Being Kind

My articles have often been about behavior and actions that have a negative impact on people and how there needs to be change and improvement with it. During these times, I have also put out how important it is for oneself to look after themselves. Sometimes, it tends to be lost or overlooked with the main topic. Therefore, today my article is entirely going to be about how it is important to be kind to ourselves.

Importance of Being Kind to Oneself

Every day as a child through our growing years, we learn how important it is to inculcate good manners into our lives. We learn how we should help others, are kind to others, not be rude to others, and so many more things. We learn how our actions can have a consequence on others. We become more aware of the right treatment towards other people. We understand the importance of being good to others. However, what we fail to learn is how our actions and behavior have a consequence to ourselves as well. Therefore, the right kind of reinforcement to ourselves is also very important. We must consider ourselves as our friends so that we learn to be kind and positive to ourselves. We have often heard it is important to look after ourselves first and then other people. It is in the same manner that we first are nice and kind to ourselves and then to others.

Let me ask all the readers out there, would you call your friend rude or harsh for no reason and constantly keep complaining and taunting them? Of course, you would not do something like that. Then why do it to ourselves? How fair and equal are we being to our bodies and mind? These are some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves when we are so harsh and bad to our minds and body. Nobody needs to go through the pain and suffering even if we inflict it on ourselves. We should be proud of our bodies and mind no matter who says otherwise or what happens. Being kind to ourselves is the first step forward and betterment of society, community, and the world.

Let me ask all the readers out there another question. How often have you called yourself useless or worthless just because you did not do what you had thought in mind or had a minor inconvenience? Each individual will have a different number of instances but will surely have one. This shows how we are not kind to our bodies and mind. The body and the mind constantly work and produce several information and thought and yet face backlash when something small goes wrong. We often forget to credit ourselves for the amount of work and energy we put in every single day. It is high time we start being grateful for the things we have. Here I do not mean things like money, power, clothes, etc. What I am referring to is our mind, body, health, our ability to think, our ability to understand things, etc.

The most unfortunate thing is that today everything has become a competition among human beings. In this process, we have completely forgotten to look after ourselves and be there for ourselves. We expect our bodies to act like machines and work extra almost every time. To reach the impossible expectations we make our body and mind suffer so much that in the end, it all becomes itself. The standard idea of being thin is beautiful makes us to go such extremes with our body and mind. We do not provide the energy and nutrition for it to function healthy and at the same time expect it to work the extra amount without and source to function. Even though we want to eat, we stop ourselves from eating just so that we look thin. This is just one of the most common instances that are here about how we are not kind to our bodies and mind. Many more things need to change so that we can live in peace with ourselves and who we are as individuals.

How to be kind to ourselves?

There are so many ways one can be kind to themselves and make peace in the right way with who they are as individuals. These are some ways that I can think of. If there are more than you can think of after reading this article make sure to inculcate and speak about it as much as you can.

1. Rewarding and thanking ourselves: One of the most common yet the most important ways you can be kind to yourself is by rewarding and thanking your body and mind. Let me give you an example. Suppose you have been studying hard for your exams the entire night before and you finish your exam and come back. You need reward and thank your body for working so hard by eating and sleeping the right amount. You should give your body and mind to relax and freshen up before you sit with your exams. This is one of the instances there are many more that we experience in our daily lives.

• Do not punish yourself: There is a belief among people that only if they punish themselves will they be more productive. This is completely not true rather just a thing to justify negative things that are present in society. Let me use a similar example. Suppose you have worked hard for your exams but you did not do your exam well. If you do not give your body, mind enough amounts of sleep and nutrition, sit, and study for the next exam without relaxing your body and mind then it means you are punishing your body and mind even though you have done your best. This is not right and should change as an individual and as a community.

• Do not compare yourself: This has become a common problem behavior among people, which needs to change. It is way beyond time that we realize that we human beings are very different not just physically but also mentally and emotionally. We human beings have different capacity levels, which makes us so unique from one another. If everyone is the same then what is the difference between the robots and us? Though this sounds like a very cliché question, it is something we must think and ponder about.

• Never change yourself because of the negative things people say: One of the most crucial things in being kind to yourself is about never making any changes in yourself that are good just because people say otherwise. Let me give an example. If you are, a sensitive person and people keep telling you that you need to stop being sensitive and need to change yourself for any reason and you do it, then that is not being kind to yourself. You need to believe in yourself and stand for who you are and there is nothing wrong with that.

I can go on and on about how important it is to be kind to yourself and the different ways that you can be too. However, I also think it is important for people to think about this, realize on their own, and do it because they want to and not because they read about it in an article. This needs to come from the within and towards yourself on your own.

To conclude, with a beautiful quote by Anita Moorjani where says, “Transform your world by transforming your internal state. Start by learning to let go of negative self-judgment, and replace it with positive and loving thoughts about yourself. Be kind to yourself, and watch the external world change.”

References

1. Google searches for images and quotes.