Practicing Kindness

Being kind is the secret to being happy and healthy. Would you know why?

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

That morning, like most others, the train was packed. A lot of impatient people complaining about everything and everyone made the atmosphere not only stuffy, but also unbreathable.

It was when, with great difficulty, an elderly woman entered the vehicle and leaned on the seats as she could. The predictable happened as an elderly person enters crowded public transit: most of those seated sleep as quickly as possible.

However, a six-year-old boy, nudged his father for permission to leave the place where he was. The father, indifferent, told him to stay seated. But the boy, aloud, invited her to come and sit in his place.

An awkward silence ensued in the collective, while the lady, gratefully, took the seat offered to her.

Kindness and Happiness

We have observed that, in the midst of countless possibilities of choice, those who opt for cooperation and ethics build healthier and more lasting relationships.

Being kindness a form of love, studies have shown that kind people increase their happiness because this virtue is linked to the gene that releases the hormone responsible for well-being, dopamine.

A popular saying says that kindness breeds kindness.

Kindness turns out to be contagious too, motivating others to be equally kind. When we are kind to others, we contribute to making the environment in which we live better.

Kindness is also a form of attention, respect and love. Kind people show courtesy, are polite and attentive making their relationships more human and irradiating those feelings to those around them.

Kindness and Health

Another benefit of being kind is that due to our pre-disposition to help others, we are likely to improve our mental health. Our immune system tends to be better, because there is a direct relationship between well-being, happiness and health.

In other words, when we are kind we help and care for others and for ourselves.

Putting ourselves in the other's place is always the best way to act. By being attentive to the needs of other, we conquer the awareness that what makes us happy and make others happy too.

Final Thoughts

Let us be kind giving our best to others and we will see how more complete and happy we'll be.

As kindness stems from the awakening of conscience, when we are willing to develop this virtue we also gain joy, lovingness, affability, friendship, tenderness, gratitude, respect, tenderness and tolerance.

The gesture of kindness is undoubtedly a big step towards changing a situation of neglect, indelicity or indifference this world so much needs.

Think about it!

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on October 07, 2017.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

When we get old

Unless an unpredictable event happens, you are getting old. Are you ready for it?

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

Living on Earth is a great challenge. Every change that occurs to us in life, needs adaptation.

But nothing compares to the clash of watching the drama of some of our loves getting older. Especially those who saw us being born, growing up, who taught us so much.

One day, they need help for everything. They can no longer bring food to their mouths. Steps become difficult, indecisive. Yet, even more challenging is accepting this new reality. Accepting that they now need support. Accepting that they can no longer be totally alone.

Yesterday, they ran their own lives. They decided when to get up or go to bed. They could go for a walk alone or with friends. They could go shopping, to the church, to the club or to the park.

But now, all steps are monitored. They can no longer go where they want, whenever they want. No talking with friends or taking the dog for a walk. Rules are now dictated to them. They need to wake up when they want to sleep and sleep when they'd like to stay up a little longer. The food is not what they want but what's prescribed to them.

Life became a real drama.

A real drama

To better understand an elderly person, let's put ourselves in their places. Let's imagine how difficult it would be if we faced of so many difficulties including losses of so many loved ones.

Remember that their souls remain active and willful, although the physical machine is failing in some places. Knowing how to take advantage of this wisdom of the years lived is healthy for us and for them.

Asking them about past events, the history of the country, the world they lived in, will encourage them to remember. Remember them how important they still are to us, to our children, to the generations that are coming. After all, they are living history.

Final Thoughts

Let us honor our elders, whether they be parents, relatives or simply those we live with. Much more important than being placed to take the morning sun, it will be to enjoy, every day, the beneficial rays of affection.

Keep in mind that our children watch us and will learn from us how to treat those who have accumulated wrinkles in the effort for the good of the family, for the progress of the country.

One day we will be there. And we will want to be accepted, understood, respected, loved and met in our needs. And only the Father knows if we will be healthy, lucid or if we will need, intensely, the cares of others.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on October 20, 2018.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

When death arrives

No one can escape death. So why we avoid so much thinking and preparing for it?

Photo by Veit Hammer on Unsplash

Death is something that no one escapes. Rich, intellectual, poor, ignorant, good or bad, we will all die one day.

In a paradoxical way however, it is what we generally least think of. And sometimes, we don't even want to think about it!

However, we should keep in mind that if we inevitably go towards a certain destination, the correct thing to do is to prepare. As we would be if we were about to go on a long journey to a different country.

Not knowing exactly what weather we were going to find, we would take clothes for mild temperatures and clothes for very warm or very cold days.

We would also plan what we'd do when we arrived there.

So, how can we not think about the great and essential journey that we will take when we die, transferring ourselves from this world to another?

A world that is vibrant, where we will reunion with our ancestors.

Perhaps we should consider how to improve our wedding dress, the same one that the Evangelist describes in the parable of the wedding feast. Dress that is woven, in our day to day, by our way of thinking, acting, producing good or evil.

Perhaps it would be interesting to consider strengthening our links with the good God so that when that moment comes, we are ready.

And that prayer needs not be something memorized. It could be as spontaneous as this:

Lord, when I have to leave, allow me to be prepared. May there be peace in my conscience for not having done wrong to others.

May I be ready, with my bag of good deeds in an appropriate suitcase, without remorse for what has not been done and not done.

Allow the good Spirits to receive me and assist me in transposing the fragile vessel of earthly life to the immense vessel of Spirituality.

Who knows, Lord, you may even allow old loves to welcome me, bringing me hugs, flowers and smiles. Loves that left before, leaving a gap in my heart. Loves from other lives, always remembered by my immortal Spirit.

Allow, Heavenly Father, those who remain on Earth be in peace and accept my departure with the dignity of those who are aware that this journey is fast.

May they be able to restructure their lives, without my presence. May they continue in their journey of progress and struggles.

May I, now a pacified soul, enter the Spirituality eager to continue learning, working, as soon as I get over the tiredness of the earthly journey and any reflexes of physical disorders that have taken me the last days.

May I return to the home I left there, resuming tasks suspended for a while.

May I be allowed to travel through places I wished to visit, while incarnated so I can know spectacular places created by Your greatness.

Anyway, Lord, stay with me at that time.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on February 13, 2020.

Final Thoughts

Death is the only thing that no one can escape from. And since it's inevitable, will do we think so little about it? If we inevitably go towards a certain destination, the correct thing to do is to prepare. Prepare now with good actions. Prepare by choosing good over bad.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem