Hi,
Welcome back to Session Two.
Today we're going to be looking at kindness,
And in particular,
How we listen with kindness,
And how powerful that can be.
But before we do that,
I want you to make sure that you have your pen ready because we'll be doing a little bit of journaling later.
And let's start,
As we did yesterday,
With opening our three presents together so that we can relax,
Breathe,
And focus.
So,
Just close your eyes now.
Make sure that you're sitting very comfortably,
And just follow my voice.
Let's open the first present.
I want you to exhale,
Breathe out all of the air that's in your lungs.
Well done.
And once you've done that,
We're going to begin our three breaths.
So,
Breathe in,
One,
Two,
Three,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
And a long breath out,
One,
Two,
Three.
Let's do that again.
Breathing in,
One,
Two,
Three,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
And breathe out,
One,
Two,
Three.
And for the third time,
Breathing in,
One,
Two,
Three,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
And breathe out,
One,
Two,
Three.
Fantastic.
Well done.
Now,
As you let your breathing return to normal,
We're going to open our second present.
So,
I want you to become very,
Very still.
As you're sitting,
Focus on your physical body,
And be completely still in the room that you are in.
Perfect.
And now,
Let's open the third present.
Today,
We're going to use touch.
I want you to touch the fingers of your right hand to the back of your left hand,
And just feel the skin of your hand.
Feel the feel of your fingertips,
And just be here now,
Breathing completely still,
With only your fingers moving,
Touching the skin on your left hand.
Welcome to the moment.
You are here.
This is the present moment.
This is now.
So,
Very well done.
When you're ready,
Open your eyes and bring your attention back to my voice,
And feel yourself in your room.
Being kind can seem easy,
But in fact,
Behaving with kindness requires a great deal of strength and courage.
Being truly kind means being kind to others,
And also being kind to ourselves.
And one way to be kind to yourself is to be kind to other people.
Researchers have found that people who are kind to others are more likely to be happy.
There is a saying in the Dalai Lama,
Which is quite funny.
He says,
Be selfish,
Be kind.
One of the most powerful acts of kindness is to deeply listen to another person.
We all want to be heard.
We all want to have our experience of life truly heard,
Truly witnessed by somebody else.
It makes us feel cared for,
Cared about.
It makes us feel that we belong to the world,
To our community,
To our family,
To our friends.
And so,
I would like you now to think about a time when someone truly listened to you,
And I would like you to write about it,
What happened and how it made you feel.
If you prefer,
You can write about a time when you really listened to somebody else and how that felt for you.
As Jane Austen wrote in her beautiful book,
Emma,
Emma felt that she could not now show any greater kindness than in listening.
And so,
I'll leave you now with some music playing to write about your experience of listening and the kindness of listening,
And I'll be back for you in about a minute.
Okay,
Well done.
Remember,
You can always come back to your writing if you have more to say or you want to complete it later on.
Kindness comes in so many forms.
It is what makes our lives not only bearable,
But truly beautiful.
Listening with kindness is a gift to yourself and to the person you are listening to.
The ability to listen with kindness and compassion is what makes for a great leader.
When we're being listened to with kindness,
We feel inspired and as though wisdom has passed from the listener to us.
In our next session,
We'll talk more about wisdom and how we can find it in our mistakes.
Thank you for listening today,
And we'll look forward to seeing you next time.
