February 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Can a simple smile change the world around you, even in spaces where negativity seeps in unnoticed? Join me, Pastor Kathleen, as we navigate these pressing questions in the latest Tilted Halo podcast episode. I'll unravel how the pervasive negativity from our daily lives can find its way into our faith communities, impacting everything from worship to vital discussions on budgets and community efforts. Through our exploration, you'll gain insight into how political differences and personal stresses can complicate interactions, urging us to recognize the atmospheric influence we all carry and the discord it may cause.
Unleashing the transformative power of positivity, we'll uncover the science of contagious emotions and the surprising role of mirror neurons. Inspired by the Ritz-Carlton's "10-5 way," we’ll discover how greeting others with a simple smile or a friendly hello can reshape perceptions, making faith communities more welcoming. Imagine the impact of starting a 100-day gratitude challenge or a smiling campaign during Lent!
Together, we’ll embark on a journey to choose positivity and gratitude, enhancing the mood and interactions in our communities, and encouraging everyone to reflect on their expressions and attitudes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tilted Halo.
This is a new podcast and it'sfor anybody who's a woman in
ministry.
You might be a pastor likemyself, a bishop, a priest, a
rabbi, music minister, elderchildren's minister whatever
your title is, you're absolutelyin the right place, especially
if you're someone who loves yourministry and you're doing it
(00:24):
well and you're feeling pressureto sometimes be perfect and
deep down inside, you knowyou're not.
And how in the world to dealwith that?
And men, you're absolutelywelcome here too, because this
is about ministry and the samething can happen to you.
So you're all in the rightplace.
Let's get started with the show.
(00:47):
Hey, this is Kathleen.
Pastor Kathleen, also known asthe Tilted Halo, glad to have
you here with me today foranother episode of my podcast,
and I've been noticing somethinglately.
I suspect you've noticed it too, but maybe not quite in the
same way, because I didn't.
So I'm thinking maybe you'rethinking a little bit like me
(01:11):
and you know every newscast Idon't care if it's on radio, tv,
podcasts, social media butanytime there is a newscast or
something like that, it alwaysstarts out with what?
The breaking news, the topstory, and that top story is
(01:31):
usually one of a couple of kinds.
It's about politics, or it's anatural disaster, or it's some
human-made disaster human-madedisaster and no matter what it
is, there's always this negativetint or angle to it.
So even if it's about politicsand the station that's airing it
(02:00):
is really in favor of whateverthat political move has been
they always talk about how theother side of it or the
negatives of it or the peoplewho are opposed to it, and so it
becomes a story of somethingthat's negative, and there's
just so much negativity around.
You know, you talk to yourfamily when, if you have kids
(02:24):
and they come home from school,what do you ask them?
How was school today?
What do they usually tell you?
First thing, the students, theteacher, the incident that was
not so fun, not the best thingin the world.
If you're someone who commutesto work or have a spouse or
(02:49):
partner who commutes to work andyou ask how was your day, what
do they say?
They talk to you about thethings that didn't go so well
during the day, the things thatwere frustrating you off and
(03:21):
didn't let you in.
Or they talk about the commuteon the subway or commuter car
and the crowds and the peoplewho were nasty to each other.
Excuse me, whatever that may be.
That's the kind of thing weusually hear first when we ask
somebody what things are likeand how their day has been, or
it's just kind of like, well,nothing special, just the same
(03:42):
old, same old type of thing.
Blah, you know, just the sameold, same old type of thing.
Blah Might be stress, it mightbe tiredness, it might be kind
of depressed, it might be thatyou hear things from someone who
(04:12):
is just really not happy, butit turns out that most of that
stuff is just basically negativethings.
And then we come on a day forworship or to have a meeting or
some sort of fellowship in afaith community and people bring
all of that negative stuff withthem.
Not surprising, really, but itcomes with them.
(04:32):
And then what happens to thegatherings?
Well, if you're at a meeting,it starts out with the problems
that are going on, the thingsthat need to be fixed, what's
not working, the kind of thingsthat aren't getting done.
If it's a worship setting,there's people gather, they're
(04:53):
talking to one another, sharinghi, how are you?
Oh, I got all of these achesand pains, this and that's going
on.
It's the same sort of thing.
And it's not that we shouldn'tcare about that.
We really do need to care aboutwhat's going on in people's
lives, including all theproblems.
(05:14):
But if that's all that there is, and if we come in kind of
dragging their feet and oh, it'ssunday morning, yeah, wonderful
, hi, how are you with thisexpression?
Like, yeah, how are you?
Uh, you know, um, like they'resorry they even got out of bed,
(05:39):
or just barely made it out ofbed the morning, or that there
was maybe an argument on the waythere, um, something that
they're not looking forward toduring the day.
They'd rather be home doingsomething else, you know,
stressed about getting dinnerready or something else that's
(05:59):
happening in the day.
All of this negativity of stuffis coming with our members as we
gather together in the worshipspace, as we gather together for
meetings, for scripture study,for devotions, youth meetings,
(06:19):
whatever it may be, all of thatnegative stuff is coming in and
it's having an effect.
It's having an effect on whathappens in our worship and in
our meetings and in those kindsof things that are part of our
faith.
(06:39):
Communities there are morearguments at meetings.
Communities there are morearguments at meetings.
There are more things wherepeople are just plain stressed
out in their meetings.
There's discord among members,they bring in the political
differences and that becomes atopic, and so there's arguments
(07:01):
or discord about that, and youknow, yes, my candidate is doing
this or that and yeah, I'mhappy about it, but can you
believe the opposition is sayingsuch and such?
It all comes into the worshipspace and when, when that
happens, you know people startlooking at well, here's the
(07:25):
budget for the congregation, forour faith community, and we
have these things that arecalled benevolence in there.
You know, things are getting alittle tight, so maybe we
shouldn't spend that money.
And besides which, you know,there's things about that
organization, or even the higherlevel of the denomination that
(07:47):
you're part of, or whatevergroup you're part of.
Maybe there's some programs orsome aspects of it that people
don't feel really great about.
They maybe have some questionsabout, maybe don't even really
understand.
So why should we give money tothat?
Let's keep it all here, keep itfor us, and so those cuts
(08:09):
happen to the budget.
And then there's the other thingthat's going on that most faith
groups are experiencing, andthat is that attendance is just
going downhill.
Not only attendance, but activemembership.
It's not just one sunday.
(08:31):
It's every sunday or worshipday, whatever that day is for
you, and attendance is just kindof waning.
Those who come come ready tofight fist might be up, they
come ready to give it to them,but yet we are called to be
(08:55):
people of God's love and grace,and all of this changes the mood
and the temperament in ourfaith communities.
So what do we do?
How do we begin to find someways to alter that, to bring
(09:16):
something different into thespace?
And really there are somesurprisingly easy ways to do
that.
And I'm picking up a book herethat I've just finished reading
and it's one of Sean Acor'sbooks.
For those of you on the videoyou can see the title here.
(09:38):
It's called Beyond HappinessFive Hidden Keys to Achieving
Success Spreading Happiness andSustaining Positive Change.
And Sean Acor's name isS-H-A-W-N and the last name is
A-C-H-O-R, so that's how youspell his name.
(09:59):
And one of the things he talksabout is something that's so
simple, so exceedingly simple,and yet we sometimes find it so
hard to do or think.
Well, that's not reallyimportant.
He starts by talking, well,about something that's
contagious in a good way.
We all know that yawns arecontagious If you yawn or you're
(10:23):
with somebody who's yawning,pretty soon you're yawning, or
others around you are yawning.
The same thing is true with allof that negative stuff we bring
in.
If someone has a less thanhappy expression on their face,
well, very soon probably a lotof other people are not going to
(10:44):
be looking quite so happy.
And if somebody comes ingriping about what's wrong in
their workplace or wrong withthe government or wrong with
traffic, pretty soon everybody'schiming in.
Yeah, I know about this and Iknow about that, and it becomes
a gripe session.
(11:04):
And one of the things he talksabout I'm going to pick the book
back up here is what is acomplaint?
And on page 195, and I'm goingto quote this he says and I'm
going to quote this he says acomplaint is an observation
about some reality that yourcomment could not possibly ever
(11:24):
change.
That's a complaint Versus, youknow, pointing out something
that's a solvable problem.
That's a complaint, and we do alot of that.
We do a lot of that kind ofthing.
So here are some keys and cuesthat he brings up in the book
(11:49):
about how to begin to change theatmosphere.
Begin to change the atmosphere,and if we do this in our faith
communities.
It has the possibility ofspreading beyond that.
Now, as I'm recording this,it's the end of January 2025,
but the things I'm going to besharing could be used for a
(12:13):
Lenten series.
For those who observe theChristian church year, lent is
coming up very soon and it couldbe part of a Lenten series, but
it can be used really any timeof the year.
So one of the things he talksabout is I said that you know
the negativity is contagious.
(12:34):
The negativity is contagious.
Well, so is something as simpleas a smile.
Yes, a smile.
It is contagious.
If you go into a room and ifyou tried this in your
congregation start out and greet, even if you don't say hello to
(12:54):
people, just give them a littlesmile as you pass by, you don't
even have to say anything, buta smile.
It immediately changes the mood, your mood inside, as well as
reflecting something differentand better for other people.
(13:16):
And you know why these thingsare so contagious.
It's something in our brains,literally in every one of our
brains.
We have something called mirrorneurons.
You know, mirror like the thingyou look at in the bathroom to
see how you look in the morning,and a neuron is the things in
our brain that send the signalsback and forth to tell us what's
(13:39):
going on and what's happening.
And when we see something insomeone else might be a smile,
it might be anger, it might bestress we tend to mirror those
emotions and those activities,and that's why negativity is
contagious, but it's also whysomething like a smile is
(14:03):
contagious.
And so if you start your daywith your family as you come
into a worship space, be veryconscious about it and just
remember come in with a smileand share it with everyone who
you see and who you greet.
(14:25):
In fact, there's a company thathas adopted this as part of
actually there's severalcompanies by now, but it started
with a company called theRitz-Carlton.
Now, any of you who know hotelshave heard of the Ritz-Carlton.
(14:45):
In all likelihood, ritz-carltonis seen as kind of the upper
echelons, the luxury brand ofhotels, the upper echelons, the
luxury brand of hotels at leastone of them and they adopted a
policy I don't know exactly when, but called the 10-5 way, and
(15:07):
it works like this Every one oftheir employees is trained so
that if they pass within 10 feetof someone, can be another
employee, but, especially ifit's a guest, they just smile at
the person.
If they're within five feet ofanother person, a guest or
(15:30):
another employee, they say hello, just a simple hello, with a
smile on their face, and youknow what that changes the mood
of everything.
Everybody, every guest whocomes in there, perceives that
hotel in a very different way,in a very, very different way
(15:56):
than other hotels where it'sbusiness as usual.
You know, come on in, oh well,hi, I'll get to you in a minute,
or just passing and not sayinganything or not even looking at
a guest or even another employee.
But it's a smile, cost nothing.
You know.
(16:16):
There's no extra expense exceptfor the training of the
employees to do this.
But there's no extra expenseinvolved with it.
It's not an expensive thing todo, but it's all part of the
initial training of any employeewho comes to work there, comes
toward them, so it's not evenextra in that sense.
It's so simple.
(16:39):
And if we did that in our faithcommunities, places where we're
supposed to be there to love andcare about one another, to
greet each other every time wecome in, to every meeting, to
(17:02):
every activity, you know, ifyou're within 10 feet of someone
, a smile if it's five feet andit's not in a huge crowd.
But even if it's in a hugecrowd, you just say hello to
everybody.
You know it just makes adifference.
And if you're there and youfind that you come in, you think
you're smiling or greetingpeople, but there's all of this
(17:24):
commotion, there's this kind ofnegativity that's still there
and people are just kind ofgrumpy or whatever.
Check your face, check your ownface first, you know, you know,
think about it.
Are you really smiling?
Are the words you're saying ofhello, are they like, oh, hello,
(17:45):
you know it kind of a grumpyhello?
Is it really a hello, glad tosee you?
Kind of hello or hello?
This is God's house, a place ofGod's love.
Is it that kind of a greeting?
Check to see how you are doingit before you decide about how
(18:09):
somebody else is experiencingthings or expressing things.
So that's a very simple way tostart to change the mood, the
temperament, the reality withinyour faith community.
(18:29):
You could do something as simpleas have 100 days of gratitude,
where people within your faithcommunity sign up for it has to
be voluntary to express ahundred days of gratitude or a
hundred days of smiling, youknow, or a whole lent for the
(18:50):
six weeks of lent of smiling, nocomplaining, but instead coming
in with a gracious attitude andsmiling, practicing the 10-5
way.
You know, we think of Lent as atime of contemplating how
sinful we are.
That's typical of the way Lentis often seen.
(19:13):
But contemplate, yes, butrecognize how often we are
grumpy and grouchy andcomplaining and leave those
things out.
Cut out the complaining, cutout the grumpy and instead add
the smiles, add the gratitude,start a gratitude journal and
(19:37):
every single day, write downthree things, at least three
things unique for that day thatyou're grateful for better yet,
at least 10.
But start with three.
Yes, sometimes it takes a whileto think of what those three
might be, but it could be thatafter a few days of rain, the
sun is shining, or it could be,after a long period without rain
(19:59):
that you have some rain.
You know, all of those thingscan be reasons to be grateful.
It can be, if you're a student,the assignment that a teacher
did not give you, or that theygave you extra time in which to
do it.
They explained something youhadn't understood before.
(20:23):
You know.
It can be all kinds ofdifferent things.
It doesn't have to be some bigmomentous occasion, just
something that went okay or goodduring that day, so it could be
a hundred days of gratitude.
It could also be something likeyou know, if those around you
(20:47):
are stressed and tired.
Be part of a program.
You could do something, even ifit's not during Lent, to enlist
a small group of volunteers inyour congregation, your faith
community, who are going to bethe smile ambassadors, so to
speak, people who are dedicatedto when they come in.
(21:12):
They may be greeters, they maynot be greeters.
I call it almost doing it asundercover so people don't know
who is really doing this.
But to start a program with ahandful of people who are
interested in doing that, ofpracticing this idea about
(21:33):
smiling, this idea about smiling, greeting people with a smile,
with hello, cutting out thecomplaints Not that they won't
say when there is an issue thatneeds to be discussed.
No, not denying issues, notdenying problems, but doing it
(21:59):
in a more positive way with thatsmile.
So there's an old song aboutlet a smile be your umbrella.
I don't even remember the words, but I just thought about that.
There's an old song about that.
Let a smile be what we hand outfirst, be our calling card,
(22:20):
what people see and know aboutus within a faith community.
If you do that and it spreadsthroughout your faith community,
people will want to be there.
I can guarantee you that.
It's a simple thing, yetextremely, extremely powerful.
Start with a smile.
I look forward to hearing yourcomments and if you do this,
(22:45):
tell me what happens, put it outthere so we can all celebrate
and smile with you.
So until next time.
This is Pastor Kathleen, theTilted Halo.
Come back, leave me somecomments, subscribe.
I'd love to hear from you.
God's peace, god's blessings.
You have been listening toTilted Halo with me, kathleen
(23:08):
Panning.
What did you think about thisepisode?
I'd really like to hear fromyou.
Leave me some comments.
Be sure to like, subscribe andshare this episode and catch
another upcoming episode.
For more conversation onministry, life, mindset and a
whole lot more, go towwwtiltedhalohelpcom, where I've
(23:30):
got a resource guide and otherresources waiting for you, and
be sure to say hi to me,kathleen Panning, on LinkedIn.
See you on the next episode.
Welcome to the Tilted Halo.
This is a new podcast and it'sfor anybody who's a woman in
ministry.
You might be a pastor likemyself, a bishop, a priest, a
rabbi, music minister, elderchildren's minister whatever
your title is, you're absolutelyin the right place, especially
if you're someone who loves yourministry and you're doing it
(00:24):
well and you're feeling pressureto sometimes be perfect and
deep down inside, you knowyou're not.
And how in the world to dealwith that?
And men, you're absolutelywelcome here too, because this
is about ministry and the samething can happen to you.
So you're all in the rightplace.
Let's get started with the show.
(00:47):
Hey, this is Kathleen.
Pastor Kathleen, also known asthe Tilted Halo, glad to have
you here with me today foranother episode of my podcast,
and I've been noticing somethinglately.
I suspect you've noticed it too, but maybe not quite in the
same way, because I didn't.
So I'm thinking maybe you'rethinking a little bit like me
(01:11):
and you know every newscast Idon't care if it's on radio, tv,
podcasts, social media butanytime there is a newscast or
something like that, it alwaysstarts out with what?
The breaking news, the topstory, and that top story is
(01:31):
usually one of a couple of kinds.
It's about politics, or it's anatural disaster, or it's some
human-made disaster human-madedisaster and no matter what it
is, there's always this negativetint or angle to it.
So even if it's about politicsand the station that's airing it
(02:00):
is really in favor of whateverthat political move has been
they always talk about how theother side of it or the
negatives of it or the peoplewho are opposed to it, and so it
becomes a story of somethingthat's negative, and there's
just so much negativity around.
You know, you talk to yourfamily when, if you have kids
(02:24):
and they come home from school,what do you ask them?
How was school today?
What do they usually tell you?
First thing, the students, theteacher, the incident that was
not so fun, not the best thingin the world.
If you're someone who commutesto work or have a spouse or
(02:49):
partner who commutes to work andyou ask how was your day, what
do they say?
They talk to you about thethings that didn't go so well
during the day, the things thatwere frustrating you off and
(03:21):
didn't let you in.
Or they talk about the commuteon the subway or commuter car
and the crowds and the peoplewho were nasty to each other.
Excuse me, whatever that may be.
That's the kind of thing weusually hear first when we ask
somebody what things are likeand how their day has been, or
it's just kind of like, well,nothing special, just the same
(03:42):
old, same old type of thing.
Blah, you know, just the sameold, same old type of thing.
Blah Might be stress, it mightbe tiredness, it might be kind
of depressed, it might be thatyou hear things from someone who
(04:12):
is just really not happy, butit turns out that most of that
stuff is just basically negativethings.
And then we come on a day forworship or to have a meeting or
some sort of fellowship in afaith community and people bring
all of that negative stuff withthem.
Not surprising, really, but itcomes with them.
(04:32):
And then what happens to thegatherings?
Well, if you're at a meeting,it starts out with the problems
that are going on, the thingsthat need to be fixed, what's
not working, the kind of thingsthat aren't getting done.
If it's a worship setting,there's people gather, they're
(04:53):
talking to one another, sharinghi, how are you?
Oh, I got all of these achesand pains, this and that's going
on.
It's the same sort of thing.
And it's not that we shouldn'tcare about that.
We really do need to care aboutwhat's going on in people's
lives, including all theproblems.
(05:14):
But if that's all that there is, and if we come in kind of
dragging their feet and oh, it'ssunday morning, yeah, wonderful
, hi, how are you with thisexpression?
Like, yeah, how are you?
Uh, you know, um, like they'resorry they even got out of bed,
(05:39):
or just barely made it out ofbed the morning, or that there
was maybe an argument on the waythere, um, something that
they're not looking forward toduring the day.
They'd rather be home doingsomething else, you know,
stressed about getting dinnerready or something else that's
(05:59):
happening in the day.
All of this negativity of stuffis coming with our members as we
gather together in the worshipspace, as we gather together for
meetings, for scripture study,for devotions, youth meetings,
(06:19):
whatever it may be, all of thatnegative stuff is coming in and
it's having an effect.
It's having an effect on whathappens in our worship and in
our meetings and in those kindsof things that are part of our
faith.
(06:39):
Communities there are morearguments at meetings.
Communities there are morearguments at meetings.
There are more things wherepeople are just plain stressed
out in their meetings.
There's discord among members,they bring in the political
differences and that becomes atopic, and so there's arguments
(07:01):
or discord about that, and youknow, yes, my candidate is doing
this or that and yeah, I'mhappy about it, but can you
believe the opposition is sayingsuch and such?
It all comes into the worshipspace and when, when that
happens, you know people startlooking at well, here's the
(07:25):
budget for the congregation, forour faith community, and we
have these things that arecalled benevolence in there.
You know, things are getting alittle tight, so maybe we
shouldn't spend that money.
And besides which, you know,there's things about that
organization, or even the higherlevel of the denomination that
(07:47):
you're part of, or whatevergroup you're part of.
Maybe there's some programs orsome aspects of it that people
don't feel really great about.
They maybe have some questionsabout, maybe don't even really
understand.
So why should we give money tothat?
Let's keep it all here, keep itfor us, and so those cuts
(08:09):
happen to the budget.
And then there's the other thingthat's going on that most faith
groups are experiencing, andthat is that attendance is just
going downhill.
Not only attendance, but activemembership.
It's not just one sunday.
(08:31):
It's every sunday or worshipday, whatever that day is for
you, and attendance is just kindof waning.
Those who come come ready tofight fist might be up, they
come ready to give it to them,but yet we are called to be
(08:55):
people of God's love and grace,and all of this changes the mood
and the temperament in ourfaith communities.
So what do we do?
How do we begin to find someways to alter that, to bring
(09:16):
something different into thespace?
And really there are somesurprisingly easy ways to do
that.
And I'm picking up a book herethat I've just finished reading
and it's one of Sean Acor'sbooks.
For those of you on the videoyou can see the title here.
(09:38):
It's called Beyond HappinessFive Hidden Keys to Achieving
Success Spreading Happiness andSustaining Positive Change.
And Sean Acor's name isS-H-A-W-N and the last name is
A-C-H-O-R, so that's how youspell his name.
(09:59):
And one of the things he talksabout is something that's so
simple, so exceedingly simple,and yet we sometimes find it so
hard to do or think.
Well, that's not reallyimportant.
He starts by talking, well,about something that's
contagious in a good way.
We all know that yawns arecontagious If you yawn or you're
(10:23):
with somebody who's yawning,pretty soon you're yawning, or
others around you are yawning.
The same thing is true with allof that negative stuff we bring
in.
If someone has a less thanhappy expression on their face,
well, very soon probably a lotof other people are not going to
(10:44):
be looking quite so happy.
And if somebody comes ingriping about what's wrong in
their workplace or wrong withthe government or wrong with
traffic, pretty soon everybody'schiming in.
Yeah, I know about this and Iknow about that, and it becomes
a gripe session.
(11:04):
And one of the things he talksabout I'm going to pick the book
back up here is what is acomplaint?
And on page 195, and I'm goingto quote this he says and I'm
going to quote this he says acomplaint is an observation
about some reality that yourcomment could not possibly ever
(11:24):
change.
That's a complaint Versus, youknow, pointing out something
that's a solvable problem.
That's a complaint, and we do alot of that.
We do a lot of that kind ofthing.
So here are some keys and cuesthat he brings up in the book
(11:49):
about how to begin to change theatmosphere.
Begin to change the atmosphere,and if we do this in our faith
communities.
It has the possibility ofspreading beyond that.
Now, as I'm recording this,it's the end of January 2025,
but the things I'm going to besharing could be used for a
(12:13):
Lenten series.
For those who observe theChristian church year, lent is
coming up very soon and it couldbe part of a Lenten series, but
it can be used really any timeof the year.
So one of the things he talksabout is I said that you know
the negativity is contagious.
(12:34):
The negativity is contagious.
Well, so is something as simpleas a smile.
Yes, a smile.
It is contagious.
If you go into a room and ifyou tried this in your
congregation start out and greet, even if you don't say hello to
(12:54):
people, just give them a littlesmile as you pass by, you don't
even have to say anything, buta smile.
It immediately changes the mood, your mood inside, as well as
reflecting something differentand better for other people.
(13:16):
And you know why these thingsare so contagious.
It's something in our brains,literally in every one of our
brains.
We have something called mirrorneurons.
You know, mirror like the thingyou look at in the bathroom to
see how you look in the morning,and a neuron is the things in
our brain that send the signalsback and forth to tell us what's
(13:39):
going on and what's happening.
And when we see something insomeone else might be a smile,
it might be anger, it might bestress we tend to mirror those
emotions and those activities,and that's why negativity is
contagious, but it's also whysomething like a smile is
(14:03):
contagious.
And so if you start your daywith your family as you come
into a worship space, be veryconscious about it and just
remember come in with a smileand share it with everyone who
you see and who you greet.
(14:25):
In fact, there's a company thathas adopted this as part of
actually there's severalcompanies by now, but it started
with a company called theRitz-Carlton.
Now, any of you who know hotelshave heard of the Ritz-Carlton.
(14:45):
In all likelihood, ritz-carltonis seen as kind of the upper
echelons, the luxury brand ofhotels, the upper echelons, the
luxury brand of hotels at leastone of them and they adopted a
policy I don't know exactly when, but called the 10-5 way, and
(15:07):
it works like this Every one oftheir employees is trained so
that if they pass within 10 feetof someone, can be another
employee, but, especially ifit's a guest, they just smile at
the person.
If they're within five feet ofanother person, a guest or
(15:30):
another employee, they say hello, just a simple hello, with a
smile on their face, and youknow what that changes the mood
of everything.
Everybody, every guest whocomes in there, perceives that
hotel in a very different way,in a very, very different way
(15:56):
than other hotels where it'sbusiness as usual.
You know, come on in, oh well,hi, I'll get to you in a minute,
or just passing and not sayinganything or not even looking at
a guest or even another employee.
But it's a smile, cost nothing.
You know.
(16:16):
There's no extra expense exceptfor the training of the
employees to do this.
But there's no extra expenseinvolved with it.
It's not an expensive thing todo, but it's all part of the
initial training of any employeewho comes to work there, comes
toward them, so it's not evenextra in that sense.
It's so simple.
(16:39):
And if we did that in our faithcommunities, places where we're
supposed to be there to love andcare about one another, to
greet each other every time wecome in, to every meeting, to
(17:02):
every activity, you know, ifyou're within 10 feet of someone
, a smile if it's five feet andit's not in a huge crowd.
But even if it's in a hugecrowd, you just say hello to
everybody.
You know it just makes adifference.
And if you're there and youfind that you come in, you think
you're smiling or greetingpeople, but there's all of this
(17:24):
commotion, there's this kind ofnegativity that's still there
and people are just kind ofgrumpy or whatever.
Check your face, check your ownface first, you know, you know,
think about it.
Are you really smiling?
Are the words you're saying ofhello, are they like, oh, hello,
(17:45):
you know it kind of a grumpyhello?
Is it really a hello, glad tosee you?
Kind of hello or hello?
This is God's house, a place ofGod's love.
Is it that kind of a greeting?
Check to see how you are doingit before you decide about how
(18:09):
somebody else is experiencingthings or expressing things.
So that's a very simple way tostart to change the mood, the
temperament, the reality withinyour faith community.
(18:29):
You could do something as simpleas have 100 days of gratitude,
where people within your faithcommunity sign up for it has to
be voluntary to express ahundred days of gratitude or a
hundred days of smiling, youknow, or a whole lent for the
(18:50):
six weeks of lent of smiling, nocomplaining, but instead coming
in with a gracious attitude andsmiling, practicing the 10-5
way.
You know, we think of Lent as atime of contemplating how
sinful we are.
That's typical of the way Lentis often seen.
(19:13):
But contemplate, yes, butrecognize how often we are
grumpy and grouchy andcomplaining and leave those
things out.
Cut out the complaining, cutout the grumpy and instead add
the smiles, add the gratitude,start a gratitude journal and
(19:37):
every single day, write downthree things, at least three
things unique for that day thatyou're grateful for better yet,
at least 10.
But start with three.
Yes, sometimes it takes a whileto think of what those three
might be, but it could be thatafter a few days of rain, the
sun is shining, or it could be,after a long period without rain
(19:59):
that you have some rain.
You know, all of those thingscan be reasons to be grateful.
It can be, if you're a student,the assignment that a teacher
did not give you, or that theygave you extra time in which to
do it.
They explained something youhadn't understood before.
(20:23):
You know.
It can be all kinds ofdifferent things.
It doesn't have to be some bigmomentous occasion, just
something that went okay or goodduring that day, so it could be
a hundred days of gratitude.
It could also be something likeyou know, if those around you
(20:47):
are stressed and tired.
Be part of a program.
You could do something, even ifit's not during Lent, to enlist
a small group of volunteers inyour congregation, your faith
community, who are going to bethe smile ambassadors, so to
speak, people who are dedicatedto when they come in.
(21:12):
They may be greeters, they maynot be greeters.
I call it almost doing it asundercover so people don't know
who is really doing this.
But to start a program with ahandful of people who are
interested in doing that, ofpracticing this idea about
(21:33):
smiling, this idea about smiling, greeting people with a smile,
with hello, cutting out thecomplaints Not that they won't
say when there is an issue thatneeds to be discussed.
No, not denying issues, notdenying problems, but doing it
(21:59):
in a more positive way with thatsmile.
So there's an old song aboutlet a smile be your umbrella.
I don't even remember the words, but I just thought about that.
There's an old song about that.
Let a smile be what we hand outfirst, be our calling card,
(22:20):
what people see and know aboutus within a faith community.
If you do that and it spreadsthroughout your faith community,
people will want to be there.
I can guarantee you that.
It's a simple thing, yetextremely, extremely powerful.
Start with a smile.
I look forward to hearing yourcomments and if you do this,
(22:45):
tell me what happens, put it outthere so we can all celebrate
and smile with you.
So until next time.
This is Pastor Kathleen, theTilted Halo.
Come back, leave me somecomments, subscribe.
I'd love to hear from you.
God's peace, god's blessings.
You have been listening toTilted Halo with me, kathleen
(23:08):
Panning.
What did you think about thisepisode?
I'd really like to hear fromyou.
Leave me some comments.
Be sure to like, subscribe andshare this episode and catch
another upcoming episode.
For more conversation onministry, life, mindset and a
whole lot more, go towwwtiltedhalohelpcom, where I've
(23:30):
got a resource guide and otherresources waiting for you, and
be sure to say hi to me,kathleen Panning, on LinkedIn.
See you on the next episode.
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