There is no getting away from the fact that we impact those around us. We are energetic beings, so we influence others in negative and positive ways depending on what we put out into the world. The key is Awareness – we can only be responsible for things for which we are aware. Having said that, because we are in a time when the pace and extend at which information moves is fast and wide, we need to be even more mindful of our words and our actions. Even more so, our absence of words and actions during times when, even though we don’t have to, we could be proactive and offer a kindness. Last year, my husband saw a person who looked like he could be homeless sitting in the park across the street. It was Thanksgiving and we were preparing for a family dinner, and during the busy-ness of our day, my husband said, “I will be back in 5 minutes” He walked over to the park and, as he handed the man $5, he said, “Hey buddy, Happy Thanksgiving”. I loved that moment because it was a beautiful reminder to me that this is all that is needed sometimes – a simple gesture.
As the lead of an organization, and as a parent and grandparent, I love to expand on ways to bring kindness to my own home and organization. “When we bring up emotions of gratitude, thankfulness, appreciation, care, and kindness we release hundreds of different chemicals that help rebuild the body. We are creating a stronger immune system, we are creating new genes and releasing hormones that affect different cells and tissues that are out of balance”. Dr. Joe Dispenza (tele-class). Kindness is good for our health!
So, there it is – not only, do we impact others by what we put out into the world, but it cycles back to us. During our programs for youth and adults alike, we play our signature game, I AM SO…where we ask participants to complete this sentence with a positive attribute. Then, we ask them to turn to a person next to them and, with the same positive attribute, complete the sentenceYOU ARE SO. They typically have fun and it generates laughs, but the message is pretty clear – when we show a kindness to ourselves, we can’t help but expand that kindness out to others.
