Kindness Matters
Every Day Encouragement (4/365)
We have been thinking a lot about kindness.
Revisiting Matt Inwood’s thinking in his beautiful piece for The Encouragement Manifesto, we were struck by the clarity of his proposition that kindness has two essential elements; the giving and the receiving.
Kindness, first and foremost, is something that happens between two or more people: it requires another. Even self-kindness requires two sides of the same person, in that ‘I’ might give something to ‘myself’.
A social media conversation with a talented creative who took part in our Summer of mentoring in The Encouragement Sessions made me reflect on the ‘receiving’ part of that equation. Often, it seems, the act of kindness, the intention of it (the ‘giving’, genuinely, of encouragement, warmth, praise) founders on the rocks of humbleness … imposter syndrome, perhaps … a reluctance in the recipient to see their worth.
Maybe we all — at times — need to open ourselves up to the possibility that others see the worth in what we do. Their kindness is not just well-intentioned, it is proper recognition of work done well, talent expressed or creativity fulfilled.
Sometimes, perhaps, we need to open ourselves up to the ‘receiving’ so the two-way ‘conversation’ of kindness can flow.
Every Day Encouragement is a side project of feastsandfables Encouraging words, written and shared every day for 2021.
