So it’s Day 6….Today is simple, we are going to cook a meal for a loved one. There’s no better way to show kindness sometimes than to simply cook food for someone! Today I’m gonna be in studio, recording for my debut EP ‘Stars & Dragons’ that’s gonna be out over the next few months! It will be exciting, but it can also be full on and a bit tiring, so this morning I’m gonna make some sandwiches to keep everyone fuelled up.

Perhaps the biggest thing I’ve been learning during ’10 Days of Smile’ is that acts of kindness don’t necessarily take money, but time and planning. It might mean taking longer to get to work, waking up earlier in the morning or thinking a bit more about others….but it really is worth it.

I was on the tube recently and I noticed that I was squashed up next to people. in someone’s armpit, breathing in someone’s ear and I suddenly realised that I was so physically close to people, but so emotionally distant.I then thought about hugs. I love hugs. Sometimes you’re having a rough day and a hug cheers you up. It’s simple, warm and cosy. But not everyone gets hugs, and some people dont get hugs when they need them. So last saturday I went to covent garden and offered people FREE HUGS!I’m not gonna lie, a part of me was really nervous. I wondered who will take me up on the hugs. That hyper-vigilant part of me was a bit worried about who might come looking for hugs…but actually my experience was very different as you’ll see on the video below! Today let’s look to give someone a hug, and keep on spreading smiles!

So today on Day 4 of ’10 Days of Smile’ I went out ready to offer lunch to someone in need. But for some reason, maybe due to the sun, people were not sitting in their usual spots asking for help. It was a funny feeling leaving work and walking down the street looking for someone to help. It made me realise how self-centred I often am, often walking down the street stuck in my own head.

I was sitting at the bus stop in Camden Town thinking that I was not going to find anyone to help today, so I determined to sit on the bus from Camden Town to Archway and keep on the look out for anyone that might need a hand. While waiting for the 134, a woman next to me with a small child asked me for some spare change that she might have enough money to get on the bus. I said yes, gave her some money, she smiled, thanked me and then we got on the bus together. How much did the woman need? Only 20p, but it saved her having to go to the cash point to break in to a £10, and her daughter was getting restless. It was something small, and made me realise that in my efforts to find someone to buy lunch for I could have missed meeting someone’s need

I’ve learned a big lesson today…that there is need everywhere, but normally I am too stuck in my own bubble to notice or be ready to help others. I need to keep my eyes up and my heart out ready to help people who might need a hand.

It’s Day 4, and I don’t know about you but the more that I do ’10 Days Of Smile’ the more I realise how much better the world would be if we committed ourselves to loving others. Small acts like sending someone a letter or baking someone a cake can really make a difference, and I am even more aware of how important it is to do acts of kindness for others, given what I want us to do on Day 4.

Everyday I walk past someone who is asking me for money. Often sitting cross legged with a coffee cup full of loose change they sit there anonymously as the world rushes by. Often I just rush by with the world, unaware of someone who needs help, and maybe just a bit of my time. Maybe they just need people to begin to recognise them. Often when someone asks me for money I just say no – suspicious about their motives. Sometimes I offer to buy them a coffee, but sadly more often than not I walk on by. I think sometimes I can pat myself on the back when I do offer them help and can have a tendency to just give them a handout rather than connect with them as a person. I often fail to recognise – this is someone who’s having a hard time and me connecting with them and finding out their name and how their day is going is probably more imprtant than a £3 drink.

Today, I want us to change that. I want to invite us in our lunchbreaks or on our way home from work to go up to someone who we often avoid or walk past, introduce ourselves and ask them their name. Tell them that you’re buying lunch and ask whether they would like something and then go and buy it for them. It will take 10 minutes of your time and a bit of your money and hopefully it will make someone who is having a hard time, smile. I’ll let you know how I get on later today.

It’s been so great having the sunshine over the last few days, and when it’s back I realise how much I miss it. Everyone has a bit of a kick in their step, people don’t mind stopping to chat! It’s been great that ’10 Days of Smile’ has been running over this period as the sun makes you look up and care for others that little bit more. Rather than walking at lightning pace from the office to the tube station and grimacing if someone gets in your way, the sun makes you notice people that little bit more

So this afternoon I started writing my letter, since school days I’m always more used to typing on a keyboard so it was weird! I need to practice my writing more as trust me, I was not flowing across that page, I was stuttering

I just tried to write something encouraging to my loved one and tell them that I appreciate them and love them. It’s something simple, but I’ve realised that I can too often take for granted those people who are close to me, and I need to write a lot more letters and show a lot more love to people in the future! Let’s hope that this letter makes this person smile!

And so our ’10 Days of Smile’ keep on going! What do we have next???

With phones, facebook, twitter, whatsapp I’ve noticed that I have got in to bad habits communicating with others. Sometimes I choose to contact friends online or through cyberspace but I think often I’m just lazy. Recently I was thinking how powerful it is when someone writes a letter to you. I remember when I was younger and I would get a letter through the door from my bank I’d be excited…if it was from an actual person, I’d hit the roof! I think I smile when I receive letters because it is so great to know someone cares and took time to write to you, that they held you in mind for that amount of time.

There’s something about putting pen to paper that communicates care in a deep way. A letter captures the words, and can be filed away in a special place, rather than a text that gets deleted or an email that gets stored on a cold computer. So I have thought that today I would write a loved one a letter. Think of someone you could write to it could be a girlfriend, husband, old friend, father….then take half an hour and write to them…Smile

P.S You’ll really make them Smile when they realise you had to spend 60p on a 1st class stamp lol.