Contemplating Thoughtfulness

Here’s an interesting word to contemplate – thoughtfulness. What’s that mean, exactly?

Maybe it means taking other people’s feelings or reactions into account before doing something. Every action creates an impact, whether positive or negative. Being thoughtful is a way to (for the most part) create some type of positive impact by thoughts, words and deeds. Buddhists call this mindfulness.

Part of being mindful or thoughtful is to be open-minded. Believe that things are never written in stone and that there is opportunity to change it. We can't change how other people act. There will be those out there who may hurt with words, deeds or actions. It's in our hands how we choose to handle it, react or create thoughts around it. We can speculate all we want and in the process make ourselves crazy.

One of the ways we can be more mindful is to step out of ourselves and look at how we would react if we were watching as an outside observer. Would this person say we were kind, caring and considerate by our actions? Or would this person say we were mean, uncaring and selfish? By doing this, does this change our actions? If not, what are the reasons why?

That never means we aren’t going to say things or do things to hurt people. We will – sometimes in error, sometimes to protect and speak up for ourselves. We are responsible for how we deliver the message, not necessarily how someone receives it.

If we come from a place of mindfulness, at least we are being true to ourselves while expressing what we need to express. Taking the TIME to be mindful – that’s the trick. It means we have to think about what we say or do, it means we have to be quiet and listen, instead of reacting. We have to REALLY listen to what someone is saying or watch what they are doing.