World Kindness Day is this Thursday, November 13, 2025, creating a perfect opportunity for College students and staff to spread kindness and build stronger connections. Simple, caring gestures cultivate positive energy that ripples out to others and supports mental health for everyone.

Small Gestures

When we choose kindness toward peers, instructors, and colleagues, we encourage a campus culture where everyone feels valued. These actions strengthen our social bonds and lead to stress reduction.

The Mayo Clinic explains that kind actions increase serotonin and dopamine, chemicals that boost mood and improve well-being. By practicing kindness every day, students and staff contribute to a healthier mood and life.

Kindness to All

Campus Well-Being encourages you to focus on four key areas: Kindness to Animals, Others, the Planet and Ourselves.

Respect Animals

Taking care of animals in our homes, backyards and beyond encourages a sense of responsibility and compassion to other living beings. Some activities to support animals include:

• Training pets using positive reinforcement
• Planting native flowers and shrubs for local wildlife
• Setting up a bird bath or feeder, creating a bug hotel or hanging a bat house
• Spending quality time playing and bonding
  • Keep an eye on Campus Well-Being’s Member Portal for the next Therapy Dog visit and Cat Café.
• Collecting supplies for local animal shelters.
• Reducing plastic usage and using cruelty-free products
• Choosing meatless meals sometimes

Reach Out to Others

Moving through our lives we encounter people all the time – in our college hallways, on the bus, in grocery store lines and in our neighbourhoods. Sharing a kind word, a smile or a helping hand might positively transform someone’s day.

• Offering to carry heavy bags or letting someone go ahead in line
• Collecting food for the Students’ Association Food Bank
• Sharing uplifting stories and messages or leaving kind notes
• Listening closely with no judgement or interruptions
• Including others in group activities and projects
• Donating
• Starting a conversation with someone sitting alone

Support The Planet

The earth we live on needs our help and attention too! Take actions that are kind to our home.

• Using a reusable water bottle and coffee cup
• Making digital notes or printing double-sided
• Taking public transit or carpooling, biking, walking or skateboarding
  • Visit the North Gym at NDC to take one of Campus Well-Being’s bikes out for ride
• Buying ethical, eco-conscious brands and supporting local food and farmers’ markets
• Joining a sustainability club or workshop
  • Visit the College’s Sustainability blog for initiatives happening on campus

Take Care of Yourself Too!

Always remember to treat yourself with respect.  Taking time to pay attention to your inner messages be they mental, emotional or physical leads to a well-rounded life.  

• Going for a walk or working out in the gym
  • Visit Campus Well-Being’s Member Portal for all fitness, sport and intramural programs, creative workshops and mental health initiatives
• Giving yourself permission to feel your feelings, rest or pause when overwhelmed
• Eating nourishing foods, getting enough sleep, fresh air and water
• Unplugging from social media
• Speaking and thinking kindly about yourself
• Celebrating yourself and spending time with people who uplift you
• Investing in hobbies that light you up
• Creating something just for fun

May we all spread and seek out kindness starting with our inner selves then rippling outward to encompass the people we meet, the animals we encounter and the planet we live on.