What does kindness mean to you?

People always say to be kind, but that can be about different things depending on who you’re speaking to, the circumstance, and other specifics.

If you’re searching for ways to be kind, and you aren’t sure where to start, just get into the kindness frame of mind.

Try to think of simple ways you can be of service to others – not just family, but friends, colleagues, associates and even strangers whose paths you may cross in your daily travels.

Here are some ways to show kindness in your daily life. Explore these ways to be kind, then come up with your own, unique gestures that you may be able to pass along.

Not being easily angered.

Consider this: no one likes the feeling of someone being angry with them. And yet, this can be an all-too-common scenario.

Think about someone making the wrong move in traffic, and how easy it is to let road rage consume you over an incident like this, which realistically may have taken less than a minute to occur.

How do the passengers in our cars feel when we lash out with angry words as we drive? Not to mention, does this cause us to become careless in the handling of our vehicles and their precious cargo – our children, family and friends who trust us to get them where we need to go, safely.

The next time you feel yourself becoming angry over something silly, like someone making a careless driving move, or cutting in front of you at the grocery store, consider how you can stop damaging anger in its tracks and instead, replace whatever you were about to do or say with a kind, considerate gesture.

Think about it: how little of an effort will it take for you to be kind instead of nasty or rude, and yet how much more of a positive impact will you make to the people who you surround yourself with in every day life.

Maybe that person who cut you off in traffic was on the way to the hospital to visit a sick loved one, and he or she wasn’t familiar with the route and almost missed the exit.

How much effort would it take to give that person a pass, simply nod them off and let him or her continue on to their destination without creating extra stress in the form of a flipped middle finger or angry driving move.

Showing patience.

The busier and fuller our lives become, the more challenging it is to stay patient. If you’re a parent, there’s never been a bigger reason to take a deep breath, keep your cool and let things proceed in their own time.

When we’re impatient with our children or our husband or wife, we’re passing along a negative message and bad vibe.

The vibe tells them, perhaps even without words, that the thing you’re trying to accomplish is more important than the person you’re doing it for.

And if you think about it, that’s really not right at all. Over time, we’ll be damaging our relationships and hurting the people we love, all because we were to consumed with having things done the way we want them to be done, RIGHT NOW.

Not to mention, in showing our impatience, we’re passing along that angry energy to pay forward to the next unsuspecting person.

It’s that angry, blaming-without-words (or perhaps even with words, if we’re that impatient), that makes everyone around us feel uneasy and as though they’ve done something wrong when really, they’re trying their best, just like all of us are.

How can we practice patience? One, by saying no. Impatience is born from being in a hurry. Why are we in a hurry?

We took on too many tasks or we made too many promises. We’re trying to be everything to everyone, and in the process, our loved ones bear the brunt of our haste and anxiousness at having too many goals to tackle all at once.

So believe it or not, the way to be more patient with the people who we care for the most is by freeing ourselves from too many commitments.

In doing so, we can become more mindful. We’ll do a better job at whatever we do take on, and we’ll have the patience to stop, listen, teach and appreciate others who are doing their part to help us accomplish what we need to.

Being tolerant of different opinions and ways of doing things.

Tolerance and kindness go hand in hand. To be tolerant is to have respect for people whose opinions, customs and ways of being are different than our own.

Tolerance can be difficult, especially if we’ve been raised with a set of strong beliefs about how things should be done.

Most people are intrinsically good, and most people want the same things for our loved ones. We want our families to be safe, well cared for, to know love and to have peace, happiness and success.

The difference is that we don’t always agree on how to make that happen, and if we aren’t careful, our differences can become arguments that grow to epic proportions.

Tolerance means, basically, to live and let live… and understand that although some people don’t live as we would, they still embrace the same core set of values and should be respected just as we crave respect.

Kindness comes in when we tolerate those who are not like us, by offering them the same respect and courtesy we would to our own kind.

This can mean giving space, offering a smile, showing care. It can mean listening to a different point of view, being open to a new way of doing things, and fighting for the rights of others even when their way isn’t necessarily our way.

Offering forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a difficult but powerful way to show kindness to others. It’s hard to forgive because in a situation where forgiveness is called for, we start out feeling that we have been wronged in some way.

Thus, our perception of being the person who is owed an apology, or has been taken advantage of, makes us feel anger toward, orwant to reject, the person who has  committed the perceived wrong.

Being able to forgive is no small feat. We must set aside our belief that someone purposely tried to hurt us. In doing so, we offer benefit of the doubt, which means that even though we doubt the authenticity of their feelings for us and their good intentions, we choose to believe in them anyway.

Forgiveness is one of the greatest gestures of kindness that you can extend to another person. It shows that after conflict and misunderstanding, we’re willing to clear the slate and start fresh all over again.

We’re hopeful that an episode like this won’t happen again with said person, and we’re willing to move forward in friendship because we value this person and we believe they’re worth the effort.

This level of kindness is huge… and it’s also very difficult to achieve, but well worth the struggle in our own minds, and well worth the extra work it may take to repair the relationship and re-establish trust and emotional closeness.

And, remember I believe in you

Much love

Ronni xx