practicing Kindness for more than a day
Do you have an internal voice that is not very kind? Do you get mad at yourself for the simplest things like dropping something or forgetting to buy the milk? Truthfully, I suck at self-kindness. I don’t always have patience for myself so there is a lot of internal yelling. I also don’t always take care of my physical self. My diet is not always healthy and my whole body is wound pretty tightly. Yeah, I realize that writing this proves my point about self-kindness, and I might have exaggerated a bit for effect. Thankfully, I have developed an awareness of the negative talk which helps lessen the impact and actually stops me from doing it more often.
What happens when less than kind remarks or behavior is directed toward you? Do you question your worth, get angry, or wonder what you did wrong? What happens when you make a snide remark? Do you wish you could take it back?
Now think about the time when someone showed you kindness - paid you a compliment, called you out of the blue to say hello, let you pull ahead of them in a huge line of traffic, bought you a cup of coffee, offered kind words when they noticed you were out of sorts or just listened when you needed to vent. Note how it made you feel. It made a difference to your day. Note how you feel when you extend a kindness. Why don’t we do it more often? It’s powerful stuff.
Apparently, we have to be reminded to be kind. In fact, the World Kindness Movement introduced November 13th as World Kindness Day, way back in 1998, and the 2023 theme is “be kind whenever possible”. Frankly, theme days have lost relevance for me. I feel like there is a theme for every day of the year. And I find it disconcerting that we need to be reminded to be kind. And what about that theme - be kind whenever possible - how about a “be kind all the damn time” theme. I’m going to submit that for 2024.
I plan to stop judging this theme day and get behind it. I extend kindness on a daily basis and in honor of World Kindness Day, I am going to extend extra kindness to myself and others whenever possible for the rest of 2023. I’m thinking if I make a concerted effort to go beyond everyday kindness, I will feel so good that it will become a habit that I can’t do without.
So, here’s the plan. I am going to be kind to myself by taking care of my body and soul. That means adding some more movement to my day and decreasing the amount of less than healthy food I eat AND catching myself when I think unkind thoughts about myself. I am going to be kind to others by letting one person per week know how much I appreciate them and why.
I’m excited about getting started. Who wants to join me? I guarantee it will be worth the effort.