Brown Nose Day!

I received a tweet from a person seeking help as a direct result of my life changing actions over the past ten months, this filled me with more joy than any applause, any laugh or any standing ovation! (Not that I get many of them unless we are doing it for a camera shot!)

To know someone is seeking and making huge steps to change their life because I made a statement will stay with me for longer than any gig. I say this not to big myself up or gloat, not one bit, I say it because I am proud of the person who has taken a step and chosen to remain silent no more and more the point live without the pain of that silence, I am also very proud that months of self-searching, pain, tears and heartbreak on my part resulted in another human taking a very brave step, she will, In my experience, know a new life, one beyond her wildest dreams and one lighter and more fulfilled than any writing could describe. Her tweet was kind and it inspired me to write this blog.

Steve Brookstien takes great pleasure in calling me a brown nose on twitter, I laugh (Inwardly) whenever I read this because if being kind, if paying a compliment, if saying something that is positive rather than negative, if recognising something good rather than something bad is now deemed as “Being a Brown Nose” then I am happy to herby announce myself as “King of the Brown Noses”

It is harder to be kind than horrible, thoughtful than thoughtless, peaceful rather than angry, it is harder to say something positive and encouraging, it is easy to hide behind a twitter name and be horrible and damn right insulting – really it is!

When a person posts a tweet (I do not include some of the comedy banters that go on twitter) that is hurtful and insulting it is saying more about the person posting it than the person, organisation or company they are attempting to hurt or insult! I was taught a lovely saying a while ago: “When you point the finger at someone, you should look and see where the other three are pointing, (You just tried it right?) Yes, right back at yourself!” You see, to be angry with another is actually, in most cases, being angry at ourselves, it is, in my humble opinion also wrapped in the core emotion of fear and most of the time from a place of jealousy, which, if you’ve spent the last months in serious therapy as I have, is fear itself! (Don’t worry I’m not going to get all Therapist on you, I am no way qualified!)

Another bastion of the hurtful twitter postings is Katie Hopkins who recently posted some frankly insulting tweets! Katie’s stall is laid out, she writes shocking tweets, makes shocking statements and sends us all into a frenzy, her job is done and we the reader will move on but what about the person she so brutally destroys at the click of a send button, a typing of a piece or the spout off on TV?

In this new world of social media (I’m getting old right?) anyone can become as insulting, thoughtless and angry at any person they choose simply by writing 140 characters, the scary bit is they can hide behind a mask of anonominity, the positive is we don’t have to read it or even buy into it, sadly for us showbiz folks we feed off people pleasing, so it’s kind of a double edge sword, for me, I don’t give a toss what people say, honestly I don’t, I used to, but not now!

So what’s the answer? If you are angry today, stop, look at why, take a small time out, it may be you have every right to be angry and that’s great, anger after all is a real and healthy emotion! But, taking your anger out on another is without question an action of great selfishness and something I and no doubt most of the population of the world are guilty of, but the joy of living is we can do the opposite today!

So why don’t we for just one day try and be “Kind”, to look for the positive not the negative, to pay a compliment, to give a smile, to stop and give some time to say something nice, to look for the good not the bad to say something we would love to hear ourselves, to think of another rather than to think of ourselves, to pay a compliment because we mean it rather than a “thank you “because we want something?

Let us not take for granted what we have around us, don’t walk through today with your head buried, look up, stop, breath, take it in, embrace it, own it, be the carrier of the flame, be the light and the love, be a special person you were born to be, give freely of yourself and do something amazing for another, it can be free, it can be just a wink, a hello, a nod, a handshake, a hug, a hand reached out, a hug, a shoulder to cry on, a call, a text and even a lovely tweet!

By doing this you might just change somebody’s minute, hour, day, week, month even their year!

I categorically promise you it will change yours, for just a fleeting moment you will get out of yourself, your pain, worries, frustrations and anger, you will embrace the greatest gift in life and think of another, it will take you to a new level and it will, if just for a second, put you in step with the universe.

Just for today let’s try and think of another, let’s stop before hitting the send button and just for a fleeting moment think how 140 characters, a look, a tut, a stare, a huff a back turned or a whisper may effect another.

Call it what you want, but just for here, just for n let’s rejoice in “Brown Nose Day”