Well, since I have nothing particular on my mind today, and I just finished reading the news, and a couple of articles talked about the President’s news conferences, and it seems like the news conferences consisted mostly of name calling, finger pointing and various other types of school-yard behavior…. I thought we might talk about kindness today.
When I was young, I was told to be kind — always. Of course when you’re a kid, that kind of advice goes right over your head. But like a lot of things you hear when you’re a kid, it begins to makes sense and the older you get, you realize it’s really good advice.
There are a lot of reasons to be kind — in fact I’ve heard that it’s actually good for your health. Research has shown that the act of being kind releases a range of natural feel-good hormones in your body, including oxytocin and endorphins. So, theoretically, at least, practicing kindness, compassion, and appreciation can make you happier, boost your immune system, reverse signs of aging, relieve pain, and even help you live longer. Call me a pessimist, but I don’t think the President is going to push this a a cure for COVID-19, even though it might make more sense than bleach…
Kindness is about treating others the way you want to be treated. It’s more than just holding your tongue when you’re tempted to say something unkind. Kindness is the way you interact with people to remind them they’re not invisible, alone or insignificant. Compassion usually goes right along with kindness — it enables you to see a situation from someone else’s perspective and agree with them or at least give them the benefit of the doubt. Generally speaking, when you show kindness and compassion to others, you benefit as much — or maybe more — than they do.
There’s an old saying that kindness begets kindness. Kindness also makes you a better person. Again, no real point — just that even though my parent’s advice to “be kind — always” was and is good advice… it somehow seems more important these days.
The Dalai Lama has a good quote: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
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