Just for Today I will be Kind to Every Living Thing

Kindness is like an old fashioned virtue that we all seem to have heard about, but are not quite sure how to practice. What does being kind involve? Can we only be kind to people who have less than us in material terms, or is it okay to do something kind for someone who seems to have more money than we do?

Kindness is not a tangible thing, but a fleeting emotion that fills your heart with joy and satisfaction. This sensation usually comes up when you do something nice for someone else, without any expectations from them to reciprocate. In fact, doing random acts of kindness allows you to enrich your own lives as well as the lives of those who you perform these acts for.

What can a random act of kindness entail? Giving a bottle of cold water to a stranger in the summer heat. Allowing the person behind you, to go ahead of you at the billing counter. Hold the door open for someone exiting the grocery store. Passing out a packet of biscuit to street vendor at the traffic light. Speaking for five minutes to a grandmother sitting on a bench in the park. 

Give a stranger a compliment. Give someone a hug. Write a letter to someone who you haven’t spoken to in ages. Donate books to a library. Donate clothes to an orphanage. Visit someone in the hospital with flowers. Babysit for a busy mother. Spend time with a veteran and listen to his stories and old memories.

There are so many acts of kindness just waiting to be performed. Not all of them cost money. Some simply require a caring thought and a bit of your time.

Today’s Call to Action

How do you begin a practice of performing random acts of kindness? Here’s a few suggestions that you can start implementing today.

Look around you to see where an act of yours could make the life of someone a bit easier. This means being mindful of the people in your surroundings and not being stuck on your smartphone and oblivious to the world. A hug, a compliment, a thank you can all go a long way in making someone feel better.

If you need more motivation and practice, decide that you will conduct a single act of kindness every day for a month. You can create a list with thirty activities and tick them off as you complete them. Having a print out of the list to look at each morning will help to stay focused. It is interesting to see how many items you can cross off the list and just how soon!

You will find that as you get into the habit of making other people more comfortable, you will also feel better about yourself. After all the vibes that you send out into the Universe, will always return to you tenfold.

Affirmation – I consistently perform random acts of kindness. Kindness costs nothing, but brings me great joy. Kindness is a gift we all can afford to give.

I wish you a life full of random acts of kindness.

Love and light, always

Cashmere

Just For Today I Will Do My Work Honestly

Are you an honest person? The fact is that honesty may mean one thing to you and another to the next person. No two people have the exact same standard when it comes to honesty. Some people think it’s okay to take home office stationery, while others feel it’s an absolute disgrace. That stealing stationery from the office should be grounds for dismissal.

Based on your belief, you may think a person is acting dishonestly or stealing. However since we set the standard for honestly in our lives, we often fail to understand that we too, could be found wanting. That others could find us dishonest. That our behaviour may be seen to lack integrity.

Richard Whately, the Archbishop of Dublin said, “Honestly is the best policy.”

Yet, all of us are dishonest at some time or the other. The worst form of dishonesty is when you steal from yourself. How is that possible? You may ask.

You steal from yourself, when you choose to deny your talent.

You steal from yourself when you don’t use your gift. You waste your time on silly things like watching television for hours, or spending time aimlessly on social media sites. You are also stealing from the people who could benefit from your sharing your talent. You are denying them access to your gift. Your dishonesty may be causing someone who needs your help, a great deal of anguish.

Today’s Call to Action

Think about your gift to the world. Be honest with yourself when you answer the question, “What can I bring to the world to make it a better place?” It’s not an easy question to answer. Take some time out and make a list of your talents. Now hone in on the ones that help you honestly make a difference.

It does not have to be something extremely elaborate, even of you can make a difference in the life of a single individual during the course of your life, it is worthwhile. Can you help someone become more confident? Can you create something that will help others? Can you support someone in their quest?

Once you have identified certain actions that allow you to use your talent honestly, you will know the next step to be taken. Today make it a point to begin living honestly by taking the first step towards sharing your gift with the world. Call a person you can help. Make a difference in their life. Sharing is caring.

Affirmation – I live my life honestly. I honour my talents and share my gift with the world. I live my life with integrity and speak my truth all the time.

I wish you a lifetime of honest experiences.

Love and light, always

Cashmere

Just For Today I will not Worry

It is human nature to think ahead, to plan for the future and to consider problems that may crop up along with solutions. There’s nothing wrong in staying one step ahead of problems, but there is a serious issue if you are constantly borrowing trouble. If you are dealing with a constant imbalance in your mind, body and spirit.

Are you the sort of person who is always worried about something going wrong? Are you constantly worried about possible setbacks in life? Do you go from one nagging thought to a slew of thoughts that steal your peace of mind? Are stress and anxiety your perpetual companions?

According to a Swedish Proverb, worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.

Simply put, most of the things that you are worried about, have not happened as yet. Most of the things that you are going to worry about, are not going to happen either. These worries are just shadow monsters that live in your own mind, nurtured and trained by your attitude. 

A lifetime of untrained thoughts cause you to worry about everything. Yes, you will have problems in life. Yes there will be setbacks and difficulties in meeting your desired goals, but worrying is not the way to help yourself overcome them.

Remember each time you think a thought, you are spending energy on it. Just like you would not buy rotten fruit by spending your hard earned money on it, train yourself to not spend your energy on thoughts that are not helpful to you at all.

Today’s Call to Action

How do you stop worrying and spending your energy on non essential issues. Pay attention to your thoughts. Each time you catch yourself worrying with non productive thoughts, mentally say to yourself STOP! Clear your mind with a couple of minutes of deep breathing.

Then physically get up and do a set of exercises. It could be anything simple like raising your hands above your head and touching your toes ten times. Or holding your arms out sideways and twisting your waist. It can be anything, just do ten repetitions.

Now think about the situation that started the worrying. Has a problem actually manifested itself? No? There’s nothing to worry about! Just laugh out loud and remind yourself, I am now changing my attitude to worrying.

Yes, there is a problem? Is there any action that you can take to help create a solution? Go ahead and plan the steps.

Now visualize that the problem is solved. That you are happy and laughing. Feel the joy of vanquishing the problems. Remind yourself that you are more than capable of handling any challenges that life brings to you.

Affirmation – I eliminate worry from my life. I make space for joy. I have faith that everything will work out for the highest good of everyone.

I wish you days filled with laughter and joy.

Love and light, always

Cashmere

Just for Today, I will not be Angry

These days people think of anger as something of a villain in the stable of human emotions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anger is a very useful emotion. It triggers the most primitive part of our brain – the amygdala. The alarm raised by the amygdala is sent to the adrenal glands. They release the hormones adrenaline and testosterone to give your anger a boost of power.

You now have muscles twitching and jerking, urging you to take action in the form of fight or flight. When you are angry, the reaction usually is to rage loudly. The adrenalin will increase the speed and volume of your speech. Your pulse will increase as blood pumps away from the stomach to your limbs. Your face will feel hot and flushed. Your veins will begin to protrude.

The stress increases in your body as does cortisol, the stress hormone. Cortisol cuts of the non essential functions of the body to help you focus on the immediate threat. However when you are angry, there is no real physical threat and this cocktail of hormones is unable to resolve itself. Continuing to course through your body and keeping your on the edge.

Anger is needed to keep you safe. What is bad, is excessive anger. Imagine being stuck in the state of anger for hours, days and months. Think of all the damage this excessive anger is doing to your own body. This is why managing anger has become the new mantra for stressed individuals. It’s not that difficult to do. Here’s a clue.

Anger is a choice. If you get angry, you are allowing the person or situation who makes you angry, to steal away your energy. Is that what you want? To hand over your energy to every fool who can make you angry? No wonder you feel low and depressed after a bout of expending your anger. All those hormones come crashing down and bring the high your body experienced to a low.

Today's Call to Action

How can you manage your anger? Think about what makes you angry. Sit down right now and make a list of all the triggers that you are already aware of. It’s just going to take a few minutes to bring to your mind everything that you feel is wrong. That you feel is unfair. That you feel is stupid. Make that list and look at it.

Now tell me, how many of these things on the list, both people and situations can you control? No there isn’t, because if you could control it, it would not trigger you. Is there something you can do to cancel the trigger? Think of at least five things you can do, besides getting angry, when this situation occurs next.

Having thought out of options in advance gives you a better chance of not loosing your temper when the situation occurs. If you catch yourself becoming angry, immediately take ten deep breaths before speaking. The simple realization that you now refuse to give away your energy to this undeserving situation or person, will allow you to reign in your anger.

Affirmation – Today I choose kindness over anger. I release anger from my body and make space for compassion. As the anger leaves me, my body begins to heal. 

I wish you days filled with kindness and compassion.

Love and light, always

Cashmere