I had a very interesting and inspirational chat with my teacher from Brahma Kumaris. She was talking about good qualities to develop in ourselves. One of these qualities is the ability make a change without judging or criticizing, but by giving a good example and acting as a role model. I found that to be very insightful and also powerful from two perspectives.

• First of all, it is very unlikely that you`ll make somebody change by criticizing them. In such situations the recipient of the criticism will naturally get defensive which is likely to cause them to close towards you rather than make the change that you were aiming for in the first place.
• And second- I really believe that if we want to make any positive change in our environment the first place to start implementing is in ourselves. Inspiring others by “walking the talk” is always stronger that simply preaching. It`s like a dance school- the best way to learn how to dance is not to read a book about dancing, but to observe the others and then dance yourself.

Soon after this discussion I attended a gathering with a group of charismatic ladies. The idea behind it was to have an assembly of like-minded ladies who can learn from each other, but also inspire and empower each other and create a nurturing environment, a “sisterhood” that would promote personal growth and also overall positive change which in my view we so badly need nowadays.

This meeting made a big impression on me in many ways. What was truly inspiring was to be in a female group with people whom you`ve never met before and to experience kindness, support and openness. A group of strong and well-established women that gathered to support each other and to nurture feminine qualities. There were some of them who travelled from different cities for this gathering and basically invested half of their Saturday to do this. For me this was truly incredible.

Some of the ladies performed a dance that they prepared especially for us and another one told us a story from her childhood. A powerful story, showing that when you are mistreated by your family a good way to improve the relationship is to think about all the positive things that you learned/got from the person and to thank them about it rather than criticize all the time.

That was so impactful for me! It made me think about the importance of developing good qualities. And realizing that criticizing is not a solution. The real solution lies in focusing on the positive aspects of people who criticize you and being the change you want to see in others.

It was also through personal example that the lady storyteller conveyed this important lesson to all of us.

Being a role model is not about showing the world how much we`ve accomplished and how perfect we are. It is about opening our hearts and sharing our own learnings in our own authentic way with a good will. This is one of the most powerful tools that we actually have and which we should use as often as possible!