So I spent a good chunk of my morning writing up a whole post about the importance of taking a break and taking a nap in the afternoon. It was literally putting me to sleep….a real snoozer of an email…but resulting in the adorable koala napping picture above.

Then when I went to preview the whole thing, it was gone….ALL of it. After my gasp and the ‘oh ****’ moment where I’d discovered I’d wasted the better part of my day on basically nothing, I had to take a few deep breaths and find my center. 

And then I thought that maybe it was a sign from the universe that the email about napping could wait for another week and something else needed to come forth. 

I’ve been thinking so much about how the world is going these days. It’s so topsy turvy and hard to grasp which way is up. And I hear about so much going on and it’s hard on the heart. And then I think about how to stay centered, when the world feels like it’s falling apart. What can one person do? Or even if there’s a large group, how much can we really do? It feels overwhelming. 

But then I always go back to ‘what do I have power over?’. And that answer is always: Me. I have power over me. How I feel, how I act, how I think and what I do. 

I know that I can be kind. I can be kind to those around me. I can experience kindness within myself. I can exhibit kindness. 

There are 2 kindnesses: one towards others and another towards ones’ self. 

Many of us remember to be kind to others, but we forget the kindness to ourselves. I’m here to remind you of that self-kindness.  

Kindness is a gentleness. It’s taking that deep breath and giving yourself an invisible hug or pat on the back when you’ve blundered something. It’s soothing self-talk, like you would to one of your children or friends. Kindness is deep self-love, no matter what’s going on in your life. It’s taking care of your mental and physical and spiritual health. It may be saying ‘no’ to something but saying ‘yes’ to yourself. 

As you’re moving through your day/week/month, remember that you, too, are important. Being gentle with yourself is the greatest act of service you can offer the world because it ripples out and creates circles of kindness to everything around you.

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Kindness is seriously the higher road….whether it’s directed toward yourself or towards others.

While I’m focused this week on self-kindness, it’s still implied that we’re kind to others. Sometimes, it takes a bit of extra energy to sum up the means to be kind to that cranky food server or the person who just yelled in the grocery line.

I get it. And sometimes I fall short. And sometimes I don’t do it all right all the time. But the goal is to make the world a more beautiful, kind and supportive place. It begins inside. When we feel worthy and joyful and abundant, we can let that wash out into the world, too.

In healing, Dr. Arjan

Photo courtesy of Dreamstime free photos