said, every single week, multiple times a week, so I know what the rules are. And I went through the TSA security line and my bag got pulled aside. And I, of course, immediately got grumpy about it. And the security guy was really, really nice. And he saw my little tag that said 1k, which just means that I fly a ton. And so he was, he was pretty sarcastic and he said, “First time flyer?” And I was like, “No.” And he held up my water bottle and he was, that's when he said “first time flyer” and he was like, “Uh, cause this is full.” and I was like, “No, it's not.” and I was laughing about it. I was like, “I know I can't take a full water bottle full.” 

And he shook it and I could hear the water and I was like, “Oh no!” And I know how this works. If you go through with a full water bottle you either a.) have to throw your water bottle away or b.) get out of line to go dump your water bottle. And I was so sad that I had forgotten and I was so embarrassed because I know better. And he was so kind. He laughed. He was making fun of me in a funny way. And he took care of it. He took my water bottle and he went and dumped it for me so that I didn't have to a.) throw the water bottle away or b.), get out of line. And I reached. Into my bag and I got that five dollar, ten dollar gift card out. And I handed him that gift card and he was so happy and I was so happy and it made his day and it made my day. And I walked off with a little bounce in my step and it was just awesome. It was just awesome. 

And it, that good mood carried me through and i'm telling you It's just so simple to just- this altruism thing is real. There's a reason that there's so much research behind it. And so I just offer that tiny little strategy to you. It was on my mind because I was sharing that story with one of my workshop participants, and she was like, “Oh my gosh, that's such a good idea!” 

And I think I actually got this idea from my best friend, Melissa. So, I believe that she was the one who originally had talked about this. In fact, I think she gets a bunch of gift cards when they travel during the holidays and she hands them to her son and he gets to pass the gift cards out to kind people. And I remember her telling me that. And I always have Starbucks gift cards in my bag for when I'm at an event and someone is really kind and helpful with technology different things and I thought, Oh my gosh, I should not just save those gift cards for when I'm at the actual event, but I should use those while I'm traveling and I did and so I offer that to you.

It's just such a simple thing. I actually love doing that. I love doing that. And in fact, as I'm sitting here talking about this, I'm like, I should just make sure that I have gift cards with me all the time. This shouldn't just be at the airport. We can use this all the time. And again, it doesn't have to be a gift card. It could just be a commitment again, to pay it forward, to do the nice thing. 

You have a capital A altruistic job, but what if this week we commit again to doing five acts of kindness. Every single day or if that feels like too much, take that dial, dial it down and do one one kind thing each day or just do one kind thing out of the ordinary this week and just pay attention to how it makes you feel and what happens with that person that you did the kind thing for.

It's one of those, I love it because it's a two for one strategy. You make their day, you make your day. It's just such a small little thing. So maybe you grab some gift cards from Starbucks or from wherever, doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be from Starbucks. They're just so easy to get and you take them with you and you pass them out and you just make someone's day. The way that you make my day, you guys. I'm just so grateful for all of you and I hope you have such an incredible week, such an incredible week. I'm cheering so hard for you.  

As always, thank you, Adrienne for making this happen. Thank you, Solution Tree. Thank you, Marzano Resources. And thank you, you, this badass self-care squad. I'm so, so, so, so grateful for each and every one of you. Go make it an amazing week. Spread joy. Spread sunshine. Spread gift cards. Spread the goodness. Make it an amazing week. I can feel all of this like good energy radiating out into the world. And it's just, uh, it's going to be such a good week. I feel it. I'm cheering so hard for you. I love you.