Happy Valentines Day My Friend

Regardless of your relationship status, here is one thing you can do to feel the love on Valentines Day (and beyond)

When I was 17 I participated in a leadership and self-development group called PSI Seminars. Their techniques are similar to the Landmark Forum, you start with the entry-level seminar and work your way to the more immersive experiences. They teach fundamentals of purposeful living, like being impeccable with your word, and creating win-win scenarios. One of the practices I learned from them is called RAKS, otherwise known as Random Acts of Kindness.

When you think of random acts of kindness, maybe you think of paying for the person behind you in the Starbucks line or helping an old lady with her groceries. If these types of opportunities present themselves, you should absolutely take them as a way of practicing a random act of kindness. But RAKS was different. A fixed amount of time would be decided upon and participants had exactly that amount of time to commit as many RAKS as possible. At the end of the time, they would submit the number of RAKS achieved and the group would tally them all together. In a community of 20-30 people, the amount of kindness shared in that small interval of time would always feel astounding. This was partly because the time limit and the goal of doing as many acts as possible, made you stretch the idea of what you thought a random act of kindness could and should look like. By the end, you realized that almost everything you did could be a RAK, if do it with the right intention. It was like a game, and games are fun. What’s more, the knowledge that other people were striving to get out of themselves, in the same way at the same time, was uplifting in itself.

RAKs utterly take you out of yourself. For just that brief portion of your personal history, you are immersed in the challenge of doing good by others. Watch how magnetic and radiant you become when working for the benefit of others, even if only energetically, watch the amount of love you can cultivate in a short period of time. That compassion, that love, that belonging, it is contagious, because that’s what life wants for us. Life wants us to grow the amount of love we can give. How much love can you give in one hour, how much can you give in 24 hours? Consider that a challenge. On your mark. Get set. Go.