A Nice Person - Personal Practice

This week I had a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a while say to me "You are the nicest person I know".

My response was "really"?

I reacted this way because I didn't feel I had been particularly nice over the past week.

Here is what I did:

I hurt the feelings of a dear friend of mine with a thoughtless comment.  Even though I didn't mean it the way it came out and my apology was accepted, I should have chosen my words more carefully.  

I made a comment about the appearance of someone I had just met.  The new acquaintance took the comment in good humor, but it was still unkind and uncalled for on my behalf.

Instead of complementing a friend on all the qualities I admire in them, I made a single statement that degraded what I really meant to say.  I wish I had been more eloquent in my delivery vs. brash.

Instead of being open and communicative about my desire to reduce communication with someone who's views in life differ from mine, I chose to be silent.  I would prefer it if someone felt this way about me to tell me.

I was able to see clearly these mistakes I made because of a lesson I received from a wonderful teacher this past week who said "When we feel anxious it's because there is a part of us that is doing something that is not authentic.

In each of these instances I felt anxious.  I wasn't my authentic self!  

I was simply trying too hard.  I wanted to make others laugh, but it was at the expense of others.  I wanted to manipulate situations to my advantage, but hurt feelings in the process.

The thoughtlessness just wasn't worth it!

Ultimately though...

We can't dwell on our mistakes, we can only work to not make them again.  

A Big Thank You to the friend who gave me the complement, because when I said "Really?", my friend responded with "Yes.  Why don't you think you are?"  Which of course drove me to dig deeper and do the hard work on why I responded as I did.

Life's lessons come in interesting ways and sometimes we need to be open to our own discomfort in order receive the lesson.

In my case, I needed to be reminded how important it is to treat others with kindness.

So, I'll continue my practice of being A Nice Person.