Some of the gentlest people in the world look pretty hard on the outside. Their manners may not be refined, their speech may be ordinary and their dress simple, but underneath, there is a mine of love, sensitivity and gentleness. The speech of a gentle person is slower; they are sensitive to the feelings of others; they never say anything to hurt others and they rarely impose upon others.

Gentleness as a quality is often tied to humility. The characteristics of a humble soul are introspection, heedfulness, and the absence of any external show. Humility and gentleness are companions because a humble person has no need to be forceful – they have a natural authority.

As human souls, we all respond to a gentle hand because in our original form we are naturally gentle beings. The most unmanageable, egotistical or impolite person will respond to a gentle person, and transform when their gentleness is encouraged to emerge. Arrogance and its many faces are a defence mechanism that will dissolve when there is no aggressor. As we awaken our gentleness we will reveal sensitivity strengthened by a power that can change the world, as portrayed in the story of “Beauty and the Beast”.

When we lose the "gentle touch" it may be because we are busying ourselves raising walls of defence to conceal our vulnerability. Most mothers are very good examples of those who allow gentleness to balance their nature. Motherhood seems to naturally develop a gentle hand to raise her child from infancy to maturity. Feelings need to be handled with care, and they are challenged to feed their child with positive thoughts and pure feelings so that they grow safe and secure, physically and emotionally. A mother with a nature of gentleness reveals that quality in her dealings with other people as well.

Like all other virtues, gentleness is contagious and has a tremendous impact on our environment as we allow it to flow within and through us. As we tap more and more into our gentleness, we interact from a place of self-love and self-confidence. Paradoxically it is the ‘gentle hand’ which has the ‘upper hand’!

Om Shanti (I am a peaceful soul)

Tel: +973-17-712 545, meditate@batelco.com.bh, www.bahrainmeditationcentre.org

Aruna is an international management development trainer, a teacher of meditation and a freelance writer currently based in Bahrain. She is also the director of the Bahrain Meditation Centre, which is administered by Brahma Kumaris, London, an international organisation with over 6000 centers in over 85 countries (http://www.bkwsu.org.uk) and she continues to coordinate various activities for them in the Middle East.

Aruna has spent the last 22 years focused on learning, living and teaching the art of self-development. As a lecturer and teacher of meditation she gained a wealth of experience working with the Brahma Kumaris, teaching meditation, values and ethics, positive thinking and creativity seminars.

Moving her base from London to Canada in the mid-90’s she turned her focus to the area of Conflict Resolution and began to arrange and conduct seminars on self-development subjects.

She brings together the three key strands of the new millennium –spirituality, management/leadership development, and continuous learning – in a unique blend of insight, wisdom and technique.

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