“Be strong, Be kind”

“Be strong, Be kind”

Jacinda Arden

So often we are told to be kind, although many of us have the general sense of what that entails very few of us can truly define it at its very core although we have a deep understanding of its profound impact in our lives. When I looked up the definition in the Oxford dictionary it came up as “having or showing a friendly, generous, and considerate nature”.

When Jack and I were speaking about the concept on which to base “kindness economics”, I found myself wondering how do we bring a concept that seems so easy yet hard to explain into a measurable economic principle that can change the world’s relationship with one of the truest currencies of our existence which is treating each other with consideration and generosity.

Then it dawned on me, kindness much like love is a concept that needs no explanation, every human being knows at a fundamental level when they have encountered it. Kindness Economics isn’t about persuading people to believe in the importance of kindness, it’s giving them the tools to implement it in an efficient way, that has a measurable component.

“Economics is the study of scarcity and its implications for the use of resources, production of goods and services, growth of production and welfare over time”

In order to create the tools the questions I need to answer are:

• How does it positively impact a system (government, country or organisation) when people act with kindness?
• How does it negatively impact a system when people behave in unkind ways?
• What is the relation between kindness and humanity?

As I navigate through learning indigenous patterns and thinking, I realise that in many ways that is the answer. Humanity has slowly veered away from our deep inner wisdom that we are not separate from anything or anyone around us. Therefore being kind to another is essentially being kind to yourself.

I am learning as I go and my reflections will ebb and flow as I embody a different way of learning and seeing the world. 

The graph below is a quick sketch Jack drew up as we were drafting the initial idea of how Kindness Economics could potentially look, I will begin adding components as I go

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others‘. It is often described as reminding us that ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’.

As I study and relate to Indigenous thinking systems, I cannot help but reflect and meditate on the core of ubuntu, thats what kindness economics is centred in