Trust in Gratitude, Trust in Kindness

You must train your intuition -- you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.
 - Ingrid Bergman

Our world is a tough place to live in. Growing up, many of us are encouraged to pursue our goals and dreams but as adults we are often relegated to surviving week to week, pay check to pay check. Balancing the struggles of life in an often unkind environment only spurs people to heighten their defenses and mind their own business. Interactions between people are becoming increasingly terse and once tight knit communities now only know each other in passing. Yelling for help in some neighborhoods today would sadly be pointless as your cries would go unanswered.

In line with the Karmic beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism, I believe that the energy you put forth into the world will be met with an equivalent, if not greater, energy in return.

Being defensive and unkind is guaranteed to be met with defensiveness and unkindness. Unfortunately, few people operate with the mindset of combating such negativity with kindness. To gain advantage, one offense is met with another offense until one person can lay claim to being the most offensive and thus, dominant, or one simply realizes that such engagements are fruitless and concedes.

Through being unkind and defensive we are inviting conflict into our lives. You can trust that this will be what you encounter if you live so negatively. This perpetual expectation of impeding conflict leaves you prepared, defensive, knowing that how fervently you believe in your ability to conquer external negativity is hinged upon how negative you can become. Many petty arguments have unnecessarily resulted in someone's death, and for what? To prove dominance and a greater ability to survive.

Trust that this is what being unkind and defensive will ultimately bring you.

Trusting in the benefits of kindness and gratitude is much harder. In many social settings being kind is viewed as a sign of weakness but this is not true.

Sometimes it takes tremendous courage and strength to be kind and grateful in the face of negativity but the balance of the Universe will reward your kindness and gratitude if you trust your actions.

It is easy to succumb to negativity when the world around you is negative, but the consequence of such social weakness can be irreversibly detrimental.

Amidst a sea of negativity, trust that being kind and grateful will see you through. You will be challenged again and again, but the reward for remaining steadfast is worth far more than not.