Our society is insanely competitive. We compare everything from the shape of our noses to the color of our shoes. Every minute detail about every other person is judged, scored, and recorded in our brains, consciously or not.
This year, I am making an effort to be less judgemental of others and myself in order to be a kinder person overall. I often find myself automatically judging other people’s outfits or the way that other people speak, and I hate it when I catch myself in the act. I would never say any of these thoughts aloud because I genuinely fight them. I’m a firm believer that your first ‘thought’ is conditioned by society and your second is truly yours. So when your friend decides on a dramatic style change you might initially think “Oh my god, why would she ever do that. She looks ridiculous.” but you realize you’re being harsh and that she’s someone you care about so you probably correct yourself by thinking something like “Well, it’s her choice and I support her self expression”. I believe that the second thought is what’s more important.
This year, I’m working on making more of my initial thoughts kinder so that I don’t have to correct them. I am also working on giving myself and other people grace for making judgemental comments. Usually, we don’t even realize what we’re even saying when we make these statements, it just comes out like word vomit. I believe that people are always trying their best and want to better themselves. By giving more people grace we can understand that they don’t mean what they say. Our capitalistic society has trained us to compare ourselves in order to sell products to us, but we can’t let them off the hook either. It’s up to us to make the world a kinder place. We must gently remind each other and ourselves to be less judgemental.
Remember that all progress, even just a little, is a step in the right direction, and bad habits are hard to unlearn. Be kind to yourself and others when unlearning judgemental tendencies.