How one mom shares kindness- 10 Days of Kindness-Soul

Sharing Your Light

Kindness

I had lunch with a friend a few days ago, and it was so nice to chat with her about what is going on in her life.  She gave me permission to share one of recent her experiences.  Her daughter: for the last couple of months has been treated unkindly by her peers at her school. Here is a little background to explain what she is going through: if you have seen one of the movies called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” there is a part where the students at school leave a piece of cheese on the ground for months and it deteriorates, and gets really moldy and gross, the students say whoever touches the cheese is then contaminated and refuse to go near, speak to, or include that person forever.  In essence, that person is now considered just as gross as the moldy piece of cheese that nobody wants to go near and is excluded and teased.  Now they don’t have a piece of moldy cheese at this school, but this is how she is being treated.  As you can imagine for some kids this could be very bad experience and leave negative long lasting emotional effects on them.  Even to the point of wanting to change schools. My heart went out to my friend.  

As she talked about this experience I was amazed with the way she and her daughter choose to react to this unkindness.  There was a conversation with the teacher, but the teacher seemed to be unaware of the situation.  Instead of being angry, or frustrated, or pulling her daughter from the school, my friend shared with me that they wanted to help the students learn about kindness, so she felt she should research and find out how she could teach and influence the students at the school about kindness.  She came across a non-profit company that collects old shoes and donates them to children in 3^rd world countries so that they can attend school.  So she contacted the school and asked if she could do an assembly and do a 10 day kindness challenge at the school to see how many acts of kindness they could do and how many shoes they could collect.  She spoke at the assembly about her own experiences in high school and how being kind helped her.  She also had her daughter’s karate instructor come and speak and he talked about being a “kindness ninja”.  The kids loved it and to her surprise they surpassed their goal for acts of kindness!  I am so grateful for her example of how to turn something that can be such a bad experience into a learning opportunity and a positive experience that will help so many people.  At the same time she is teaching her daughter how to be an advocate for good, change, and kindness.  It didn’t magically fix everything at school with her daughter’s peers, but it is progress in the right direction.  I love this beautiful experience of putting  energy, time, and effort into hope and making a positive difference.  Thank you for sharing your Light with us Alyson!  If you would like to help, or would like Alyson to come to your school, please click the link below to see the Kindness charity and ways to donate shoes.

See more information here: http://thinkkindness.org/global-volunteer/ (there is a cool video on this website to show your kids about how they can do something really simple and make a huge difference in a powerful way for kids on the other side of the world!) Our old shoes truly are changing lives for these children! For many of the kids of Africa, it is the first pair of shoes they have every had in their life, and it provides an opportunity that they are allowed to attend school for the first time because they now own shoes! Crazy right! It is so awesome to help with this project!!!

Inspired by Alyson,  Do Your Own 10 Day Kindness Challenge Today!!

Kindness is one of the keys to a happy soul.  

Here's how it works for the next 10 days observe how others show kindness.  It could be a quick smile at a stranger, someone holding the door open, helping a neighbor with yard work, carpooling, any little act of kindness...if you choose you can thank them or recognize them for their kindness.  It's important to be aware and choose to see the little acts of kindness people perform on a daily basis. The choice to be aware fills your mind with positive thoughts and those positive thoughts then turn into positive actions and you are able to pay it forward and share that Light with others.  Each day choose 10 random acts of kindness you would like to do for someone else without any expectations of recognition or appreciation. Write down how it made you feel in a journal or share your experience with us in the comments below.