Do you sit in traffic on the morning commute trying to get an inch ahead of the next guy, while he’s trying to get an inch ahead of you? Would you consider fighting someone for a would-be holiday gift on Thanksgiving shopping day? Do you have to endeavor to keep your work noticed so that you get the promotion instead of your co-worker getting it? Are you sleepless many nights because your income doesn’t quite cover your outgo? Are you so used to the dog-eat-dog world that you unconsciously nip at everyone around you?
What happens when you are confronted with kindness? Can you shed that persona needed in what you call the “real world” long enough to accept it, much less return it? Do you take it as a sign of weakness and take advantage of the kind person? Does kindness confuse you?
More and more people are noticing how badly kindness is dealt with. Apparently, it makes the receiver believe that the giver feels they owe something to the receiver. It is so strange to come across a kind person that it causes confusion and even suspicion. How tragic.
In today’s society, suspicion has been so ingrained in the masses that there is little room for kindness.
We are told, “see something/say something,” and we are so well programmed with fear that we call the DHS at the slightest imagined provocation. Our children are taught that any “stranger [is a] danger” so thoroughly that any adult who attempts to have a civil conversation with a child, even in the presence of a parent, is immediately viewed as a pedophile.
It is apparently now a crime to be kind to your neighbors by giving – yes, I said giving – them real food (that is, garden produce, raw milk, etc.). But don’t worry, it’s still OK to buy frankenfoods! And if you are kind enough to your own body to want only whole, organic foods to nourish it, you are labeled an orthorexic, derived from the Greek word, orthorexia, literally meaning a correct diet, and now used to describe a “neurotic” behavior.
Many so-called “acts of kindness” are merely disguised acts of self-servitude. An act of kindness done for it’s direct reward (or for any reward for that matter) is not an act of kindness. But true kindness given does, indeed, reward the giver. Of course, rewards from acts of kindness are rarely seen in conjunction with the act itself. They happen when you are the one in need of kindness and it appears from out of the blue.
Kindness – real kindness – can take many forms. It can be as simple as someone asking if you need some groceries brought from town, or some help building that new storage shed. Or it might be something you don’t really need per se, but appreciate having. It’s a jar of jelly or a listening ear when you needed one. But it always comes from someone caring enough about someone else (you) enough to know what might be needed or appreciated or make you smile, without being told or asked.
Performing a kind act is one of those things that resonates on a higher frequency, a place in which you want to spend more time – another reward from “out of nowhere.”. Higher frequencies are where peace resides. Higher frequencies are where meditators and yogis strive to be. Higher frequencies allow us to connect with the universal energy – some call it ascension.
Some of us feel we are so unworthy of kindness when we are offered it that we refuse it as a matter of course. But it is also a kindness to allow someone to be kind to you. Get used to being treated well.
Take a look at your behaviors. How do you react to kindness? Do you disregard it? Do you assume there’s a catch? Or do you accept the kindness and then allow it to inspire an act of kindness from yourself to another? Never a truer saying than, “what goes around, comes around.”
Dan and Sheila are the authors of Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock and hosts of the free podcast, “Still Surviving with Dan and Sheila”, both available at http://survivingsurvivalism.com For information about their survival community, or for other questions, they can be reached at surviving@lavabit.com