Love, Kindness, And Spirituality

Hey you guys,

Steph here.

On this Talk To Me Tuesday,

I wanna talk with you about spirituality and how love and kindness is tied to it.

And if you agree with me,

Definitely raise your hand in the comments.

Like,

I wanna know who my fellow love warriors are,

Who my other people who are recovering people pleasers are,

Because I get you.

I know what it's like to be somebody who used to be so caught in this idea that I had to be so nice in order to be valued or loved or keep people around,

That my value was in my niceness.

And so I totally get that.

And when I talk about kindness,

I do not mean that kind of kindness,

That kind of niceness where you feel like a doormat,

Where you feel resentful or taken advantage of.

That is not the kindness that I think is part of our spiritual journeys on this beautiful earth.

Okay,

When I talk about kindness,

I'm talking more about coming from a place of just genuine like things that you want to do that feel really good to do for other people and for yourself.

And also allowing yourself to receive the love and kindness from other people,

The love that others also want to give.

Because sometimes when we have been so caught up in like the giving and the niceness,

We don't know how to receive love back because we never cultivated relationships where we got to practice receiving the kindness and the niceness back from them.

And so that's part of our journey is learning to receive the kindness and the love from others.

And so I asked a question today in my stories of if you believe that love and kindness has a ripple effect.

And I a million percent believe that it does.

And the reason why is because well,

My background and also just observation is that when we do something,

So with my background,

My educational background,

It's like we're all operate within a system.

And so what happens to one happens to all.

And so sometimes that's why when we're on a personal growth journey or we're healing or we're adding these like new ideas into our life and we're like,

Feel like we're growing and evolving as people,

Those around us can be like,

Uh,

What are you doing?

I don't like this.

Stop,

Stop what you're doing right now.

And part of that is because it's influencing them,

Right?

It's shifting your relationship with them,

You know?

And so they're like,

Whoa,

Whoa,

I'm not ready for this.

I didn't sign up for this,

Right?

But we still get to choose to continue to grow anyway and they can adapt and shift with us or you know,

Sometimes our relationships come to an end,

But that's a whole nother topic.

So back to love and kindness.

When I think about spirituality,

Spirituality to me is very much energy and we can choose to tap into and carry the pain from our past and like lug that around with us throughout life,

Right?

Or we can choose to tap into our love and our kindness and expand our hearts and heal and learn the lessons from the pains that happened for us.

Sorry,

We hear people say that.

And the four is because it taught you something,

Right?

And so if you're ever like,

How did this happen for me?

This was sucked so bad.

It didn't happen for me,

It happened to me.

But it happened for you in the sense that it's teaching you a lesson and it's helping you decide more of who you want to be and which path you wanna go down.

So it helps you discover more about yourself,

The injustices of life,

The pains that we experience.

And some of them really do feel like they happen to you.

And so it's all a journey.

Anyway,

The love and the kindness is something that I think helps us heal the world.

It heals those around us.

Think about how you feel when you're with people.

Just think about just based off the energy of the exchange.

So if you're with somebody who feels really good to be around,

Why?

What's happening there?

What energy are they bringing to that interaction?

And then think about the people that feel really blah to be around.

Like what's going on there?

What energy are they bringing to the interaction?

And why does it feel heavy and like,

You're like,

Whew,

I gotta shake that off.

I gotta shake that experience out.

I don't know if I wanna hang out with them again.

They don't feel very good.

You know,

What's happening there with that energy?

I know again,

If you're a part of this community,

That you are somebody who does believe in love and kindness,

Because I can't imagine you hanging around here very long if it wasn't something that you valued.

And so I know that you're going out there and you feel good to be around.

That people love spending time with you and that you are having an influence on their lives,

Even if when you don't even know that you are,

Or you don't think that you are.

Every kindness,

Every time that you're kind and that you show up with a loving energy that leads you,

That person feels like they matter.

They feel like their pain isn't so heavy that maybe they can just continue to walk forward and take their steps into the future and that they can make it through whatever they're going through right now,

Because they know that they matter.

And that's the power of love and kindness,

Is that we get to help influence and shape people's journeys by treating them like they matter.

And the more love and kindness we spread out and the more that ripples out,

Then my hope is the less violence,

The less cruelty,

The less dehumanizing people that's happening,

The more that we care about the impact we're having,

Not only on our own lives,

But the lives around us and the earth and animals and the world and all of that.

Because even though our impact can be really small,

Small steps matter too.

Small steps lead to like gigantic steps.

And I heard a quote once,

I can't remember exactly who said it.

I'll have to try to remember who that was.

But they said,

When you can't change the world,

Change your world,

So the world around you.

And how we do that is how we show up and the things we say and how we act.

And so that's why I'm a huge fan of love and kindness.

Also,

Again,

I just want to just again say that kindness does not go with resentment.

So if you are doing something that you think is kind,

But you feel resentment,

You're not honoring yourself and you're not listening to your needs.

And you're stepping back into that niceness,

That people please our you,

Instead of into the assertive,

Empowered,

Self-loving love warrior,

Incredible you,

Who honors and listens to their own needs.

So keep that in mind when you are deciding what you want to do,

What kind things you want to do and how you want to spread kindness,

Because there's so many different ways to do this.

Kindness is not in a little box that looks the same,

But I do guarantee if resentment is coming with a kindness,

That's not for you,

You know?

So find the things that fill you up,

That energize you,

That give you more life and let that energy ripple out,

Because resentment will override the kindness energy,

If that makes sense.

So if we're coming at something and we feel very resentful about it,

We're like,

Yeah,

But I'm being kind.

Well,

That resentment is going to override everything else that you're doing.

Do you know what I mean?

Like that's the energy,

The vibe,

People are gonna feel when they're with you.

They're gonna feel the resentment instead of the love.

So definitely keep that in mind as you're making your choices about love and kindness.

And just start paying attention,

How it even influences your day.

And when you're influencing your own day,

Everyone who comes into contact with you gets that little boost of love and kindness and the reminder that they matter.

And then they go about their day with that boost and then they can influence the next person.

And it just continues to ripple out.

And then we're just spreading like love all over the place.

And it just feels like a little glitter bomb went off,

But it's like a glitter bomb of love and kindness.

And I literally can't see any reason why the world would not benefit from more love and kindness.

So anyway,

I'm so proud that I know so many people that are love warriors,

That believe in kindness,

That want to lead with love,

Because I feel so supported and know that you're so supported because we're not as rare as we once were.

So keeping you,

Stop being the people pleaser though.

Leave the people pleaser behind so that you can honor who you are and really do the acts of kindness that do speak to you on a soul level.

So thanks for being awesome.

You matter,

You're incredible and cheers to us love warriors.

Have an awesome day,

Bye.