Kindness is its own Reward

Kindness is its own reward. Kindness is most of all a gift to yourself. Each act of kindness makes you the giver, kinder, and lightens you up. So, not only do you create a ripple effect of goodness and kindness in the world, it not has only an outside effect but it has an equal inner effect, an extremely positive effect on yourself.

Even if there is massive scientific proof that kindness makes people happier, makes employees respect their managers more, makes the givers of kindness more fulfilled humans, raises productivity at work, makes you live longer, ...

We don't need that scientific proof, we know intuitively that we all prefer to spend time, to do business, to work for people who radiate that high-vibe natural kindness.

So if kindness is its own reward, even so is arrogance its own penalty.

What many tend to forget is when someone who is going through life in a judgemental, arrogant, aggressive, rude way, that persons shuts off all profound connection with him/herself and every possible meaningful relationship with others. A person who feels the need for judgement, arrogance and negativity is locked up in his/her prison of ego and fixed beliefs.

And it's not always easy to stay kind and compassionate in the triviality of daily life. At work, f.ex. we so easily judge, it’s our second nature. You could say that judging is the lazy choice. We judge our bossy manager, we judge an egoistic colleague, and yet, judging never helps.

Only when we do the effort of trying to understand the root cause of someone else's behaviour, when we reach out to the other person, when we transcend our small self, can we start to build bridges. That is what kindness does, it builds bridges, it breaks cycles.

Each time we choose kindness in a difficult situation, we break a cycle of negativity, a cycle of upset, anger, aggression. 

Let me share an example of someone who understood very well the reward of kindness and compassion. It is a very touching story that I read in ‘The Book of Joy’ by HH The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. The Dalai Lama shares a story from a Tibetan monk. He was visited by this monk who spent more than 18 years in a Chinese prison camp. And the Dalai Lama asked him what the hardest part was of being imprisoned unjustly. And the Tibetan monk shared with the Dalai Lama that on a few occasions he really faced some danger. So HH The Dalai Lama asked him, 'What danger? What kind of danger?', thinking he would tell him of Chinese torture. But the Tibetan monk replied, 'Many times I was in danger of losing compassion for the Chinese.'

And how extraordinary is this? A monk, tortured, unjustly imprisoned for so many years, thinks that his biggest danger is the loss of his compassion. And let me extend that to kindness.

The biggest threat to our humanity is the loss of our kindness. 

But, we are not without influence. Day in, day out, we can start a revolution of kindness, whether locally or globally. Raising our energy will be vital to raise the planet’s energy. So an attitude of kindness is beneficial for ourselves, for those around us and for our planet.

Let us soften our hearts, deepen our compassion, develop respect and a reverence for all forms of life to restore the balance which humanity so desperately needs. Let us model a new way of being for others. When they see it more and more exemplified before their own eyes, then they start to understand that they also can make a choice for a more evolved way of being.

Much love, Barbara

PS for more info about my work: https://bio.site/barbaravercruysse