Intentional Kindness!

Hi Everyone,

Kindness is more than compassion; more than caring. Kindness is love in action! It is a form of empathy which allows us to momentarily look through another person’s eyes and instinctively know what would bring them comfort.

Intentional kindness is part of my spiritual practice, and since today, November 13th, is World Kindness Day, I thought I would share some kindness themed morning journaling pages.

Kindness and gratitude are two of my core values, and they are often inexorably intertwined. A couple of years ago, I focused my morning journaling pages on core values. In looking back I’m not surprised that the first four pages of my core values journal are about gratitude and kindness:

Below is a morning journaling page I did last week– the left hand page is my prayer for the day, and the right hand page is a list of ways to inspire kindness.

On World Kindness Day I invite you to join me in doing acts of loving kindness. Here are some suggestions:

1. Send supportive texts, e-mails and greeting cards to people you know who are dealing with major life challenges.
2. Smile at everyone you meet!
3. Think of people who have made a profound difference in your life and send them a thank-you note.
4. Set the intention to say only positive things for 24 hours. Make a list of phrases you can use such as “That’s awesome!” “What a fabulous thing to do!”
5. Call an elderly neighbor and offer to do chores for them.
6. Take a meal to someone who has been ill.
7. Reach out to a friend or relative you haven’t talked to in a while and see how they are.
8. Clean out your closet and donate things you no longer need to charity.
9. Give care giver or a single parent a break by offering to babysit for couple of hours.
10. Pay it forward– pay for a cup of coffee for the person in line behind you.
11. Invite someone who is alone– an empty nester, a new widow or widower, someone who just moved to town– to get together.
12. Use your creative talents to uplift, support and inspire others– and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

I enjoy creating products like my Care-Moji textable stickers, which let people show they care. Recently I’ve been creating components for card-crafting enthusiasts to use to make digital or physical greeting cards. This Watercolor Clip-Art Collection is the latest addition to the ZenspirationsDesigns Etsy Shop.

It’s a collection of mix-and-match watercolor circles and splotches that you can combine with illustration and lettering to create really cool designs. They are on transparent backgrounds, so you can overlap them. I made the World Kindness Day image by overlapping two different circles and one splotch. I made the image below by overlapping several copies of the same circle.

I used a phrase from the Deluxe Downloadable Card Crafting Kit, and put it on top of two of the watercolor circles to make the card design below:

Here’s a look at some of the other digital phrase stickers in the collection. Check out theZenspirationsDesigns Etsy Shop for other options.

The card below was the first one I made with the new Watercolor Circles and Splotches collection:

If you use your creativity to make something for someone today, please share it in the Zenspirations® Create, Color, Pattern, Play Facebook Group.

Before closing tonight, I wanted to share a Free Digital Download Kindness Gratitude page. If you are new to keeping a gratitude list, I hope this will be an easy way to start.

Click the link below to download your FREE copy:

Zenspirations®_by_Joanne_Fink_Blog_Kindness

Please leave a comment letting me know what you do in honor of World Kindness Day.

Stay Zenspired,

Joanne