Opening our Hearts to Kindness

Caroline Flack committed suicide on Saturday 15th February 2020. Like millions of others, I read about the tragic event that Saturday evening on social media. I immediately felt a wave of total sadness and shock wash over me. The circumstances leading up to Caroline’s suicide have been intensely documented within the media whose recent coverage and scrutiny about her has been described by many as a ‘witch hunt’.

Hearts and minds across the nation have since been gripped by her death. There’s been an outpouring of sadness: the manner and way in which her life came to an end highlighting the vulnerability of the broken human spirit; a stark lesson in the fragility of life and the threads that bind our physical actions and mental thoughts.

We cannot possibly know what was in Caroline’s mind in the moments leading up to her death. What we can try to understand is that her mental wellbeing had reached such a low point that she believed dying was the only way of ending her torture. That thought is so utterly heartbreaking.

The past week has borne witness to the emotional impact of her death on social media with millions using the hashtag BeKind. It’s been a week where we’ve been acutely reminded that what we say to people matters, how we say it matters and kindness to one another in all aspects of our lives matters a great deal.

Let’s all be kind to one another. It’s a simple sentence but like lots of simple things in life, their impact can be far reaching. None of us ever really know what’s going on inside somebody’s mind or to what degree life events have detrimentally affected their mental health. It’s those unknown factors that reinforce this one: kindness shown to a fellow human being might help touch a person where it’s needed most. The door to our hearts can be gently opened and supported by kindness.

I hope your week going forward has kindness within it, for a world with kindness is a much better place to be.

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others, for beautiful lips speak only words of kindness; and for poise walk with the knowledge that you are never alone”.

Audrey Hepburn