Anyone who has been paying attention to the collaborative challenge that DreemPort and Kindness Community have been exploring since this month will surely admit that there has been so much to learn. I've learned a lot about kindness and I've also been very conscious about performing several acts of kindness and keeping a kindness Journal.
Since today is already the official last day of the challenge, I will be highlighting some things that I noticed as possible barriers to kindness. I'm limiting it to just three things and for each one, we will be taking a step further to understand what can be done to overcome that barrier.
1. Taking People For Granted: This is mostly noticeable in the case of someone who sees himself or herself as someone inferior to another person because of wealth, age, status, experience, etc. They have the impression that others are beneath them and this subsequently plays out in the sort of treatment they give to those around them.
While there is an undeniable hierarchy that exists in society for whatever reason, I'm sure there are employers who still treat their employees with kindness. There are older folks who show kindness to younger people. So, regardless of how high you are ranked in social or financial status, you can still show kindness to people.
2. Having A Payback Mentality: For a lot of people, their reaction to being hurt by someone is to devise ways to hurt the person back. Some even go as far as transferring the aggression and pain to someone else who didn't have a hand in the pain he/she felt. That "I will hurt you back" approach poses as a barrier to acts of kindness.
Last week, I wrote this piece about Kindness and Forgiveness. The message in that post comes in handy for anyone who's struggling to show kindness due to pain and negative emotions inflicted by people.
3. The Fear Of Being Misunderstood: Just because a lot of people have so many uninspiring encounters with others, it has made them very unreceptive to acts of kindness. Over here in Nigeria, a lot of people have fallen victim to kidnapping because they were given a lift by vehicle owners. They saw it as an act of kindness, but it turned out to be something done with evil intent.
To be fair, I can't blame people who are no longer receptive to kind acts. It's hard to know who's genuinely doing it. Those who are capable of performing acts of kindness hold themselves back to avoid being misunderstood as someone with an evil intent. Well, this shouldn't put a stop to acts of kindness, right?
My kindness Journal for this last week of the challenge is simple and straight to the point;
Friday: I patronized a neighbor who runs a mini bakery and placed an order for some chops which she was very happy about.
Saturday: I got in touch with a former colleague after a few years and we had a lot of kind words to say to each other.
Sunday: I went to watch Liverpool play an FA Cup semi-final game and decided to pay the viewing fee for an additional person.
Monday: I got in touch with my family and wired a few bucks which I believe my Mum used to restock a few food items at home.
Tuesday: My Lady who's trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo App is getting a lot of inspiring push from me.
Wednesday: The winner's announcement for the March edition of The Thinker's Corner Challenge was announced yesterday. Read that to see all the joy that was spread in the post.
Thursday: Since today's the last day of the challenge, I will be spending the last segment of this day on things that are geared towards showing kindness to myself.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
Thumbnail Image is taken from Unsplash
Additional Image is also taken from Unsplash.
