I initially wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about at today, but I let myself type and just see
where it would go. It led me to the topic of kindness. I think a lot of us could be kinder or do
kinder things for people around us; strangers even. To start it off, let’s define kindness.
Here is what I personally believe kindness means: Being kind is when you do something for
someone else with absolutely nothing to gain from it except the warm feeling we get from doing
the act. So even expecting a thank you from that person is gaining something because I think
that is just a way to satisfy your ego...you know you’re a good person and you’ve done
something nice so you deserve some praise...you see ego boost. But like I said, this is what I
think kindness means to me. To be honest, we are all guilty of this one way or the other, I know I
have been in situations where I did something “kind” for someone and when I didn’t receive any
thanks I was like woah someone is ungrateful, but I wanted that ego boost to justify my act.
There is, however so much to gain from being kind aside from the thanks we get and honestly
this is real. Just for clarification, being kind can involve helping someone out, opening the door
for someone, donating something or money, even just saying a prayer for someone (silently in
your heart) all that and so much more.
The first time I got a clear explanation of this was a while ago, this lady explained to me that life
is energy and you can think of it as a flow, in and out. So she gave the example of breathing, you
need to breathe out to breath in. If you only breath in and in and in, it’s impossible to
sustain...you need to give out air to take in. So being kind is another stream of life energy
that comes back to you, it’s literally the way of life. Think about karma, an eye for an eye,
what goes up must come down - it is a universal law. So if you need a reason to be kind other
than the fact that you positively impact someone else life, here’s one reason...it’s going to come
back to you and not necessarily in the same form you gave out but in another form.
Another thing about kindness is the fact that it goes such a long way, you have no idea. I’ll tell
you a story (I can’t remember where I heard it now, but it may have been on the radio or through
a friend). This guy had put out a post on Facebook along the lines of “Thank you to the man who
gave me $1 as I was short for parking in the Hospital carpark. I got to see my dad one last time
before he passed away that afternoon’. I mean come on, if that doesn’t push you to assist people
in any way possible then I don’t know what will. I am not here to make you feel bad if you don’t
do this or wish to want to do it, it’s all good - how you live your life and treat people is all up to
you. I am just here to help inspire people and maybe by inspiring one person everyday can help
make the world a better place for everybody.
Even just smiling at someone can be a start, there have been times where I was having a bad
day and someone smiled at me and it lifted my spirit, you never know how something can move
someone.
Finally, I think a lot of us could be kinder to ourselves. Yes - sometimes you aren’t kind to
yourself and there are some small ways you can be kinder to yourself: Stop being hard on
yourself whenever you mess up or you don’t do something to the extent you would like, nothing
good comes from beating yourself up as this is not sustainable in my opinion. Another step to
being kinder to yourself is to give yourself room to grow, don’t suffocate yourself - this can
happen in various ways but I don’t want to digress. This next step is my favourite way; start
saying NO to people. I am a natural people pleaser, it’s actually crazy and another story for
another day but I have put myself in so many situations I was uncomfortable with to make
someone else comfortable and at the end of it all I was never happy with myself. Say no if
whatever it is asked of you isn’t good for you and THAT IS OKAY. A lot of people will make you
feel bad or guilt trip you but girl you need to look out for number 1; it sounds a bit selfish but you
need to be selfish sometimes because you will get the life sucked out of you if you aren’t careful.
There are so many other ways we can be kinder to ourselves but I will leave that for another
blog. So with this I will sign off and like Selena said “Kill ‘em with kindness”.
Bye my lovelies and make sure to be kind to someone today, and most importantly be kind to
yourself x
Edited by Anne C.