TW: suicide (mentioned in last paragraph)
Whether you wake in the morning with the glass on your nightstand less than half full, with water marks on the edges, or with the glass in your hand as you run to the kitchen to stop it from overflowing, I have one question for you. How do you spread kindness, or better yet have you ever been affected by someone’s kindness towards you, that made you want to paint every soul with that feeling you got? In our modern world that begs for kindness from its guests, I believe that kindness is a way out. A way out of discrimination, violence, greed, ego. A way out of the abundant mess of hatred we’ve strung between us and our neighbor. No, the world is not lacking kindness completely. There is quite a lot of kindness in the world actually. But it’s not enough to have “a good amount” of kindness in the average person’s life. It is not enough. We-mother earth, humans, animals, the plants that grow around us- need more. So, what can you do? Well, let us start small and tangible as to not shy away whoever has landed upon this piece. Start by small acts of kindness. Things like complimenting not only your friends and family, but strangers too. That girl who walked past you in the grocery store who you thought had cool earrings- tell her. The cashier checking you out at your local sandwich shop- let them know how cool their smile is. But don’t stop at compliments. Let people know that they’re appreciated and noticed, and that you wish nothing but good towards them. A few weeks back, I was in quite a valley. You know those days you wake up and your hair won’t sit right, and you can feel every odd stitch and tag from your outfit on your body-it was one of those days. So, I went to the grocery store, as I do to lift my spirits, and as I am leaving the self-checkout section, I hear a woman’s voice behind me say “Hey I really like your pants!” I turned around and said “Oh my god, thank you so much! I like your hair!” Both of our faces were beaming (under our masks) and I left the store in a completely different mindset than I had woken up with that same morning. I smiled at and thanked the employee taking carts on the way out and had a noticeable “pep” in my step. I drove home with all the windows down, playing that one song that aligns wholly with your body and makes you feel alive, and I was happy. That one compliment changed my day. And who knows, perhaps saying thank you and smiling at the cart employee made his day a little better too, I hope. A great example of this idea of complimenting strangers is embodied in a video by a YouTube creator named SHEA, that I still can’t finish watching without grinning from ear to ear. In the video, SHEA catches the reactions of a handful of students and teachers from her high school to her calling them beautiful. Some reacted in confusion, not believing that SHEA was being serious, others utterly inept, not knowing how to react besides shoving their hands in their pockets and looking away, and some with an immediate light brought to their face, beaming like a flower whose just been watered after weeks of drought. It goes to show not only how little most people hear compliments like this, but also how impactful and beautiful it is to see the effects of simple acts of kindness Next, you may move on to bigger acts of kindness such as sitting down a family member or friend and reminding them that you appreciate them and that they are loved. We as humans tend to want everything and everyone to be fine and so we act accordingly and believe others when they say they’re “fine”. Now, of course there are some people who mean it when they say this, but a lot of people use the phrase to avoid the topic of their “not-fine-ness”, or rather avoid the burden it may pass to you after telling you that they’re not fine. Here is where kindness comes into play. Here is where we check up on others, regardless of if they’re fine or not. As we all know, it is typically those that seem the finest that are the ones who are actually the least fine. So, phone the funny friend who is always making others laugh and doesn’t talk about themselves much. Tell your dad thank you for helping you get the ice off your windshield this morning when you were running late for school. And tell the younger people in your life that you’re proud of them and how incredible the painting is that they made in class today, for they are the ones who will shape the societal feelings of kindness in the generations to come. Lastly, but certainly not least, let us come back to ourselves. Let us go back and be kind to our body, mind, and spirit. You know that saying of how you can’t love anyone else until you love yourself? Well, the same goes for kindness. If you aren’t being kind to yourself, how can you expect yourself to be able to spread all of this kindness without feeling a little depleted and cheated at the end of the day? How can one not feel empty when all of your kindness is going towards others? This is why we must water our flowers and make sure our garden of life is happy and healthy before we water everyone else’s. The world needs more kindness, and I trust you to do your part and just start with maybe one act of kindness per day. Just one, no matter how big or small, for all it takes is one act to create a ripple effect and create a world full of kindness. To think in larger terms, what if someone was in a truly dark place. A place where they did not know if they wanted to be on this Earth anymore. Think about how a compliment might affect their day, on a day where they thought of ending it. A day where they hadn’t received any form of kindness in weeks, months even. So, compliment strangers, say thank you, and tell your loved ones you love them, because the world could use a little more kindness. Sources https://www.macleans.ca/society/the-world-is-broken-and-human-kindness-is-the-only-solution/ https://medium.com/thrive-global/the-power-of-a-compliment-how-kind-words-can-change-the-world-5c07e257d2ee https://medium.com/@josieannkohler/why-you-should-compliment-random-strangers-e48b83be0c91 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW8BDgLpZkI https://musicandsunshine.com/blog/privacy-policy/
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