I saw this quote, by Rachel Samson, and it stopped me in my tracks.
I am proud that throughout my careers, in business and education, the teams I have had the pleasure to be part of, the families I have worked with and my friends and family, have all expressed to me that my kindness is something I should be proud of.
Personally, I am confident to sit back and watch my own young adult offspring dive into adulthood with an amazingly kind ethos. Granted, one is prioritising kindness to himself after a rough run, but it is very deserved. One runs a weekly meetup for young people with autism, and my third coaches Year 1 university students in text analysis and settling into university away from home. I have often marvelled at how well adjusted they now are. (Note: I said ‘now are’, as I recognise it has been a journey!)
So Rachel Samson’s quotation made me stop and think. “What do I do to model kindness to myself and to others?’ Answering the ‘others’ bit is easy. Anyone that spends more than an hours in my presence will know how crazy my phone is – whatsapp, calls, emails, socials. If there is one sole reason for this business to fail, it is that I loath charging money for something I have always given for free – advice, time, love and support!
So reading this ‘modelling kindness’ meme made me ask ‘what about you – how are you kind to you’. I left my office and went for a walk to think.
As I returned, I saw this ‘wall’ that I created as I enter my space. No one visits the office, it is a place for me to be me, to be undisturbed, to study, to think and to work. But it is definitely a wall designed to be kind to me.
What do you do to be kind to yourself?
