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

The Power of Love

How would you handle the challenges of an unsuccessful surgery?

Photo by Kim Ui Jin on Unsplash

It had been ten days since the cardiac surgery and Rachel's father was still very quiet. The long incision was healing, he was already able to eat and walk down the hall but he wouldn't speak. He was tired, the nurses said.

For Rachel to see her father speechless was unusual. He had already been born talking. He had an opinion on everything. Therefore, his silence began to disturb her.

The days passed and there was no improvement. One afternoon, Rachel was sitting next to him barely holding back her tears. She looked at his father - his body was there, walking, eating, healing - but he was somewhere else.

Anguished, Rachel took a bottle of hand lotion, went to the front of the bed, discovered her father's feet and started massaging them. He remained motionless. Without the strength to see him in that state, Rachel fixed her eyes on her own feet and after a while, started talking to her father.

She reminded him what they did together when she was very young. How he spent hours pushing the swing in the park. The first day he took her to school and stood on the stairs, waving, smiling and taking pictures.

Rachel remembered the day when she broke her arm and he ran out to take her to the doctor. She remembered the lullabies with which he rocked her and the many times she fell asleep in his strong, protective arms.

She remembered the many hours he had spent doing her homework. From the night when, wearing a rented tuxedo, he drove her and her date to the high school prom.

She reminded him about the long trip to the University. How they had both cried when he left and about the many encouragement calls he had given her until she got over it.

She remembered when she hugged him, right after graduation from medical school and he said: "Daughter, now you are a big girl".

Finally, Rachel recalled the conversation they had had the week before the surgery, in which he had given her numerous pages of instructions on what to do if he did not return alive from the operating room. But you didn't die, Dad. Rachel stressed. You survived it.

Then, one of the feet moved. She looked up and saw her father looking at her intently. The expression of paralysis, of freezing, was gone. Suddenly, he threw his head back and laughed. And spoke. He spoke after that eternity of those days: 

I am an old bone, hard to crack. But I think I'm a good father. What would you do without me?

Others need us

Sometimes our lives are strengthened by the discovery that others need us.

Sometimes our lives are strengthened when we discover that our love is important to someone in a way we could not imagine. 

Sometimes our lives are strengthened just by knowing that someone loves us exactly as we are.

Final Thoughts

Never stop touching those you love. Touch with your hands, your heart and your soul. Show them that you love, that you care.

Just like the flower that needs crystal water in the precious jug in order to stay alive, love needs fuel. And the fuel of love is called affection, tenderness, devotion.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on March 13, 2014.

See Also

• Poverty and Wealth
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem