"We cannot judge others harshly without receiving back into our own consciousness and experience the very things we claim for others. If everyone were to live by this rule there would be no injustice in the world," Ernest Holmes.
Can you imagine a world in which kindness and nonjudgmental was the standard of the day? A person at our exercise class has a son in the hospital because of bullying at school. Outrageous! As someone who has been both educator and mental health practitioner I know that bullying damages both the victim and the aggressor. We who are dementia caregivers may not have any control over how students treat each other, but we can control our own thoughts. We can refrain from judgmental thoughts about others. Christians are currently observing Lent, in which some of them practice a discipline of giving something up -- as a spiritual discipline in preparation for Easter. Let us consider together giving up negative thoughts about ourselves and others. As dementia caregivers we have such an opportunity to model to the world by our behavior how we treat the care receiver (thus enhancing the tolerance for people with physical and cognitive differences). We can expand this influence by also monitoring our thoughts to eliminate any negative thought and replace it by thoughts of kindness. Toward ourselves and others.
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