It was World kindness day the other day.
At first thought, I found it a bit worrying that we need to dedicate one day a year to kindness. To me, kindness is something that goes, or rather should go around every day of the year.
Expressing kindness is even shown to have health benefits.
💜It strengthens your heart
💜It reduces stress
💜It helps people live longer
It’s just good for you.
As a coach, kindness is key to my profession and that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. It’s also my top character strength (you know what I mean if you have worked with me). One thing I always find with kindness, is that we unfortunately often forget to give it towards ourselves. That is actually very common among particularly kind people. Somehow they are last on the line.
Isn’t that unfair?
Maybe, but it’s also a pattern I have noticed often enough to know that it’s normal. It takes extra effort to learn how to be kind to oneself. But it is doable and I’m a living example. As a mum, I had completely forgotten how to be kind to myself, because I was caring so intensively for another human being. Once a fellow coach reminded me of it, a light bulb went off. Yes, motherhood can be more enjoyable if I’m kind to myself. Is it hard to do? Oh yeah. But it’s also a question of practice.
When you aren’t productive because you didn’t shut an eye the night before caring for your sick kid, be kind to yourself.
When you don’t feel very good about the way you look because you were rushing to get everything ready this morning and put on the first thing you found, be kind to yourself.
When you’re upset because you would prefer for your living room to be spotless and tidy, be kind to yourself.
How are you kind to yourself?