#MindfulMonday - On this Mindful Monday with Riley, I'd like..

#MindfulMonday - On this Mindful Monday with Riley, I'd like to share a little practice I've been doing to fight off loneliness. Now, this might not benefit you directly, but it may help others around you. I call it "one-minute kindness." It's no secret. The more the years went by in the last decade, the fewer human interactions we had. It reached a new peak with Covid, social distancing, and everything related to it. What is one-minute kindness? Getting lots of likes on a social media post may give a quick hit of dopamine, but just like cocaine, you will crash pretty fast. However, receiving a direct message or e-mail with a genuine compliment or expression of gratitude is more personal and longer-lasting—without taking much more time. All it takes, most of the time, is a single minute. I decided to dedicate one minute of kindness upon waking up and going on my phone every day. I will either write to an old friend to get some news. Or simply wish a good day to a good friend and ask her what she's up to. Or if I see something on my feed, I may reach out to someone regarding it, to congratulate that person, offer a listening ear, or share information. It doesn't need to be a 5000 words essay. A simple "Hey, how was your important meeting yesterday? Everything went fine?" can do way more than you could imagine. It's not a lot. It may seem like it won't make an impact. But how can you know? We rarely genuinely know how people, even the closest to us, are feeling. More people than we think are feeling lonely. Or maybe they are dealing with destructive emotions, and that minute you took today can give them some sense of hope or some cheer. Imagine if we all did that. 7 minutes a week of kindness. It's easy to forget to reach out to people and talk to them, and by making it a common practice, the habit sets in, and it becomes part of your routine. When you find yourself scrolling through people's posts, stop and send one of them a few kind words. After all, we need a little extra kindness to counter the stress and uncertainty of life. And maybe that by sharing this minute of kindness, you'll be the one receiving it when you need it the most. One minute of kindness. I just think we can all use it. How about we all start doing it tomorrow morning?