Ikigai Thought for Today: Kindness
The need to be kind has never been more urgent.
Audio narration by David Marlow
With all the opportunities we have to disagree, fueled by social media and more, consider these thoughts in your reflection today…
“We’re all just walking each other home.”
Ram Dass
"Every person you have ever met, every person you will pass on the street today, is going to die. Living long enough, each will suffer the loss of his friends and family.
All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?"
Sam Harris
🌀Reflection:
🌱 What does Ram Dass mean by walking each other home?
🌱 How can kindness play a bigger role in my (your) life?
Quest well!
I believe that most people want to be kind and are just looking for an excuse to be kind. I became disabled 10 years ago and have limited mobility. I have found people to be eager to help. Wherever I go people ask, Do you need help? To see people’s kindness has been a true gift of my disability.
Why would one want to be anything but kind?
What a profound and helpful question to contemplate in a daily basis. Something takes over in our default system when we feel threatened, though we are not actually. And it is especially difficult to not return unkindness with unkindness. Hurt people feel the hurt, and so then hurt others so that they don't feel so alone and unordinary in their hurt state. Like, "I must not be so different from everybody else." And then our defenses go up, and the cycle continues.