by Mark Szabo

I believe the world would be a much happier place If we were all more kind to each other. In traffic, in line, sitting at the airport, shopping, really any situation involving groups of people can be stressful. But what if each of us could work at being kinder to our fellow humans? What kind of world would that be?

Before we can get there though, we must first be kind to our Self.

When we think of Self-Kindness, we may have visions of a trip to the spa, yoga class, a dip in the hot tub, or something along those lines. However, Self-Kindness runs a bit deeper than that. It starts with giving ourselves a break.

Be Careful of Your Thoughts

The average person has tens of thousands of thoughts each day. 90% of those thoughts are repetitive, and 80% are negative. That means, most people are mentally beating themselves up all day long. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Our brains do this because of old “software” running in the background. When humans were hunter-gatherers, we needed to be on our toes, constantly, so that saber toothed tiger didn’t sneak up on us for lunch. Our brains evolved to constantly seek out danger and potential problems so that we’d have the best chances for survival. At the time, it was a great system! It obviously worked, since we’re all here today; however, most of us aren’t facing mortal danger on a routine basis these days. So now, that old system is still trying to do its thing, by making everything out to be a potential problem.

Think Kind Thoughts

When we talk about Self-Kindness, we mean to stop listening to the thoughts in our heads. Stop attaching meaning to those automatic negative thoughts. We mean to start thinking kind thoughts about ourselves. “I CAN do this! I AM good enough! Who CARES what other people think?” The first step is to switch that voice in our heads to be our cheerleader instead of our persecutor.

The next step is to learn to recognize when those negative thoughts start to creep back in so we can quickly transition back to kindness. Now, this isn’t hard to do, but it does take some practice. Kathi and I have been working in this arena for several years now under several different coaches. The difference is nothing short of phenomenal. Where we used to get into screaming matches over marital issues, we are now at the point where we realize that we’re allowing the old software to run again, once we notice that, we deescalate the situation and then get back to being productive.

Ready to Transform your Thoughts?

If you’d like to incorporate this type of Mindset into your own life, check out Kathi’s Total Mind-Shift program:

  • Eight Weeks of one-to-one Guidance & Mentoring with proprietary teachings focused on your personal goals
  • 3 Months of Essentials Membership
  • The Well-Being Overview
  • VIA Character Strength Total 24 Assessment
  • The Power of Decision by Raymond Charles Baker

And don’t take my word for it:

“My experience with Kathi Szabo exceeded expectations!  Kathi was amazing!  She took me out of my comfort zone professionally and compassionately into a new comfort zone!  Of surprise to me was how much I learned about my strengths, personality, talents and skill set!   Through Kathi’s coaching I found clarity and peace of mind with workplace and personal life-giving-life decisions.  It was one of the best time and financial investments I’ve made. I highly recommend Kathi!”   Rita

Click here for more information.

If  your not sure about one-to-one coaching, but you want to learn ways to be kinder to your Self and thus bring more happiness into the world, sign up for the 7 Day MindShift, a FREE email course to get you started!

Kindness starts in the mind. It starts with being kind to our Self.

Help me make the world a happier place!

Be Kind.

 

Photo by Lisa from Pexels