A Kindness Manifesto - Paperback

by John Lamy (Author)

We've got big, serious problems. At root, they're all caused by human behavior. In turn, our
behavior stems from our attitudes, beliefs, emotional reactions, basically our personal interior
landscapes. Therefore, it's possible to solve our truly big problems, our existential problems, by
doing something different with our attitudes and emotions.

There are two interior entities that balance each other in a way that leads to productive yet
sustainable, non-problematic behavior:
- Our individuality: our sense of unique self that's behind our initiatives and our creativity;
- Our awareness of interconnection: that we and our actions touch everything around us; that
cause and effect always applies. If we're truly aware, and if we genuinely care about the other,
we'll adjust our actions accordingly.

Here's the problem. Awareness of interconnection has, for whatever reason, fallen short. Maybe
it hasn't been nurtured, maybe it's atrophied. But today, especially in the US, we're so distracted
that we're mostly unaware of, or don't care about, the impacts of our actions. The big problems
follow most assuredly.

Solution? There is a key attitude/action that unlocks and nurtures our awareness of
interconnection, and that's kindness. Yes, simple kindness. If you make kindness a priority in your
life, you cultivate your awareness of the world around you and you get in the habit of doing right
by that world, and not just indulging the whims of your individuated self.

Kindness contributes to the world, and...it ends up making you a better and happier individual as a by-product.
We'll discuss kindness on three levels: personal, business, and government. We'll need all three.
I honestly don't see any other way of beneficially changing our interior landscape, which I'm
convinced is necessary to solve our problems.