Summary

Ali Hall is on a mission to spread kindness through stories and encourages Medium users to contribute to the "Spread the Ripple" publication to share acts of kindness and foster a community of compassion.

Abstract

Ali Hall, a Medium user, is dedicated to promoting kindness in the world. She believes that small acts of kindness, such as letting a car merge or complimenting a colleague, can have a significant impact. While Medium has a diverse user base, Ali suggests that all users could benefit from more kindness and wonders why the "kindness" tag isn't more prevalent. She highlights that kindness can be a unifying force and cites Dr. David Hamilton's research showing that exposure to kindness inspires more of it, creating a positive cycle. Ali invites Medium users to join her "Spread the Ripple" publication, which focuses on sharing stories of kindness. She provides writing prompts to inspire contributions and emphasizes that kindness can be a superpower that connects us all.

Opinions

Ali Hall distinguishes between being nice and being kind, noting that kindness has a more lasting impact.
She points out that despite the potential for a vast community of kind people on Medium, the platform does not reflect this in its tags or story prevalence.
Ali believes that sharing and witnessing kindness leads to a ripple effect, making us kinder individuals.
She expresses pride in her own contributions to kindness on Medium and encourages others to spread more kindness through their stories.
Ali advocates for not waiting to receive kindness before giving it, suggesting that we should proactively contribute to a kinder world.

What Role Does Kindness Play in Your Life?

Spread the Ripple of kindness and watch what happens

Hello, I’m Ali and I am on a mission to spread more kindness out into this world.

Kindness doesn’t need to be big, grand gestures. Kindness can simply be slowing down to allow another car to pull out in front of you. It can be offering a shopper behind you, with only a couple of items, to move in front of you in the queue. It can be smiling at a stranger as you walk past them or giving a colleague a compliment.

There is a difference between being nice and being kind. The differences may seem small, but often they have a big impact. I wrote about this recently here, and I suggested being “nice” remains in the moment, whereas being “kind” can have a long-term impact.

I Bet Medium Is Full Of Kind People

Medium has over 60 million monthly users. This is phenomenal. People from all over the world, all walks of life. People with different political allegiance, contrasting morals, and a variety of interests.

We all identify with different character traits. Each and every one of us is as unique as our fingerprints. Yet, I bet everyone on Medium considers themselves kind to some extent. I may even suggest all Medium users would like to receive more kindness in their lives. Who wouldn’t?

So why is the “kindness” tag not one of the top 75 tags? Why aren’t we all spreading a little bit more kindness out there?

At the moment there are 14.8k stories and 10.5k writers on the topic of “kindness”. If you search on the tag, you will see I feature 2nd from the top. I am immensely proud of this.

But there is so much work to be done here.

Is Kindness the Universal Language That Holds Our World Together?

Sharing stories of kindness, be it kind acts we have received, the kindness we have given, the kindness we have observed, and the beautiful kindness of strangers, actually makes us kinder as people.

According to the kindness guru; Dr. David Hamilton, when we read about or witness kindness, we put more kindness out into the world ourselves and in turn, this becomes a circle. The more kindness we receive, the more kindness we put out. But let’s not wait to receive kindness to give kindness.

So what are we waiting for?

Katie Michaelson shares her story of simple acts of kindness she observed during one day. Jill (Conquering Cognitions)explains how kindness is infectious. Mukundarajan V N shares a wonderful story based on kindness and friendship and Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles captivates us with a beautiful story of the kindness of strangers.

Help Us Spread The Ripple

In my mission to spread more kindness into this world, I need your help. I have created a publication here on Medium. Yes, you guessed it, it’s called Spread the Ripple and kindness is our superpower.

Spread the Ripple

We spread the ripple of kindness. This is the place for stories on kindness. Let kindness be your superpower.

medium.com

I would love to welcome you as a writer to this publication. Sign up as a writer here.

How about a writing prompt to get the kindness story juices flowing.

Writing prompt ideas

“What is the kindest thing you have done for someone?”
“What is the kindest act of humanity you have witnessed?”
“What does being kind mean to you?”
“How do you show yourself kindness?”

Don’t Be Shy

So, please don’t be shy. Pop over to Spread the Ripple and check out some of our beautiful stories on kindness and add to them with your own experiences.

At Spread the Ripple, kindness is our superpower, is it yours?

Before you stop reading, remember to:

Follow Spread the Ripple
Request to be a writer with Spread the Ripple
Submit a story to Spread the Ripple either on one of the writing prompts or something entirely different.

Thank you for reading Ali Hall, spreading kindness into the world, one story at a time.