Navigating with Kindness series – Brownie Alyssa, a “ninja of kindness”, explores what the true value of kindness means to her

We were delighted to hear from Alyssa, a Brownie from Croydon, who has just completed our Kindness Challenge Badge from home. She wanted to tell us all about her experiences of completing the challenge, and how it has made her consider and understand the true value of kindness.

My name is Alyssa and I am a Brownie in Croydon. I have been working on the kindness challenge badge and these are my reflections for section 4 of the challenge.

I started by writing a letter to my dad to say thank you for all the things he does for me. Being kind to him made me feel warm inside and it made him feel pleased and happy that I had said thank you for everything he does for me.

As part of the ‘Believe in Rainbows’ movement, I made a rainbow on the computer which I then put up in the window for others to see. I also made rainbow bunting which says ‘THANK YOU NHS’ which I have also put in the window. It made me feel happy and excited to be a part of something. I like it when people on their walk point out the rainbow and when we clapped for the NHS/Key workers some people pointed out the bunting in the window.

Finally, I chose Mother Teresa’s quote which was ‘Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.’ And wrote it up and decorated it. I decided to stick it in my bedroom window so I can see it but so can other people. I like this quote because it shows that although kind words don’t seem to last long, the feelings and memories they create for people can last forever. My mum chose William Arthur Ward’s quote because she said that a smile means even people who otherwise couldn’t understand each other can see that they are being kind to each other and this creates a response which they might pass on by smiling at someone else.

My favourite task was decorating the quote and discussing it, because I liked reading all the quotes which made me think about what kindness means to different people and how it can impact all of us, which is important when we are social distancing. Being kind can be shown in many ways especially at the moment – from a phone call, to shopping for someone else, to putting up encouraging signs in the window and clapping for our key workers. I found it hard to choose my favourite quote because they are all true and they look at kindness in slightly different ways.

I think I have changed and I think about how I can be kind to people all the time, especially people I am living with but also people who might be on their own at this time or who walk past the window and need cheering up. I have learnt that kindness comes in different forms and it isn’t hard to do.

My Kindness Pledge is… to think about others and how they will feel and always try to show kindness and to be a ninja of kindness by spreading kindness in any way possible.

I enjoyed completing these tasks and am going to try out some of the other tasks (I have already started writing up and decorating some of the other quotes I like).

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to think about being kind especially at this time.

Alyssa

We love the idea of being a “ninja of kindness”. Thanks for sharing your story and pictures with us Alyssa, we hope it inspires others to think about the value of being kind.

For any Brownies, Rainbows or Guides who might be interested in our Kindness Challenge, you can read all about the challenge here.