I was listening to an interview with one of my favourite people, Jon Stewart, who is a brilliant American satirist. The interviewer was commenting on his biting and funny assessments of Donald Trump and his administration, and asked him: ‘But what can the rest of us do, to stand up against this sort of behaviour?’

His reply? ‘Everyone can engage in the quiet activism of living your life pleasantly.’ It really struck a chord with me.

We so often feel helpless in the face of injustice, tyranny, bad behaviour. As ordinary people, we don’t feel we have any power to change things, or even challenge them. Yet the most powerful thing in the world is energy.

Think about it for a moment. We have all experienced the effect that one person can have on a roomful of people, negative or positive, when their energy is clear. And we have probably all been that person at some point: either putting people’s back up or being the life and soul of the party.

If more and more of us determine to live our lives pleasantly, the positive energy gets stronger and stronger, because it’s infectious. And there is less and less room for the negative energy in the world.

It’s not hard to live pleasantly: smiles instead of frowns, hello’s instead of ignoring others, thank you’s instead of taking small acts of kindness for granted.

It is a positive step we can all take to make a difference, and selfishly, we will feel better too. So next time you’re about to snap at someone, or treat them with indifference, be a quiet activist and be pleasant instead.