Can we make kindness a trend? Please?! And yeah, now hellooo!! Alina here :) It's my turn to talk about kindness and, by the way, to sum up this week, my girls (Pille and Anaïs) did an amazing job writing about the importance of being kind towards the Planet and the others. A big thumbs up for Carlos too. In the next few days he will show you on VulcanicaMente's page some cool designs for our next event (13th of November). Save the date! To come back to my topic, I am very happy to share with you my part for this big event (called Kindness Day), more specific: why people should be kind towards themselves. Until recently, this concept used to be kind of an unknown niche to me, because my idea of kindness was something that one does for the "outside" world, not towards himself. And again, I was so wrong. But growing up, living life and always having the will to be aware of life, made me discover that, somehow, I've missed the whole spectrum of "being kind". Since I started to be aware of the benefits, I became a big supporter of it, and somehow this made me a kindness "activist". Hope it will spread. Recently, I had a discussion with a good friend about it and I was telling her how my life has changed when I started to be grateful and kind towards myself. I told her that she should do the same. Unfortunately, the next thing she tells me is the well known answer, "I don't deserve to be kind towards me, I am a perfectionist, so I will never do enough to deserve it". For a few seconds I felt stuck, but not because she was incredibly wrong, but because it made me think who taught us that we can treat ourselves kindly only if we have a perfect life?! In my opinion, the thing that we are imperfect from our nature is exactly the reason why we should be kind towards ourselves. Besides this, I told her that she's already practicing kindness towards herself, but she's just not very well aware of it. Choosing to do the things that we like/love is, more or less, the same with doing kind stuff for ourselves. I am not an expert in this topic, but as human beings usually do, I learnt a lot from my mistakes. This toxic mindset "I haven't done the things perfectly, therefore I don't deserve it" is not a very pleasant place to live in. Therefore, I decided for Kindness Day to write a small kit based on what I've experienced and read until now about this topic. 1. Defining kindness. To know that we are on the same page, this is the definition of kindness. Google said that kindness is "the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate" or "a kind act". 2. Be aware. Maybe, as my friend, you were already kind to yourself, but you were just not aware of it. As I wrote it, every time you do a thing that makes you happy, try to be aware of it, because it could be counted as a kind act towards yourself. My first step to a kinder Alina was when I started to realize that everyday I was practicing kindness to myself, but I was just not aware. I made a deal with myself which was about dedicating everyday one small pleasant thing to myself from myself. Sometimes these small things meant: having a drink, cooking my favorite rice, putting glitter on my face and so on; things that I was already doing, but without being very aware! 3. Genuine experience. To connect the previous tip with this one, being aware while one embraces kindness means being more close to a happy life. It's pretty hard to be sad while you choose to do the things you like/love, right? 4. Learn how you want to be treated by others. It is said that one should treat himself how he would like to be treated by the others. If you don't know what makes you happy, relaxed, chilled... who will know? 5. Being kind to yourself may sound selfish, but it's not. It's not selfish to get to know yourself better. I would recommend you to watch this short video about selfishness made by Jordan Peterson (it's not really off topic and besides this, it's a good watch). 6. We are not perfect. We will never be and that's awesome, but this is another topic. I would recommend you to watch this video about how our imperfections are more than crucial in our lives (https://youtu.be/2Xzh1BjCA5Q). In my opinion, the fact that we are not designed to be perfect should be a well enough reason that we deserve to be compassionate about ourselves, in other words, that we DESERVE to be kind towards ourselves. We do whatever we can, sometimes, and we should be more than happy about what we've achieved. 7. What makes me happy? If you are the same as I and you don't exactly know what a kind act to yourself looks like, just ask yourself, "what makes me happy?" and if the answer is a positive, kind and cute act, go for it. A muffin, a plant and an espresso - acts of kindness towards oneself All in all, these are my ideas on why people deserve and have to be kind towards themselves. If needed, take them with a pinch of salt, but choose to be kind to yourself, you deserve it. Keep in mind that The Planet and The Others also need kind acts from you. Let's make kindness a trend! Save the date, 13th of November 2020. Feel free to write your ways of being kind to yourself, or whatever you want, it's a free space. Have a nice day! ~ Alina
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