Life with Kindness Project

To create a kinder, more equitable world, we have to start by looking at ourselves, because healthy people create a healthy world.

Purpose

The purpose of the Life with Kindness Project is to promote the ‘OK Corral’ as a framework we can use to create a kinder, more equitable world.

Premise

The premise of the project is that the way we experience the world - whether we feel 'OK', or 'not OK' about ourself and others - is the basis for how we live in the world, the impact we have on the people around us and, indeed, the impact we have on planet Earth itself.

The ‘OK Corral’

This framework suggests that human beings, in all our diverse ways of existing, share the same four ways of seeing the world*. Quite simply, these four perspectives arise from the sum of our experiences and whether we feel ‘OK’, or ‘not OK’.

Our healthiest way of existing is from an ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ perspective

This is a representation of the world from an ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ perspective.

Whilst we can hold the moral belief that we all have value and worth - that we are all 'OK' - this isn’t something we always live by. Rather, it’s likely that we’ll experience the world from four different perspectives.

The framework can enable us to understand ourself and other people, and our different ways of existing in the world. By having a greater understanding of ourselves and holding ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ as our healthiest way of existing, we can improve our mental health, learn to communicate more effectively and improve our relationships. We’re then able to look at the problems we face more objectively, finding solutions whilst accounting for all the stakeholders involved. In this way, we can create a kinder, more equitable world.

The four perspectives

The following words are my pen sketches of life from each perspective. They’re a general portrait, not a description of any particular individual's experience.

A call to action

This project is a call to action, to find ways to do things differently. We’re at a crisis point in the way we exist in the Western world, with the decimation of the climate and the planet's resources; many of us are not living sustainably. The way we experience the world - whether we feel ‘OK’, or 'not OK' about ourself and others - is the basis for how we live in the world, the impact we have on the people around us and planet Earth itself. By holding a perspective of 'I'm OK, you're OK' as our healthiest way of existing, we can talk calmly and rationally about our existence - topics such as mental health, climate change, poverty, inequality and homelessness.

Our hope is that the 'OK Corral' be adopted as a framework within our communities, to support us, by affording us greater understanding of ourselves. By using this framework, we can consider and redress some of the imbalances of power in society, thereby affording individuals greater freedom to create their lives as they want them to be. By sharing our experiences of life and learning to understand each other's perspectives, we might even move towards solving some of the global problems we face, such as climate change and the destruction of biodiversity.

A request for collaboration

This project is also a request for collaboration. We hope that these words inspire you, because we would like to invite you to share your own words and images, portraying your own unique experiences of existence. Critique the descriptions here, discuss the perspectives with your friends, contribute to them, test them out, share your thinking, make them your own! By collaborating and sharing our experiences of life, we can foster greater understanding between us and find ways to live with greater equity. From this understanding comes greater kindness and compassion, respect and tolerance. Through this, we might enjoy lives which are more peaceful, with greater love and joy, less judgement and hatred, less fear and pain.

*at least from a Westerner’s perspective.