Today I'm digging into a new book, Radical Kindness (written by the creator of Blues Clues and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and protégé of Fred Rogers!) and I want to share one theme that keeps on emerging in our secret society.
Kindness is deeply connected to awareness, to noticing, to attunement.
Random acts of kindness, or confetti kindness as the book Deep Kindness calls it, is fine, but the unreasonable kindness we're cultivating is far deeper than that. It requires skills and intention and being aware of and attuned to ourselves and the people around us.
Here's the section from Radical Kindness that inspired me today and almost reads like a poem:
"Kindness is about increasing our awareness of how we see and, consequently, treat ourselves and others. [...]
Practicing kindness may sound like a simple proposition, but the implications of it are anything but.
Being kind to yourself is a gift of strength; it can give you purpose and a deep sense of joy about your life.
Being kind to others is a gift of compassion; it can build the self-image and confidence of a fellow human being.
Being kind to the world is a gift of hope and awareness; it involves cultivating an active social conscience.
These new ways of interacting with yourself, other people, and the world at large are, in essence, your gifts to the future.
Your acts of kindness can have a lasting impact on people and the communities in which they live.
By merely practicing kindness, you can contribute to preserving the home we all share and even potentially affect the ways nations interact by doing your small part to shift public focus away from aggression and toward peace, tolerance, and compassion for other people, other cultures, and the planet itself."
That's why we're so serious about kindness, it's not just fluff.
And yes, there are many things we need in order to build a just world and this kind of connected kindness is a piece of that.
I'll also mention, because I just learned about this work yesterday (thanks to an incredible program I've been accepted into), that this vision of peace for people and the planet feels deeply connected to the vision that the People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy laid out in December 2019. It builds a world where we have indigenous and tribal sovereignty, justice for Black communities, justice for migrant communities, just transition for workers and communities, protections and investments for environmental justice communities and more...I highly recommend you read it if you're looking for a beautiful vision of a regenerative economy.
So this is my wish for you today, that you know in your bones...
Being kind to yourself is a gift of strength.
Being kind to others is a gift of compassion.
Being kind to the world is a gift of hope and awareness.
- Lindsay
P.S. If you enjoy learning about the depth and importance of kindness, we're doing so much more of that in my workshop happening this month. Come and start your gifts to the future and walk away with a plan for your first Unreasonable Kindness Project. Purchase your ticket at unreasonablekindness.eventbrite.com and bring a friend! Kindness is more fun in community.