National Intentional Kindness Day Was About Human Connection, Not Just a Holiday
- 15 hours ago
- 9 min read
Written by Mona Liza Santos, Award-Winning Children’s Author Mona Liza Santos is an award-winning children’s author and founder of World Love Press. She has written more than 40 books focused on emotional literacy, kindness, confidence, and cultural identity, inspiring families, educators, and young readers worldwide through heartfelt storytelling and meaningful life lessons.
National Intentional Kindness Day, observed annually on August 24, was never created simply to add another holiday to the calendar. It came from watching how emotionally disconnected, overwhelmed, lonely, and exhausted people were becoming while still pretending they were okay.
As the founder of World Love Press and the author of more than 40 children’s books focused on kindness, emotional literacy, empathy, belonging, and self-acceptance, I kept noticing the same emotional truth in both children and adults: people want to feel understood, valued, included, and less alone. That realization became the heart behind National Intentional Kindness Day.
The world started feeling emotionally disconnected
Over the years, I started noticing how emotionally drained people were becoming. Children were growing up carrying worries, pressure, loneliness, insecurities, and emotional stress much earlier than many adults realized. At the same time, adults were trying to balance work, family responsibilities, financial pressure, grief, burnout, and personal struggles while still showing up every day pretending everything was fine.
What stayed with me most was realizing that the same emotions I was writing about in children’s books were the exact same emotions I saw adults struggling with too.
People were constantly connected online, yet many still felt emotionally disconnected from one another in real life. Everyone seemed overwhelmed, distracted, emotionally exhausted, or simply trying to survive the day. Even in crowded rooms, many people still felt deeply alone inside.
As a writer, mother, and empath, I could not stop thinking about how deeply people want to feel safe, understood, valued, and cared for. That became one of the reasons this movement mattered so much to me.
There are already many kindness observances in the world, including Random Acts of Kindness Day, World Kindness Day, and Be Kind to Humankind Week, all created with beautiful intentions. But I kept feeling like there was still something missing. I did not want kindness to become something people practiced only because the calendar told them to for one day. I wanted to encourage people to practice kindness more intentionally in everyday life through their words, reactions, patience, empathy, and the way they treat others, especially during moments when kindness is needed the most.
Why intentional kindness feels different
Intentional kindness has always meant something deeper to me than simply being “nice.”
Why is this one simply different? Intentional kindness asks people to become more emotionally aware of one another in everyday life. It asks us to slow down long enough to truly notice people instead of emotionally rushing past them.
Intentional kindness is checking on someone who suddenly becomes quieter than usual. It is noticing when a child is smiling on the outside but struggling internally. It is listening without immediately trying to fix everything. It is choosing patience over judgment when someone is clearly having a hard day. Sometimes it is simply making someone feel emotionally safe instead of invisible.
The truth is, a lot of people are carrying battles nobody else can see. Sometimes what looks like anger is really exhaustion. Sometimes what looks like distance is emotional pain. And sometimes the people smiling the most are hurting the deepest inside.
As an author, I also started thinking more deeply about why this movement mattered to me so much. Through writing stories centered around kindness, empathy, belonging, and emotional literacy, I kept seeing how deeply people are affected by the environments they grow up in and the way they are treated by others.
I wanted it to become something people practiced daily through their choices, words, reactions, and the way they treat others.
I truly believe that if intentional kindness and emotional awareness were normalized more in schools, homes, communities, workplaces, and even systems where people are struggling emotionally or mentally, more people would grow up believing kindness still exists in the world.
So many people come from environments filled with criticism, emotional distance, neglect, anger, or survival. Sometimes one moment of compassion, patience, or understanding becomes the thing that reminds someone they still matter.
That is part of why this movement became so important to me.
What my books taught me about people
A lot of the books I write are for the child who feels different, too sensitive, emotionally overwhelmed, left out, or alone in what they are feeling. While writing those stories, I started realizing something that stayed heavy on my heart: many adults are still carrying those same wounds too, just hidden behind older faces, responsibilities, and years of learning how to hide what they feel.
Some people grow up in environments where kindness, patience, emotional safety, or understanding were not shown to them consistently. Over time, they stop expecting gentleness from others because life has slowly conditioned them to expect criticism, judgment, rejection, anger, or emotional distance instead. That realization changed the way I viewed kindness completely.
Kindness is not weakness. Empathy is not weakness. Sensitivity is not weakness. In many ways, those are the very things helping people emotionally survive in today’s world.
It also made me realize how much a person’s environment shapes the way they eventually see themselves and treat others. So many people carry behaviors, fears, emotional walls, and pain that were formed long before adulthood. A child who constantly feels unseen, criticized, neglected, or emotionally unsafe often grows into an adult still trying to heal from those experiences.
That is why intentional kindness matters so much to me. I truly believe it starts early, from the way children are spoken to, supported, listened to, and emotionally cared for while growing up in an ever-changing world. It begins inside homes, classrooms, schools, communities, public spaces, and everyday interactions.
Even though there will always be pain, cruelty, and difficult people in the world, I still believe intentional kindness has the power to change lives in ways we sometimes underestimate. Sometimes one moment of patience, compassion, encouragement, or understanding becomes the very thing that reminds someone they still matter.
I wanted kindness to become something people could practice
One of the most important things to me when creating National Intentional Kindness Day was making sure it became something people could truly carry into everyday life instead of something people talked about once and forgot about the next day.
I kept thinking about how much the world already influences people emotionally every single day through the things they constantly see around them. Advertisements, social media, news, conversations, negativity, pressure, stress, and noise are everywhere. So I started imagining what could happen if reminders about intentional kindness existed just as visibly in everyday life too.
What if people saw reminders about empathy, patience, compassion, and kindness in parks, schools, grocery stores, workplaces, libraries, streets, freeways, public spaces, and communities while simply going about their day?
Sometimes people are carrying heavy things silently while walking through ordinary moments. Sometimes one simple reminder that kindness still exists can affect someone more deeply than we realize.
Observed every year on August 24, National Intentional Kindness Day was created to encourage empathy, emotional awareness, compassion, and meaningful human connection in practical and everyday ways. I wanted intentional kindness to become something people actively practiced in schools, homes, workplaces, friendships, libraries, neighborhoods, and communities, not just something spoken about once a year.
That is one of the reasons I created intentional kindness toolkits and activity guides for children, families, educators, workplaces, homeschools, and communities. The resources encourage meaningful actions like listening more carefully, responding with patience, making others feel included, speaking more thoughtfully, and becoming more aware of how words and behavior affect people emotionally.
My hope is that these tools help people bring intentional kindness into everyday life in real and practical ways instead of kindness being treated as something temporary or only discussed once a year. I have included a general National Intentional Kindness Day toolkit on my website, along with additional free downloadable toolkits and activity guides for every age group, from transitional kindergarten all the way through high school, as well as guides for families, educators, workplaces, and communities.
Everything was intentionally created to be accessible and free for anyone who wants to use, share, teach, or pass the resources along to help spread awareness and encourage a more intentionally kinder world.
Readers can download the general National Intentional Kindness Day toolkit here. Additional grade-level and community toolkits can be found here.
How to practice intentional kindness in everyday life
A lot of people want to make a difference but do not always know where to begin. The truth is, intentional kindness does not have to start with something big. Most of the time, it begins in ordinary moments people often overlook.
It can look like putting your phone down when someone is talking to you. It can look like checking on a friend who suddenly became distant. It can look like listening without interrupting, choosing patience during stressful moments, or noticing the child sitting alone and making them feel included.
Intentional kindness can also be practiced in classrooms, workplaces, homes, and communities by creating emotionally safe spaces where people feel respected instead of judged. Sometimes the most meaningful thing a person can do is make someone feel heard, valued, and less alone.
Small actions may seem insignificant in the moment, but they often stay with people much longer than we realize.
Because sometimes kindness is not about grand gestures at all. Sometimes it is simply about helping someone feel seen, valued, safe, understood, or less alone during a difficult moment in their life.
National Intentional Kindness Day also serves as a starting point leading into Be Kind Human Week from August 25 through August 31. While I was not the creator of Be Kind Human Week itself, I loved the idea of creating a day that encourages people to begin practicing intentional kindness before that week even begins and hopefully continue carrying it forward long after it ends.
More than anything, my hope is that intentional kindness becomes something people normalize in everyday life and future generations grow up seeing more often. Even though the world will always have pain, cruelty, and difficult situations, I still believe intentional kindness has the power to soften hearts, change environments, and remind people that goodness still exists in the world.
The small things people never forget
Sometimes people do not remember the exact words someone said years ago, but they remember how someone made them feel during one of the hardest moments of their life.
A teacher encouraging a struggling child. A parent responding with understanding instead of shame. A friend checking in at the right time. Someone making another person feel included instead of invisible.
Those moments stay with people far longer than we realize.
That is why National Intentional Kindness Day was never meant to be about one “nice day” out of the year. My hope is that it becomes a reminder for people to move through life more intentionally with one another every day, especially in a world where so many people are carrying more than they let others see.
What I hope National Intentional Kindness Day becomes
My vision for National Intentional Kindness Day has never been about perfection. It has always been about awareness, connection, and humanity.
I hope it encourages people to slow down more, listen more carefully, speak more gently, and notice the people around them instead of emotionally rushing past them.
I hope it reminds adults that children are absorbing far more emotionally than many people realize. I hope it encourages schools, workplaces, families, and communities to create emotionally safe and compassionate environments where people feel respected, included, valued, and heard.
Most of all, I hope people continue spreading intentional kindness not only on August 24, but in the everyday moments that shape how people feel about themselves and the world around them.
Whether it is through classrooms, workplaces, homes, libraries, friendships, or communities, I hope people use these conversations, resources, and toolkits as a starting point to help create a kinder and more emotionally connected world.
Even small acts of compassion can create ripple effects far bigger than we realize. Sometimes one moment of patience, understanding, or empathy becomes the thing someone remembers during one of the hardest seasons of their life.
I truly believe the world becomes softer, safer, and more connected when people choose kindness with intention instead of waiting for someone else to go first.
Readers can learn more about National Intentional Kindness Day, download intentional kindness toolkits, and explore additional resources through Mona Liza Santos’ official website. Her children’s books focused on kindness, empathy, emotional safety, belonging, and self-acceptance can also be found through her Amazon Author Page.
Read more from Mona Liza Santos
Mona Liza Santos, Award-Winning Children’s Author
Mona Liza Santos is an award-winning children's author, publisher, and founder of World Love Press. She is the author of more than 40 children's books focused on emotional literacy, kindness, confidence, resilience, and cultural identity. Her work has been recognized by the Mom's Choice Awards for its positive impact on children and families. Inspired by motherhood, global travel, and her Filipino heritage, Mona creates stories that encourage children to embrace who they are and recognize their worth. Mona is also the founder of National Intentional Kindness Day and Heritage and Heart Day, created to promote empathy, inclusion, cultural pride, and meaningful human connection within schools and communities.
