How to Be a Kinder Person
Becoming kinder is an achievable personal journey that requires intention, self-awareness and daily practice.
Becoming kinder is an achievable personal journey.
Being unkind fosters ill relationships. Establish a healthier mental framework and toolkit of habits to become a kinder person in your everyday life.
What to do
Take a moment to consider your kindness—or lack thereof—toward yourself. Do you think positively about yourself, or does your internal dialogue tend to lean toward negative self-talk? Treating yourself with empathy and kindness is the foundation for treating others the same way.
Next, assess your relationships with those around you. If you find that certain people in your life are often negative, judgemental or toxic, set boundaries for time spent together. Priorite your mental and emotional wellbeing in your journey toward becoming a kinder person.
Actively work toward making kindness a habit. Lasting change often starts with small acts that gradually turn into daily habits. Make an effort to practice simple acts of kindness, like holding the door for a stranger, smiling at a passerby or giving a friend a compliment. Taking these steps every day will soon become second nature. You won’t need to make a conscious effort to be kind—it will simply be second nature.
What not to do
Choosing to actively change is hard, and difficult moments can evoke the urge to give up. Don’t let unkind people or interactions deter you from your efforts toward kindness. Chalk up bad days and slip ups as one-offs, and know that you have the power to decide who you want to be and how you want to treat others every single day.
Don’t lose faith in humanity, either. Although you will inevitably face instances of cruelty from others, don’t lose sight of the fact that these few instances are usually far outweighed by the positive interactions you have with most people. We can never know all things about another person’s life, and certain circumstances can bleed into how people treat others. In an article for Harvard Medical School, Melissa Brodrick, M.Ed. reminds us that “when we are compassionate, we are recognizing our shared human condition. Compassion can guide us to acts of kindness.”