Delay and a prayer
A lot of things were happening last week both at work and here in Hive world. And I was trying to find examples of the precise things I had as Kindness prompts. Overall this delayed the post. I am not too miffed at myself though, both because I am trying a lot to be less demanding of myself, and also because I did feel more kinder through the week. So @gregscloud's main aim to have people be kind with purpose and be kind to themselves were both met. Hat-tip to Greg for making this week happen and looking forward to what more we can do with the Kindness community.
Do join up with us and let us together try to create our own corner of a kinder world.
Day 4 - send a handwritten thank you note
This one stumped me up a bit. I do give thank you to people all the time, but almost entirely it is on apps (both in office and in personal lives), and in person. Never a hand written one, at least not since my childhood. I ended up working out a way which felt true to the spirit of the challenge. I wrote a note in a notebook, took a photo of it in my phone and then sent it to my friend who has been very helpful to me without even my asking. Just the fact that he is a swell person helping everyone has helped me immensely.
Positive reflection
It does take me a moment to write on paper. Sitting at the table with no electronics around and writing with pen on paper did feel like I was paying attention to what I write. Now I don't want to feel like I don't mean it when I write online, cause I know I feel every word I type. However there is something to be said for the tactile sense. It reminded my of thank you and sorry cards we used to make or buy when we were kids. It feels purposeful. I can see the value of that and will try and do it more often.
Negative reflection
This was something different from how I do things. The simplest might have been to write thank you notes to family. And I probably will do it in future. However at this moment I overthought it and felt that if I do it now during the challenge it will feel like I am doing it for hitting a day goal rather than from my heart. Yes, I do live a lot within my mind. Now instead of fighting with that mindset the way I normally would, I took @gregscloud's advice to be kind to myself and decided to write thank you to whoever I feel comfortable will not see it in that light. But the condition to myself is that I WILL write thank you notes to everyone I wanted to, even if it takes time.
Day 5 - Compliment someone to their boss
I did not get a lot of opportunity for it this week as I have been working from home with very less interaction. So I did compliment the delivery person in my feedback. But I don't consider this as the action done. I do compliment people at office to their bosses but will try and be more cognizant of doing that. I will have to leave this action unfinished for now. But having done it before this is one that I am sure I will do soon.
Day 5 alternate - be kind to family
So instead of doing that action I took up an alternate one. Typically when somethings upsets family members with each other, and I can see it is a simple misunderstanding I tend to get heated a why they cannot see this simple thing and instead are passive aggressive about it. Last weekend something came up and I surprised myself by not trying to solve the issue but rather just calming things down. I am happy I did not get riled up and make the situation worse, and also happy that the simple matter got resolved soon.
I attribute this change in my behavior to the idea of kindness being at top of my head thanks to this challenge
Day 6 - Spread kindness on Social Media
I had zero clue about this one till I sat down to write this post today. Interestingly, on reflection, I think my avatar on social media has been kind this month. I know it is easy to be kind here on Hive within your community and tribe. I am talking about being kind in the big bad world of Twitter :D
Well I exaggerate. The actual toxic crowd of Twitter I just block them immediately.
In this case there was a fun Classic Rock knockout polling happening there for about 152 songs and there was a lot of good natured ribbing each other over the voting. Some were a bit trollish, and normally would have triggered me. However this week I answered them with more kindness than snarkiness. I know, I know, a lot of you might think that I am getting emotional about nothing. And I would have actually not even thought of it. But this conscious thinking of kindness every single day seems to be paying off. Maybe, just maybe, Internet can be a sweet place :)
Done's Done
That was an interesting week for me. There was one more day - to buy coffee for a colleague. I did not have the opportunity this week but I will do it for sure sometime in the coming days. Overall it was a fun challenge to do, and it will be interesting to see how the community progresses. It would be great if a lot of us join in and take advantage of the data Greg has collected around Kindness and each become a beacon of kindness in their pocket of this universe.
Learnings.
- At times I thought I know how to do this as it has been part of my daily routine. I realized that I was polite, sure. But not consciously kind. That did make a difference, to oneself. As I did not get any of the benefits of being kind as I was not aware I was being kind. It was a just an automatic thing.
- At other times I felt I could not do it, and all the kindness talk I am doing is just for show. 101 imposter feeling, essentially. Managed to claw out of that by involved in multiple initiatives and letting people I was interacting with give me feedback rather than listen to my own critical self. Also kept repeating Greg's advic of "Be Kind to yourself"
- I joined in because I have believed in power of positivity even though I have been cynical too. I was listening to @taskmaster4450 in his podcast, and he highlighted that on the whole no negative person can every rise to the top of anything (I paraphrase him here) Positivity seems to be a common trait among achievers. The second reason for joining was Greg and his passion around the subject. So my entire takeaway was just going to be that being kind is possible and it is good . Just that, no big surprises. So imagine my surprise while thinking about the week, that it does seem to have made life just a bit more easy to live, by being kind. I don't remember changing my behavior to be kind or anything. But I guess just the thought, and the fact that most of us are generally polite, made some changes in my character happen.
Next
Will see how we can help make the Kindness community more active. Will also work on some kind of process or framework for myself with help from @gregscloud.
Feel free to join the Kindness community everyone.
Update: In the comments below @olujay left a very beautiful one which reminded me of the word I kept forgetting when writing this post. And the word was the key learning for me this week. The word being "intentionality This week was all about that intentionality and that made all the difference for me.
Sources:
- All images are generated by AI created by me using Open.Ai (Dall-E)
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
@brijwhiz...
Before I go any further... thank you to @theterminal for bringing this post to my attention, via a #crosspost! That's the awesome behind crossposting (when allowed)... it's all about #creatingpositivebridges! Now then!
Kindness goes hand in hand, with thoughtfulness. These are the things that we just can't have enough of! Your energy would most certainly fit in our Thoughtful Daily Post Community. In NO way trying to take away from the Kindness Community! Rather... help to elevate the awesome of all things involved with spreading positive energy, thoughtfulness, love, and yes... Kindness! Keep spreading your awesome energy, brother...
Wes...
!LUV
Thank you for your comment Wes. I had just noticed a thoughtful daily post earlier yesterday but honestly had not thought of this post as thoughtful till @thekittygirl reminded me. Again everything this weeks seems to circle back to thoughtfulness and intentionality. Her thoughtfulness helped me know and add my post to another positive endeavor.
I do worry about my energy, I have known to start things with a lot of energy and then fizzle out. I know many here are on HIVE are alpha self starters. I am not that person. I depend a lot on my environment. I absorb and reflect the energy and vibe around me. That is why this year I have decided to be intentional in my interactions and try to be in groups who are more focussed on the positive ways we can help each other rather than just troll for mileage. Also groups which celebrate the collaborative nature of human kind as musch as it support individual highs. Based on the last two months I think I am in the right tribe now :) Now to keep myself of worthy of it :)
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We definitely need more kindness in the world, so "Bravo!" for this initiative! 😊
Oh am lovin' it. More people are doing it here on Hive. Haha. The more we do things the more it becomes a habit like those kindness exercises you have here.
Being kind is one of those traits we all should be doing. Most of the time we complain but hey that shouldn't stop us from being kind indeed. haha. At times being kind (or religious) can seem or feel hypocritical but when we really get into it we are able to get past that and mean it.
Thank you for your comment @artgirl. Just like faith, exercising, and diet control, "intentional kindness" is not the easiest change in today's world. So every comment, input, advice and discussion helps one remember that there is a large tribe out there to help us in our path :)
I very rarely write much with pen and paper. That is part of why my handwriting is so bad.
Regarding kindness I was listening to a drumming podcast where they talked about 'haters'. Any prominent person on social media can get 'you suck' comments. They were saying that you cannot know the state of mind of that person and so should not retaliate. They may just have had a bad day. I try to avoid arguments online as they are unproductive. If someone is persistently nasty then they get blocked.
The only time I use pen and paper is to fulfill my executive acts of signing vendor cheques for my apartment society. And no two signatures of mine are the same !
Over the last week I have started thinking the same way as that recommendation. We don't know why they are being snarky. In Twitter, i typically check a few of their tweets. If it is temporary trolling I mute them. If it seems like a habit I block them. I used to be very worried about the blocking or muting people thinking of it like IRL. I would not like to impolite in real life. But finally started blocking and muting people left right and center.
Life is too short to worry about those people as you will never meet them.
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This is one of the most wholesome things I have consumed to day, man. You have been very intentional and thoughtful a lot these days, so much so that it's inspiring. I love how meticulous you have been at every step of the way being kind to other people, as well as yourself.
I have been a little too wrapped up in my schedule to look into other interesting and edifying things like this, but I will look around the community once again for more like yours. By the way, aren't you our very own Hive Santa? I totally love te animated versions of you!
Thank you so so much @olujay.
I have been pulling my hair out this past few days trying to find a word and completely missing it. I had to use close synonyms and none of them had the effect I wanted to have. Till you put it into this comment. INTENTIONAL. That was the idea floating in my mind for the past 8 days but the word kept slipping off the tip of my tongue.
Thank you dear friend for introducing me back to this beautiful word :)
Yes you are absolutely correct that intentionality was my main takeaway from the kindness week. And the fact that you think I have been able to communicate that in my actions makes me so happy I cannot begin to explain. Thank you for your kindness in sharing this with me. You have made my day. And given my mind peace over that missing word :)
We appreciate you taking the time, to either use #ThoughtfulDailyPost, or otherwise help this Community grow. So...
Thank you!!
Kindness is what we all need to keep thriving in a chaotic world, it's very good to be intentional about kindness. I wish you the best.
Hey dreemer, I am an awesome #dreemerforlife curating via Dreemport.
Well said Amie. Intentionality helps a lot, both for self growth as well to highlight the advantages to others. I pray I am able to build on this start, and other kind people also start looking at it with intention. Thank you for gracing my post.
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Lol so trueeeeeeeeeeeee Twitter is so crazy, it's more like some of these mean people were hand-picked and sent down there. This was such a wonderful read @brijwhiz thanks for sharing🥰
Always a #dreemerforlife
Thank you @ibbtammy
I believe personally that writing lacks tone, but in microblogging this issue is exacerbated. So someone might think a snark comeback is funny but the receiver might feel it is mean. In long form we have enough words available to explain how what we are saying is a joke or how it is all stupid etc. However main issue remains that more eyeballs means more rewards there and hence people will go to any level to create drama.
Kindness comes with lots of rewards. An act of kindness shows a satisfied mind. Keep it up friend.
Kindness goes a long way in bettering ourselves and those around us. I think sometimes, we may not really know how through our act of kindness can light up the inner world of the receiver. As a receiver, I've experienced it a few times and it's such a wonderful feeling so I always try to pay it forward and also give kindness whenever possible.
Truer words were never spoken. Thank you @takhar.