BLOG - World Kindness Day 2020

2020…we are all working to tap into our wells of resilience and wellbeing to manage the stressors we have and continue to endure during this unprecedented year of events. From the global COVID-19 pandemic, national trauma of racial injustice, to cultural fragmentation, social unrest, climate change, devastation from hurricanes and wildfires and the erosion of trust at our highest levels of leadership; we are all overloaded. 

As we celebrate World Kindness Day  
I ask everyone to take a “Pause”

Take time to breathe; to momentarily pause from your racing mind, from the events we hear on the news, from the struggles we may face financially, from trying to figure out how to home school our kids, balance work & life in general, if we are leaders trying to manage and engage our remote teams, and if we are frontline workers, take a moment to recognize our need to take care of ourselves so that we may have the energy to take care of those in need and in our care.  

Take a moment today to recognize World Kindness Day. It is an international holiday that was formed in 1998, to promote kindness throughout the world and is observed annually on November 13th. The purpose of World Kindness Day, as outlined by the World Kindness Movement, is “to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness which binds us.”

Kindness is the act of being friendly, generous, or considerate. Simply put, kindness is being nice to others. Kindness is being generous with others, giving your time, money, and talent to support those in need, and more importantly, kindness is being compassionate, really listening to someone and supporting them. Being nurturing and caring to others, to enjoy doing favors for them, to take care of them and to perform good deeds. 

Research shows there are benefits of practicing Kindness! 

  • People who give to others, in small and in large ways, tend to be happier as a result
  • People who are consistently kind and giving tend to be healthier and live longer than their less generous counterparts
  • People like kind people which can provide opportunities to develop meaningful relationships and love
  • Kindness directed inward (self-compassion) can contribute to higher self-esteem, less anxiety and depression, and greater life satisfaction
  • Random acts of kindness have a range of benefits, including greater positive emotions, lower negative emotions, greater well-being, and higher peer acceptance.

“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it makes not only others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.”  Dalai Lama

 “When we practice loving kindness and compassion, we are the first ones to benefit.”  Rumi

Kindness toward oneself, self-compassion, results in many positive benefits: feelings of happiness, optimism, stronger connections with others, increased motivation and mastering of your goals, and less anxiety, fewer feelings of failure and inferiority, less self-criticism, perfectionism, anger and close-mindedness.

I encourage you to try and practice the Loving-Kindness Meditation; a meditation to increase your compassion for yourself and others. Here is a link to my favored guided meditation by Sharon Salzburg…

https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/loving_kindness_meditation

I invite you to take in the Greater Good Science Center’s November Happiness calendar for some inspirational ways and links to ideas of how to incorporate a bit of goodness into your November days.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC_Happiness_Calendar_November_2020.pdf

Here is a fun graphic you can print out for easy random acts of kindness to put into practice right away!

Did you know that Kindness is an internal character strength that we all share? Character Strengths are the qualities we value in ourselves, our friends, our children, our colleagues, and our leaders. If you would like to identify and learn more about your own character strengths and how they can increase your overall wellbeing, access my calendar HERE and let's engage in a complimentary 30-minute exploratory conversation!

Let us all spread a little kindness today and every day and hold on to goodness and hope for the future!