Be mindful Be grateful Be positive Be true Be kind
-Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
"Kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”
Albert Schweitzer
A very simple way to spread more happiness and to be positive in your own little world is through kindness. It's often an easy and quick thing you can do as you move through your daily life.
But we sometimes forget about it. Or don’t remember how it can help us all.
Three things that I like to keep in mind and that help me to try to be a kinder person are these:
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I get what I give. Yep, some people will be ungrateful, miserable and not reciprocating no matter what you may do. But most people will over time treat you as you treat them.
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By being kinder to others I am more likely to be kinder to myself. It may sound a bit odd but my experience is that when I am kinder towards others then my self-esteem goes up.
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It creates a happier place to live in. Being kinder simply makes my own little world a nicer and happier place to live in.
So how can you start spreading the kindness and happiness in your daily life?
Here are some simple ways to do it.
Pick one of them that resonate with you and start using it today.
Express your gratitude.
Think about what you can be grateful for about someone in your life.
Maybe that he is a good listener, that he often is quick to help out or that he always adds great songs to a Spotify playlist. Or simply that he held up the door for you.
Then express that gratitude in a simple “thank you!” or in a sincere sentence or two.
Replace the judgments.
No one likes to be judged. And the more you judge other people the more you tend to judge yourself.
So despite the temporary benefit of deriving pleasure from the judgments it is not a good or smart long-term habit.
When you feel the urge to judge ask yourself: what is one kind thing I can think or do in this situation instead?
Replace the unconstructive criticism.
Try encouragement instead of excessive criticism. It helps people to both raise their self-esteem and to do a better job.
And it will make things more fun and more light-hearted in the long run.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
It is quite easy to resort to unkindness when you see things just from your perspective.
Two questions that help me to see and to better understand other viewpoints are:
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How would I think and feel it if I were in his or her shoes?
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What parts of this person can I see in myself?
Recall how people’s kindness made you feel.
Just sit down for a few minutes and try to recall one time or a few times when other people’s kindness really touched you and helped you out.
Then think about how you can do those very same things for someone in your life.
Be kinder towards yourself
Then you will naturally treat other people with more kindness too. It is truly a win-win habit.A simple way to start being kinder toward yourself is to each evening write down 3 things you appreciate about yourself and about what you have done that day in a journal.