Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how. ~Author Unknown
Who has not had their feelings hurt? I know I have, but what I have learned is you can not wait for someone to do right by you before you do right by them. When you choose to be kind to those who hurt you, you start a chain reaction of kindness that will come back to you tenfold.
Kindness is a decision. It is a willful act of treating others in a positive way regardless of whether those individuals deserve to be treated kindly. Think about it. How many times have you withheld kindness because you were treated poorly? Instead of spreading more poison into the world, I have made a conscious decision to walk in kindness. As hard as some people make it to treat them well, I am determined to not allow them to bring me down. If anything, I can work harder to lift them up. Now, I realize there are going to be individuals who thrive on misery and no matter how much you shower them with kindness, they will choose to remain ugly and cancerous with their negativity. People like that you have to let go and allow them to deal with themselves. You can not allow someone who wants to stay down to bring you down.
There are always opportunities to show kindness to others, but before you can do that, you must first:
- Be kind to yourself. Encourage yourself and stop saying bad things about the way you look or what you do not have. Be your own cheerleader.
- Be a good listener. Give the person you are talking to your undivided attention. We believe we are good listeners, but most times we hear people and do not truly listen to what they are saying to us. Learn to be a better listener.
- Say Thank You. Those two simple words let people in your life know how much you appreciate them.
- Pay it forward with a random act of kindness. Do something nice for someone and ask them to return the favor by doing for someone else.
Will you plant a seed of kindness today? Tell me what you are going to do.
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