Tina's blog

Oprah Winfrey is up to her shenanigans again... and that is a good thing (so is getting to use the word shenanigans!). She is taking her own special brand of spreading kindness to O, The Oprah Magazine. Each month for the next 6 months, the magazine will feature a kindness challenge as part of an online initiative to encourage kindness and make the world a friendlier place. With help from DailyFeats, a custom app designed to help you make positive changes, you can track your progress as you build reward points for your kind acts from O Magazine and Zappos.com.

I've enjoyed playing AOK, a "social game for good," where players share Acts and Observations of Kindness. Last October I scored 114 virtue points for this blog post. You earn points for your acts of kindness that convert into cause currency. One penny for each point goes to real world charities. You are having fun playing a game, contributing to a cause, while increasing society's collective mindfulness!

Tis the season for commencement addresses and kindness is often a theme.

Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell delivered the Northeastern University commencement address, mentioning the importance of love and kindness within a family. Stating "... the child will identify that with good, and that’s the route the child will take.”

In President Obama's address to the Joplin High School class of 2012, the president spoke of the value of community, “kindness, generosity and quiet service” and about paying it forward.

While columnist Connie Schultz's suggests to students at Oberlin College, "Become an activist for kindness." With one-on-one acts of common goodness that can instantly change two people’s days: yours, and the stranger standing right in front of you.

Though we may not have the answers to society’s ills, I know we are capable of profound kindness and that is what the world needs most. Congratulations to the class of 2012.

I was one of those kids on the sidelines too intimidated to play in competitive activities during recess. You won't find a competitive bone in my body, though ironically, I have a twin with the inbred craving to win. Go figure. We joke that she got the competitive gene. Not much has changed in 40 years, I still let those hypercompetitive alpha-types get ahead of me on the roads... which drives my teenage son crazy ranting, "Mom, are you going to let him get away with cutting you off like that?". Then I get the last laugh when we pull up next to the Dale Earnhardt wanna-be at the next stop light. I do recognize the healthy advantage of competition in our free-enterprise society. I just wish there were a way to take out the aggression. This is what Playworks is all about.

You've probably heard the expression, "Be in the Now" or "Live in Present Moment Awareness", spoken as a popular mantra recently. To be honest, I don't entirely get it. I mean, I have a notion of it as a meditator but I'm still not fully grasping (as Eckhart Tolle would say) The Power of Now. Often I find myself struggling to "Be. Here. Now." and end up frustrated at my scattered thoughts and tension I've caused the physical body by over-efforting. I know this can't be the correct practice of the teaching. The real trick is carrying it outside off your meditation cushion!

The past few years I've noticed a trend in games designed to promote positive action, from fundraising to problem solving. As the mother of a teenage boy I know how competitive and aggressive the video games popular with our youth can be. I'm not against all games per se, I can see how some may help kids with skills such as problem solving and creativity. On the other hand, those games that encourage violence and other objectionable material decrease empathy in our youth. As the bullying epidemic in American schools continues to grow, I was interested to hear about the research of Laboratory Director Richard Davidson. He uses neuroscience research to study the effects of games on brain function.

I watched this news clip about a group of elementary students in Maine, NY, who paid tribute to their deceased classmates by releasing balloons in their honor. Attached to each balloon was the story describing the loss of the children (automobile accident), and a request to whomever finds the note to pass on a random act of kindness in their honor. I thought this young girl's thoughts on the tribute were "rather cool".

Imagine living in a world where people took care of each other. No judgement. Just compassion. This is a little peek into what it would be like.

If you haven't watched this week's viral video sensation, take a look. Lewis Dediara, originally from Nigeria now living in London, was cycling through the streets when he saw a disheveled man digging through the trash. Instead of passing him by, Dediara gets off his bike and buys the man some food. He said, "I saw this man standing there - he was clearly hungry. When I saw him rooting through the bin I couldn't just leave him there. I come from a family where we are raised to help others when we see them suffering. I should have bought him more than what he wanted. Next time I see him I'll buy him a burger."

Dediara titled the youtube clip, "Always Help Your Fellow Man"

Hoop-la is one of those wonderful words I remember my mother using back in the day and I'd almost forgotten about its existence. Sometimes she would use hullabaloo... but I digress. HooplaHa.com is a video storytelling website that spotlights positive people doing great things each day on their homepage. I just love finding cool stuff like this to share!

Launched in february with the tagline, "Life with A Smile", HooplaHa's mission is to serve up a daily dose of inspiration. Using online video is a compelling format to tell a story for those of us who like putting a face on the hero and see the good works in action. It really helps you connect to the story and makes it personal.