the 9th habit
How can we create a discipline for kindness in our life? No, I don’t mean a random act of spanking, I am interested in exploring how kindness can be a habit, an addiction that we just can’t quit. I believe like any other action we take, it must start with the intention or desire to do so. We must feel the need to get our fix of the helper’s high. We must believe there is a need to create more kindness in our lives and in the lives of others. Once we have realized this we can then start the planning. Just like building a house, we need to create a blueprint for ourselves of how we want to change our life. We can first look at where kindness is lacking in our lives. Is it with a person we are frustrated with, strangers in our community, or maybe it is our perceptions of other cultures? As we break ground we can begin to loosen the thoughts that are preventing us from setting an unstable foundation. Thought by thought we can build a healthier way of seeing the world: a world filled with positive people and opportunities to make someone’s day, and in turn improve our own.
Once our new mental frame is complete, we can head outside and plant new expressions of compassion. Each day we can commit ourselves to one new act of kindness. We can write this commitment down, tell a friend – our veritable ”pusher” of goodwill to remind ourselves of our new habit!
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