I sat and listened to a man today. He was upset and getting impatient. He enjoyed talking about his job, so I asked him questions about it. He started to calm down and the impatience seem to fade. After he left I started thinking about the simple things we need ourselves and can give someone else.
Blessing- (for some, this word has religious meaning, but I'm not using it that way) includes compassion, kindness, appreciating, honoring, nonharming, warmth, cherishing, and love. It's helping rather than harming, giving rather than withholding, opening and extending rather than closing and contracting, wishing well rather than ill, delighting in rather than finding fault. You can bless others, the world, and yourself.
Blessing is good for others and the world, and that's plenty of reason to offer it. It’s also good for you. It strengthens gratitude and gladness, opens your heart, deepens connection, and brings good treatment from others. You experience people and the world as blessed rather than threatening, disappointing, or rejecting. By blessing, you feel blessed.
To bless someone, see their goodness, efforts, hopes, suffering, and what's neat about them. Feel a warmth, a kindness. You can express good wishes with actions—a touch, a door opened, a charitable gift, words or inside your heart alone.
It means not harming, hurting, criticizing, or dismissing; if any of these is present, a blessing isn't. Don't let a blessing feed a subtle superiority, the bless-er who is better than the bless-ee. Let others be who they are, and don't presume you know what they need. In a true blessing, there's little sense of self.
Bless people you know and strangers. See what happens when you bless people who have really helped you, friends and family, and even people who are difficult for you. See what it's like to deliberately offer compassion, kindness, prizing, or love.
Be a blessing. Find your warmth and good wishes among the mental clutter, like hearing wind chimes outside or during a storm and rain. But also take care of yourself. It's hard to bless if you feel bad. Blessing does not mean approving; you can wish people well while also disengaging from them.
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