Have you noticed that being kind in Nigeria sometimes feels like running a marathon on Third Mainland Bridge with no finish line?🏃♀️🚧 One minute you're smiling at your colleague; the next minute, someone is dragging your bus seat as if their great-grandfather carved it. 😂
But hey! Kindness is not beans. It is not jollof rice either. It requires deliberate action, steady practice, and sometimes comic levels of patience. Please permit me to serve you 🍲 few tips that will keep your kindness game strong without losing your sanity.
1) Upgrade Your Patience App (Because Human Beings Will Test You)📲
Human being will test you! From Lagos traffic to danfo drivers cutting lanes like Formula One, your blood pressure will beg you to insult somebody.🚦But pause. Breathe. Smile a little. Kindness is cheaper than blood pressure medicines or hospital bills. 🏥
2) Kindness Is in the Small Things 🍬
Don't wait to donate one million dollars before you qualify as kind. Even sharing your Gala and LaCasera counts!🥤, it can also be as simple as greeting your neighbor with energy. Small acts build a big impact, Ask your friend, "How are you really doing?" That simple question can feel like a fuel subsidy in this economy.🔋
3) Laugh Generously 😂 (But Not at People's Struggles)
That colleague with dry jokes that sound like expired groundnut? 🌰 Laugh a little, abeg. It's kindness; sometimes kindness is pretending their joke landed well, so they won't retire from comedy in shame. Just don't laugh when NEPA takes the light during an Arsenal match ⚡⚽—that one can scatter lifelong friendships.
4) Self-Kindness ≠ Selfishness 🛌
My friends, rest before you rest in peace. 🪦You cannot pour from an empty cup. Sleep, drink water, and eat something green (not just the vegetable floating in Egusi soup) 🍆Self-kindness is fuel for showing up kindly for others.
5) Share Your Resources (Wisdom, WiFi, and Well-Cooked Rice or Noodles) 📚🍜
Finally, resource-sharing is a high form of kindness. It could be forwarding a useful scholarship link, helping someone with CV editing, or yes— inviting a hungry friend to eat real rice or noodles with you, not the imaginary one we post on WhatsApp status.🤳 Sharing multiplies joy.In fact, the person you help today might be the one who pays for your Uber tomorrow 🚙 💨
✨ kindness is definitely not weakness, as some people think; it is wisdom. In Nigeria, where survival sometimes feels like an Olympic sport🏅,we need more people who sprinkles kindness like suya pepper. 🌶️ Be the reason why someone smiles in traffic, laughs at work, or finally believes that the world is not all madness.
Because, truly—kindnesss is not beans—it makes life taste better. 🥣💛
SEE YOU SOON👋😊
