Wellbeing puts the Human back in Humanity

Cutting-edge engineering. Expert strategic planning. Efficient administration. Wouldn’t those look great on a CV? Now consider this: those attributes saw six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

What is the value of education and intelligence if they lead to atrocities on such an unthinkable scale?

We have been raised to value success above all else. Kindness and compassion are worth nothing against ruthlessness, guile, and tenacity. I want to change this and put kindness back at the heart of everything we teach.

People often say that education is the best tool to fight conflict and division in modern society. But I say it’s kindness. And how do we cultivate kindness? Through Wholistic Wellbeing.

Wholistic Wellbeing can unlock a world of joy and fulfilment that elevates ourselves and others. Through Wholistic Wellbeing, we can put the Human back into Humanity.

When I chose to move across the world from Punjab to Montana for my education, it was the kindness of strangers that made me feel instantly at home. When I landed at JFK after a whole day of flying, with stops along the way, the first thing I did was go to McDonald’s. I was famished. Unfortunately, I turned out to be short a couple dollars. As I prepared to return the food I’d ordered, the woman behind the counter told me: “Keep it.” I stared, confused and unnerved. “Welcome to America,” she said.

It’s small events like these that serve as a blueprint for how I approach life and other people today. We can make a vital difference in the Wellbeing of others — but also our own — through small acts of kindness.

The kindness of our hearts should be the measure of our worth — not the success of our performance in a chosen field. I recently came across a letter written by a Jewish concentration camp survivor in which he addressed teachers insisting that reading, writing and arithmetic are only important if they are used to make our children better people. The importance of this approach was explored by Aristotle thousands of years ago when he wrote that “educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” And although the role of education is not to impose one moral framework over another, it does have a duty to instruct us, broadly speaking, on what is right and wrong. There are universal values — kindness, compassion, empathy, and respect — that education plays a key role in perpetuating.

So why do we need kindness so badly?

Kindness is lasting: to this day, I still remember the fellow Indian students who offered me a bed for the night when, disoriented and exhausted after my journey, I arrived at Montana University too late to pick up the keys to my room from reception. Kindness makes us happier: a recent study on PubMed found that random acts of kindness over the course of a single week boosted participants’ happiness. In my own life, I have enjoyed what’s affectionately called “helper’s high” through outreach. Most importantly, kindness should start with you. Being kind to yourself and prioritizing what you need should not be misconstrued as selfishness. Because if you don’t treat yourself well, the help you try to give others is bound to be misguided.

We need to think of kindness in wholistic terms — that the kindness around us affects our own, and vice versa. Being kind to ourselves means we are kind to our friends; being kind to our friends means we are kind to the wider environment around us… Kindness is the primary conduit to Wholistic Wellbeing, ensuring joy and fulfillment, emotionally, physically, professionally, socially, financially, and within the further reaching systems of the community and the planet.

Prioritizing your own happiness in a wholistic way means abandoning the individualistic pursuit of success that society has drilled into us. It means rising above the competitive framework perpetuated by rewards systems at school, at home and at the office. It means thinking of others while we think of ourselves, and choosing the paths that won’t affect others negatively, and which we therefore won’t come to regret.

It is not too late to slow down and think: what are we collectively aspiring to? Do we want the world to look like it does today — divided by wars and conflict, with record wealth disparities, and teetering on environmental collapse? Or do we want something more sustainable, more enriching, more lasting, more wholistic?

I want to be able to look at the world in ten years’ time and think: “Wow, I can’t believe we were so hellbent on crushing everything in our path just for status, success, and profit.” I want to be shocked by the change we’re going to enact. I want to see Wellbeing democratized for all.

I want to see humanity reclaim itself.