Gentleness does not come easily to me. I have so many years of intensity to offset and counterbalance now, though it will not all be corrected in this moment. A key here is to be gentle with myself during this transition and improvement process. I am already appreciating and being aware of more moments when the intensity slips back into my demeanor and mindset. Whenever I recognize that slide backwards, I can breathe, ground myself, and relax my need for control. Gentleness slowly feels more and more natural for me.
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.
-William Hazlitt
I realized something profound that feels rather significant for me. I struggle and find it so difficult to be gentle because I did not have it modeled well for me as a child. It brings me absolutely no joy to admit that I grew up in one of those homes that believed in physical punishments. How does a child see gentleness and feel love when learning to fear the pain from belts and wooden spoons? It was a blind spot for me for way too many years. Now, releasing that burden and knocking down that wall, my goal of being more gentle suddenly feels realistic.
I do not think our lives are meant to be only easy and gentle strolls. We will all face tests and challenges that make us prove our worth. These are defining moments to walk the walk, and they can be the most important times to maintain and demonstrate our own innate gentleness along the way.
The easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue.
-Michel de Montaigne
It can be scary and daunting to face new unknowns and get out of our comfort zones. If you built walls around you for protection, do you know when they turned into a prison instead? Like the universe, I believe our lanes should continually expand. We should not confine or constrict ourselves, and we certainly should not confine or constrict others. We are strongest when we feel full of love for ourselves and all others.
Our greatest strength lies in the gentleness and tenderness of our heart.
-Rumi (the famous Persian poet, not the lead vocalist of Huntrix)
Please remember, we can still have pillow fights :)
When tough times come, it is particularly important to offset them with much gentle softness.
-Vera Nazarian
Be a pillow.
I enjoy my witty word plays and such, especially earlier on when starting these writings. My inner work, though, is truer and deeper than any of those minor surface-level details. The person I am now proves my purpose for all of this work.
More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.
-Charlie Chaplin
The easiest route can make us often feel like we should fight fire with fire. Giving the same energy back to a person can often be a default habit engrained into our interactions and psyches. If you want to truly flex your well-being in a healthy way, then work on maintaining your gentleness and kindness in as many situations as possible regardless of any resistances. It is not easy; it is worth it.
Always meet petulance with gentleness and perverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by a hair. Reply to [your] enemy with gentleness.
-Zoroaster
Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars.
-Max Ehrmann
Maybe it is wise. Maybe it is dumb. Time will tell.