Doing One Nice Thing a Day Could Help Stop the Pain

How do you know if someone you love is contemplating suicide? You don't! So how can you make a difference and try to help stop the pain and try to save some lives? You can just try to make the world a better place. Every day, just try to do one nice thing for someone. I'm not talking something huge here. Are you stopping on your way to work and getting a cup of coffee somewhere? Treat the person behind you to a cup. See the person staring down at their shoes trying to look invisible? Give them a compliment. "Hey, nice shoes!" "You have a beautiful smile." Doing something nice for someone doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. It can cost a little as a few seconds of your time and offering someone a compliment.

You can't read someone else's mind. The person that is walking next to you, laughing at some joke you are telling, smiling at the world, could be contemplating ending their lives and you wouldn't even know it. Many, like Heather, think the world is an awful place to live in and just don't want to do it anymore. We can all make the world a little better just be being nicer people. They may not be able to see the good in the world. (I know, especially with all the news stories emphasizing the ugliness of the world, this can be hard at times.)

It would be great if I could wave a magic wand and stop the pain that people are feeling inside. I can't. You can kick, fight, scream and that won't make someone see that the world could be a better place. We have to show them. How to do that? Every day, make it your goal, to share a smile with someone you see. It doesn't have to be anyone that you know. Sometimes the one that will make a difference is a complete stranger or even just someone you sort of know, but not real friends.

We've all heard the story, or maybe we haven't. I don't know if the story is even true, but the lesson is. One day, there was a kid coming home from school. It seemed like they were carrying every single book for every class and struggling to not drop them. Now, some kids just walked by and many of them probably laughed at the struggling boy. One boy stopped and grabbed half of the books and helped him carry them home. He wasn't friends with him, but it didn't cost him anything to stop and made all the difference to that kid.

The story continues at their graduation ceremony. He was giving a speech and shared that one day, he decided to end his life. He couldn't think of a thing in this world that was worth living for. He packed up his entire locker and was cleaning everything up to make things easier for his parents. While he was struggling, some random kid in his class stopped and helped him carry everything. He helped him share the load. That one act of random kindness made him change his mind and gave helped him see that maybe the world wasn't as cold as he thought. That one act of random kindness helped to stop his pain and give him hope.

Today, and every day, help stop the pain in someone else's life. Who knows? Maybe your compliment, your smile, or something else that you do, will help ease someone else's pain and maybe, you could be saving their life.