Let me ask you,
What is the kindest thing you can do right now?
Let's use a bit of calm time,
Some yoga philosophy,
And a little bit of neuroscience to find out,
Shall we?
So finding yourself a comfortable and safe place to be.
You can be standing,
Moving around,
Sitting,
Lying down.
Softening your gaze or closing your eyes.
And allowing yourself to arrive.
Noticing all of the points of contact between you and the earth beneath you.
Than noticing your breath.
Noticing the rate of your breath.
And the location of your breath.
And then noticing what is it like.
To be you.
Right now.
What are you feeling right now?
Not intellectually,
But physically.
Heavy?
Busy?
Flat.
Agitated.
Open.
And then allowing yourself to think if this feeling had a need.
What might that be?
And then letting go of that for a moment.
And allowing the insight from yoga philosophy to float over you like you're listening to a story.
One of the key principles of yoga.
Is that,
Essentially,
Kindness is called a Himsa.
Himsa actually means to harm,
To hurt,
To kill.
But the ah in front of it makes it negative.
And so,
How about thinking of kindness as removing harming yourself?
Removing harming others.
Often when we do a deep dive into this in yoga teacher training.
There becomes a discussion along the lines of,
Well,
I shouldn't tell my line manager they're putting too much pressure on me because that would be harming them.
Or in order to not harm others in the house I should do all the housework.
But Ahimsa is not being a doormat.
It isn't rolling over.
And making sure everyone else is okay at the expense of your physical and mental health.
I think it's useful to think of Ahimsa.
As the least amount of harm.
To the most amount of people.
For the longest period of time.
So often when we hear the word kindness,
We immediately think about being kind to other people.
But Ahimsa asks us to include ourselves in that too.
So take a moment to return to asking yourself,
What is it like to be you right now?
What are you feeling right now?
And if this feeling had a need.
What might that be?
Perhaps it's movement.
Or food.
Or sleep.
Fresh air?
Stillness,
Connection.
Pee?
A boundary.
Permission to let something go.
Or perhaps it needs courage.
Maybe the kindest thing,
The most ahimsa thing.
The thing that will cause the least amount of harm.
To the most amount of people.
For the longest period of time isn't avoiding a difficult conversation or putting off an application or staying where everything is familiar.
Maybe the kindest thing is taking a small step towards something that really matters to you.
Kindness isn't always doing less,
Although often it can be.
But it's doing the action that creates the least suffering over time to yourself and to others.
Is that saying no?
Is it saying yes?
Is it asking for help?
Is it taking time out?
And the beautiful,
Amazing thing is that this isn't something that you are good at or bad at.
That's it,
Full stop.
Kindness is like a muscle.
It's something we can strengthen and get better at.
And research has shown that being kind is linked to increased feelings of happiness.
Increased well-being.
And increased life satisfaction.
Plus,
There's some evidence that prioritising kindness can buffer the negative effects of stress on our health too.
So here's one final question.
What is the kindest thing that you could do for yourself after this meditation?
I'd say keep it small,
Specific and possible.
It might be something to eat.
Drinking a glass of water.
It might be going outside for five minutes or simply closing your laptop.
It might be stretching your body.
Or enjoying some stillness.
It might be writing an email that you've been avoiding.
It might be sitting down with a blank page and making a plan of action.
Whatever came to mind,
I would say,
Trust it so deeply.
This isn't about solving every part of your entire life in five minutes.
Is just choosing your next kind action.
You can always come back to this meditation tomorrow to move on to the next thing.
And as you continue with your day.
Perhaps carry this question with you.
You won't get the answer right every single time.
But every time you ask it,
You are strengthening that muscle.
What is the kindest thing I can do?
Right now.
