Pay It Forward and sprinkle a little kindness

It’s Pay It Forward Day! A day where we're encouraged to spread kindness and positivity by doing something good for someone else. It’s a chance to channel a bit of your inner-Ghandi and “be the change you want to see in the world”, leading by example through kind deeds.

As women who care about sustainability, we can take this day to not only spread kindness to others, but to our environment as well, making a positive impact on our planet.

Pay It Forward Day is a global initiative designed to brighten the world a little by encouraging small acts of kindness towards others, that they in turn can then pass on, creating a huge ripple of kindness, reaching as many people as possible.

Australia has been participating in Pay It Forward Day since 2007, spreading joy through acts such as buying a stranger a cup of coffee, dropping a meal into a neighbour, or making a life-saving blood donation. In fact, sometimes it spills beyond the day itself, such as when you find yourself in the drive-through at a fast food outlet picking up a meal that the person in front of you has already paid for, or when someone leaves an umbrella out for others to use on a rainy day.

Here at Ellenny Swim we have one eye on sustainability all year around, and we certainly do our best to always show kindness and compassion. But we did a little brainstorming, and came up with some ideas that you might like to borrow for Pay It Forward Day, to either help another person, or the planet.

To put a smile on someone’s face:

• Gather up some pre-loved clothes and books and donate them to a family in need or a charity,
• Visit a neighbour or relative (it might be a family with a newborn, or someone recovering from illness), and offer to cook them a meal, or spend an hour helping out with a bit of cleaning or gardening,
• Spend time with an elderly relative or friend who may be feeling a bit lonely and in need of a chat,
• Offer to help out at the next working bee at your local kindergarten, school or sports club.

To give the planet a bit of a hand:

• Volunteer your time to a beach or waterway clean-up,
• Plant a tree,
• If you are handy with a sewing machine, or some tools, offer to fix something for someone so they can reuse it rather than throw it away,
• Start a compost bin or a worm farm in your backyard.

Or, if you’re short on time, you can pay it forward by making a monetary donation to a charity that will help someone in need, or support an environmental cause.

We’d love to hear stories about how you pay it forward, or perhaps you’ve been the recipient of a kind act yourself? Either way, it’s a great day to start changing the world – one good deed at a time.

Megan xx