Here’s today’s mantra:
If I can only do one thing from now till the end of my life, this is the one I want. I want to be kinder. I want to be kind to everyone I meet. To strangers in the street. To waiters. To people who sell me things at stores. To other drivers on the road. To people I see regularly but don’t even know the name of. To everyone.
But most of all I want to be kind to the ones I love. To my friends, my parents, my sister, my nephews, my inlaws, my husband, my boys. It’s so easy to take the people you love for granted. It’s so easy to assume they will be here tomorrow. That they will forgive you. That they will give you more chances.
And maybe they will. But that’s no excuse. These are the people who deserve my kindness most of all. They fill my life with love. They are there for me, they cheer me on, they pick me up. They are my people and they deserve so much more than the kindest version of me. So I want to be kind to them all the time. In small ways. In big ways. In all ways.
Each time I do something I will ask myself “how can I be kinder here?”
I also want to mention that this includes me. I want to be kinder to me. The voice in my head needs to be kinder, softer, gentler.
Daily Mantras is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.
Yes. I have to agree with you on this. I have worked diligently on being kinder to myself. When I find myself falling into negative self-talk, I remind myself I would never say things like that to a friend and then try to figure out where the negativity is coming from: if I don’t like the way I look, I’m probably mad at myself for not working out. So the solution is simply to get up and move around at the very least or go to the gym at best.
I also find that if I’m kinder to myself, it is easier for me to be kinder to others because I recognize they are human too.
The fact is that life can change in the blink of an eye. While we might be kinder to others as nurturing women, it may be a chance lost if we aren’t kinder to ourselves.