RHS Empathy Challenge!

Each day this week choose an act of kindness from the list below. When lockdown restrictions are lifted and things begin to get back to normal, continue developing your empathy skills and try more acts of kindness from the list.

Let us know how you get on and allow us to follow your empathetic journey. Upload pictures or comments on the Empathy Week Channel of the RHS Staff and Student Microsoft Team. If you upload any pictures to social media, be sure to use the hashtag #rhsempathychallenge #empathyweek

We can’t wait to see photos and updates of how you’re helping to bring a little light to someone else’s day and how you’re helping to make the world a brighter place to be right now.

• Compliment a stranger

• Pay it forward – buy a coffee or drink for the person behind you in a queue

• Smile genuinely in passing at 3 people in a day

• Give a homeless person some food or a beverage

• Thank a Military or Law Enforcement Officer for their service

• Ask a Police Officer their favourite part of their job, and their least favourite. It may surprise you and offer perspective of the challenges they face

• Make a charitable donation to a local organisation

• Watch a documentary on another culture to understand a lifestyle that is completely different from yours

• Did someone offend you? Rather than coming back at them aggressively, ask them to explain their position and try to understand their perspective before explaining your own

• Volunteer at a food bank, church or charity and talk to the people it serves

• Thank someone for even the smallest gesture of kindness today and let them know how it made you feel

• Help an older person, or mother of small children, carry shopping bags. Sometimes an extra hand is all we need to improve our day

• Hold the door open for someone, even if you’re in a hurry, you’ll feel better even if you’re late to your destination

• Truly listen to others. We often ask others “how’s it going?” and don’t even notice when they do not respond. Stop and listen to their response, and if they don’t answer, ask again more earnestly

• Call your grandparents just to say hello and ask about their day

• Watch the sunrise and be thankful for another day of opportunity

• Stargaze as a reminder of just how big the world really is and consider how you can contribute to it

• Pick up litter and properly dispose of it. Together we can make a more beautiful place to live

• Walk or ride your bike instead of driving or getting a lift. Enjoy the energy boost it provides and know you made the planet a little greener today

• Send a note to an old friend

• See someone who is less able, don’t stare, perhaps ask how you can assist them

• Read a blog or news article about a topic completely foreign to you. Knowledge is power

• Tell a Joke. Even bad jokes are good jokes if they make someone laugh

• Give someone directions, or show them the way

• Make your parents a snack or meal

• Enjoy a family dinner without any distractions. That mean no mobile phones, tablets or TV. Enjoy the conversation and learn about each other’s day

• Been meaning to send a thank you card recently? Take a moment today to send it

• Is there a long line at the self check-out? Let someone with fewer items go in front of you

• Challenge someone to complete the empathy challenge and tell them what you learned about yourself and others in doing it