Yes. I know I am kinder years ago as compared to now. It may be because of some frustrations I experienced as an adult that led me to being less kind. But I miss the kind me. I know it is still there, waiting to be unlocked again. The struggle is real though. But I still try by doing mostly these:

  1. Everyday, I remind myself to be kind. I remind myself that being kind to EVERYONE is better than being nasty.
  2. When I get frustrated, I excuse myself for a quick bio break. The walk to and from the restroom helps a bit in calming me down.
  3. When I know I would not be kind during a discussion or a meeting, especially the unscheduled ones, I request that we talk after 10 or 15 minutes. This gives me enough time to collect and remind myself to just keep calm.
  4. I ask God to intervene. Not ask actually. I plead Him to intervene.
  5. When my thoughts go towards the negative, I force myself to stop thinking negatively and again remind myself to be kind.
  6. I think of all my blessings and automatically, I feel grateful for everything, even the things that I know I don’t deserve but was still given to me.

It is hard to be kind. It is one of my daily battles. Or maybe it is actually easy. It is just hard to practice it all the time especially on unfavorable circumstances. But we must still always try to practice kindness.