“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” ~Bob Kerrey (1943)
Scientists who study happiness say that every time you do an act of good, you get a drop of serotonin. That’s the feel-good happy drug. The person you did good for feels the same high as well, and so does anyone who witnesses the act of good.
Encouraging kind attitudes and behaviors that we want to implement in our lives, Anonymous Good seeks to make the world a better place in measurable ways by promoting exactly that…anonymous good.
AnonymousGood.org is a virtual community, a responsive website and a place for people to be inspired by sharing stories, photos and videos about the good things they have done for others, the good others have done for them or the good they have witnessed others doing. Those acts of good are then sponsored so that a small, local act of good can turn into a global act of compassion. "Sponsor dollars feed people, free people from slavery, and dig wells for clean water and plant trees for clean air.”
According to Psychology Today, “…witnessing altruistic acts can be a source of what Abraham Maslow called ‘peak experiences’ - those moments of awe, wonder and a sense of ‘rightness’ which make us feel immensely grateful to be alive.”
Jonathan Haidt is one of the few psychologists to discuss this type of peak experience. He calls it ‘elation’ and describes it as a “warm feeling in the chest, a sensation of expansion in [the] heart, an increased desire to help, and increased sense of connection with others.” It is, in his words, “a manifestation of humanity’s ‘higher’ or ‘better’ nature.”
This is precisely what I experienced when I read the acts of kindness on AnonymousGood.org. It is an emotionally elevating experience to read, see or hear about someone being truly altruistic. Observing kindness renews a fundamental belief that we are intrinsically good and really want to be “our brother’s keeper”.
Regardless if one is the giver or receiver, moments of kindness allow space for compassion, generosity and good will to seep through all consuming daily concerns.
Anonymous Good works when users submit a post that identifies an act of goodness. You can use your own name or remain anonymous. You can also post an act of good that you have seen or that someone did for you. If the other person wants to remain anonymous their name is not included in the post.
Users can also create their own challenge and identify “Allies for Good”.
Here is an example of a Challenge that can be initiated:
- It is your friend Sam’s birthday and Sam has everything.
- You create a Challenge tagged #Good4_SamsBirthday and get all of Sam’s other friends to do something good in Sam’s name – like “100 acts of Good for Sam.” It can be anything.
- Sam’s friends feel good, they might save some money, they do something kind that Sam can read and everyone knows that other big things are happening (trees, water…) just because you all did something to celebrate Sam.
Challenge topics are categorized as follows:
- Happy Birthday
- Helping Others
- In Memory Of
- Just Because
For more information, log onto AnonymousGood.org.