About the Episode

Kindness is one of the beautiful things that always make our lives better in some way, shape, or form. The more we practice kindness, the better we’ll feel and the better our relationships will be. In today’s episode of the Pursuit of Learning, we’re having a deep conversation with someone who has mastered the art of being kind. Donna Cameron, the author of the multi-award-winning book, “A Year of Living Kindly: Choices That Will Change Your Life and the World Around You,” joins us today to talk about all things kindness.

We kick off the conversation with a brief review of what motivated Donna, the story of what led to the realizations behind writing her book, some of the values we’ve lost as a society in recent years, and what we have to do in order to rebuild those lost values. Moving onto kindness, Donna explains two key distinctions we have to make; being nice versus being kind and being kind versus not being unkind. We talk about the role these definitions play when it comes to practices that help us be kind to fellow human beings.

According to Donna, kindness is a practice where we need to take certain risks, but it also comes with benefits. We talk about some of the scientific research that explains several benefits of being kind, such as being able to sleep better, enhanced creativity, and greater life satisfaction. We also talk about how corporations can cultivate a culture built around kindness and how we can practice kindness toward ourselves.

Just like in everything else in life, our path to kindness may also have some obstacles. We talk about some of these obstacles and some things we can practice in order to overcome these obstacles. Another concept Donna dives deep into is passing the gift of kindness to our future generations. She explains that when our children see us being kind to other people, they tend to absorb those traits of kindness, developing kindness within themselves as well.