Introduction
My mate @gregscloud introduced many of us to an initiative he runs called Kindness week (this is just for my blog readers, the Kindness community already knows about this :) ) It seems like an interesting and positive activity to do. Perfection is not my stated goal in anything I try this year, but this is one challenge which would be great if I could do it perfectly. Let's see how the dice rolls wrt my daily life.
To read more about the Kindness week challenge as well as a general primer on why the act of kindness could be healthy for us, check out Greg's post on the matter.
The challenge itself is best shown by the poster created by Greg which is pointed to from below:
Image Source : The image is directly from Greg's blog, used with his permission.
Compliment a Stranger.
That was the prompt for today.
And I was like on a Sunday where do I meet strangers :) I did go out for a park nearby which opens up in the evening. But I had no interactions with the strangers there and it does end up into the creepy zone in India for a fat bearded man just stepping up to compliment anyone :) I almost told myself I will do it from tomorrow, when I realized that the stranger need not be just in physical world :)
So here's my compliment today which I remembered about just now. This was a very good musical performance on the trumpet by @yisusth where he covers a favorite song of mine "Loving You" by Minnie Riperton
It was a lovely rendition and I complimented him for the same. I was in awe cause he did the performance while suffering from migraine! Do pop over to his blog and check it out - @gregscloud/acts-of-kindness-challenge
Impact to me
In our culture both within India and also globally we end up focusing on things to improve and issues to resolve. Even when I think of myself as having a positive attitude, my practical brain always makes me focus on the things I could have done better, or the things I messed up. I would mull over obessively on a bad email interaction or an irate neighbour's post and I would note that it is stressing me and bringing up my BP.
However I never really sat down and thought about focusing on the things that made me happy today, and possibly made someone else happy. My mind tells me that I am a narcissist if I think back to my compliments for example. Like we say don't let the left hand know what the right hand gives with respect to charity.
But Greg's challenge made me think about this. Why should I hide my compliment when I gave it honestly. At the time I gave that compliment I was in a happy mood having listened to a good musician perform. Further I am hopeful that by communicating to him how much I loved and appreciated it I will give him feedback that will energize him even more.
So overall when I wrote the comment it was a simple matter of complimenting a good performance, something that I believe everyone will do so that the artist feels seen (or in this case heard). However I now realize that the act of complimenting necessarily put me into a positive space too, a space wherein I am smiling to myself for many minutes after the act of commenting.
So yes while I will continue to compliment as I always have, I will try and find opportunities to do it at points where I have been reticent before, and I will do it conscious knowing that it is helping me too.
Hope you are all surrounded by kindness. #payitforward