Loved this piece by Sharon Shalzberg ...
 

The practice of shepherding our attention back to the present — even an incalculable number of times — helps us find the power to be kind to ourselves. We can let go of our laundry list of work agenda items once we get home to be with our family members, even if our Google calendar gives us a ping. We may be compelled to ruminate or obsess, but a commitment to mindfulness, to being present, is a gesture of kindness to ourselves. We react to our compulsions with compassion. We open up, and feel a subtle movement of our hearts. This movement of the heart is like the sea moving close to the ocean floor — it is so subtle, but affects everything above.

The same power of kindness is available to us in our relationships with others. When we really tune in to our experience in each moment, the result is feeling a sense of connection between all of us — not a connection that has anything to do with iMessaging or emailing, but something deep. We can see that kindness isn’t about just being “nice” or polite, but about a sense of ethics, and a fundamentally shared experience, that need not be related to a religious belief system.

Seeing kindness as profound and powerful helps us differentiate kindness and niceness. When someone looks at us with the concern of kindness, we feel seen. There is a sense of connection that is being mutually recognized, and in that we feel our value as humans.