Random acts of kindness

Sometimes ago, I attended a talk by Dr. John Izzo. He was talking about how to live a more fulfilling life. I remember the last slide in his presentation listed some practical suggestions. One of them was to practice a random act of kindness at least once a day for couple of months. He was saying that helping random people even if in something small can make you a happier person. I didn't quite understand that claim since I figured we all would help people if we could (specially for something very small) and since I am practicing more selfishness in my life these days, I didn't really consider doing that.

Several months later, I was in the gym doing cycling with a class. Everyone is encouraged to wipe their bike after they are done to have a better hygiene around the gym. The wiping tissue stations are all around the gym makes it convenient for even the laziest person to get as many tissues as they need. The class ended; I was still stretching when a young woman got close to me and tried to hand me a tissue to wipe my bike. I was very touched by her kindness. I put my hand forward to take the tissue as I was smiling. I was about to say thank you that she realized I was not her friend. It turned out that they were several of them and she brought a wiping tissue for each of them. As soon as she realized that I was not one of them, she turned around and gave the tissue to the person (her friend) next to me. I was standing there with my hand stretched out and kind of frozen by her reaction. I thought if it was me, I would have gave the tissue anyway and would have got another one. Then I realized why Dr. Izzo was talking about random acts of kindness; because it does not come natural to everyone.