Accepting kindness isn’t weakness, it’s the ultimate show of strength
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Life’s a struggle. To survive you have to be tough and self-sufficient. So when the chips are down it can be hard to accept help, but letting our guard down is precisely what we should do.
Kindness is what makes us human, the lifeblood on which we thrive. Kindness is often unanticipated, catching us when we least expect it, and stirs us in ways that nothing else can. Kindness brings a tear to the eye and a tremble to an otherwise steady voice. It is an act of giving that makes no demands and, in doing so, humbles us to our core.
It’s easy to be tough in a hardened world and it often feels as though kindness is rather absent from our daily lives as we’re nagged by our partners, shoved aside by stressed-out commuters and hassled by colleagues. We sense that we are more often in competition than in collaboration with each other, the former offering less opportunity for kindness than the latter. And we are frequently too caught up in our own concerns to think about the kind deeds we could do for others.
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But when we find ourselves going through a crisis, whether it’s an agonising divorce, losing a loved one, being made redundant or suffering a breakdown our struggle becomes tangible to others. They may take the opportunity to demonstrate a generosity of spirit that rescues us from the depths of our hell and gets us back on track, leaving us forever grateful.
But we shouldn’t underestimate the positive effect that bestowing kindness has on the giver and must realise that accepting their kindness is, therefore, a generous act in and of itself. Each time we give and accept kindness it softens our hearts a little more. We feel more human, more alive, more able to love and be loved. Whether we realise it or not we are all connected and if we reject the help offered by another person in the belief that we must always fend entirely for ourselves we are doing quite the opposite. We are, effectively, rejecting ourselves.
So next time someone offers you help stop thinking you have to find all the answers yourself, remember that there’s no such thing as absolute altruism, do both of you a favour and say yes! And to all those who have been so very kind to me, I thank you sincerely, and from the very bottom of my heart.
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