Gentleness is Kindness

Day 28: Gentleness is Kindness

“Nothing is so strong as true gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as true strength.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Show me a person who likes aggression over gentleness and I will first be surprised and second run the other direction. We all deserve to be treated with gentleness and I believe that we all want gentleness in our lives, but unfortunately our world can be cruel, fast, aggressive, angry and mean. How can we create a world that is gentle?

1. Kindness to Self:

   “Our greatest strength lies in the gentleness and tenderness of our heart.” – Rumi

   Gentleness begins with how we think, speak and treat ourselves. Pay close attention to what you say to yourself and if it is not kind, stop for a minute and think how you would speak to a baby or young child and try to speak to yourself that way. Through awareness we can begin to change our internal dialogue to a gentle one. One that will in turn create a life full of kindness.

2. Kindness to Others:

   “We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness”- Charlie Chaplin

   Having humanity towards others is being kind and doing kind acts and understanding that we are all one. We do need more humanity, more gentleness and more kindness. Learning to first be kind and gentle with ourselves will naturally translate to being kind and doing kind acts for others, which is true gentleness.

3. Kindness to Strangers:

   “In a gentle way you can shake the world.” – Gandhi

   “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” – Philippians 4:5

   Enough said.

4. Kindness to Our Planet:

   “There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.” – Han Suyin

   Let us be gentle in our eyes, in our words, in our touch, in our actions and how we walk upon this glorious planet. Then, we shall experience true kindness.

Jennifer Palazzo

Photo Courtesy of FreeImages.com/JeremyBrown