Extreme Kindness

Richard St. John is a fellow Canadian, dedicated to spreading success and passion. In this three minute video, Richard, let’s us know how to achieve success in area of life. Two of his “8 Factors for Success” really stood out for me: Passion and Serve. These two pillars are what have driven the Extreme Kindness project. Pairing something you love to do with making a difference in the community is the main philosophy behind our work.

Right now I am racing through the book this presentation is based on: Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich, What Really Leads to Success - and it’s not smarts, looks or luck. The book has a beautiful minimalist design and is filled with insightful quotations from the world’s most succesful, in all areas of life. Anyone wanting to find success in serving the community should consider this book!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time), over 1000 people around the world made the attempt to participate for 1 minute in the first global hugathon. If they happened to be standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world at 1:00 PM PST, they cheerfully asked the person if they would like a hug. No more no less.

The goal was to have people around the world hugging all at the same time.

The hugathon started with 20 emails being sent out on www.facebook.com from Brad Stokes two weeks before the event. This resulted in over 1800 people being invited with over 1000 making the attempt to hug other people given the opportunity.

Remember that it takes no time to make a difference. All you have to do is be creative and be online.

Join Brad Stokes facebook to be a part of the next Hugathon!

B-rad

I believe that authenticity is a foundational aspect of being kind. In order to live in true compassion, we must be truthful in our words, action and emotions. Here, Robin Sharma, famed life coach and friend of the Kindness Crew speaks on this topic.

Can Facebook help make the world a better place?

The Answer is YES!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). If you are standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world, cheerfully ask them if they would like a hug.

No more no less.

The goal is to have people around the world hugging all at the same time.

This event has 526 confirmed guests.
Check out the link for pictures and to register http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2274949887

Remember the Pay It Forward equation and invite your friends to attend.

Thanks for making the world a better place one hug at a time!

B-rad

Hugathon #1
Sunday, April 22, 2007
1:00pm - 1:05pm
Location: Where ever you are in the world

So I just got hooked on www.facebook.com and immediately wanted to see if Facebook can help make the world a better place.

The Answer is YES!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). If you are standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world, cheerfully ask them if they would like a hug. No more no less. The goal is to have people around the world hugging strangers all at the same time. If you get a fun picture or a cool story, share it at www.facebook.com by joining this event on Brad Stokes facebook event listing or at www.extremekindness.com by writing to Brad’s Blog. Feel free to also post any video footage on youtube.

Good luck and have fun. Lets see if we can get at least 1000 ppl playing for the first hugathon hosted by all Kindness Crew members (this means you)!

We were recently asked to speak on the spiritual aspect of Extreme Kindness.

I thought that this would be an easy question to answer at first. But I quickly realized that very often, matters of the ’spirit’, can be elusive in their description and not as tangible as we would like. Like any contemporary seeker I immediately turned to the ultimate source of modern day knowledge; Wikipedia.

“Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived eternal verities regarding humankind’s ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly. A sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to something greater than oneself, which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally important, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Like some forms of religion, spirituality often focuses on personal experience (see mysticism).
Spirituality may involve perceiving life as higher, more complex or more integrated with one’s world view; as contrasted with the merely sensual. A common theme of spirituality in many traditions, is thus the path, work, practice, or tradition of perceiving and internalizing one’s true nature and relationship to the rest of existence (ie, God, creation, or life), and of becoming free of the lesser egoic self (or ego) in favor of being more fully ones true Self.”

Okay now we have a common platform to all jump into the waters of our inner selves.

Extreme Kindness began for the four of us as a way to PROTECT our spirits. We had just watched September 11th with the rest of the world. Glued to the TV, wishing for change yet feeling powerless to do anything about it. My mother had also recently passed away just a few months prior. On September 11 2001, we went out to commit our first marathon of extreme kindness to preserve our HOPE. Hope in the world, our fellow man but also ourselves. Hope that we might do something to help the people around us.

I also believe that the spirit needs to have FUN. Extreme Kindness is all about connecting with each other and ones true self through laughter and joy. Happiness and Kindness is the spirits natural programming. We all start as babies who experience pure JOY and WONDERMENT of the world around us. A mothers KIND touch, a fathers song and a siblings smile. When we are having a good time is often when we feel most in touch with ourselves, the ones we love and the world around us. I personally find that the best ANSWERS come when I am laughing.

Extreme Kindness has given each of us a “connection to something greater than oneself”. Enough said here.

When performing acts of kindness you step out of the material world and into the realm of ‘feelings’. I love the temporal reality I spend much of my time in, but to every so often touch that other place that so often remains hidden can truly be addictive.

Maybe that is because every time I give, receive or witness an act of kindness, my brain produces more Serotonin (Did I spell that right?). That’s the natural hormone our bodies give us to feel happy. Now that has to be good for “matters of sanity and of psychological health”.

To wrap up “thus the path”. Extreme Kindness walks in the real world on a real journey for a better understanding of real human beings and being human.

I hope this helps and please let us know your thoughts as well.

B-rad
B-Cool
B-Kind
B-Spiritual

I was asked recently,

“how much does Extreme Kindness truly change the worlds problems?”

The problems being: War, Poverty, Racism, Disease, Hunger, Murder, Corporate Greed and Political Corruption.

My answer,

“I do not know”

My goal for Extreme Kindness is not to directly bring about World Peace or solve any other of those massive and frightening global issues.

I’m no genius and I am not a great man.

But, rarely have I been indifferent.

Extreme Kindness wakes me up. It gets peoples attention. It can take away a persons indifference.

Indifference to suffering. A lack of connection to the world around us. This is all I wish to solve. Then maybe someone might teach me how to help make a real difference.

Edmund Burke

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.

Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.

George Bernard Shaw

Indifference is the essence of inhumanity.

Helen Keller

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.

Joan Vinge

Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don’t stand a chance against it.

Oh, how I’ve missed you!
I have so much to share…. But this is just a start. More to come.

Found this in a book by Shel Silverstein called “Where the Sidewalk Ends”
Thought you might appreciate it. It made me remember how great it feels to be a kid. Carefree and stoked!

Hug O War

I will not play at tug o war,
I’d rather play at hug o war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

I am loving this kindness!

If you get the chance check out some of the radical videos on youtube. Type “Free Hugs” or “Kindness” and prepare to connect with the fact that the world really does have a lot of potential. People are good.

Have a great day.

I got a splendid question from someone the other day and thought y’all might enjoy both the question itself and just one possible answer. I’ve left out the person’s name to respect their privacy:

THE QUESTION

Hi Val,

I was reading your book last night and I have to say, you guys have done
some pretty cool things. I am struggling right now because I feel to
weighed down and overwhelmed with all the little details of my life and
since I can’t/don’t feel compelled to just leave all that and take up a
full-time vocation of extreme kindness, do you have any suggestions for
how to incorporate it into my life style that already exists? Or does
extreme kindness require some sort of upheaval or reorganization (at least
of priorities)?

Pondering…

AN ANSWER

Great, GREAT question! In my expereience, all it requires is a little mental adjustment — a willingness to be open to accepting opportunities to be extremely kind. You don’t have to seek them out or reinvent your life. Moments to express your compassion will find you, but go ahead and ask the universe to start sending you some of those “moments”. You will attract only what you desire to do. You don’t need to spend nights on the street with the homeless but you can certainly comfort a freshman during a crisis by taking them out for a 20 minute coffee. Just be careful you don’t put out the “i-can-save-the-world” vibe: the universe will send you massive projects! Just be open to the little, but still profound and immeasurably great, acts of kindness. (A massive snowdrift is still made of perfect, microscopic snowflakes…)

Hope that helps, V.

We just got back from Tacoma, Washington, an epicentre of super-fly vibes and community minded life-lovers! Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) had us down to speak to about 120 students for their bi-annual “Meant to Live” conference. The question of the moment was: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” Well if the future is the next generation, then the future looks bright indeed. After our talk, a crew of 25 went to a local low-income school to clean and landscape a courtyard. Huge thank-yous PLU Crew for your positivity and smiles: you guys made my month. Jessica, huge kudos for driving us four crazies around and Penny, your pit stop at Krispy Kreme before the airport was a sugar-rush we will never forget.

YOU GUYS ROCK!!