Spreading joy

“When you see a person without a smile, give them one of yours.”

- Zig Ziglar

Do you prefer to make people feel good or make people feel bad? If you are reading this, I assume you prefer to make people feel good. However, I know there are times where many of us choose to make others feel bad in order to make ourselves feel better. We do it to our loved ones, colleagues and people we don’t even know. Perhaps we feel insulted and feel the need to reply with an insult or wisecrack. What if in that moment when someone seems to to be in a bad place, we chose to reply with kindness?

I used to like putting people down and make them feel bad. Sometimes, they didn’t even do anything to me. They may have looked at me the wrong way, or I didn’t like their appearance. I was shallow and would take cheap shots. It only made me feel better temporarily. Then, I would return to my comfortably unsatisfied existence until I could unload on my next victim of verbal abuse. I never got physical. I was basically a shit talker. I did not win over many people with my behavior. I thought I was being cool, but really I was just being an asshole.

Not until I reconnected to my heart did I truly understand the damage I was doing to myself and others with my negativity. Ever since, I have been on a mission to make everyone I interact with feel good. I don’t care if they…