The No Judgment Diet

Everyone’s fighting a battle; some battles may be more difficult than others, but a battle is a battle. You don’t know what people go through in their every day lives, or why people act the way they do. But as someone who believes in a judgment free world, we should all just keep a smile on our faces and act supportive towards everyone.

Today’s world is quick to judge people based on their race, ethnicity, sexuality, or simply their personal choices in life. These characteristics should not be a determination of how worthy or immoral a person is, these are just the many traits that make every individual unique.

That cliché phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, doesn’t just apply to the top selling novels you see in your local bookstore. This applies to the people you encounter in public, or anyone you meet in your everyday life.

Not too long ago my father was on the subway in the lovely city of New York. We all know how crazy those subways can get with performers, commuters, college students, and every unique individual that steps onto the cars. As the doors slid open, a young man walked onto the train with his two rowdy kids. My father said the kids wouldn’t sit still; they were kicking people, running up and down the train, acting obnoxiously, while the father just sat there in silence, with a glazed look that crossed his face as if he was in his own separate world of complete silence and loneliness.

After a while, a fellow rider approached the father and questioned him on his parenting and pleaded him to calm his children down. The man looked up at the fellow rider with heart-felt eyes and simply said, “My apologies for my lack of actions and my children’s behavior, but I’m just a bit out of it as I just buried my wife this morning”.

No one on the train would have guessed that this man just came back from the burial service of his wife, but they all had no problem jumping to conclusions to his lack of parenting and looking at this poor man with disgust of how he raised his children.

Don’t be so quick to judge someone based on one interaction; we are who we are because of all the obstacles we go through in life. We all make mistakes and experience times of poor judgment and wrong doings, but in the end that’s what makes each and every one of us unique.

Rise above judgment and instead of looking someone up and down for their eccentric outfit choice of the day, give them a smile.

Smile at them for being courageous enough to wear whatever they please and expressing themselves how they personally choose. Instead of scolding a couple for expressing too much PDA, just look away and think of how happy they may be and lucky they are to feel so in love.

Just flashing a simple smile at someone random will provide them a feeling of comfort and acceptance in our judgment – filled world. Most people hate the idea of being judged, so why be the judger?

Life is too short to scold people for the way they look, or simply in how they act. Just remember as the Dalai Lama says, “LOVE is the absence of judgment”. When you are too busy judging someone, you have no time to love them, and a world without love is simply not a world worth living in.

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