TABLE TALK #133
Too often in life, we think a complimentary thought, but don’t say it.
Those rich, affirming sentiments that have so much power to do good, stay dallying around our minds and never see the light of day.
Today’s Table Talk ruminates on the quiet power of compliments, and questions why people don’t give them out more freely.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
It’s a funny thing isn’t it, that we Brits stutter and stall on something inherently lovely. Perhaps in parts it’s a shyness or the fear of seeming insincere or intrusive. Yet, behind all those hesitations, surely, there’s a missed opportunity to create connection.
As humans, so much of life is beyond our control. We’re little fish in a great sea of existence, swept along by currents much bigger than us. Yet within this swirling and whirling, there is one immediate power we hold: the ability to shift someone’s day with just a few words. A compliment - offered freely and truly - is a small ripple yet one that can send waves of warmth outward and onward.
We may tell ourselves we’re independent, self-sufficient, immune to flattery. But the truth is, we’re social creatures, deeply interconnected. We crave each other’s approval more than we’d care to admit. A genuine compliment can create a glow that lingers.
This really isn’t a call to empty flattery or effusiveness - compliments need to be authentic to have meaning. What it is, is an invitation to notice, to appreciate and to give kindness freely, without calculation or expectation. With a little bit of that, the world feels all the more rosy.
Research suggests that we chronically underestimate how good compliments make others feel, and this mismatch between perception and reality is one of the reasons people hold back.
Then layered on top of this is the mistaken belief that compliments could come across as bothersome or intrusive. Yet again, the evidence shows the opposite: sincere compliments are almost always well-received, bringing warmth and positivity to all involved.
Compliments, simply put, are a tangible, immediate act of kindness, a way to connect, and a reminder that our words have power.
So our ask of you today, is to pay someone a compliment, let it all out and see what the world offers you back.
Then layered on top of this is the mistaken belief that compliments could come across as bothersome or intrusive. Yet again, the evidence shows the opposite: sincere compliments are almost always well-received, bringing warmth and positivity to all involved.
Compliments, simply put, are a tangible, immediate act of kindness, a way to connect, and a reminder that our words have power.
So our ask of you today, is to pay someone a compliment, let it all out and see what the world offers you back.
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
Now, you may well be thinking that we’ve fallen for our shrink, swapped tea for high fives, and gone all Americana on you. Rest assured, that’s not the case.
But what we have been gently wondering is this: could our careful British reserve sometimes be doing us a disservice?
Could it be holding us back from saying the very things that might make life - for someone else and perhaps even for ourselves - a little brighter?
Could it be holding us back from saying the very things that might make life - for someone else and perhaps even for ourselves - a little brighter?
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
Talking of compliments and being fatefully bad at receiving them.
Our Cuvée is STILL blushing, ten days after being voted the favourite in Saturday Kitchen Live's Dry January tasting.
Hearing the panel say "that's Saturday's Domaine now, not just Wednesday's!" was pretty damn epic.
If you've never tried this one, hurry, it's flying like hotcakes.
If you've never tried this one, hurry, it's flying like hotcakes.
Until next week,
Luke x
