Kindness
Question # 1 What does kindness mean? Why is it important?
When kindness is part of a school community, kids feel
safer, more engaged, look forward to going to school and have stronger relationships.
https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/blog/kindness-kindness-kindness-conversation-mccs-rick-weissbourd
Children as young as 18 months of age quite readily help others to achieve their goals in a variety of different situations.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/311/5765/1301
A study examining the trait most highly valued in potential romantic partners suggests that both men and women agree that kindness is one of the most highly desirable traits.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/feeling-it/201306/compassion-our-first-instinct
Research shows that kindness is the most important predictor of satisfaction and stability in a marriage.
Kindness makes each partner feel cared for, understood, and validated - feel loved. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/happily-ever-after/372573/
We are becoming a kinder species because reason and intellect drive us to be better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/just-babies-the-origins-of-good-and-evil-by-paul-bloom/2013/12/20/b995464a-56c1-11e3-835d-e7173847c7cc_story.html
Question # 2 What are some concrete ways to practice kindness?
Try spending 5 minutes of your day to think of people
you love - perhaps even by focusing on times when you felt close or when the loved one showed you kindness. It doesn’t even have to be a loved one that you think of. You can think of any person, who has shown you kindness or who you have shown kindness towards.
https://lifelabs.psychologies.co.uk/users/1025-dr-david-r-hamilton/posts/874-the-mother-theresa-effect
To practice kindness, try to recall things you have done out of good-heartedness.
http://www.mindful.org/be-kind-to-yourself-right-now/
Say hello to a person you meet on your way from a to b.
Adapted from http://www.oprah.com/spirit/35-little-acts-of-kindness/
Kind people do small things to show they care about people. For example, a kind person asks someone “how are you doing?� and really listens to his or her answer. https://hbr.org/2016/01/to-motivate-employees-do-3-things-well
Kind people know that great truths such as “I really like you” sometimes have to pass into the mind of another person via a smaller falsehood such as “your cake was delicious”.
http://www.thebookoflife.org/aphorisms-on-kindness/
The greatest kindness we can bestow on others in difficult moments is to treat people as if they were children. Why? Because we rarely feel personally agitated or wounded by the bad behaviour of small children. And the reason is that we don’t assign negative motives or mean intentions to them. We reach around for the most benevolent interpretations. We forgive. http://www.thebookoflife.org/aphorisms-on-kindness/