Kindness

With the history that dates back to the times of the scholars of ancient Greek, the Golden Rule that tells you to treat others just as how you want them to treat you is a unique concept that will let you reap great rewards in your relationships when practiced properly. It also means that when you help others, you also help yourself, improve your mood, strengthen your confidence and self-respect, and make you look more attractive to other people.

Can you recall a time somebody was kind to you?

Now change the scenario and think of a time you were kind to another person? Call to mind their reaction and how you responded.

Move into your heart and notice the feelings there.

If you read no further than this point, you should know that kindness affects the user and the experience — leaving a lasting impression on both.

In this fast pace world, kindness and compassion takes a back seat to selfies, self-interest and expendable human interactions.

Every person is waiting to be discovered or become rich, believing it holds the key to their happiness. Yet when they attain success, they long for their former life having underestimated the trappings of fame and celebrity.

I enjoy the quote by Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, David W. Orr: “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.” — Mark Twain

Kindness is not something that demands hard work. It originates from the simple act of doing no harm to others.

It involves judging less, however compelled you might be to do so.

The ego is quick to judge when it is victimized and hurt, so it retaliates in revenge.

Kindness, however, bites its tongue. It does not seek to be right, but to preserve peace of mind. You gain little by giving someone a piece of your mind, other than inciting conflict and separation.

Kindness has many benefits, including increased happiness and a healthy heart. It slows down the aging process and improves relationships and connections, which indirectly boosts your health. Kindness broadens your life’s frame of reference and is a symbol of respect to value the receiver. It influences the giver more than the receiver and has correlations with enhanced mental, emotional and physical well-being.

Author Matt Kahn states:

“When human interactions become a way of practicing self-acceptance by treating others with more patience, kindness, and respect, a constant need to be heard shifts into listening as an act of love.”

An important lesson in kindness involves asking yourself: ‘How would I handle being the recipient of this?’ If it doesn’t feel good, avoid the behavior.