Happy World Kindness Day! A tender touch or a sincere contribution to help, can change everything for another person. I’m Hannah Telluselle and this is The Source Podcast, your source of inspiration and good things. Today is the World Kindness Day. A day when we can remember to shower both ourselves and others with some extra kindness.

Kindness isn’t only about what we can do for someone else, but how we do those things. How we say things, and which words we choose when we do. If you’re going to belittle, shame or despise the person you’re helping, your help will feel like a punishment and just make the situation worse. While even saying no, but with kindness, keeps the trust and the mutual respect for both. When someone asks for help, it’s most likely a need that has been already going on for too long without tending to, but is most likely both tangible and real and not at all some kind of personal attack or vendetta against the one being asked to help. Most people are too self-centered to even consider scheming others in an effort to get something from them, without the real need. You don’t know how much the asking person rather must swallow both pride and guilt, while still having the right to what he or she asks for, but not being able to assert that right, when others aren’t being kind.

Closely related to kindness is compassion. When we feel compassion, it’s easy to show kindness. One could say that kindness is compassion in action. So, what are some kind things you can say and do?

• Give a sincere compliment
• Say a couple of words of appreciation, whether to a friend, a coworker or a stranger
• Offer help and really mean and do it
• Lift a bag up the stairs for a neighbor
• Tend to someone who isn’t feeling well
• Send an anonymous thank you card to a service provider you’re grateful to

Kindness is even more needed when someone is expressing hurt and anger. To recognize how a person has become harmed and respond with kindness, makes the hurt feel a little less. Whatever was said and done, doesn’t make the emotion less valid or more. We all can feel the same, and it’s through this relating, that we can find both empathy and compassion. And kindness works in two directions. When we are on the receiving end, we experience a type of universal love, just as when we are being kind, it warms our own hearts, and we feel better about ourselves and the world.

It will always puzzle me, why some people choose to not be kind, why they simply don’t want to help when they can, especially in professional positions. As if giving someone what they need, would make you receive less… when it’s the exact opposite! It’s like a universal law, that when we give something, we get something new in return. When we’re being kind to ourselves and others, we’re being loving. And then, that increases too.

Kindness is also a crucial part of living Aloha; the Hawaiian way of relating to others and the land. On an island, one can simply not afford to not be kind, because everybody needs everybody, especially when natural disasters hit. One can’t escape from an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean either, so it’s better to try to solve things and workout any indifferences, and to practice forgiveness. This too is being kind. To simply do something for another person, even without being asked to, or when the other isn’t expecting you to. To really listen to what the other person says he or she needs and trust that this is accurate to help with. Imagine being really hungry, and totally without means. And then someone gives you a loaf of regular bread and some milk, but you’re gluten and lactose intolerant and would get sick eating it. Is that being kind? Then receiving money instead, or to be allowed to choose according to your preferences, is a whole lot more kind.

It can of course be hard to be kind all the time or when in a heated argument, or unexpected stressful situation. But what you can do then is to practice tolerance which in turn is a stepping-stone towards compassion and kindness. Another thing you can do, is to decide to be kind against all you meet in a day before you step out of the door and try to stick with it. A simple smile towards someone, shows kindness.

Can you think of an event or a memory when you experienced others’ kindness? Is there someone you can think of that you can show a little extra kindness towards?

The next episode of The Source Podcast is published on November the 19^th, to celebrate International Men’s Day. Tune in on November the 19^th, to honor our manly aspects.

To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.