Article: Why Sustainable Kindness Matters

We talk about sustainability and the environment, what about when it comes to people?  Learn about how sustainable kindness matters.

Everything is connected. Nearly all psychologists, conscious leaders and thinkers realise that there exists what is called a ripple effect between people and their environment. In my work as a psychologist, holistic mentor and truth speaker, I have travelled extensively and met people of many different cultures and situations. Recently I stayed at Raffles in Dubai and I felt that the atmosphere and service were on a different level to any luxury hotel that I’ve stayed in before. On the second morning I met Siddhartha, one of Raffles’ supervisors, who approached me in the dining room and we started talking about being vegetarians. As we got to know each other, I understood that Siddhartha believes it’s important to be a conscious leader.

Not only does the hotel look after its’ employees on a practical level – like good accommodation and facilities, free twenty four hour transportation, healthcare and options to eat healthily – but also the supervisors believe it’s important to have open communication, a lot of encouragement and rewards. As a result, I could feel that all the workers that I met were enthusiastic about their jobs in the hotel and genuinely happy to look after me. This chain of energy is something that I see all the time when people come to me for mentorship and transformation. When people feel secure and significant, whatever their role in an organisation, then they can perform to their fullest potential, and, anticipate the needs of those they are serving.

The supervisors at Raffles are trained to be in a place of what I term – sustained kindness. Of late there has been much talk about the need for further environmental sustainability. What concerns me as a holistic guide is encouraging people to be in a place of kindness that doesn’t have an expiry date or is conditional. For instance, to be able to be kind even when we experience challenges, chaos and unexpected disruptions. Commonly people can be kind to strangers and imitate kindness to achieve an end, but if they are suffering internally they may be unkind to people close to them like family, colleagues or employees. Of course in understanding sustained kindness, I am talking about constant self-love and self-awareness.

When we are in the space of the heart, there is a deeper resilience than mindset alone. We are able to respond with compassion and right action even when things don’t seem to go our way. By being in a constant state of grace which I like to call – a state of gold – all our words, thoughts and actions shine with kindness. However, in a state of awareness and presence we may need to sometimes step away from negative energy and as a result, appear to be unkind. We can’t help anyone else unless we first help ourselves.

One of the first things I do when people come to me for a workshop, retreat, group mentoring or individual session, is to discover whether they are connected to their hearts. I have written many times about the capacity of the heart and how it is proven to have the most powerful electromagnetic field of any intelligent organ in the body and when listened to can help us to make better decisions, effortlessly. I give people the tools to connect to their hearts and clear the debris that blocks the flow of heart energy. After a journey with me, people are aligned to their prosperity in all aspects of life and naturally able to know when to receive and when to give, when to stop and watch the ripples on the water and when it’s time to make waves of change.

~ HV

Interested in understanding or cultivating heart-based leadership? I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to talk about ways of working together.