“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
— Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a., Mark Twain, writer and humorist.
According to the dictionary, kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Kindness is about living with integrity, knowing what morals you stand for, and thinking about what right and wrong mean to you. Next week is World Kindness day and we wanted to talk about the importance of kindness for mental health in today’s blog.
Usually when talking about kindness, it is in relation to other people, however, kindness towards yourself is extremely important for your mental health. If you are constantly telling yourself negative things you will start to believe it, so acknowledge that negative thought and replace it with something positive. Some ways to practice kindness towards yourself are: putting yourself first, taking time to do something you enjoy, call a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile, compliment yourself, forgive yourself, stop comparing yourself to others, turn off your social media, and/or write a love letter to yourself. Being kind to yourself in everyday life is one of the best things you can do for your mental health. You will feel lighter, happier and your relationships will most likely improve; you will feel better overall, and your self-esteem and sense of deserving good things in life will go up.
There are many different ways to practice kindness towards others. One way to be kind is to be active and help others when you see people in need. Do you notice when people could use a helping hand? Even just a smile or a hello could brighten someone’s day.
Kindness is also a willingness to full-heartedly celebrate someone else’s success. A kind word, a pat on the back, opening a door, or helping carry a heavy load. Celebrating someone you love, giving honest compliments, saying thank you, telling someone how s/he is special to you, taking a photo of someone and sending it to them, sharing homemade food, refusing to gossip, or giving a donating to a great cause are all ideas of how to practice kindness.
It’s World Kindness Day on Tuesday, November 13th, 2018. With this day in mind, Yorktown invites you to think about your life and where you may be able to extend a little more kindness towards yourself or others.
“There’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
— Scott Adams, cartoonist and satirist, most famous for his “Dilbert” series of comic strips and books.