Rosie Nixon - Be Kind

What a timely and lovely book this is

Russell Brand

A hug in book form

Emma Bunton

Share the gift of kindness

Holly Willoughby

Lets make kindness a part of everything we do

June Sarpong

Kindness is free! So give it out! Give it to everyone

Leigh Francis

Kindness can be the most precious gift

Melanie B

The kindness you give always comes back to you

Ronnie Wood

Dont delay, be kind today

Chris Evans

ROSIE NIXON lives in London and is Editor-in-Chief of HELLO! magazine, where she has worked for over a decade. She is the author of three novels and Be Kind is her first non-fiction title. Rosie is a mother of two children and has worked in the womens magazine industry for over 20 years.

When shes not keeping on top of the latest royal and showbiz news, or dreaming up her latest creative writing project, Rosie is passionate about issues concerning women and children and their right to equality and is a proud ambassador of the charity SafeHands. She is a passionate believer in the power of kindness and loves talking about the subject.

JAKKI JONES has worked with talent in the entertainment business for over 17 years. Outside of the day job she is a keen doodler and writer. When shes not penning her memoirs on motherhood, Jakki also likes to take part in live events and panels and is uber passionate about instilling kindness everywhere she goes.

HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

Text Copyright Rosie Nixon 2021

Illustrations Copyright Jakki Jones 2021

Rosie Nixon asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978-0-00-847132-3

eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-847133-0

Page design: Steve Wells

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

• Change of font size and line height
• Change of background and font colours
• Change of font
• Change justification
• Text to speech
• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008471323

This book is dedicated to our children.

Heres what they had to say about kindness:

Kindness is being friendly and helpful.

Once youve done something kind it makes

you feel happy too, not just the person

youve been kind to.

Heath, age 7

Kindness is good manners.

Rex, age 6

Kindness is being gentle and really nice to

other people.

Riley, age 5

*Giggles*

Marley, age 1

/kn(d)ns/

noun

1. the quality of being gentle, caring and helpful.

Collins English Dictionary

Welcome to Be Kind. A small book with a big heart and an important message. Kindness can change the world. Yes, really! And it starts, today, with you.

Kindness costs nothing; it isnt about grand gestures and it doesnt care who you are or where you are from. Kindness is within us all but sometimes we need a gentle reminder, or a helping hand, to bring the power of kindness into our daily lives.

The smallest acts of kindness can be the most rewarding: a smile, a supportive message, making time to listen. Kindness builds self-confidence, it strengthens relationships, it has health benefits and it will always make your world a better place. You have a choice about how you will act in any given situation and, I promise you, choosing the kind option will always be rewarding.

I started to think about kindness in depth during the course of my role as Editor-in-Chief of HELLO! magazine. At HELLO! we strongly believe in treating people with kindness and respect, whoever they are from the famous personalities who grace our pages, to our readers, contributors and vast online audience but when we launched our #hellotokindness campaign, I saw first-hand just how powerful collective kindness can be. We spearheaded this movement initially because we wanted to create a kinder, more supportive community on our social media channels; we wanted to make a stand to say that unkind or abusive commentary had no place in our world and to encourage users to think twice before posting. The reaction to this was huge; it resonated strongly with our audience and large numbers joined our cause. Our platforms have become a kinder place as a result and a kind ethos continues to underpin everything we do.

Being guided by kindness has made my job more rewarding than I could possibly have imagined. It has enhanced my life in a way that no pay-check or promotion could do.

It has literally brought some magic into my world and led me to connect with some incredible people. Similarly, our brand is flourishing as a result of our kind approach.

Kindness begins with learning to be compassionate towards yourself and this is often the hardest task of all. I have suffered from anxiety and low self-esteem in the past. I am not alone in this. But when I realised a few years ago that the pressure I felt was not coming from external sources, but actually from within myself, I was able to begin a process of growth. For me, that meant stopping comparing myself to others and seeking perfection (whatever perfect means anyway) and I started to be kinder to myself; to lower my expectations and believe I was enough. I began to focus my energy on appreciating the things I did have in my life and the things I achieved daily no matter how small. I even said them out loud or wrote them down. I learned the power of kindly saying no to things I didnt want to do and this was one of the hardest challenges for me. I didnt go over my mistakes, I looked forward. I took things bit by bit, hour by hour, day by day. My life improved infinitely. I still return to this mantra when things feel overwhelming.

Having been on this journey, it was important to me that lots of practical ideas about how to bring self-compassion into your life are shared in this book. And they really work. I hope they help you too.

Jakki and I are so grateful to our friends, the experts, coaches, inspirational personalities and leaders in their fields who have shared words of kindness and offered tips that have enhanced their lives and improved the lives of others through the simple act of being kind. They have shown enormous kindness in doing this for us all.

This book is a true labour of love, and we hope it brings some magic into your life.