Kindness. It’s the gift we give to people and animals. Right?
What if you practiced kindness and not judgement when you looked in the mirror?
Well, yes. But not that alone. Kindness is not just an emotion we feel toward living, breathing beings. Kindness is an energy that abides within you that is waiting to be released into the world, so it can work its magic.
What if we were able to bring kindness to everything we did? What if we offered the energy of kindness to everything we touched today? How would that work?
First, think of kindness, not as an emotion, but as an energy that infuses our actions. Think of times that you have felt kindness flowing through you and how it touched and transformed the world when you released it. Perhaps you offered kindness to a child who was afraid. Or maybe your offered kindness to a friend who was celebrating their birthday. Or perhaps to a stranger who unwittingly dropped a loaf of bread in the parking lot of the grocery store. Or a thirsty dog who needed a cool drink of water on a hot day.
Really take a moment to sense what that feels like in your heart, in your mind, in your body.
Now think of offering that kindness to every aspect of your day. It may seem like a stretch at first, but once you get into the practice of it, it will feel quite natural to practice kindness:
- While you brush your teeth
- While you look at yourself in the mirror
- While you take a bite of food
- While you put your hands around the steering wheel of the car
- While you tap the keys of your computer’s keyboard
- While you twist the handle on a door
Really? You may be thinking. Kindness? To my teeth? To my toothbrush? To the sink I spit in? My rumpled image in the mirror? To the gray strands appearing in my hair? To the new wrinkle or blemish I just noticed this morning? To my steering wheel? To the gas pedal? To the turn signal? To the fork that lifts the bite to my mouth? To the food I am chewing? To the keyboard my fingertips? To the words on my screen? To the door handle? To the wide open world I am stepping into?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And YES!!
You can offer kindness to anything and everything.
How different would your day feel if you did this little experiment? How might your world transform?
I challenge you to try it today.
Practice kindness in everything (and yes, I mean EVERYTHING) you do. And watch how the world changes.
