Offer the gift of kindness: Be a positive influence

Many times in life, we are faced with people who say bad things to us, who verbally abuse us, who criticise us and call us names. Rather than engage at their level, it is better to offer kindness.

We should not accept these gifts from others. Rather, we should give them the gift of love and kindness. Then their anger has nowhere to go. It remains with them. When we withdraw from the scene, then they find themselves alone with their anger. Soon, they realise what they have done. They see how kind we were to them in the face of their adversity.

They then realise with time how lovingly we behaved. Sometimes they wonder how we were able to be loving in the face of their anger, and they come to respect us. Many will even inquire of us how we have developed such loving qualities. When they find that we are following a spiritual path, they may even want to learn more about it so they, too, can learn how to be kind and loving in the face of anger.

As we go about our day and face people filled with anger and criticism toward us we should look at the situation calmly. First, we should ask whether their words have any truth to them. If so, then we can take it as a lesson to improve ourselves.

Next, if their words do not have any truth to them, then we should return their gift of anger and instead offer only love and kindness. In this way, we can maintain our equanimity and peacefulness.

If they see how calm we are, they too may want to learn the secrets of humility we learned. We add calmness to an otherwise hostile environment.

We should leave the gift of anger with them and go on our peaceful, merry ways. They will see our example and, over time, they may want to learn to be like us. In this way, our humility can play a hand in transforming others and changing the world. Thus, we have kept our attention on our spiritual goals, and we have become a positive influence in our environment.