Spreading some LOVE
Love & Gratitude
LOVE NOTES: We invite everyone to write a generic Love note or have your kids create a loving art piece to spread love. You can drop the love letters at the Love & Light Lantern event & we will find a local place (hospital, elderly home, etc) to leave the LOVE.
GRATITUDE: Once you reach the end of the lantern walk, we invite you to sit with your family and talk about the things you love and appreciate within your lives. Have everyone share 3-5 things they feel grateful for.
Gratitude makes your life better…it is a fact!! If you took the challenge of writing down five things a day you were grateful for within ten weeks you would be 25% happier. Do you believe it? Try it! According to a study done by Robert Emmons and Mike McCullough (from the University of Miami)… At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the future than participants in either of the other two conditions (negative group and a neutral group). To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other partici- pants. The study also noted those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints, exercised more, and also got a better nights sleep. -Greater Good, Pay it Forward, Robert A. Emmons
GRATITUDE: Once you reach the end of the lantern walk, we invite you to sit with your family and talk about the things you love and appreciate within your lives. Have everyone share 3-5 things they feel grateful for.
Gratitude makes your life better…it is a fact!! If you took the challenge of writing down five things a day you were grateful for within ten weeks you would be 25% happier. Do you believe it? Try it! According to a study done by Robert Emmons and Mike McCullough (from the University of Miami)… At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the future than participants in either of the other two conditions (negative group and a neutral group). To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other partici- pants. The study also noted those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints, exercised more, and also got a better nights sleep. -Greater Good, Pay it Forward, Robert A. Emmons
Kindness Cards
KINDNESS: Kindness Cards that will help you spread some LOVE to friends, family, strangers...
This is another one of our projects to help spread good in the world. We hope you will check out this link to learn more about spreading Kindness in your schools & communities. We have created FREE Kindness Kits to help people get connected through Kindness.
Join us: LINK
Printable Kindness Cards: I also created a few documents below that you can print on your own & share.
This is another one of our projects to help spread good in the world. We hope you will check out this link to learn more about spreading Kindness in your schools & communities. We have created FREE Kindness Kits to help people get connected through Kindness.
Join us: LINK
Printable Kindness Cards: I also created a few documents below that you can print on your own & share.
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Other ideas to Spread the LOVE in your communities:
SMILE . Write a thank you note to someone you are thankful for . Leave random love notes . Celebrate someone you admire by taking them out to breakfast or dinner & share with them things you appreciate about them . Give a thank you note or gift to your schools crossing guard . Take some of your left over change & make people smile as you drop it in tip jars . Write fun messages in chalk on local paths or park areas . Leave change at a laundromat . Leave a Happy Day note on random cars . Buy flowers for a friend or teacher . Organize a local activity to pick up trash & fishing line (doesn't break down for hundreds of years) in your local park . Make cards for Meals on Wheels . Do a sock drive for your local United Way (most needed item at shelters) . Leave a kind note in library books you have checked out . Genuinely listen to people when they talk to you . Turn off lights you are not using . Say kind compliments to others . Share something positive . Hand out some $1 bills to kids at a dollar store . Buy a huge bag of bird food & feed the feathered, little ones . Offer to walk an elderly person's dog . Deliver positive notes to an elderly home . Put your phone down and invest in the people around you . A little way to say Thank you--give little baked goods or candy bars to those who give you great service at a drive-thru, nail salon, grocery store, delivery driver, mailman, etc . Offer to take a pic for someone at an event, museum, etc. Write encouraging notes for strangers to find . Share something yummy with your coworkers . Give an unexpected hug to someone . Tell someone you love them . Say hello . Walk a path, smile & say hello to every person you see . Start a family gratitude text chain (daily text of five things you are each grateful for) or family gratitude journal . Take a vase of flowers in to an elderly person who doesn't get visitors . Plant a tree . Make a meal for someone . Give movie passes or tix for an event to someone who would enjoy them . Share a favorite book with someone . Make pinecone bird feeders . Thank local heroes (police, fire) by dropping off a fun bbq kit or baked goods . Ignore your phone when you are with someone for an entire day--try it! . Reach out to someone you have not connected with in awhile . For one day make sure you say 'Please' and 'Thank you' . Write a letter to a teacher or mentor (someone who has inspired you) & thank them for the influence they have had in your life . Clean up a hiking trail near your home . Connect with someone who seems alone . Send a great joke to someone . Ask someone a highlight from their day . Be happy . Use a reusable grocery bag . Take some time for yourself . High five a stranger . Be present with people . Give longer hugs . Always remember the 'golden rule' . Check your personal energy--is it positive or negative . Get grateful . Do your best to spread some kindness & love .
LOVE THIS: Just show someone you care. Enjoy this video & then go buy a bag of kisses to share. It will make you smile.
KEEP A HAPPY DIARY: Harvard University happiness expert Shawn Achor has noted that simply writing down a few things you’re grateful for each day is one of the simplest and most powerful boosters of well being. It apparently worked for Angeline Lee: “Going through a fairly rough patch, I was really down and just couldn’t see any silver lining. One of my friends suggested keeping a happy diary, so writing down the single best thing about the day every day…I was at the point where I would have tried anything, so I started off writing on Post-it sized notes and putting them in a box.” -inc.com
HAPPY HIGHLIGHTS: Every night ask every member of your family what was a favorite 'highlight' from their day.
GRATITUDE CAKE: Imagine…One evening you gather your family around the dinner table and celebrate life with a little cake. Not just any cake, a gratitude cake.
This cake is going to help your family remember the wonderful things within your lives. You will put the cake in the center of the table and light a candle in the middle of the cake. As the candle burns everyone will take a turn sharing something they are grateful for within their life…a highlight from the day, friends they appreciate, stories of kindness, little things they love, moments with family, etc. Then after everyone has shared in the gift of gratitude, the candle has melted down and the wick is out, end with a little piece of cake.
This will be a beautiful gift to bring your family together. Enjoy your time together.
WRITE THANK YOU NOTES. The strategy: Write appreciative letters to the important people in our lives. “Acknowledging your feelings on paper makes them more conscious and concrete,” says Robert Emmons, PhD, author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin) -Familycircle
Love this—Say YES to yourself. Say YES to Yourself. “I love that the word ‘compass’ is nestled in that word compassion. So is the word ‘passion.’ In self-compassion, the compass points to yourself; the passion for self-understanding is part of our mission. Self-compassion is self-love, self-empathy, self-mercy. Self-compassion is the act of saying YES to yourself, of sending the message, ‘I matter,’ and of experiencing self-love even when self-loathing has the louder voice.” – Courtney Putnam [taken from psychology today]
GIVE YOURSELF SOME LOVE: Write a love letter to yourself. Here is another great video to inspire.
KEEP A HAPPY DIARY: Harvard University happiness expert Shawn Achor has noted that simply writing down a few things you’re grateful for each day is one of the simplest and most powerful boosters of well being. It apparently worked for Angeline Lee: “Going through a fairly rough patch, I was really down and just couldn’t see any silver lining. One of my friends suggested keeping a happy diary, so writing down the single best thing about the day every day…I was at the point where I would have tried anything, so I started off writing on Post-it sized notes and putting them in a box.” -inc.com
HAPPY HIGHLIGHTS: Every night ask every member of your family what was a favorite 'highlight' from their day.
GRATITUDE CAKE: Imagine…One evening you gather your family around the dinner table and celebrate life with a little cake. Not just any cake, a gratitude cake.
This cake is going to help your family remember the wonderful things within your lives. You will put the cake in the center of the table and light a candle in the middle of the cake. As the candle burns everyone will take a turn sharing something they are grateful for within their life…a highlight from the day, friends they appreciate, stories of kindness, little things they love, moments with family, etc. Then after everyone has shared in the gift of gratitude, the candle has melted down and the wick is out, end with a little piece of cake.
This will be a beautiful gift to bring your family together. Enjoy your time together.
WRITE THANK YOU NOTES. The strategy: Write appreciative letters to the important people in our lives. “Acknowledging your feelings on paper makes them more conscious and concrete,” says Robert Emmons, PhD, author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin) -Familycircle
Love this—Say YES to yourself. Say YES to Yourself. “I love that the word ‘compass’ is nestled in that word compassion. So is the word ‘passion.’ In self-compassion, the compass points to yourself; the passion for self-understanding is part of our mission. Self-compassion is self-love, self-empathy, self-mercy. Self-compassion is the act of saying YES to yourself, of sending the message, ‘I matter,’ and of experiencing self-love even when self-loathing has the louder voice.” – Courtney Putnam [taken from psychology today]
GIVE YOURSELF SOME LOVE: Write a love letter to yourself. Here is another great video to inspire.
Great Stories to Inspire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGNZ8zq-NU
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-GirlHeart Photo by Hassan Ouajbir
-HandHeart image by raw pixel on Pixels |
