Sep 24, 2012
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
- Dalai Lama
Years ago I wrote in my journal the following line. “Be the kindest person you can be and the world will come to you.”
This was my way of trying to re-boot my attitude. It worked for awhile. I really was always kind. At least I tried. The world is full of negativity, jealousy and anger. It’s easy. It’s what we read about on the internet news sites and in papers. What we hear on television or the radio. It’s what sells. People are drawn to drama and drama tends to be negative. Kindness sadly isn’t sexy.
It’s not easy. It’s never easy. I mean most of us want to be kind but think about it. How we react to people, how we speak to people. Our body language and what we say or snap at someone. I know I am not perfect. I try to be nice to all, but I am not. It’s a work in progress. Every day, all the time.
This summer one of our awesome counsellors at camp made the comment, “Sarcasm is like swearing”. Brilliant. It’s true. When you throw a sarcastic comment back at someone you are saying, “I want to steal your light!” It’s a low form of self gratitude. The old “look at me” mentality.
Now, please don’t get me wrong. I don’t like everyone I meet, I don’t agree with many people. I don’t chose to accept everyone’s choices. But and it’s a big but, I don’t have to ridicule or be hurtful.
Now, if you choose to take on the kindness lifestyle remember this. People will start to watch you. Start to judge you. You can’t be a kind person with hopes of “getting” something. That’s not why you do it. At least it shouldn’t be. It should only be because like in camping you want to leave a place or a person better than you found them.
I can imagine if more people chose kindness over sarcasm, pessimism, negativity and those hurtful jokes we would probably be a happier society. I know it’s idealistic and probably a little naive. But as my mom said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say… SHUT UP!”
Be kind today. Try it, you may be surprised at what you get back.
Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership Learning and Growing Motivation on Sep 24, 2012 at 8:07 am | Permanent Link | Comments (3)
Comment posted on Sep 24, 2012 at 10:35 am by Quentin Jackson-Fitter (QBall) (YLCC Member)
Great post Stu, I thoroughly agree, and I try my best to be ME everyday, and I know ME is a kinda person.
Comment posted on Sep 24, 2012 at 6:11 pm by Erin Garson (YLCC Member) (YLCC Guest)
What an inspirational post Stu! Really inspires you to be a kinder person everyday and pushes you even more to be amazing! I love it!<3
Comment posted on Sep 25, 2012 at 2:26 pm by Angela (YLCC Member)
Imagine if the entire world lived by the Dali Lama’s quote and the only religion was kindness - I bet we would never see war!
Camp taught me a lot about what comes out of my mouth
I didn’t realize that some of the things I would casually or normally would say in a conversation could be taken as hurtful or sarcastic
It was just what I had grown accustomed to
We learn from those we are most around
Being at camp taught me to re-evaluate the things I say - how I talked to kids - how I wanted to be talked to
Thanks for the post