Practice Random Acts of Kindness: Bring More Peace, Love, and Compassion Into the World - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573242721 ISBN 13: 9781573242721

Verlag: Conari Press, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

A Course in Compassion

From the creators of the Random Acts of Kindness series comes this practical guide to kindness. Full of inspiring meditations, affirmations, and true stories, this book acts as a guide to creating real change in our world through acts of kindness.

Join the kindness revolution. All over the nation and beyond, people are realizing the power of kindness. With one act, you can change someone’s day―and make the world a better place. It doesn’t take much to offer kind words or deeds to someone, but it can change the whole course of their day. When we participate in random acts of kindness, we join the movement of building a better future. This book by the editors of the Random Acts of Kindness series, with a foreword by Rabbi Harold Kushner, presents readers with a motivational guide to living out kindness each day of our lives.

Inspirational stories and simple suggestions. From the wake of Hurricane Katrina to the tragedy of the tsunami to troops in Iraq performing acts of daily compassion, this book highlights the ways in which people are working towards creating a more benevolent world. It demonstrates the weight that a single act of compassion can have and how powerful our actions can be when we all join together. In addition to inspiring true stories, this “course in compassion” includes meditations, affirmations, and suggestions for how you can go out and make a difference. Filled with practical wisdom and motivational quotes, this book is your go-to guide for turning the kindness spark into a flame. Learn more about:

• How to practice random acts of kindness
• The impact that compassion has on our world
• Stories of kindness changing people’s lives

If you’ve read books like Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Power of Kindness, Go Be Kind, How Can I Help?, or A Year of Positive Thinking, you’ll love Practice Random Acts of Kindness.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Will Glennon is the author of 200 Ways to Raise a Boy's Emotional Intelligence, 200 Ways to Raise a Girl's Self-Esteem, and an editor of the bestselling Random Acts of Kindness series. He is a regular columnist for Daughters newsletter and sits on the Board of Advisors for Dads & Daughters, a national parenting organization. The father of two children, a son and a daughter, Glennon lives in Berkeley, California.

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Practice Random Acts of Kindness

Bring More Peace, Love, and Compassion into the World

By Rabbi Harold Kushner

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2007 Rabbi Harold Kushner
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-272-1

Contents

Foreword by Rabbi Harold Kushner
Preface by Will Glennon
Acknowledgments
The Sphere of Kindness
Kindness Is an Attitude and an Action
Kindness Begins at Home
Kindness Ripples Out into the World
Kindness Creates Happiness and Peace of Mind
Kindness Generates Love and Compassion
Kindness Feeds the Body and Soul

CHAPTER 1

Kindness Is an Attitude and an Action

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thoughtinto the happiness that you are able to give.

—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

As we move through our lives, we carry with us the accumulated experiences that moldour attitudes and our behavior. When we are young and inexperienced, we are often morevulnerable to being pulled in different directions by the events of life. One bad experience,in which our trust is betrayed, our generosity scorned, or our love rejected, can cause usto build unconscious defenses that have the unintended effect of isolating us, of makingus fearful or tentative, and that can cause us to pull back from the world.

Later, as we grow in maturity and wisdom, we learn that although we cannot choose whatlife will deliver to us, we can choose how we will respond. As we begin to live our livesmore consciously—going back and sifting through the events that helped shape us,examining how and why different emotions are triggered in our hearts—we can begin tobuild an entirely new framework for who we want to be, instead of simply accepting whowe ended up being.

Through this deeper understanding of the events that have influenced our lives, of thevalues we hold most dear, and of the things we need to be happy, we can begin theexciting process of taking control of our lives. At the most fundamental level, this beginswith the conscious choice of how we wish to be in the world. From that solid foundation,we can act freely and fearlessly, knowing that our actions will reflect our being out into theworld.

The practices in this section focus on the intricate underpinnings of a strong foundation ofkindness and will assist you in your exploration of how to release that kindness into theworld through your actions.

Start Now

I've decided to try to be a better person.... But not right away of course.... Maybe a fewdays from now.

—SALLY TO CHARLIE BROWN IN A PEANUTS CARTOON

"I spent four years 'getting ready' to start a diet. I'd get brochures for weight-controlprograms and look them over while eating a pastrami sandwich. I'd buy the latest dietbooks and read them with a bowl of chips. My losing weight was such a topic ofconversation that finally—over a substantial lunch at my favorite Italian restaurant—mybest friend got so exasperated she said, 'If you really want to lose weight, then put thatdamn fork down right now!' Shocked, I dropped the fork and just sat there with my mouthhanging open. When I closed my mouth, I realized I had started my diet."

Most of us carry around an image of ourselves as we would like to be—a little thinner orstronger, more patient and reliable. But what we want to be means nothing until we stopintending and start acting.

Like dieting, when it comes to the practice of kindness, right now is the best time to begin.It doesn't require much work or sacrifice—no giving up desserts, no one hundred leg lifts,no pushing a rock up a steep hill. Just a commitment, right here and now, to smile at thebank teller, give a kind word to the grocery checker. Let the driver in front of you cut in.Simple, really.

Remember What's Important

In the end, nothing we do or say in this lifetime will matter as much as the way we haveloved one another.

—DAPHNE ROSE KINGMA

In the hustle and bustle of our busy days, full of faxes, phone calls, and a thousand andone errands, it's really easy to get caught up in the daily details and forget What'simportant in life. Often it takes some kind of trauma—the death of a loved one, divorce, alife-threatening illness—to wake us up to what matters. After all, no one on his or herdeathbed regretted not spending more time at the office.

Fortunately, we don't have to be facing a personal tragedy to make our relationships ournumber one priority. No project, no deadline, no clean kitchen is as important as thequality of your relationship with the person sitting across from you at the breakfast table,as the child who needs your attention right this second, as the mother who is alone in thenursing home.

Remembering What's important gives us the graciousness to take the time, make thephone call, send the card, not say the bitter retort on the tip of our tongue. When weremember What's important, we generate more loving-kindness in our lives.

Take the Risk

In the long run, we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving.

—SHELDON KOPP

"When I was in second grade, a new boy, Derrick showed up halfway through the year. Hehad a bad leg, and all the kids teased him. I never teased him, but I was afraid of beingtoo nice to him because I didn't want the other kids to think I was a sissy or whateversecond-graders think.

"That summer my mom made me take swimming lessons at the city pool and Derrick wasalways there. He was a great swimmer, and I found out later that he swam every day tobuild up strength in his legs. One day during a break in lessons, I was sitting on the side ofthe pool and he swam up and said hi and thanked me for not teasing him at school. I saidsomething like, 'Oh, no big deal', but inside I felt like a jerk for being afraid to be friendlywith him. Now I'm in fourth grade and Derrick is my best friend. In fact, he's the best friendanyone could ever want."

So many of us are so afraid of one another—of having our hearts crushed (again), ourspirits broken—that we miss out on the love and connection that is available if we wouldonly take the risk. Acts of love and kindness are risky—we risk looking foolish or beingrejected; we risk being laughed at or ignored. But if we don't act, we risk losing evenmore—the potential for love, for friendship, for communion with another soul. Today, takea risk with just one person.

Accent the Positive

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.... Why not try and seepositive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

—THICH NHAT HANH

"I had one of those days when everything went wrong. It started when I was late for work,wound its way through a mountain of irritated customers, computer breakdowns, shorttemperedcolleagues, car trouble on the interstate which found me walking to a telephonein a drenching thunderstorm without my umbrella, and ended in a totally irrational andemotionally bruising fight with my husband.

"I ran out of the house, trying somehow to outrun all my problems, but the dark cloud justhung over me. As I walked through our neighborhood remembering all the bad things thathad happened that day, the storm that had so...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Conari Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1573242721
• ISBN 13: 9781573242721
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland