There’s a virus going around. It’s said to be contagious, but it’s not like other viruses. For one thing, its symptoms include no ill effects . . .

Quite the opposite, in fact, for this is a virus that, according to experts in the field, has the power to make those in its thrall live ‘a happier, healthier, wealthier, longer and more fulfilling life’. It’s known as the Good Virus. It’s also called kindness.

This – Good Virus: Kindness is Contagious – is a movie that is in the final editing phase, a film that seeks to explore and prove a notion that, here at OM®, we’ve been talking about for quite some time. That notion? That a little kindness can make a big difference and that being nicer to those around us can touch lives the Earth over. Here at OM®, we’ve just had a sneak preview and it’s a thrill to report that Good Virus is right up our street.

The movie’s narrator is Catherine Ryan Hyde, whose bestselling novel Pay it Forward led first to a film and then gave its name to a movement that is doing great deeds all over the planet. ‘A genuine act of kindness,’ she says, ‘makes me feel like I really am where you cut underneath anything external, and you become what a human being can really be. It’s like coming home when you give kindness. Kindness changes us, as human beings’.

It’s a sentiment that is shared, here at OM® and far beyond, and one that fascinates David Gaz, the filmmaker behind the Good Virus project. ‘A few weeks after I had the idea to make a documentary on the subject of kindness,’ he explains, ‘I was at a gas station and a homeless man asked me for money. Instead, I offered to buy him something to eat at the Mini-Mart next door. His eyes lit up. I told the woman behind the counter to give him anything he wanted. He ordered the cheapest item on the menu, but I upgraded him. Would you like to get the foot-long with roast beef and cheese? How about a milkshake, chips and a dessert? We left the store with a couple of bags of food, and a guy in a pick-up drove by, leaned out his window and said, ‘You sir, are a good man!’. And I thought, the man who said that will do the same thing someday. That’s when the idea of contagious kindness hit home for me, and it just snowballed from there’.

That such a concept has connection at its core is unquestionable and, having enjoyed the Good Virus trailer, we’d like to share it here . . .

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDK3kIl9YD0&w=560&h=315]

The idea that kindness is contagious is one that appeals to us a great deal and one that, upon reflection, we’re delighted to endorse. Think about the last time that someone did something nice for you. How did it make you feel? Did it make you feel like paying it forward? Did that kindness get passed down the line? Did it start a chain reaction?

You might not know the answer, but it’s a fair assumption that the good deed didn’t end there. Because no-one is immune. Because kindness changes a person. For the better.

Think about it some time. Think about kindness. Think about connection. Think about contagion. Then ask this simple question: are YOU infected? Here at OM®, there’s no doubt about it – we have the virus and we couldn’t be happier.

We are all connected.