Kindness Blog’s Journey So Far…

Friends,

This humble little blog has run for nearly 2½ years now and, as Kindness Blog’s creator, I thought it was time that I shared some of my reflections on our journey so far as a Kindness based website.

When I started Kindness Blog, I had no idea how it would evolve, from just myself posting occasional articles about compassionate news stories, to something that’s a bit different today.

The reason I created the site was simply because I wanted to do something, anything, to help others. Most of the 24-hours in my typical day were spent doing things for me, in one way, shape or form. I didn’t like that. At all. As I was (and still am) working full-time in IT and sales, as well as raising three children with my lovely wife, it seemed to me that I had little time to do as much as I wanted for others.

During my time traveling to and from the office I would often listen to the radio and, in particular, I began to really pay attention to the ‘news’.

I noticed how the ‘mainstream media’ tends to be relentlessly focussed on the negative things that happen in our world.

Their broadcasts were regularly about violence, corruption, political scandal, sexual abuse, war, epidemics of disease and various other sufferings of one kind or another. Many of the themes covered would obviously increase anxiety in the listeners/watchers/readers whilst decreasing their hope for the future and present moment joy. Wonderful eh, especially when we are all bombarded by ‘the news’ on such a regular basis and through so many mediums.

So, I started the blog hoping to offer just a tiny bit of balance to the gigantic tidal wave of negativity broadcast out there in the mainstream, maybe spread some hope and encourage any readers, that stumbled across the blog, to practice kindness in their own lives.

Very quickly I saw just how much people appreciate positive media and how they would openly share and discuss the types of stories where humans do good things, and not bad.

Alternative sources of information, offering other perspectives, which show the more positive side of human nature, are generally speaking, welcomed with open arms by the majority of people. It’s been great to witness this.

Consider, thanks to our amazing readers, authors and the previous members of ‘Team Kindness Blog’ in our short journey thus far, this website has already;

• Published over 2,200 articles/posts
• Received 4½-million page hits
• Had our articles shared on social media such as Facebook and Twitter close to 200,000 times.
• Welcomed over one hundred different authors who regularly share their writing with Kindness Blog’s readers. Some of which are even New York Times Bestsellers. I’m personally so grateful to every one of them that I honestly don’t know how best to express it. Just…thank you all so much.
• Been accepted to publish on Huffington Post and other popular websites such as DailyGood

So rather than spreading negativity and fear we try to offer articles filled with heartwarming experiences, the wonder of animals, the trials and tribulations of parenting, mindfulness, the power of sacrifice, random acts of kindness, marriage, honesty, forgiveness, friendship and so much more—>

A few times, when life away from the blog has been hectic or difficult and my blogging motivation has dropped, I’ve laid in bed and wondered if the blog is actually doing any real good? Then I’d receive an e-mail thanking the team for how they have been inspired by examples of kindness on the site and my motivation would grow again.

Or I remember how certain articles have helped to raise money for worthy causes. As an example, in one post about a father’s dying wish, 70,000 readers from Kindness Blog clicked the link to his justgiving page to help fund medical treatment to save his daughter. In his first fund raise Tom Attwater reached the £500,000 target! Amazing, don’t you think?

I like to think that, thanks to you guys and gals, we really have helped genuine people in need and, if that’s true, then I’ve fulfilled my original wish in creating this site. To have helped people.

Going forward, through 2015 to the end of 2016, Kindness Blog will be donating 75% of the revenue we receive, from advertisements on the site, to two different organisations doing cancer research.

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Everyone has been affected by this terrible disease, in one way or another, and seeking the cures for different cancers is obviously so very important.

At the end of 2016 we plan to ask our readers to vote for another worthwhile cause and we will then begin donating to the charity/cause with the most votes. I hope that’s an okay way to continue?

In this regard, please do keep sharing the articles on social media etc and recommending your friends to Kindness Blog. The more times our articles are read, the more funds we can give. It’s as simple as that.

The remaining revenue (25%) will be used for website development, a little marketing and maybe, just maybe, some nice coffee and cakes for the authors 🙂

If you would like to help in some way, write for the blog, suggest fundraising methods, connect us with other similar websites then please do make contact. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading this today. For caring. For sharing. For donating to good causes. For actually doing all the untold kindnesses you do out there in the world. It means so much.

Kindness really can and does change everything.

Peace and love, Mike x

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