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The Kindness Box

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
kind8.jpg
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Try - spiritualityandpractice.com kindness - several! -

Kindness is the first of the three great treasures advocated by Lao Tzu. The Buddha taught that generosity is a primary quality of an awakened mind. Muhammad regarded kindness as an essential sign of faith. Jewish and Christian ethics are built upon deeds of kindness, as are the daily interactions of people of primal traditions.

The spiritual practice of kindness encompasses a range of small acts and habits that we know as old-fashioned good manners — saying "please" and "thank you," waiting your turn, lending a helping hand, or cheering someone up with a smile. It applies not just to your relationships with other people. Etiquette in the spiritual life extends to things, animals, plants, and the Earth.

This practice also means being generous with your presence, your time, and your money. Give freely without expecting anything in return. Just do it. Kindness is not a quid pro quo endeavor.

 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
The Force of Kindness

We live in times of great incivility, where adults in some communities are being forced into etiquette programs after physically assaulting coaches at their children's sports events. We hear widespread complaints that no one listens any more, individuals in any discussion shout and constantly interrupt each other. One of the antidotes to these social problems is the old-fashioned virtue called kindness. In this timely and cogent volume, Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg (Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience) explores this undervalued quality that is a moral standard independent of any religious adherence. The cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society notes: "Kindness is the fuel that helps us truly 'walk our talk' of love, a quality so easy to speak about or extol but often so hard to make real. It helps us to genuinely care for one another and for ourselves as well. Kindness is the foundation of unselfconscious generosity, natural inclusivity and an unfeigned integrity."

 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
As a parent, you can bolster your child’s innate kindness. In fact, when your child is between ages 4 and 7, that’s a critical developmental window when their brain is especially open to developing a lifelong kindness habit.

How? According to a report by Harvard researchers:
  • Kids need to hear from us that kindness is important,
  • Kids need daily opportunities to practice caring for others, and
  • We need to encourage kids to consider the perspective and struggles of others.
That may sound like a lot, but we’re lucky to have one powerful parenting tool that will knock out all three of those in one fell swoop: children’s books about kindness.


Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
I keep finding even more - surprise myself at times - try this -

womansday.com kindness

For example -

20 Random Acts of Kindness That Will Inspire You

These generous deeds are great examples of what happens when action follows heart.

Woman's Day is publishing a book about your kind acts! Tell us how you spread kindness every day and your stories and ideas could be included in the book. Send your stories to [email protected].

View the slide-show here -


Could paste several in here?

All the best!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Kindness is a contagious disease -

Kindness and gratitude heal our world, one act at a time. How do we develop, promote and sustain this tendency in our children?
  1. Be kind to yourself. Be patient and compassionate with you and yourself. This will pave the way towards a happy life and help you be a good role model to your children.
  2. Be that role model. Express gratitude, model generosity, and help others who need support both publicly and anonymously. Help your children understand why and when you help others. Discuss opportunities to help others.
  3. Play games with your family and friends. Practice taking turns, being a good winner and a good loser in the laboratory of your home.
  4. Take it home! Help your children understand the value of taking part in chores to help around the house without being asked (set the table, take out garbage, organize a cabinet, weed the garden)
For the full article -


Enjoy your browsing!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
40 Bible Verses About Kindness That Will Remind You of the Power of Empathy

Treat others as you want to be treated is the golden rule to being kind and compassionate. This theme makes appearances throughout the Bible, especially in verses about kindness that remind you to help the sick and less fortunate, and to choose goodness over evilness — even when it comes to your enemies. God will notice when you practice kindness, and will reward you for demonstrating this virtue. He knows it can be hard to choose compassion when you feel someone has hurt you, but these Bible verses will remind you that showing the same kindness towards others as God shows you is perhaps one of the most meaningful actions you can take.

For the full list of verses -


All the best
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
What Is Emotional Contagion?

If someone approaches us with a smile, we have a natural tendency to smile back. If they approach us with a frown, the tendency is to frown too.

Such mimicry of smiles, frowns, or other emotional expressions often happens within milliseconds and without our being fully conscious of it (Wood, Rychlowska, Korb, & Niedenthal, 2016). By mimicking others’ facial expressions, we can tap into how they are feeling and experience similar emotions ourselves. We are then susceptible to behaving one way or another, based on these emotions.

Such emotional contagion can be negative or positive.

When people are stirred to anger and violent acts by a demagogue, that would be an example of negative emotional contagion.

On the other hand, when a corporate leader frequently smiles, is generally kind and positive toward employees, and inspires positive feelings throughout the workforce, this would be an example of positive emotional contagion.

MUCH more at the pos psy site -


Enjoy your browsing!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
“I honor the sanctity of all religions—I'm not here to put them down. But the only religion that I personally embrace is the religion of kindness.”

Leslie Jordan
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
“First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.”

Brené Brown
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
It's easy to let the stresses of your everyday life get you down, and if you're not sure how to find inner peace and boost your well-being, then meditation may be the answer. Of course, learning how to meditate and practice mindfulness takes some practice, but the benefits are innumerable, both for yourself and for those around you. Loving kindness meditation (also known as LKM or metta meditation) may be particular useful if you're looking to cultivate positive energy and kindness towards others, and learning how to practice loving kindness meditation all starts with understanding what exactly it is.

According to Insight Meditation practitioner Devin Berry, who teaches Dharma and mindfulness through Buddhist meditation, the main practice of metta meditation involves reciting positive phrases toward yourself and others, including family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, and anyone who may be a part of your life. Like other types of meditation, practicing loving kindness can help reduce the negative emotions you have toward yourself and others, which in turn benefits your mental, emotional, and physical health. If you're ready to get started, then here's what you should know about loving kindness meditation, including what it is, where it originated, and how you can practice it yourself.


All the best!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
We all know that it’s good to be kind to others. Kindness is an important virtue for sustaining relationships, which helps to build a trusting and cooperative society.

You may have also heard that kindness makes you happier and healthier. But what does that mean for you? What acts of kindness will make us happiest, and who tends to benefit the most?

A newly published review of decades of kindness research provides some answers.

More at the Greater Good website which I highly recommend!


Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Leads us here to the Berkeley wellbeing site -

Being Kind to One Another

While it may seem easier to be kind to the people we know, we also carry the ability to show kindness to someone new. We never know what others are dealing with and our generosity, support, or small act of kindness may go a long way.

Kindness doesn’t always have to include dramatic gestures of care. Simply being polite, using a warm tone, giving a smile, or showing patience or gratitude to a stranger can be enough.

Picture yourself at the grocery store at 5:30 pm on a Friday. You’re ready to get home, change into comfortable clothes, have a bite to eat, and can’t wait to sit in front of the TV for movie night. Your grocery list is small, maybe just milk and eggs. But it seems like the entire population of New York City is in the same store as you and you begin to grow impatient with the long lines. Of course, this is a frustrating scenario, especially when you’re exhausted from a long week of work. While it can be easy to give in to our annoyance or discomfort with the situation, being patient, smiling at another waiting customer, or being understanding of the cashier when they apologize for the long lines can mean more to them than you think.


Enjoy the rest of your browsing!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Try this -

Sermon kindness

Looks to be dozens of worthy sites? Remind me to paste in the best that appeal to me as an individual!

Here's one of the ones at top of the results -

If you’re looking for more sermon ideas on the Fruit of the Spirit, be sure to head over to SermonSearch.com to find 100’s of sermons on the Fruit of the Spirit to help you out!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”
(Galatians 5:22-23).

From this page -


Sermon search may be another worthy resource!

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
From a Radically Open DBT (RO DBT) perspective, we teach that kindness is our go to skill. This blog entry explores the difference between kindness and compassion and why RO finds kindness acts so essential to psychological well-being.

Kindness Kindness is a behavioral action that others can see (aka a social signal). It has the qualities of affection, warmth, and playfulness. When we are kind, we are able to admit our wrong doing and reconnect with others. Kindness models openness and humility. This allows us to question oneself and stay engaged with others to promote social connection. Kindness allows us to emphasize the wonderfulness of diversity while living within our own values. It also promotes us contributing to the well-being of others, without expecting anything in return.

Compassion Compassion is an inner experience. It can be directed toward another person or group, or it can be directed inward (self-compassion). Compassion is characterized by the qualities of sympathy, empathy, and concern. It emphasizes nonjudgmental thinking toward self and others, validation, distress tolerance, and acceptance of what is occurring. Compassion is oriented toward healing, alleviating suffering and acknowledging that all humans suffer.


Plenty of similar sites IF I get around to checking them out ...

Cheers!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Another article about kindness being one of the fruits of the spirit -

On one hand, we know that acts of kindness are a blessing to both the receiver and the giver. Yet, there are times when we simply don’t feel kind. In these situations, we may force ourselves to be “nice,” but deep down, we know something is missing. We may wonder why we struggle with genuine kindness when it is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Can anyone relate?

There’s an old and often-used phrase that says, “Kill em’ with kindness.” Perhaps you’ve heard it and even used it yourself. This idea may seem noble on the surface, but actually, it stems from a rather negative connotation. It means to overwhelm someone with excessive kindness that they either don’t want or don’t need. In essence, it distorts the true intent of genuine kindness by turning it into a manipulative tool. Biblical kindness, on the other hand, is overwhelming in the best sense of the word. The Holy Spirit produces it in us despite how we feel.

It was Mother Teresa who once said, “Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well.”

Her words remind us that genuine kindness comes from the heart. It stems from a deeper place of sincerity and concern for others. I’m sure Mother Teresa didn’t always feel kind, but she learned to rely on the Holy Spirit to produce genuine kindness through her. What a beautiful example for us to follow!

If you’ve struggled to offer genuine kindness to others, here are several things to keep in mind.

You can continue reading here -


Enjoy your browsing!
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Teaching children kindness is one of the most important things we can pass on to the next generations. Promoting kindness starts by being good role models in how we show kindness to each other, ourselves, and how we interact with our environment.

Kindness is thought to be a natural human response. The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development believes kindness is both complex and straightforward. At its most basic, we show consideration for others in the hope they’ll do the same for us.

Being kind can improve other people’s lives. In turn, it can increase the well-being of those who practice being kind. Promoting kindness in children will give them a skill that will bring them happiness and empower them to make the world a kinder place.


:)
 

Geoff-Allen

Resident megalomaniac
Chicken Soup kindness

Following the impulse to be kind is a central theme in a new Chicken Soup for the Soul collection about how kindness matters. Everyone’s talking about kindness, too, because the world has been through a lot in the past couple of years, what with the pandemic, divisiveness in our society, and conflicts around the world. A renewed focus on what is good about humanity seems to be called for. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Kindness Matters (March 22, 2022) hits the spot, with 101 feel-good stories that restore our faith in people.


Enjoy your reading!
 
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