This blog is a little tribute to World Kindness Day which was on Friday November 13th.
Why should we try and cultivate loving kindness in our lives?
Performing large or small acts of kindness has been shown to be very beneficial to our health; keeping stress levels in check and helping us to age more slowly.
Let’s face it, there is something magical about being kind. It brings that wonderful feeling of warmth – just think of the last time you smiled at a stranger who walked past you in the street. It feels so good receiving a smile back – heart opening good.
So what does it take to be kind? Well, it seems that the more we do it, the easier it gets.
Below are some simple tools you can use to up your kindness dial.
If you read to the end I have a free ‘foster you inner kindness yoga flow’ which includes a beautiful kindness meditation for you to try.
Keep A Gratitude Journal
Kindness more readily comes from a place of inner gratitude. If we cannot find acceptance and happiness in the things we already have in life, then finding kindness for others becomes a lot harder, as we simply cannot see beyond our own longing.
When we learn to become more grateful, the softer we will feel in our heart towards ourselves and when we are self nurturing this will eventually reflect on how we treat others.
Try Out Random Acts of kindness
Try doing something nice for someone. This could as simple as giving someone a smile or making them a cup of tea. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture. Offer to help if someone needs something done. Don’t overthink it; just take small opportunities to make someones day stopping, listening and responding.
Love And Nurture Yourself
I have discussed the importance of self-acceptance and self-care in other recent blogs. This one is so important (as we have seen above) because if we cannot be kind and loving to ourselves how on earth can we open our hearts to others?
So, next time that annoying voice in our head starts to tell us that we are stupid, selfish or not good enough see if you can changewe need to change that inner record, so next time it happens to you, try flipping it on its head. Instead of telling yourself that you made a big mistake, tell yourself that, ok, that decision might not have worked out well but what have I learnt?
Remember that everyone makes mistakes. We are human and we are not perfect and that is ok. Remember that you are loved and cherished for who you are – warts and all! You are so much more than your perceived flaws.
Cultivate Loving Kindness With Meditation
Practising Meditation is good for our mental health on so many levels (read more here) and one such benefit is it can help us to foster kindness. One beautiful way of passing loving kindness to those we care about is to practice a kindness meditation. This involves directing a healing mantra to a particular person or even ourselves (just replace the’ you’with ‘I’).
- May you be happy
- May you be well
- May you find peace
Closing Thoughts……….
As you can see it doesn’t take much to be kind, but like many things in life the hardest thing is to implement it. So, don’t be hard on yourself; remember that we need to be kind to ourselves in order to be kind to others so check how you are doing in that area first.
Don’t forget to check out my recent blogs on self-acceptance and self-care to really establish great ways of looking after you.
Try out my new online class below and take some time out to reconnect and nourish your inner kindness
