Acts of Kindness Can Cancel Out Anger

When someone does something to make you angry, the last thing on your mind is to be kind to that person. In reality, it should be the first and for a very important reason: doing so cancels out your anger and brings you back to normal. Let me illustrate with an example. An article which appeared in Spirit magazine told of a gentleman waiting in a Starbuck’s drive-through line.  He had placed his order but was unable to drive ahead far enough for the man in the car behind him to place his. This man started honking his horn and calling him an idiot. The gentleman was on the verge of losing it and knew he had to do something fast. So, he calmly told the woman at the window that he wanted to pay for the coffee for the person behind him. This, by the way, set off a chain reaction of people paying for the person in the next car’s coffee that lasted throughout the day. The gentleman said that as soon as he asked to pay for the nasty person’s coffee, his anger disappeared, and his equilibrium was restored. This is a wonderful example of the amazing power of kindness.

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