The Kindness Movement

For those tired of the snickering, egotistical, unkind spiritedness of our modern society, I ask you this.. what if we began a movement of kindness? No matter what your beliefs, political affiliation, values, imagine for one moment that from now on, you chose to lead a life of kindness and empathic qualities that helped guide you towards being a better person for your community and loved ones?

I had a recent conversation with a loved one who told me that I should not give up now, for I have a strong compassion for others that is too rare in this world. As I looked at the wall wiping my tears from a long day of feeling so outcasted and alone, I realized that there is more to life and this sense of purpose in teaching others, and learning from each other, in which giving up on trying is equivalent to giving up on changing the world. For, one person, one voice, has the power to make a difference in big and small ways.

When you smile at someone at a grocery store while passing by with your shopping cart, you’re making a difference for that person. Perhaps that person you passed by recently went through a tragedy, a loss of a job, a recent breakdown, or are feeling immensely lonely themselves, and that small social interaction helped them for the rest of the day. The movement of kindness is very much a movement anyone can join in just making the effort to choose compassion over spite. Instead of being judgmental, choosing to practice empathy in the fact that what you are judging about someone is only what you can judge from the superficial surface, when that person you’re looking down upon may be trying to live in a world constantly giving the message, “you don’t belong.” Imagine going through that every day, when you are just trying to exist, to be laughed at, or judged, or looked down upon, or video recorded into a meme for millions to laugh at. Our society has become so detached and lost from the humanity of what it means to be kind to one another, that we are losing people along this broken path.

If we chose to start this movement of kindness, imagine how many people would still be here today years from now. The many individuals depressed now, who, from a small gesture of kindness in the day to day, graduates from college with parents overwhelmed with tears that their child made it through the tough formative years, with a society valuing support and care, rather than peer pressure and hierarchy. As a collective, we do not have to agree on everything, and it will not always be sunshine and butterflies, but the first step to making the world become a better place, is to start with an open-mindedness to practice caring, to seek understanding of one another, to be a Good Samaritan; to restore a sense of humanity in a world losing connection.

The Empathy Project