The Power of a Kind Word

It’s no secret, social media is huge.  Before I started running a blog, I was never into it that much.  I mean, I had the standard personal facebook account.  Everybody does.  Mine with a few pictures, mostly ones my friends had added and tagged me in.  The profile picture was (is) stagnant so Facebook would send me messages like: “your profile picture is 5 years old, it doesn’t even look like you, update it so your friends know this is your account.”  Ok, that may be a total exaggeration…but it was something along those lines.  

The day I decided to start a blog, my life as a social media spectator was over.  I reactivated Pinterest, got an Instagram handle and even made a brief appearance on Twitter before deciding that was one platform too many to manage.  At the very least a little social media presence is necessary to blogging and most people I know are part of these online networks regardless of profession.  That “presence” can leave us feeling like less, unproductive, irrelevant and not good enough, if we let it.  Social media can also to be incredibly uplifting at times.  A place where community can be cultivated and inspiration thrives. That’s the part I want to focus on today:  the uplifting aspect.

Recently I’ve been the recipient of so much love from my tribe on both Instagram and Facebook.

Here are a few things people have commented or messaged me lately: 

“you inspire me, friend”

“absolutely love this please keep sharing.”

“Hey girl, I just wanted to say this spoke to me today. Thanks for putting good stuff into the universe.”

“I love your message.  I appreciate your advice and support, glad I found you here!”

These are some truly thoughtful, kind people I’m associated with.  Wow!  Those comments leave me feeling humble, warm and fuzzy and completely unworthy all at once.  I have felt the power of a kind word in comments messages and other people’s posts.  Every single time I’ve been blessed with a little outpouring of love I am deeply grateful.

On the flip side I’ve also been the giver of “a kind word” to others.  It never disappoints. Even when the person I’m complimenting seems to have it ALL together with ALL the followers in the world, it still feels so good to tell them they are making a difference. They need the lift too. Because no matter who you are, if you are truly living, that is, if you have stepped outside your comfort zone: there will be negative thoughts, there will be what ifs running through your head.  You may have mastered the art of ignoring them, but they do show up.  Hearing from an outside source that you have made a difference or impacted them in some way, hearing a kind word, is powerful. 

Kind words push me forward when the verbal reel playing in my head is less than kind. On episode 154 of Jenna Kutcher’s Goal Digger podcast Melissa Ambrosini offers this statistic: “women have between 60 and 80 thousand thoughts a day.”  Furthermore, Melissa offers “that is potentially 60 to 80 thousand limiting, fear based, inner mean girl thoughts.”  After hearing that, I was floored, it’s a stat I won’t forget. Whatever we are thinking about, 80 thousand thoughts…. holy cow!?  No wonder it’s so hard not to be hard on ourselves, we are like energizer bunnies who keep going and going pushing ourselves down.

I want to challenge you to make that 80 thousand and one thoughts today by adding some time to ponder what you spend the most time thinking about.  Maybe some of you look forward to lunch as much as I do so naturally 40 thousand of those thoughts are about food.  Even if that’s the case I would venture to guess while you aren’t thinking about the next meal many of those daily thoughts are negative self talk.  Thoughts of what other people may think, thoughts of what might happen, thoughts of never measuring up, never being good enough or visions of embarrassment and what ifs.  We apply these thoughts to our goals and dreams and relationships. 

This is precisely why lifting others up is so important.  While I do believe we need to work on what we are allowing to live in our headspace, we can help each other with this task by way of kindness.  I’m not talking false praise, just saying something nice for the sake of saying something.  I’m talking genuine kindness.  When something or someone stops your scroll on social media, drop a comment.  Tell them it was impactful.  When someone is changing the world around you in your community let them know it’s noticed and appreciated.  We are all working so hard in life to be better, do better and just get through. We need to show love to one another. If we are scrolling anyways, why not take the time to tell someone when they make us stop, think a little deeper, laugh a little harder or grow a little bit more. 

So often I think we are pouring our hearts into whatever message we are vulnerably sharing with whoever is willing to listen just hoping it falls on the ears who need to hear it.   We feel called and we are taking action.  In the process we’ve tried to drown out the noise inside us giving every reason we shouldn’t share, the noise that is making known every scary thing that might (probably won’t) happen.  When we put ourselves out there it’s not that we are hoping someone notices just for the sake of being noticed, we want our heart and intention to be noticed so that our message may help people.  God always notices us, sees us and knows our heart.  We are called to be like Jesus, therefor we need to give kindness to others as much as we want it for ourselves.  We should love on people who are doing the things we believe in by encouraging them and saying “hey, I see you.”  A kind word is no doubt, very powerful.   

Blessings,

Rita

References:

Kutcher, J. (2018, May 21)  Goal Digger [Audio Podcast].