I have come to realize that every emotion is based either in love or in fear. Examples of the love based emotions are joy, peace, gratitude, and compassion. Examples of fear emotions include sadness, anger, anxiety, and hatred. You are either acting from a place of love or a place of fear. When you understand this you have your own litmus test to understand your emotions and resulting actions. Simple ask, “Are you acting from a place of fear or a place of love?”
Your excuses are sometimes used as justifications for not living from a place of love. An example of an excuse born out of fear is the justification you don’t have to be nice to someone because the other person did something disrespectful to you.
My husband has given blood for years, but I always had excuses. I don’t like needles and I might faint or the time is not right because I had something more important to do, were two of my favorite excuses. Both of these were born from fear. I faced my fear and gave blood for the first time. Guess what I didn’t faint and it took only 45 minutes from when I walked into the room until I walked out of the door.
Being kind sometimes means facing your fears and doing it anyway. We think of being kind as giving money to a favorite charity or a gift to someone but kindness doesn’t have to cost money, you can give someone your time or even your blood. This Valentine’s Day give a gift of life to a stranger. It may mean the difference between life and death to a child fighting leukemia, someone having surgery or a police officer shot in the line of duty. Isn’t that worth 45 minutes of your day? When it is your turn to receive blood you will be grateful someone said no to their excuses.
Even on the road to giving blood, fear started taking hold by asking, “Why do you want to subject yourself to this unpleasantness?” So, I had to change my thinking about giving blood. Instead of being fearful about the process, I gave a prayer of gratitude that I am healthy enough to give blood while many in my age group are on medication that will not allow them to do so. I also gave a prayer of thanks that, on this day, I am healthy so I can be the giver and not the receiver of blood. I changed my thinking from a place of fear to a place of love for the person that will benefit from my donation.
Join me in giving the gift of life this month and add 10 points to your kindness score. Don’t let your fears allow you to justify your excuses.
Staying in Touch: Barbara Hirsh can be reached at info@LiveKinder.com I love hearing your kindness stories. Please sign-up for almost weekly kindness message at www.LiveKinder.com or follow LiveKinder on Facebook!
If you are in the southwest Missouri region, you can find out more about donation blood by clicking here.
