Create A Kindness Ripple
Create A Kindness Ripple
Politeness and Kindness
We were chatting with friends last week and the topic of politeness and kindness came up. I mentioned that I had the same conversation with my sister, we were all finding peoples interaction across the board, be it in the work place, with children or the elderly, to be lacking in kindness and politeness.
I feel the essence of being kind and polite is reading non verbal cues and treating people in the same way as you would want to be treated, if you were in their situation.
As a society we are becoming more insular, we touch base via text or social media and we are bringing into our everyday lives the lack of emotion you can portray and get away with, in the virtual world.
I find quotes a great motivator, their succinct nature sums up paragraphs of ideas in a few words. Below are some thought provoking and educational quotes regarding politeness and kindness. I hope they inspire you to discuss what is implied, be it at the dinner table with your children, with friends at a book club or just take a minute for yourself to ponder their wisdom.
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia
“Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Politeness is a sign of dignity, not subservience.” Theodore Roosevelt
Remind yourselves of the simple things that can make human interaction better. Look the person serving you in the eye. Say please and thank you. Hold a door open if you see someone else is steps behind you, will waiting really impact your life that much? They may not say thank you to you, but rest assured you have created a kindness ripple. They in turn will pass on that courtesy to someone else within the day.
I’ll leave you with a lovely Mahatma Gandhi quote on how to make our world a little kinder:
‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’
