#RevofKindness-Before Post

I signed up for the Kindness Challenge that begins on May 9. For seven weeks I will write a blog post about kindness. Each week a different Kindness prompt will explore my interpretations about Kindness. Reaching out to others is beautiful, and sadly, an anomaly in our over scheduled world. With so many responsibilities and demands we never pause and think about how others are doing, how we can help them, or even have the time to utter a “How are you?” It’s not like we would take the time to absorb and listen. We just don’t have the time. Not having time is almost a status of how accomplished we are.  Not having the time is and wreaking havoc on having time for  self-kindness.

Speaking as a mom, kindness is extended to our children, spouses (sometimes ;), volunteering, careers, and friends (when we have the time for them). With the much anticipated release of the movie Bad Moms and television shows like Odd Mom Out, we are the first to laugh, and high five each other at Hollywood’s versions of imperfect moms. Still, in our real lives, inside our real homes, in the moment we cradle our heads in our hands, after an exhausting day, our self-kindness reserves are barren.

How many of us chastise ourselves over forgetting our child’s lunch? Who has mentally beaten herself/himself because your child’s jeans are too short, and we let him/her go to school like that? How many of you can I call at 2:00 am because you are wide awake thinking about your child’s extracurricular activities, or lack there of? Do you analyze everything you say at Drop Off and/or Pick Up? Maybe I said too much, too little? Do they smell the crazy on me?  I have. I do. I will participate in all of the above scenarios.

It really does not matter how often we workout or eat clean when self-criticism lines our insides. That is why we need (I need) to participate in a Kindness Challenge, or I as I refer to it, A Kindness Cleanse. How can we even entertain self-kindness when our souls are a mass of  self-loathing, second-guessing, second nature-anxiety?  Join me on the ultimate soul cleanse and join the Revolution of Kindness for ourselves and others.