It's always good to practice love and kindness. It soothes and satisfies knowing you are giving someone affection even in the smallest of ways. From a smile to volunteering someplace to greeting someone, loving kindness can be shown in a multitude of ways and can brighten someone's day when they may have been experiencing a bad day or having a hard time. It can make you feel more in touch with your own self, which can relax you even more because it provides a good feeling which can make for overall wellbeing and health.
The exercises practiced opened my mind up to understanding just how much loving kindness can benefit me as much as someone I direct these actions to. It can be subtle or obvious. But however it's demonstrated, it can be seen in the minor details that make a huge difference in my life as well as those on the receiving end. When you take the time to practice this affection in anyway, people feel the effects and so do you. It makes you feel good and provides you with a deeper understanding of yourself and others in how you see yourself, how others see you and oftentimes you get it paid forward where you become the recipient of someone else's act of loving kindness. But even if you never experience it back or not right away, you still take pleasure in feeling you have done something - anything - for someone that could have improved their day or even your life in some kind of way.
And that is a great feeling to have!
Great blog post, and I agree that doing kind things for other people makes you feel good. Especially this time of year, when the holidays are all about giving (and every cheesy Hallmark movie is about how magical and wonderful people are this time of year), I notice that people are usually just awful. Being back by my family for a long weekend, and having had to run out to the mall, reinforces that people are not nice! Just trying to park the car, I heard 3 different people argue about who's spot was who's. And I got a dirty look from a person when I stopped in front of the store to drop off my grandmother before I went searching for a parking spot (I will add that my grandmother is 96 and uses a cane, which is why I stopped in front of the store for her to get out of the car). It actually annoyed me so much that I made an extra effort to be nice- I held the door for people without ever getting a 'thank you'. I wished everyone a merry Christmas. And kept a smile on my face the whole time. It's actually really funny to see people look at you like you have an ulterior motive for your actions- but am hoping that maybe it put them in a better mood and they would pay it forward during a time of year that should be friendly, not a time to fight over a parking spot!
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