A New Vision for Our Shared Humanity: Rediscovering Our Spiritual Core
In the quiet spaces between our lives—the moments when someone opens a door for a stranger, shares a kind word without expecting anything in return, or holds back judgment to extend grace—we see glimmers of something profound. These moments of generosity, patience, and compassion remind us of an undeniable truth: we are more interconnected than we realize, bound by something larger than ourselves. Yet, in a world that often feels chaotic, competitive, and divided, this truth is easily buried beneath fear, pain, and cynicism.
The Myth of “Rotten to the Core”
One of the most damaging beliefs we’ve inherited is the idea that humans are fundamentally flawed—rotten to the core, selfish by nature, and incapable of doing any good in the world. This worldview justifies distrust and tribalism and makes it easy to see others as opponents rather than kin. But this belief doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Psychologists have observed that even infants, before social conditioning takes hold, display empathy and concern for others. A baby cries when another baby cries, not out of selfishness, but out of connection.
If our earliest instincts are to comfort and empathize, then where do things go wrong? Over time, as we grow up within imperfect families, communities, and cultures, we learn to shield ourselves behind protective mechanisms—defensiveness, suspicion, and withdrawal.
This “shell” keeps us safe but also separates us from our truest, most authentic selves. However, beneath the armor lies something beautiful: a human spirit capable of great love and generosity.
Positive Emotions as Spirituality
For many, cultivating love, peace, patience, and self-control is the closest they will come to spirituality. And perhaps, it’s all the spirituality we need. Whether or not we believe in a higher power, when we act with kindness, we align with the forces that sustain life itself.
Positive psychology research has illuminated this truth: when we experience awe, connection, and gratitude, we tap into something timeless—a kind of cosmic resonance that feels spiritual in its own right.
Positive psychology also illuminates another important truth: the first one to benefit from an act of kindness is the one who performs it. Dr. Martin Seligman, often referred to as the “father of positive psychology,” has transformed our understanding of well-being, resilience, and human flourishing. Among his many insights is this profound truth: there is no better treatment in all of psychology for depression than doing a kind act for someone else.
Seligman’s work underscores that when we shift our focus outward—engaging in small acts of kindness—we not only uplift others but also experience a powerful antidote to despair. His findings remind us that well-being is not a solo endeavor, but something cultivated in connection with others.
Kindness as a Universal Law
When asked to name the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” He also taught, “As much as you do it to one of these, you have done it to me.”
These words remind us of something profound: our treatment of others reflects our relationship with the power that shaped the universe—whether we call it God, love, or something else entirely.
This means we can let go of the exhausting question of whether we’re “good enough” to make it into “heaven.” When we choose kindness, compassion, and generosity, we are already in harmony with the divine. We resonate with the very same force that gives life and meaning to the cosmos. In this view, kindness isn’t just a moral checkbox, or a way to get a seat on the bus; it is an act of spiritual alignment.
And for those who do not profess a faith in God, the principle remains the same. They can experience all the benefits of the spiritual life—peace, connection, purpose—without the religious baggage of superstition or dogma.
They are free from divisive black-and-white concepts like “sinner and saint,” “wheat and chaff,” and “sheep and goats”—labels that often serve to separate people into arbitrary categories of “good” and “bad,” creating judgment, division, and strife in the world.
Instead, they live by a law of shared humanity, one written into the fabric of existence itself—a law that binds us all together, not through fear of punishment or desire for reward, but through shared grace and compassion.
In moments of kindness, we transcend the barriers of religious belief, becoming both participants in and reflections of the same creative power that shaped the stars. Here, we find true freedom: the freedom to love without fear, to connect without judgment, to follow our dreams, and to live in harmony with the deepest truths of existence.
We may not agree on theology, but we can agree that when we practice kindness, compassion, and empathy, we are more fully human. And isn’t that enough? As the Serenity Prayer reminds us, we cannot control everything. But we can control how we live and treat others. And in doing so, we become vessels of peace in a world fraying at the seams.
The Ripple Effect of Kindness
Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler’s research on social networks shows that our behaviors ripple outward through our social connections, affecting not only our friends but our friends’ friends and our friends’ friends’ friends.
Their research showed that one small act of kindness can influence someone three degrees removed from us. Think about the power in that! You may never change the world, but you can change your corner of it—and in doing so, your goodness echoes further than you know.
We cannot afford to underestimate the cumulative power of small, consistent actions. If every individual strengthened their “three-degree network” with acts of kindness, forgiveness, and generosity, the world would indeed shift.
The Things That Bind Us
What unites us is far greater than what divides us. We all breathe the same air. We bleed the same red. We all live in bodies vulnerable to illness and time, and we share an environment that is both nurturing and hostile. And yet, despite these shared realities, our cultures often glorify individualism, competition, and material wealth—ideals that isolate us.
Western culture, in particular, has fallen into a dangerous paradox: as our technological and material wealth has increased, our collective well-being has plummeted. Depression, anxiety, and addiction have surged, especially among the youth. We have lost touch with our need for connection and meaning in the pursuit of “success.”
The Power of Perspective
The physicist Henry Stapp observed that there is no greater influence on how we live our lives than our belief in the power that shaped the universe. Our worldview shapes our actions, our relationships, and even our resilience in the face of hardship.
Dante captured a similar truth when he wrote, “The mind in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” If we see ourselves as rotten to the core, selfish, separate, flawed, and powerless, we will live in a world of scarcity, superstition, and fear, no matter how much good surrounds us.
But if we shift our perspective to see ourselves as interconnected and capable of goodness, we create a world of abundance and hope. In this way, our beliefs become the lens through which we experience reality, capable of transforming despair into meaning and struggle into growth.
A Call to Action: Becoming Spiritual Antioxidants
In a world spinning faster than ever, we need an antidote to the toxicity of division, fear, and cynicism. Love, empathy, and compassion are not just sentimental virtues—they are spiritual antioxidants. They counteract the damage caused by corrosive cultural, political, and economic systems that pit us against one another.
As historian and philosopher Will Durant said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This reminds us that creating a more compassionate world starts with building habits rooted in kindness and grace, one choice at a time.
This is a call to cultivate new habits of action:
See the good in others: Before reacting with anger or fear, pause and ask, “What is this person protecting?
Be the change you seek: Even if the world feels beyond repair, remember that you have influence within your sphere.
Let go of control where you must but take full ownership where you can: The Serenity Prayer reminds us that wisdom lies in knowing the difference.
When we repeatedly choose generosity, gratitude, curiosity, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and self-control—even when it’s hard—we rewire our hearts and minds to embody the best of what it means to be human. In those small, everyday moments, we build lives of quiet excellence. Whether we call it God, love, or the power that shaped the universe, it moves through us when we act with compassion.
The world may be fractured, but healing starts here: within us, our homes, our communities, our small, daily interactions. When we embrace this, we become architects of a shared humanity—a humanity not driven by fear but by love.
Let’s build it together.
