Author: Lisa Nakao

Aloha, Conflict Resolution Alliance’s Annual Meeting was held last week on 11/19/21 via zoom. Congratulations to the newly elected officers and board of directors for year 2022! We hope to have opportunities to see our old and new friends in person in the upcoming year 2022. We also wanted to thank you for everyone participating in CRA’s Kindness Challenge 2021. A little bit of kindness everyday does wonders for your health and your mind. We hope that this has inspired you to inject kindness into every day for the next year! The Kindness Challenge is wonderfully reflected in this Okinawan: “Shinjichi nu ada nayumi” A kindness is never ill spent no matter how small. We are thankful for your kindness in supporting our organization through the pandemic and beyond so that we can help build more bridges in the divided society we live in. We hope your holidays are peaceful surrounded by your family and friends.

Kindness ideas by Katie Ranney While social distancing due to the pandemic has decreased casual, social touch, an increase in the number of vaccinations, decrease in COVID cases, and easing of restrictions could bring back hugs to our social interactions. Being prudent when choosing who to hug, such as people within your “bubble”, can also help you enact this kindness while staying safe.  According to the University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine, hugs have numerous benefits for hugger and huggee. Social touch, such as hugging, activates the c-tactile afferents, nerves that process the emotional meaning of touch. These nerves signal the rewarding aspects of social touch and trigger a wave of different hormonal reactions, which can benefit social bonding, slow heart rate, and reduce stress and anxiety. By hugging someone, you can provide them with the other benefits as well: improve their sleep, build their resilience to stress, strengthen their well-being through relationships, and assist their immune response in fighting off infections.(https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_hugs_are_good_for_your_health)

Kindness ideas by Katie Ranney Have you ever felt a thrill of joy when you find the perfect parking space right next to where you need to go? Give that feeling to a stranger by parking further away than you might usually. Leave a good spot for someone else. You might not see their happy face, but spreading joy like this can have an exponential effect. In a better mood, that person acts kindly to others. The kindness spreads further than you might have thought.

Kindness ideas by Katie Ranney Clean up a mess that you didn’t make. Often the same people are silently expected to pick up, especially in an office. This housework is often unevenly distributed and can affect the morale and attitudes of those who are always finding themselves picking up stray papers or wiping down the counters. If you notice that one or two people are always cleaning up at the end of meetings, take the initiative to do it before them. Not only are acts like this acts of kindness, but they also lead to a more equitable workplace (https://code.likeagirl.io/5-ways-allies-can-disrupt-office-housework-59b64ecdc782). 

Kindness ideas by Katie Ranney Be an upstander. Speak up for someone who doesn’t have a voice https://upstander.stanford.edu/ https://www.facinghistory.org/upstander