This is part of our regular series of Daily Doses where the oh team & our friends take you through an alphabet of simple & down-to-earth self-care practices. They're all quick, easy & pleasurable – and we hope, will help lift your mood whenever you need it.
G is for… G E N T L E N E S S
By Miranda Hart
“Gentleness has been my watchword. I hold its quality with deep reverence.
It is love in action in a uniquely beautiful way. Gentleness is listening without charging in with advice. It’s holding a hand. It’s sighing empathetically. Gentleness is an act of service done with no need for acknowledgement or even knowing. It’s a calm steadiness. It’s a loving presence we all long to be in and have within.
Yet it seems in recent years, extroversion, visible success, noisy activism, assertive confidence, (all noble and necessary qualities for some and in some walks of life), have pushed gentleness to the background. So much so that it can be misaligned with laziness, or shyness, or someone of lesser import.
But give me gentle any day. And oh how it’s ever more important now. A time when it’s essential we unite globally and locally, to love and serve each other. Beautiful, tender, gentle love. But how easy it is to still rush and distract? To feel fraught with all the ‘shoulds’ and ‘musts’. I invite you to stop as the world has had to and consider a gentler approach. To slow your pace. To listen to your heart and be tender with your own needs. Yes, your own (imagine that!) And as you feel fuelled by the energy you gain from that, to gently listen, empathise and give. Because isn’t that what we want to feel, remember, and be? Isn’t that what is important? I venerate gentleness and I wish the world did a bit more too. Perhaps it will now, as one the many lessons we can learn from this unprecedented situation. For however much we hold the darkness and suffering, there is always light to find and follow. One of my guiding lights in gentleness.”
Miranda is an actor, comedian and writer mirandahart.com
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