In previous posts I mentioned two very easy ways to promote kindness. One is to part company by saying “Be Happy” instead of “Be Safe.” The other is to greet people with something like “Anything kind happen lately?” or something like “Anyone do something nice for you lately?”
A third way to promote kindness is to expect it. When I relate how overwhelmingly kind people were to us on the journey, a couple folks commented that was because I drew out kindness for others. There’s something to that. As I’ve said often: Look for trouble; you find trouble. Look for the bad in people; you find the bad in people. Look for kindness; you find kindness.
There are studies that suggest the mind is more powerful than we realize. There may very well be something to the phrase “positive vibes.” That does not mean we go into a bad neighborhood riddled with drugs at midnight and go around expecting kindness. It does mean that under normal conditions of two people meeting without pressures or drugs or anything else unusual affecting one or the other, you can expect a kind reaction from one another.
So to wrap it up, to promote kindness try to do each of the following at least once daily.
1. Look for and expect to find kindness at some point in the day.
2. Ask someone if anything kind has happened to them lately.
3. Part company with “Be Happy” instead of “Be Safe.”
Have a good, er, happy weekend!
