Today More than Ever, The World’s Looking for a Little Kindness

COS COB, Conn. – When Donna Schulte saw a thin homeless lady outside a restaurant, she followed her impulse and invited the woman to have lunch with her. Although the waitress inside didn’t want to serve the young woman, Donna insisted. And then she learned that this woman who the world was ignoring was a veteran who was fighting cancer and couldn’t get a job due to her treatment regimen.

Following the impulse to be kind is a central theme in a new Chicken Soup for the Soul collection about how kindness matters. Everyone’s talking about kindness, too, because the world has been through a lot in the past couple of years, what with the pandemic, divisiveness in our society, and conflicts around the world. A renewed focus on what is good about humanity seems to be called for. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Kindness Matters (March 22, 2022, 978-1-611590883, $14.95) hits the spot, with 101 feel-good stories that restore our faith in people.

The book delivers plenty of good news and good behavior, with tales of a wide variety of good deeds, acts of compassion, and heroic people. The key messages resound again and again, namely that: 1) people are willing to help if you ask, and even if you don’t; 2) there’s a deep reservoir of understanding and compassion out there just waiting to be tapped; 3) the beneficiaries of good deeds have long memories and are looking for their own opportunities to reciprocate or pay it forward to the next deserving person; and 4) even a few well-timed kind words can turn a life around.

The message is that it’s easy to create miracles for yourself and others. If people just think outside the box and look around, they’ll see the need. The 101 stories cover a wide variety of tales of good deeds, helping hands, and wise words, from the everyday to the extraordinary.

According to Chicken Soup for the Soul’s author and editor-in-chief Amy Newmark, “Scientific studies have shown that ‘doing good’ is not only beneficial for the recipient of the good deed, but also for the person doing it, making that person happier and healthier. Performing random acts of kindness is a proven way to make yourself feel good.”

“Each story in our new book is unique,” continues Newmark, “but we learn this universal lesson from all of them: We are all capable of both needing help and providing help. And it is this give and take, the ability to be a provider and a recipient depending on our circumstances, that make us part of a united community of people who really do care about one another. No matter what divides us, our basic humanity reunites us.”

ABOUT CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL

Chicken Soup for the Soul publishes the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. With well over 100 million books sold to date in the U.S. and Canada, more than 300 titles, and translations into more than 40 languages, the phrase “chicken soup for the soul” is known worldwide and is regularly referenced in pop culture. Today, 28 years after it first began sharing happiness, inspiration and hope through its books, this socially conscious company continues to publish a new title a month. It has also evolved beyond the bookstore, with a podcast, education programs, dog and cat food, licensed products, and video, television and movies through its subsidiary, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.

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For a review copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Kindness Matters or an interview with Amy Newmark or one of the contributors: