The Kindness Box

[Geoff-Allen]

“I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.” – Charles De Lint

Dozens more -

150 Quotes About Helping Others In Need And Getting Nothing In Return

These quotes about helping others will inspire you to be a helpful person.

everydaypower.com

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

How much should I help others? How often? Will I be exploited? Will I end up resenting people I love if they don’t reciprocate?

We all know selfless givers who are taken advantage of and taken for granted. Nobody wants to feel like a sucker.

So this simple thing doesn’t seem so simple — and it feels safer to just be selfish no matter what fancy research and your conscience might tell you.

Adam Grant has a wonderful book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, which directly tackles this issue and provides some firm answers grounded in research. To help others the right way, give these tips a shot.

Read them here -

To Help Others The Right Way, Do These 5 Things - Barking Up The Wrong Tree

What's the best way to help others so we don't feel exploited or get burned out? Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton, explains what the research has to say.

bakadesuyo.com

All the best!

 

[sun rise]

We all know selfless givers who are taken advantage of and taken for granted. Nobody wants to feel like a sucker.

In my tradition, selflessness means to be like the sun which shines on the just and unjust because it's the sun's nature. Of course this is an extremely lofty goal that very very few can achieve.

 

[Geoff-Allen]

"Too often, people make the mistake of believing that if they only had more money or more sex or a different partner or a better-looking body, they would feel the sense of "wholeness" they have always craved. Virtually without exception, this is not the case. What is actually lacking is the dimension of giving and kindness as a means of nourishing the soul. To add this dimension to your life is to nourish your soul."

Harold Kushner

Loads more at the living life fully site -

quotes, quotations and passages about kindness

Cheers~

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Pray for others -

Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to God on behalf of others or asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others. The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Timothy specified that intercession prayers should be made for everyone.

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

An Intercessory Prayer - Encouraging Others

Have you ever felt an unexplained burden on your heart to pray for the masses, for unnamed others, for your community or the world at large? You are being called to intercession.

www.crosswalk.com

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Try - crosswalk.com kindness

For example -

15 Beautiful Bible Verses about Kindness

Kindness implies intention. A kind person is friendly, but they’re friendly as a way of living, at all times with all people. The Bible encourages us to be more than nice, more than friendly. Living like Jesus is living as kind people.

www.crosswalk.com

All the best

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Tiny Buddha love challenges kindness

No one carries a sign around on their back advertising their problems, so I can’t ever know what someone’s life is like unless they tell me.

But if an act of kindness has the ability to shift someone’s bad day into a better one, then why not try to be that change?

Often I have wondered why a compliment from a stranger causes an instant eruption of smiles; yet, when my friends tell me how talented I am, the response is always, “Do you really think?” or “I hope so.” And now I know.

It’s because people I don’t know have no reason to go out of their way to tell me something they didn’t believe was true.

I started out being nice as a means to build friendships, but found a gratifying connection in my everyday interactions with strangers instead.

Everyone has a battle that they’re fighting, and as people who occupy the same traveling spaces we should try to treat each other like neighbors, because for that moment while we’re standing next to each other, that’s exactly what we are.

A Little Care Can Go a Long Way and Make Someone's Day

If an act of care and kindness has the ability to shift someone’s bad day into a better one, then why not try to be that change?

tinybuddha.com

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Acts of Kindness | KindSpring.org

A place to practice small acts of kindness. For over a decade the KindSpring community has focused on inner transformation, while collectively changing the world with generosity, gratitude, and trust.

www.kindspring.org

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Make someone smile

33 Quick Ways to Make People Smile Today

Figuring out how to make people smile doesn’t always have to involve a grand gesture. It can be the most seemingly insignificant thing and still get the job done.

www.happierhuman.com

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Also try - happier human kindness!

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Matthieu Ricard altruism

For the Sake of Another: Matthieu Ricard and the New Altruism | Los Angeles Review of Books

Matthieu Ricard offers a synthesis of prior texts that together offer overwhelming evidence that altruism does not run against the grain of nature.

lareviewofbooks.org

Enjoy!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

A happy person goes out of their way to help people. Some studies show that those who volunteer at least 5.8 hours a month tend to rate themselves as very happy. There are numerous benefits to helping others. For instance, when you focus on helping those in need, you spend less time going over negative events in your head. You might also experience feel-good hormones from a neurological perspective for helping others. It’s called Helper’s High.

Helping people is also a social activity. And people are meant to be social, so there’s usually a happiness boost from being around others too. Helping people also creates a sense of altruism from doing a good deed that can ripple off to generate more good deeds. And that enables you to feel even happier. If you want to be a happier person, your act of kindness can be big or small, and it’ll still have an impact.

Comes from this article -

17 Happy Person Traits and Habits to Help You Model Happiness

The best way to learn to be happier is to model yourself after people who are already in that state. Here's 17 habits of a happy person.

declutterthemind.com

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

“To make a difference in someone’s life you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful, or perfect. You just have to care.”

Mandy Hale

“You don’t have to move mountains. Simply fall in love with life. Be a tornado of happiness, gratitude, and acceptance. You will change the world just by being a warm, kind-hearted human being.”

Anita Krizzan

“Every act of kindness is a piece of love we leave behind.”

Paul Williams

Dozens more quotes here -

130+ Kindness Quotes That’ll Make You a Nicer Person

Kindness quotes can help you be a kinder, more compassionate person. Here are 130+ kindness quotes that’ll inspire your kindness.

declutterthemind.com

Cheers!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

On a hunch - try -

Kindness better person

For example -

How do you feel when you see someone in pain? Do you perhaps wish you could do something to improve their situation? Maybe you even ‘feel’ their pain or difficulty within yourself? That feeling is called compassion. It can be defined as sympathy that arises when we witness or learn of someone’s suffering. Compassion (from Latin Cum= with; patio= suffering) means to ease someone else’s suffering by somehow sharing their difficult burden. Kindness is that aspect of compassion that makes us want to do something to relieve that person’s suffering. It’s an amazing, incredibly human quality.

Kindness refers to performing selfless actions. However, if you think kindness means buying someone an expensive gift, or donating enormous sums of money to charity, think again. Kindness doesn’t need grand gestures.

If you look around, you can spot it everywhere. In the person who opens the door for someone in physical difficulty; in a pack of chocolates that your partner got you because they know you’ve been feeling unwell; in the person who offers to take you to the place you asked directions for, or even simply in exchanging a gentle smile with a stranger.

You might not realise it, but chances are you regularly engage in acts of kindness yourself, and if you’re not, why not start today?

Read MUCH more here -

Acts of Kindness: Here's How They Can Make You a Better Person | Therapy Central

Acts of Kindness: Here's How They Can Make You a Better Person. In this blog, you’ll learn more about the importance of Acts of Kindness.

therapy-central.com

Enjoy your browsing!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Living a good life - includes kindness & generosity -

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

 

[Geoff-Allen]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=a+philosophy+of+kindness

 

[Geoff-Allen]

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.

Comes from this huge site -

Kindness as a Spiritual Practice | Spirituality & Practice

Let Spirit flow through you in little acts of kindness, brief words of encouragement, and manifold expressions of courtesy. These deeds will add to the planet's fund of good will.

www.spiritualityandpractice.com

All the best!

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Use this "Prayer of the Heart" as a meditation to overcome negative thoughts toward others and to instill in yourself feelings of loving-kindness for family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and enemies, both at home and abroad. By doing so you can help loosen the bonds that hold unjust authority in place.

Let us keep our hearts focused.
Let me find kindness to negate resentment.
Let me show generosity to dissolve possessiveness.
Let me stand steady in the face of pain rather than live in fear.
Let me experience inquiry rather than reaction.
Let me be free from clinging and a narrow mind.
Let me express compassion rather than indifference.
So that my heart connects with the realities of others.
So that I stay true to an undying principle
of treating others as I wish to be treated.
So awareness and respect pervade
My thoughts, words and actions.
So that I live in a way that brings dignity and nobility to life
And reveals true freedom of being.

— Christopher Titmuss in Transforming Our Terror

 

[Geoff-Allen]

Karma yoga is often defined as “the yoga of action” or “the path of selfless service.” The Sanskrit word “Karma” is derived from the root word “Kru,” which translates as “work, deed or action.” Yoga is a set of practices to unite the body, mind, and heart into a state of oneness. Karma yoga is a disciplined and conscious path to attaining this unitive state through unselfish, kind, and generous actions. This yoga of action involves renouncing the future fruits of our efforts as a spiritual offering rather than letting the ego to become attached to the results of our actions.

Karma Yoga: the Path of Selfless Action • Yoga Basics

Karma yoga is often defined as "the yoga of action" or "the path of selfless

www.yogabasics.com

Cheers!