“Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others.” ~ Lama Yeshe
Gentleness is something this World and humanity desperately needs…
“Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others.“
To be gentle means to exist in ways that are kindly, compassionate, and peaceful. Gentleness has no severe, rough, violent or meanness about it. It’s soothing, tender, soft and easy. Just saying the words gentle, gentleness, gently, invoke a calming serenity and who doesn’t desire these things?
There is so much ugliness, harshness and just pure mean, nasty, degrading hatred that seems to be in overwhelming supply – whether it’s from the news, from politics, from ignorant people, etc. It can truly seem that so much, too much, is nothing more than a pit of despair that one can barely keep their head above. But that is actually an utter lie.
There is just as much good, just as much hope in this world as the other, and probably even more of it. It has simply become habit – communal, mass-thinking habit, to see the bad, the terrible above all. Sensationalism sells, after all, and the heaviness of the negative helps keep everyone down and hopeless in one way or another. The good, the great, and the absolutely positive are everywhere in equal, if not larger, quantities as the negative. It’s indisputable if you actively choose to seek it out and cultivate it. And the first step to this cultivation of the positive is through you being gentle to yourself.
Shower yourself in gentleness, in compassion and kindness. Stop the harsh judgements, the unfair comparisons, the needless meanness that you place upon yourself. Instead, ease up and recognize all the goodness that you possess. Yes, you will make mistakes. Yes, you will have difficult times, but the kinder, the gentler you are with yourself, the easier, the more positive life will be. You are alive, you are breathing, you are a unique human being who is flawed and fantastic and who is capable of loving and that love starts right here, right now with YOU.
We are all in this human life, each of us dealing with our own fragile, flawed selves, so why not treat yourself and everyone else with a kind gentleness? If you are being gentle with yourself first and always, you’ll naturally extend that same gentleness to others and then they may just start to treat themselves and those they meet the same and so on. Before you know it, the positive will overtake the negative and the goodness that flows all around will glow so strong even the negative will take notice. And it all begins with you being gentle with yourself.
Namaste ~ Ella
~ Affirmation Mondays are positive words of wisdom, insight and joy to add a bit of cheer to the start of your week and any day you need a bit of a pick-me-up! For even more inspiration please check out my Affirmation Mondays Pinterest Board and my Quote-spirational Board!
~ Check my Instagram on Mondays for Inspirational quotes and every day for a little jolt of happiness!
Lawhimsy 
THANK YOU. I am teaching a yoga class next week on self compassion. This will be wonderful to share with my students. Namaste
You’re so welcome Cyd, I’m delighted to have helped! I hope your yoga class goes wonderfully! Namaste