Kindness Matters.

There is an unbelievable amount of power in kindness. Being kind not only makes the world a much better place, but it can also make you feel more connected with humanity and it can make your soul feel at peace. Being kind is a skill that requires courage and strength. Words associated with kindness include empathy, decency, compassion, gentleness, understanding, goodheartedness, mercy, patience, and so on. Our country and our world needs so much more of these traits. Kindness should be a core value for every person.

Kindness: the quality of being generous, helpful, and caring about other people, or an act showing this quality.

A world with not enough kindness creates hate, division, lack of empathy, lack of compassion, and quite frankly a lack of caring. There are so many people that honestly just don't care about things that matter. So many people that don't even try to understand or hear a view that is different from theirs. To be a kind person, it doesn't mean to only be kind to those that think similar to you. It doesn't mean to be kind only when you want to. No matter what, every single being deserves to be treated with kindness and decency. Just because you don't agree with someones life choices doesn't mean that they should be treated like they are worthless or nothing. They are still a human being that has feelings and a soul just like all of us.

Diversity and inclusion: giving value to every human being, no matter our differences.

There are many different ways to practice kindness. Open your eyes and notice when you see others suffering or in need. A random act of kindness can turn someone's whole day around or maybe even their whole life around. Say a kind word to someone, give compliments, show people that you care about them, hold the door open for a stranger, smile when you walk next to someone in the store, show up for people. Be kind to strangers. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to people who are not kind to you. Kill them with kindness. Just spread kindness wherever you go. Our world is in desperate need of this.

With kindness comes empathy. Empathy is also something that our world and our country is in desperate need of. Empathy allows you to step into someone else's shoes and it gives us the ability to emotionally understand what other people are feeling even though we may have never been through the same experiences.

Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.

It seems like our society has almost completely lost the importance and extreme value of kindness. I said this in my about me page, but I think it needs to be said again here. I believe that all of the issues our world is facing right now come straight down to lacking empathy and kindness. At the end of the day, we all really need to do better. We have so much potential to be better humans. We need to show compassion and generosity and love to every single living being.

Life is too short to spread hate. We can do better. JUST BE KIND. ALWAYS. IT MATTERS.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -- Maya Angelou