August 22, 2023 • 12 mins
Can a simple smile make your day better, and possibly someone else's too? This intriguing question is what we're addressing in our kick-off episode, where we explore 5 practical steps to live a life of joy and kindness. Let's navigate through the power of gestures, like a smile, that can reduce stress, increase your heart rate, and light up someone's day. We're also sharing insights on the art of truly listening, understanding the essence of patience, and the undeniable power of respect.
As we delve deeper, we aim to create an inclusive environment, fostering open-mindedness and respect for diverse perspectives. On the journey of this podcast, we're not just sharing stories and experiences, but learning and growing together. Whether you're navigating life or wrestling with business challenges, this episode is bound to inspire and remind you of the importance of kindness, for others and yourself.
So Amiga, grab your favorite beverage, and let's embark on this enlightening journey of kindness.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to Amiga's let's Talk the show
where we discuss life andbusiness and everything in
between.
I am your host, demaris Ramirez, and every week we will bring
you stories and insights,hopefully to inspire you to
think differently.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk In the
(00:26):
Amiga episode one.
I know we were supposed torelease in July, but life
happens and unfortunately we gota little backed up with our
schedule.
But that's okay.
All we can do is do our bestand just get right back on track
.
So I thought we would start outwith this journey of the
podcast discussing, for our lifeand business, some ground rules
(00:50):
.
I wanted to discuss what myhope is and how I hope that we
treat each other on this podcast.
So this is going to be todayall about the five steps to
living a life of kindness, andthis is because I want this to
be a place of culture, acommunity based on kindness,
where we're not here to judge.
(01:10):
Instead, we're going tounderstand and learn from each
other.
It's important to me because welive a life in a world with
stress and fatigue and burnoutand the dreaded fear of missing
out.
Sometimes we have anxiety andlife takes over, and I don't
want us to forget that we shouldbe kind to others and, most
(01:32):
important, to ourselves.
So I thought it would beappropriate for us to kind of go
over some five steps of livinga life of kindness.
So here they are.
They're the ones that I'm goingto be following, so hopefully
you can follow along, and so thefirst step would be to smile.
So wake up in the morning andsmile.
A simple smile is going tobrighten up your day.
(01:54):
It's going to brighten upsomebody else's day.
It's really the easiest way toshow kindness and warmth towards
each other.
I read once that researchers atthe University of Kansas had
found that smiling helps reducethe body response to stress and
can lower your heart rate in 10situations.
So I've been using thetechnique for a while and it
(02:15):
works.
You have to try it for yourself, but every time you're feeling
a little stressed, smile.
Doesn't matter what otherpeople think.
We spend too much time on ourcell phones and sometimes we're
too busy and we don't have timeto pause or we don't have time
to have the human interaction.
So today I would say smileanytime Somebody gives you a
(02:38):
service.
Smile when you go pick up yourcoffee or tea.
Smile when the guy at the gasstation asks you for the bank
card.
Smile when you drop off yourkid to your teacher.
It's a good start to their day.
I will tell you that you'regoing to start to notice that
you feel better, happier, whenyou start your day this way, and
(03:02):
people want to communicate morewith you.
So the other thing is that whenyou smile, you're sending a
message to the brain that thingsare good.
So that's how I like to startmy day, and when the brain gets
that message, it releasesendorphins that are naturally
feeling good, chemicals thatwill make us happy.
So smile today.
(03:24):
The second step is to listen.
Listening is a powerful act ofkindness, so we can show
kindness by attentivelylistening to others without
judgment.
So when we do that, let's talkabout what that means.
If someone's talking, can youtruly repeat what they just said
, what someone just told you?
(03:46):
If you cannot, then you're nottruly really listening.
Right, we find ourselvessometimes saying are you
listening?
Because you might be telling astory that's important to you,
but the other person is too busyscrolling through their phone.
I can tell you, sometimes thathappens to me Might be telling
my husband about my day and allof a sudden he gets a text or an
(04:09):
email notification from his joband the phone is nearby,
distracts them.
He picks it up.
He doesn't really mean to berude, but when I say, are you
listening or did you hear what Ijust said, he'll just say, oh
yeah, sure, but in reality, if Iasked him what I just said, he
probably can't even remember.
(04:29):
So we try to have a rule.
Our rule is let's place thephone face down.
We do have them on silent whenwe're home so that we could
truly listen to each other.
You know, and I do the samewith friends and family, because
you know, it's important thatyou give someone your full
attention.
So today, when a good exercisethat you can do is when
(04:50):
someone's talking to you, it'sto wait until the person stops
talking.
Give it a minute, absorb whatyou just heard so that you can
really contribute to theconversation.
Don't forget to give them theeye contact, especially when
they're trying to tell yousomething important.
It means a lot to the personthat's trying to share their
(05:11):
feelings with you.
Listen to the words you'rehearing and the message that
they're trying to give you.
You know you want to try tounderstand.
You know, are they sad today?
Are they happy today?
Do they need to hear thatthey're doing a great job?
So you want to listen whenpeople tell you they love you.
You want to listen and peopletell you they don't.
(05:31):
You know, realize that allconversations are not going to
be positive, and that's okay,because both in life and in
business we're going to have upsand downs, and so, you know,
the important thing is that wedo hear what we need to hear,
right, and then we do payattention to things that others
(05:53):
feel are important for us tohear.
So listening is a valuableskill that really, when it's
done well, it's going to helpyou to get to the next level.
So let's get at it today.
Practice doing attentivelistening.
For me, one of the hardest onesof these steps to living a life
(06:16):
of kindness is being patient.
I think I'm better at it, but Iwould say in my early 20s or
30s boy, I lack patience.
You know, patience is a virtualand we must show kindness by
being patient to others and withourselves.
When I was younger, I was awareof it, and so I just started to
(06:40):
work really hard to try toadapt to a life of patience.
I think maybe teaching reallyhelped me to change.
Slowly, because I was forcedwith working with different
kinds of people, different kindsof students with different
types of learning abilities.
I realized that if I wantedthem to be successful, I needed
(07:04):
to be patient.
I needed to meet them wherethey were.
So I started to practice beingmore patient with not just my
students, with my family at work, with my friends and even with
strangers.
I think the reality is thatpeople are doing the best they
can at any given time.
Right, it doesn't mean thatthey're a bad person.
(07:24):
So, for example, the people atthe motor vehicles we all have
been there, we all know the longlines.
They're doing the best they canRemember.
They're working with thesystems that they've been given.
You know it's not their faultthat the computers are slow or
staffing maybe is low, maybethey don't have enough staff, so
maybe the line is longer.
(07:46):
It's going to take you longerto get that renewed license.
It's not their fault thatthey're still providing paper
that we need to fill out.
So that is confusing to somepeople, again making maybe the
wait longer.
We have to be patient.
Sometimes the person that we'relosing the patience with.
(08:09):
It's not their fault thatthey're in that situation, and
so we have to do our part andtry to be understanding and be
kind, because there are plentyof things that will lead us to a
inpatience in our daily life.
You know, like waiting at theStarbucks, right, a slow driver,
(08:30):
a business that's not growingfast enough.
You know, and many of us areeven inpatients with ourselves
right, try to be calm.
Right, you want to find yourzen.
If that means you have tobreathe deeply and slowly when
you're feeling that, you knowyou're getting anxious, you're
(08:51):
being impatient.
Sometimes that helps, sometimesit's difficult, I know, but
showing patience can make a hugedifference in our life and the
life of others and, for sure, inour business.
The next step is beingrespectful, please.
On this podcast, we need to berespectful towards each other in
(09:12):
this community.
Let's create a positiveenvironment that promotes
inclusivity.
Let's be friends here, right?
That's why I called it Amiga.
Amiga means friends in Spanish.
We wanna share our experiences,we wanna help each other.
We want to promote differentcultures, ages, beliefs.
Let's be open-minded.
(09:33):
You know we all don't share thesame views.
The views on this podcast aremine and you might have
different opinions, and Irespect that.
Finally, the last step to livinga life of kindness is to
practice self-kindness.
I have to admit, in thiscategory I'm a work in progress.
(09:53):
I'm trying to improve every dayso we can improve together.
Let's give ourselves some grace.
Let's practice self-care andself-love.
Really, I say this should be ournumber one if we were putting
them in priority order to takecare of our body, our mind and
our soul.
So we wanna.
(10:14):
For example, we need to all getmore sleep.
We need to get adequate sleep.
They say really that should bebetween seven and nine hours per
night.
We need to exercise regularly,even if it means just going for
a short walk around the block orthe park, or if it, wherever
you are, the weather is not good.
(10:34):
Then you could always head outto the mall before it opens.
Most of them do open the doorsand I have done that and I find
you know I'm walking with theseniors in the mall, but that's
okay.
Almost makes me feel guiltythat they're probably doing that
every day and I just kindasneak it in whenever I remember
or feel like I have the time.
(10:56):
So that's a great opportunity.
The other one is practicemindfulness, right you, if you
can try to engage in meditationand yoga and Pilates.
All of those have helped me toreduce stress and promote
relaxation.
I did, a couple of years ago,have the luxury of going to Bali
(11:18):
to do yoga and meditation and Ihave to say you know they do it
a lot in Bali and maybe that'swhy they're one of the most
relaxed people that I have evermet.
So make time to do these things.
Make time to connect with yourfriends and family, especially
now that the pandemic is over.
(11:40):
You know you could alsopractice gratitude.
Keep a journal.
You know you want to ultimatelysurround yourself with positive
people that are gonna encourageand support you when you need
them the most.
So there you have them, my fivetips to living a life with
kindness.
Let's challenge ourselves to beour best self.
(12:01):
Let's start this journey withan open mind and a willingness
to help each other.
I am really excited that you'rehere and look forward to our
weekly talks.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
(12:22):
next one and if you knowsomeone who would enjoy the show
, please share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening andremember to smile.
Listen and be patient today.
Until next time, bye.
Hello and welcome to Amiga's let's Talk the show
where we discuss life andbusiness and everything in
between.
I am your host, demaris Ramirez, and every week we will bring
you stories and insights,hopefully to inspire you to
think differently.
My goal is that every womanlives her best life.
So, amiga, grab a cup of coffeeor tea and let's talk In the
(00:26):
Amiga episode one.
I know we were supposed torelease in July, but life
happens and unfortunately we gota little backed up with our
schedule.
But that's okay.
All we can do is do our bestand just get right back on track
.
So I thought we would start outwith this journey of the
podcast discussing, for our lifeand business, some ground rules
(00:50):
.
I wanted to discuss what myhope is and how I hope that we
treat each other on this podcast.
So this is going to be todayall about the five steps to
living a life of kindness, andthis is because I want this to
be a place of culture, acommunity based on kindness,
where we're not here to judge.
(01:10):
Instead, we're going tounderstand and learn from each
other.
It's important to me because welive a life in a world with
stress and fatigue and burnoutand the dreaded fear of missing
out.
Sometimes we have anxiety andlife takes over, and I don't
want us to forget that we shouldbe kind to others and, most
(01:32):
important, to ourselves.
So I thought it would beappropriate for us to kind of go
over some five steps of livinga life of kindness.
So here they are.
They're the ones that I'm goingto be following, so hopefully
you can follow along, and so thefirst step would be to smile.
So wake up in the morning andsmile.
A simple smile is going tobrighten up your day.
(01:54):
It's going to brighten upsomebody else's day.
It's really the easiest way toshow kindness and warmth towards
each other.
I read once that researchers atthe University of Kansas had
found that smiling helps reducethe body response to stress and
can lower your heart rate in 10situations.
So I've been using thetechnique for a while and it
(02:15):
works.
You have to try it for yourself, but every time you're feeling
a little stressed, smile.
Doesn't matter what otherpeople think.
We spend too much time on ourcell phones and sometimes we're
too busy and we don't have timeto pause or we don't have time
to have the human interaction.
So today I would say smileanytime Somebody gives you a
(02:38):
service.
Smile when you go pick up yourcoffee or tea.
Smile when the guy at the gasstation asks you for the bank
card.
Smile when you drop off yourkid to your teacher.
It's a good start to their day.
I will tell you that you'regoing to start to notice that
you feel better, happier, whenyou start your day this way, and
(03:02):
people want to communicate morewith you.
So the other thing is that whenyou smile, you're sending a
message to the brain that thingsare good.
So that's how I like to startmy day, and when the brain gets
that message, it releasesendorphins that are naturally
feeling good, chemicals thatwill make us happy.
So smile today.
(03:24):
The second step is to listen.
Listening is a powerful act ofkindness, so we can show
kindness by attentivelylistening to others without
judgment.
So when we do that, let's talkabout what that means.
If someone's talking, can youtruly repeat what they just said
, what someone just told you?
(03:46):
If you cannot, then you're nottruly really listening.
Right, we find ourselvessometimes saying are you
listening?
Because you might be telling astory that's important to you,
but the other person is too busyscrolling through their phone.
I can tell you, sometimes thathappens to me Might be telling
my husband about my day and allof a sudden he gets a text or an
(04:09):
email notification from his joband the phone is nearby,
distracts them.
He picks it up.
He doesn't really mean to berude, but when I say, are you
listening or did you hear what Ijust said, he'll just say, oh
yeah, sure, but in reality, if Iasked him what I just said, he
probably can't even remember.
(04:29):
So we try to have a rule.
Our rule is let's place thephone face down.
We do have them on silent whenwe're home so that we could
truly listen to each other.
You know, and I do the samewith friends and family, because
you know, it's important thatyou give someone your full
attention.
So today, when a good exercisethat you can do is when
(04:50):
someone's talking to you, it'sto wait until the person stops
talking.
Give it a minute, absorb whatyou just heard so that you can
really contribute to theconversation.
Don't forget to give them theeye contact, especially when
they're trying to tell yousomething important.
It means a lot to the personthat's trying to share their
(05:11):
feelings with you.
Listen to the words you'rehearing and the message that
they're trying to give you.
You know you want to try tounderstand.
You know, are they sad today?
Are they happy today?
Do they need to hear thatthey're doing a great job?
So you want to listen whenpeople tell you they love you.
You want to listen and peopletell you they don't.
(05:31):
You know, realize that allconversations are not going to
be positive, and that's okay,because both in life and in
business we're going to have upsand downs, and so, you know,
the important thing is that wedo hear what we need to hear,
right, and then we do payattention to things that others
(05:53):
feel are important for us tohear.
So listening is a valuableskill that really, when it's
done well, it's going to helpyou to get to the next level.
So let's get at it today.
Practice doing attentivelistening.
For me, one of the hardest onesof these steps to living a life
(06:16):
of kindness is being patient.
I think I'm better at it, but Iwould say in my early 20s or
30s boy, I lack patience.
You know, patience is a virtualand we must show kindness by
being patient to others and withourselves.
When I was younger, I was awareof it, and so I just started to
(06:40):
work really hard to try toadapt to a life of patience.
I think maybe teaching reallyhelped me to change.
Slowly, because I was forcedwith working with different
kinds of people, different kindsof students with different
types of learning abilities.
I realized that if I wantedthem to be successful, I needed
(07:04):
to be patient.
I needed to meet them wherethey were.
So I started to practice beingmore patient with not just my
students, with my family at work, with my friends and even with
strangers.
I think the reality is thatpeople are doing the best they
can at any given time.
Right, it doesn't mean thatthey're a bad person.
(07:24):
So, for example, the people atthe motor vehicles we all have
been there, we all know the longlines.
They're doing the best they canRemember.
They're working with thesystems that they've been given.
You know it's not their faultthat the computers are slow or
staffing maybe is low, maybethey don't have enough staff, so
maybe the line is longer.
(07:46):
It's going to take you longerto get that renewed license.
It's not their fault thatthey're still providing paper
that we need to fill out.
So that is confusing to somepeople, again making maybe the
wait longer.
We have to be patient.
Sometimes the person that we'relosing the patience with.
(08:09):
It's not their fault thatthey're in that situation, and
so we have to do our part andtry to be understanding and be
kind, because there are plentyof things that will lead us to a
inpatience in our daily life.
You know, like waiting at theStarbucks, right, a slow driver,
(08:30):
a business that's not growingfast enough.
You know, and many of us areeven inpatients with ourselves
right, try to be calm.
Right, you want to find yourzen.
If that means you have tobreathe deeply and slowly when
you're feeling that, you knowyou're getting anxious, you're
(08:51):
being impatient.
Sometimes that helps, sometimesit's difficult, I know, but
showing patience can make a hugedifference in our life and the
life of others and, for sure, inour business.
The next step is beingrespectful, please.
On this podcast, we need to berespectful towards each other in
(09:12):
this community.
Let's create a positiveenvironment that promotes
inclusivity.
Let's be friends here, right?
That's why I called it Amiga.
Amiga means friends in Spanish.
We wanna share our experiences,we wanna help each other.
We want to promote differentcultures, ages, beliefs.
Let's be open-minded.
(09:33):
You know we all don't share thesame views.
The views on this podcast aremine and you might have
different opinions, and Irespect that.
Finally, the last step to livinga life of kindness is to
practice self-kindness.
I have to admit, in thiscategory I'm a work in progress.
(09:53):
I'm trying to improve every dayso we can improve together.
Let's give ourselves some grace.
Let's practice self-care andself-love.
Really, I say this should be ournumber one if we were putting
them in priority order to takecare of our body, our mind and
our soul.
So we wanna.
(10:14):
For example, we need to all getmore sleep.
We need to get adequate sleep.
They say really that should bebetween seven and nine hours per
night.
We need to exercise regularly,even if it means just going for
a short walk around the block orthe park, or if it, wherever
you are, the weather is not good.
(10:34):
Then you could always head outto the mall before it opens.
Most of them do open the doorsand I have done that and I find
you know I'm walking with theseniors in the mall, but that's
okay.
Almost makes me feel guiltythat they're probably doing that
every day and I just kindasneak it in whenever I remember
or feel like I have the time.
(10:56):
So that's a great opportunity.
The other one is practicemindfulness, right you, if you
can try to engage in meditationand yoga and Pilates.
All of those have helped me toreduce stress and promote
relaxation.
I did, a couple of years ago,have the luxury of going to Bali
(11:18):
to do yoga and meditation and Ihave to say you know they do it
a lot in Bali and maybe that'swhy they're one of the most
relaxed people that I have evermet.
So make time to do these things.
Make time to connect with yourfriends and family, especially
now that the pandemic is over.
(11:40):
You know you could alsopractice gratitude.
Keep a journal.
You know you want to ultimatelysurround yourself with positive
people that are gonna encourageand support you when you need
them the most.
So there you have them, my fivetips to living a life with
kindness.
Let's challenge ourselves to beour best self.
(12:01):
Let's start this journey withan open mind and a willingness
to help each other.
I am really excited that you'rehere and look forward to our
weekly talks.
Thank you for making Amiga'slet's Talk part of your day.
We hope you enjoyed listeningto today's episode and be sure
to hit the subscribe button toget notified when we release the
(12:22):
next one and if you knowsomeone who would enjoy the show
, please share it with them.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for listening andremember to smile.
Listen and be patient today.
Until next time, bye.
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