Kindness is a power move. Here’s how.

I sprinkle kindness around like confetti — sometimes in big handfuls — wherever I go. 

It seems just pleasant and nice, but it’s a key ingredient to my world-changing strategy. 

Here’s how I see it.

I deliberately strive to improve people’s day by finding ways to acknowledge and appreciate what they’re contributing to the world.

Sometimes this looks like using the name on a person’s name tag at the shop to say, “Thanks for packing my groceries so carefully, Paul.”

Other times it’s taking an extra few moments to ask a colleague how they are doing and holding space to allow their full answer to emerge.

Attention to detail like this is simple but powerful.

As you’re likely well aware, the world is becoming increasingly divided and polarized. The success of oppressive and exploitative systems rely on us not having access to resources and power. 

When individuals repeatedly have their power removed from them in millions of ways over a lifetime, they stay oppressed. This is how these systems maintain control over us.

But what if we remembered how powerful we are? 

✨ What if we remembered that the matter that makes up our bodies is pulsing with an energetic life force that has the potential to be artfully wielded to create an existence that is flourishing and radiant?

✨ What if we remembered that we arrived at our position in the matrix of this lifetime by luck? These privileges we have may not have been earned. (Are they ever?)

✨ What if we remembered that it’s okay to have and use power to create the life and world of our dreams?

(As I write this I’m beginning to see how the topic of this Love Letter is less about using optimism and kindness to change the world but more about power. My feminist marketing teacher, Kelly Diels, speaks brilliantly on the topic here).

I don’t see recognizing people’s contributions as just fluffy niceness.

It’s a way to return their power to them. When people experience their own beauty, magic, and interconnectedness with the whole, they become stronger and more vital. 

It’s a culture-making power move.

It’s an energy up-levelling strategy.

It’s part of an arsenal of tools to amplify goodness in the world so that darkness and oppression have less space to control us.

I want to make it clear that this is not bypassing the unjust and corrupt realities that are currently happening by dismissively “sending love and light”. This is using that understanding to fortify a commitment to creating a positive influence in the world amidst the injustices.

We need to be in the energy of what it is we want to create while we are taking action towards creating that reality. 

We can do hard things to make change while also staying committed to experiencing joy and pleasure in our bodies. 

Yes, you have to hold two opposing states to achieve this, but you’re the type of person who has that capacity. I don’t think you’d be here if that wasn’t the case. 

It’s in this pull between two opposing states that we can harness the power of change.

Amplify your awareness of what’s good in the micro as well as the macro. Hold the vision of what you want to see and experience in the world while you take small (and large) actions to help you feel that as often as possible. It’s like attuning yourself to a certain frequency; like attracts like from an energy perspective.

Pretty great form of activism, hey?

Pleasure is power. 
Feeling good is power. 
Joy is power. 
Little things make up the whole.

When we feel healthy, inspired, and strong, it creates an environment that supports the flourishing of each individual and the whole collective. 

And from there we can do powerful things.

Join me.

With love and power, 

Dana