Purnatva & Kindness

Recently I attended a Yoga retreat that involved yoga, meditation and journaling. The connection between mind, body and spirit were connected and purnatva was the topic of the evening. Purnatva in short means fullness/perfection principle. It asks that you view life as it is and who you are as perfect and full. You are whole and complete. It is a principle based on the idea that we see all the positive greatness in our lives.

We started with this self-compassion affirmation:

I believe in myself and my abilities.

I acknowledge my own self-worth.

There is no one else like me.

This purnatva principle is one I continue to strive for in my life. Everyone knows and talks about “mom guilt” and feeling like they are never good enough or getting it all wrong in the swings of parenthood. Truth be told I feel a very similar feeling at times within the depths of teaching young children. What am I doing wrong? What could I have done better? Why don’t my bulletin boards look great? I wish I was better at teaching this…” The list goes on. I am all for reflection in teaching...it's vital, however without a doubt I need to practice the purnatva principle within my teaching. Often when I reflect on anything the negative self talk creeps in my head. It’s been a continual struggle for as long as I can remember.

During the retreat I wrote this in my journal….

“When I am kind to myself, it will allow me to be kind to others and radiate all that is good in my life and the world around me.”

On the outside I am a positive person, but the inside struggles with the negative self talk is difficult for me to shut off. It steals away moments in my life at times where I either shut down or go into overdrive and do too many things at once to try and block it out.

I am sharing this in hopes that there's people out there like me that can relate. Bottom line is even though it may not always look like it on the outside we all have our struggles on the inside. Random Acts of Kindness is a simple, free way you can truly make someone's day, week or year. Lift each other up with your kind words, point out and acknowledge all that you see that is good in others. Pick up the phone, write a note, make something for someone, share all the wonderful things you see people doing around you. So yes, it is true kindness matters and I can tell you countless specific times in my life where those very small moments of kindness have made an enormous impact on my life.