The Kindness Project

The Kindness Project

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good.  But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren’t feeling entirely whole. It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

Elizabeth Davis

Sarah Fine

Liza KaneAmie Kaufman

Sara Larson

Matthew MacNish

Sara McClung

Gretchen McNeil

Tracey Neithercott

Lola Sharp

Michele Shaw

Meagan Spooner

Carolina Valdez Miller

Wow. What a great thing to do. The above group of bloggers have started this amazing Kindness Project. I read their posts last week and wanted to participate. We can't have enough kindness in the world, in my opinion. Every second Wednesday they are going to post a blog on kindness. I am going to join them -

are you?

To that end, I thought I would share a couple of thoughts on kindness. I am currently trying to practice 'radical kindness'. I keep failing. And then beating myself up for not being kind to others. So what I am trying to do now is practice being just a tiny bit kind to myself, then perhaps I might be able to be kind to other people.

But one of my friends told me some success she had the other day. She had been having lots of problems with a colleague at work and no matter what she did, the situation just wouldn't improve. She tried to be kind, but found she was being impatient and critical in her head, even if not directly to the person. Then she suddenly had a brainwave. She realised that all her negative thoughts about work, and how annoying this person was, would be affecting the planet. She believes that negative thoughts harm the earth. And so, even though she was finding it difficult to be kind to this person, she wanted to be kind to the planet. From then on, every time she had a negative thought, she would stop herself and think of something else, something positive. And do you know what happened? Without her doing anything else, the situtation with her work colleague improved dramatically, to the point where she is almost starting to like her and feel compassion for her. This situation had been going on for well over a year and yet was solved in a few weeks. Her life is now so much better, and not just her relationship with this person, but in every area of her life.

I loved seeing how happy she was now after months of stress and thought it was a great example of how we don't always have to solve the problem in front of us. If we can only take our eyes off it for a moment and think of something else more positive, the Universe has a chance to rearrange itself to create a better situation.

On a slightly different note - my meditating has been going very well. I have done a minimum of 10 minutes every day, sometimes even 25 minutes, except for last weekend. I simply got too busy and forgot, so that highlighted to me the need to make it more of a habit. Someone suggested that I schedule my meditating for the same time each day and then it is more likely I will remember. Sounds like good advice. Wonder if I will take it?

I have definitely been feeling the strain after the A-Z Challenge and it has been quite nice having a week's break from blogging. I am ready to start back up and come and visit everyone - you have been warned!

Tomorrow night I am hoping to do an Open Mic reading of something I am writing as part of an Anthology my writing group (the Write On, Mamas!) is going to self-publish by the end of the year. I have to keep changing it as the humourous references only work on a British audience. Arrgh! I will let you know if I am a complete flop.