What does it mean to be a kindness warrior? … especially in the seemingly current daily chaos.
I saw my post Instagram from many months ago and was pondering how it fits in my world now.
Being a kindness warrior is really all about changing the world from the inside out. I honestly had no idea what kindness really was or how powerful it was until I met Jeff 8 years ago. I´ve said this before but his example and continuing practice showed me another way.
I was SO unkind to myself and as a result, too often, to others in my life. My previous life involved a daily barrage of meanness to myself which led to me saying and doing things I used to fuel more self-judgment and hatred. Ouch.
I was so demanding because I wanted the world to be a better place! I demanded that people wake up and be loving, tolerant, generous to the poor, caring to the animals, and engaged and aware of our environment. I was seeing things in my life overseas and terrified that people here were in the dark. I saw the media was lying, I saw the destruction of cultures and I wanted to save the forests in these remote places. So much fear and suffering in my body. So much judgment.
In the last many years, I experienced how nice and kind are quite different. And compassion and empathy are so different.
Kind and demand do not go together. Ranting to and about other people and how bad things were, was not kind and it did not change much for the better, it simply perpetuated division and judgment.
People would mostly say that previously I was nice and compassionate. Now I see, that nice and compassionate lack depth, they were more mental constructs I thought my way to. I could be ¨nice¨ to others by DOING something nice, all the while FEELING like I sucked. I THOUGHT my way to nice & compassionate, but I FEEL & BE empathetic and kind which allows for more connection with others.
My emotional, physical, energetic, mental – are all engaged when I am BEING kind and empathetic. It is incredibly satiating and empowering. I got there by doing some practices that allowed me to experience this new way of being.
THIS HAS BEEN A LIFE CHANGER. So now, the world continues on, the same as it was 20 years ago, perhaps worse. Chaos and destruction exist but I see it and respond to it in a whole new way. I am changing myself first. I am BEING kind to others and me. As a result, my fear level is incredibly low compared to when I was unkind to myself, which allows me to take clear, results oriented action. And I like myself, and others a lot more … even when we disagree.
Kindness is not weak it is powerful. It has the power to change the world.
And being a kindness warrior is not demanding that anyone be anything else, it is me being more aware of what kindness looks like in every moment of my life inside and out.
Choose to be curious,
Kelly