Only Positive News

In 2003, Kaziah Hancock from Manti, Utah recognized that there was a real need to give something back to the families of American soldiers killed in the line of duty.   Hancock decided that the best way she could do something was to take her talents as an oil-painter and turn them into keepsake memorials to provide to the families at no charge.  This original personal endeavor has expanded into an organization known as Project Compassion.  The project features paintings by a select group of professional artists who volunteer their talent, and who are accepted into the project baseed on professional merit and humanitarian philosophy.   The project receives between 6-8 requests per month for paintings, each of which takes approximately 2 months to complete. 

I think it’s extremely touching to see a small cohort of people with so much drive, passion and talent pour it into a project to give a grieving family a little piece of their loved one back, and perhaps maybe even a small moment of peace.  

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Apparently there is a scientific method to being happier. Turns out that if you reflect on your day before you go to bed, and do it a particular way, you have better dreams, sleep better, and generally feel happier.

The key? Reflecting on three positive things that happened during the day and figuring out why they happened. Analyze what went right, the experts say, and you create more of it, both mentally and physically.

Sounds good to me.

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Find a place where you can see your reflection and take part in a little experiment for me.  It won’t take much time or even any effort on your part.  It’s easy really, but it will change your life in ways you cannot even imagine.  What do I need you to do?  Smile, yes, just smile.  Who is that powerful, magnetic person looking back in that reflection?  Is that you?  Isn’t it a great feeling?  Don’t you just feel positive energy pulsating throughout your entire body?  It’s uncanny.  It’s energizing.  It’s real.

The experiment goes a bit further, though.  Now, keep that smile in place and watch how others will react to your broad grin in much the same way.  They have to — it’s the Law of Smiling.  Positive energy spent comes back in positive energy received and so on.  Smiling is a universal non-threatening gesture, that tells people you are confident, you are friendly, you are whatever you are trying to sell about yourself when you flash that smile.  It’s better than money to guarantee your success.  Really!  Try it yourself.  Make it a habit to smile and watch how differently you are treated by those you come in contact with.  You will soon be wondering what took you so long to try it.  So go on, do it — you know you want to — SMILE!

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Today, tomorrow, next week, next year — it doesn’t matter when, really, you have to take the pledge to be There.  Where, you might ask?  There.  In your moment.  In that space of time that only you have control of.  It is time to give yourself a gift of being “There” in that moment completely.  Whether it is listening to your family, doing meditation or yoga, or closing that million dollar business deal, you really need to teach yourself to focus and give each task or interaction your undivided attention.  Each piece of your life leaves an imprint on you in the form of a memory that you will choose to cherish or let go.  Why not make sure that all of them are worth hanging on to and cherishing?  It won’t be easy but with practice and attention to every task , big or small, for the next week you will be amazed at how much differently you will see the world around you.  Things that seemed to tense-ridden will be less so.  Try it.  You have nothing to lose, and a whole lot of positive time and energy to gain. 

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The holiday shopping season is days away — literally — and the thought of my favorite stores becoming nothing short of war zones make me cringe. Yet, today I saw something that gave me hope. In having breakfast with some friends this morning, we went to a local restaurant that had quite a line waiting for a table. In fact, the entry was extremely crowded and people were standing in the entry (in an attempt to get out of the cold bitter wind blowing outside) packed in as tightly as a subway during morning rush hour. A couple entered, they were elderly — I’m guessing late eighties and joined the crowd standing. I saw a family with school age children sitting on the single bench. A little boy of approximately 8 or 9 was looking at the couple with big blue eyes. Suddenly, he jumped up and pulled his younger sister off the bench as well and offered the couple their seats. It was truly a moment of selfless, uncoached kindness that touched my heart. The family these two children came from had 6 young children, this boy being the oldest. His parents had been wrestling with the younger children on their laps and hadn’t really noticed what was going on until the couple sat next to them, smiling and thanking the generosity of the young man and his sister.

I find myself still smiling as I remember the moment and I find myself increasingly grateful to the child for his actions and to his parents for caring enough to teach compassion. While other patrons seemed to notice the gesture initially, it was quickly dismissed because of their own discomfort with the wait. I, on the other hand, chose to reward the child and his family by paying their ticket at the same time I paid mine — and adding to it an entire pie “to go” with a note of thanks to the young man for displaying such unselfish thoughtfulness. Such big acts of kindness at such a young age should be rewarded — don’t you think?

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A group of taggers assembled wall on Rodeo Drive, painting with gusto. But not gang symbols or graffiti. The group, ICU, In Creative Unity, paints murals on construction sites to raise money for charity. Interesting, huh? ICU paints murals, with their traditional “tagger’s” equipment, for businesses in the community, and paints murals on construction sites’ barricades to raise money for charitable causes.

These artists have never been to a conservatory; they got their education on the streets painting graffiti, and are now using those skills for something more socially acceptable.

Personally, I’ve always thought it a waste of talent for “taggers” to have to paint gang symbols and graffiti. I once rode through Chicago by commuter train and saw some of the most beautiful work, done by taggers. I was amazed, and my Chicago-born friend was amazed I thought it was art. Some of it wasn’t, of course, but some of it was bloody brilliant.

Nice to see ICU at work, and I hope they spread the message to others with talent for spray painting.

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Rosetta Ragusa, 16, is working hard to help SOS Children’s Village-USA. Determined to raise not only raise money but also raise awareness, Rosetta, who lives in La Crescenta California, spends most weekends itting outside the local grocery store in an “awareness booth”. She also formed a “Save Uganda” club at school, and is working on a video to distribute to her community.

In a time when  people are despairing of our young people, I’m very pleased to see that young people who are doing things for the world are really being recognized.

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A interesting study was done by the University of Wisconsin to see whether the brain could be trained to perform better in the same way the body could be conditioned with diet and exercise.  For the brain they used a diet of compassion and an exercise of meditation.  The scientists compared the brain activity of Buddhist monks who had practiced mediation for years to that of students who had only been meditating about a week.  What they found was that there was an uptick in the students’ brains and the monks’ results were nearly off the charts.  Strangely the activity was noted to be in the left frontal lobes — the part of the brain that lights up when you are happy.  Even in resting states the monks’ left frontal lobes remained more active than the students.  The results of this study suggest that we can make an impact on the way we feel. 

Simply put, thinking positive thoughts and dwelling on good things can make us feel happier whether we are meditating or sitting in rush hour traffic.  Go on — Don’t Worry — Get Happy!

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At first it’s hard to take seriously a young, very blond, apparently fundamentalist Christian preacher named “Reverend Billy,” who, with his Stop Shopping Choir and the rest of the Church of Stop Shopping, leads demonstrations at Starbucks and other hotbeds of consumerism.

But this does not appear to be a gimmick. The Reverend really wants to help people break their compulsion to shop, get free of the consumerism that plagues us and often ruins our lives, and help us reconnect with what’s really important.

It is important to me that the Church of Stop Shopping exists, because I need to know that there is at least one group of people standing behind me as I begin the route of “stopping shopping” in my own life.

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I saw an article this past week that in a somewhat bizarre episode of East meets West, the practice of hugging has been imported and introduced to a somewhat confused and ever resistant Chinese public. Beijing News reported that a “free hug” campaign was launched over the weekend with “participants opening their arms to embrace passers-by and brandishing cards saying ‘free hugs,’ ‘care from strangers,’ and ‘refuse to be apathetic.’”  The report noted that while the police in Beijing eventually took the four huggers away for questioning (they were ultimately released), and huggers from the cities Changsha and Xi’an noted that they didn’t get to give as many hugs as they hoped; it was confirmed by all of the hugging teams that the level of curiosity was great enough that it opened a dialogue between the public and the huggers.

I want to offer kudos to the Free Hugs campaign for making the effort.  Certainly, this can only be seen as positive breakthrough in international relations.   Someone, somewhere, has taken the time to open a dialogue without using coercion or force.  This has to be seen as a positive step that can only benefit all of humanity.  Although I have never really checked, I can’t remember ever seeing a death certificate that said death by hugging.  No, human touch can be a very good thing.  It can be loving, sensual, or reassuring, gentle and kind.  A hug can offer what words can often not.  I’m touched by this article and the effort shown.  I wish I had thought of the whole idea.  Now, since Free Hugs gets all the credit for this news article, all I can offer is a call to action to keep the momentum going!  Hug, anyone?

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