Studies show that acts of kindness can help lower blood pressure and stress, and are therefore good for your heart. Being the city of good neighbors, check out these acts of kindness you can do for neighborhood friends. What acts of kindness have you done that aren’t on this list?
1. Decorate a neighbor?s door or fence with a wreath.
2. Rake someone?s leaves.
3. Pick up trash that?s blown along the street or gutters.
4. Shovel a stranger?s sidewalk or driveway.
5. Ask someone you see on the street ?How are you?? ? and mean it.
6. Bake some cookies for your neighbor.
7. Call a neighbor you haven?t talked to in a while.
8. Give someone a flower ? or a dozen.
9. Leave a kind note on a neighbor?s car windshield.
10. Hold the elevator.
11. Invite someone who lives alone over for dinner.
12. Introduce yourself to someone you always see around.
13. Hold the door open for someone.
14. Clean up graffiti.
15. Send a thank-you note to the staff at your local police or fire station.
16. Help someone unload their groceries.
17. Greet your mail carrier with hot chocolate on a snowy day or a cold water bottle on a warm day.
18. Share fresh produce with your neighbors.
19. Someone new moving into the neighborhood? Help them carry in a few boxes.
20. Give directions to someone who?s lost.
21. Mow a neighbor?s lawn.
22. Pick up groceries for someone who has difficulties getting out.
23. Bring in your neighbor?s trashcans.
24. Help change a tire.
25. Buy coffee for the person waiting behind you at the local coffee shop.
26. Improve a struggling family?s summer by buying them a season pass to the local swimming pool.
27. Leave your neighbors a note that tells them how much you admire their flowers.
28. Deliver a bouquet of flowers to a nearby nursing home.
29. Leave a copy of a book you love, with a note for the next reader, at your neighborhood cafe.
30. Write kind but anonymous notes; discreetly distribute them in public places, for strangers to find.
31. Go to your local library and ask if you can pay someone?s fines.
32. Buy a dozen bottles of bubbles and attach a fun note to each one. Leave the bottles at homes along your street.
33. Buy inexpensive shovels and buckets and leave them in the sandbox in a local park.
34. Help a neighbor water or weed his garden.
35. Launch a neighborhood campaign to collect food for a nearby shelter.