Kindness

Extending Kindness Creates Authentic Happiness In Ourselves  

While kindness was not one of the universal values identified by Professor Seligman and his group, in many ways it is the universal value that every human being appreciates and is capable of delivering.

As Henry James wrote, "Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind."

Kindness to others takes so little effort, yet it is so rarely displayed, especially to strangers and to the multitudes of people that we "interact" with throughout each day. 

In fact, the word "interact" does not adequately describe how most people relate to one another. Our "interactions" tend to be gruff expressions of meaningless chatter conveyed to ease the social awkwardness of people being forced to intermingle with others by the circumstances of yours and their daily existences.

We all too often go through the motions of living and conversing with others without truly thinking about those we interact with and what is their state of mind. Just imagine the impact we could each have if we were able to help others take their minds off their problems, even if only momentarily, simply be interacting and engaging them more fully and more kindly. 

Not only would we put more smiles on faces, we would all feel personally better for our efforts. Talk about a win-win!

Kindness requires just a tad more effort over the empty and insincere expressions of  "how's it going?" and "what's up?" and the equally non-committal replies of "not much" and "the usual" that permeates so many daily encounters between people. A smile, combined with the sincere interest in another and an oral exchange of an explicit personal nature, will make a huge difference in the lives of the other spirits you interact with, as well as in your own life. 

When you see others as spiritual beings resident in a human form, rather than as just other human beings living lives of quiet despair, you will no longer want to keep your daily interactions with others on the periphery of your life. 

Instead, you will come to realize that extending kindness and truly felt pleasantries to others is one of the core components of authentic happiness.  

This article is partially excerpted from the top-selling personal development book Project You: Living A Determined Life, available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats.