Kindness
If you can be anything, be kind
I don’t need to tell you that we are living through a very self-centered time in the world. It seems like everywhere you look, someone is trying to have the most controversial opinion, provoke people who are different from them, and generally sow discord so they can feed their own egos.
It is also clear that kindness rarely gets rewarded. But that’s okay because kindness shouldn’t be something we express in order to be seen; it should be something we do because it feels right to be kind to the beings we share this life with.
The world is noisy and busy, and we’re never doing enough, nor are we doing things the right way, yada, yada, yada. It’s very easy to get caught up in being hard on ourselves and, in turn, being hard on others. But I have found in these moments that one of the best ways to break this spiral is to simply do something kind.
As silly as it sounds, it seems that we have forgotten how easy it is to be kind. But it’s easy to change that. Here are some fast and easy ways to cultivate kindness in your life today:
- Text a friend that you’re thinking of them, and you hope they have a nice day
- Let someone have a parking spot and go for one a little further away
- Do a loving kindness meditation
- Do a chore for someone or take something off their “to-do” list
- Venmo a friend $5 for a coffee
- Tell a stranger you like their shirt
There are so many ways we can be kind to each other, but we just don’t think to do it. And that’s understandable. There’s a lot going on in the world, so it can be hard to add “be kind to someone” to your plate, but if you do it just a few times, kindness will become a habit, and you won’t even think about it anymore.
If you need more reason to be kind, there are piles of studies that show being kind makes us feel good. We may actually get more out of it than the people that we’re being kind to. It releases oxytocin in our brains, it decreases anxiety and depression, it makes us feel more connected… the list goes on.
Today, think of one action you can take to show kindness to someone you know or maybe even a stranger. You can use some of the exercises mentioned above, or you can come up with your own that feel right in the moment. The more it feels personal to you, the more likely you’ll be to carry on the action until it becomes a habit.
