Mercè Conangla explains the 10 elements that make up this virtue and calls for orientation towards them
“Kindness is the highest expression of intelligence”, says the psychologist and nurse Mercè Conangla, specialized in Emotional education and president of the Emotional Ecology Foundation, which defines, on the occasion of tomorrow’s celebration of the World Kindness Day, the 10 elements that make up this virtue.
In an interview with ‘Efe’, Conangla explains that these 10 elements are: eco-kindness, diversity, tenderness, compassion, gratitude, culture of peace, humility, generosity, kindness and beauty.
“Although it is very difficult to be excellent in all of them, the important thing, especially during childhood, is orient towards them and to have role models with caring attitudes,” says Conangla, author of books such as ‘Give time to life’ or ‘The emotional ecology’, both signed jointly with the founder of the Emotional Ecology Foundation, James Soler.
The president of the foundation compare kindness to a seed, that if it is cared for “with love and dedication, it will grow correctly”, however, if it is not treated properly, “this seed is corrupted by evil, violence and destruction”.
Prejudices about goodness
“There are many prejudices around the concept of goodness -he warns- such as, for example, that it is a religious term or rooted in ancient tradition, or what being good is equivalent to being stupid.
For her, “it is essential break these stigmas and direct all the emotional energy that we do not know how to process towards creation, because in the end, the easiest thing, what we do not need to learn because comes naturally, is to allow ourselves to be led towards destruction”.
The Emotional Ecology Foundation, which has been active in Barcelona for 26 years, has this year created the School of Kindness in Action, an online course that, in ten sessions, works on each of the ingredients of the “cocktail of kindness”.
To teach to be kind “we need recognition and funding”, since, according to Conangla, “if the initiative is not known and the importance of the emotional Management, There won’t be enough resources to expand this project either.”
“It’s not just about reflect about these concepts, but we also provide useful tools to apply to our day-to-day practice”, Conangla details.
school of kindness
The project of the School of Kindness is developed based on what they study from the Kindness Observatories that the foundation has in Barcelona and Mexico and also from the ‘Emotional Socioscanner’, a sociological survey they make by collecting the main concerns Y emotions of people.
The last socioscanner published by the foundation last October, in which 929 people from Spain and Latin America participated, indicates that the climate crisis (67.3%), the violence and the wars (64.6%), the poverty (53.3%) and the inequality (36.2%) occupy the first positions in citizen concerns.
These concerns translate into emotions such as helplessness and frustration (61.2%), sadness and discouragement (53.2%), anxiety and worry (52.4%), hope in the future (43.6%) and irritation and anger (42.3%), among others.
“The sample of answers is not significant, because the age range and the diversity of territories is not representative of society, but it does guide us towards the aspects that are most convenient to deal with”, recognize.
little political example
Conangla adds that “the issue of the political leadership, because politicians, who should be a example to the rest of society, they give us pathetic displays of kind-hearted ways of relating.”
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“We are working on a program to deal with this situation, just as we have specific programs for schools or kind leadership in companies”, According to the psychologist
“The negative charge of society doesn’t help promote this message, but really from the foundation we believe that kindness is the antidote to violence and it’s in the Heart DNA” Conangla concludes.