How kindness will make you more confident May 3, 2016 – Posted in: Confidence, Spirituality

I can’t believe it’s May already!

This month we’re going to be exploring kindness; the fifth topic in our year-long series about the qualities and principles that make up true, genuine confidence.

What is kindness? The dictionary comes up with definitions that focus on how our kindness affects others, for example, “kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate,” and, “kindness is a behaviour marked by ethical characteristics, a pleasant disposition, and concern for others”.

So, why then do I insist that kindness is an essential tool in your self-confidence kit? Quite simply because being unkind makes you feel horrible about yourself, other people and the world around you. Conversely, being kind makes you feel good about yourself, other people and the world around you.

Think about it… when you release kindness into someone’s life how does it leave you feeling? Great, right? And, if you can go one better and release that kindness without expecting anything back you’ll experience even greater levels of freedom and joy.

You get from life what you give to life. It’s really that simple. The saying, “what goes around comes around,” is bang on. If I am kind to people they are generally kind to me. People experience me as someone who wants the best for them and therefore feel no need to compete with me or mistrust me. I smile and they smile back. It’s what we call a virtuous cycle.

There are times when it’s easy to be kind; times generally characterised by people being kind back to us and the world doing what we want it to. But we all know that life isn’t always like this.

The challenge comes when people aren’t being kind or we’re finding life challenging. But these are the best times to practise your best version of kindness because doing so will settle your soul and enable you to soar above your challenge.

This week, try facing these difficult moments with kindness and see the difference it makes. I’d love to hear how you get on…