Bullying-you make the difference

Watch the following video: http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/72-Locker

What can you do when you see bullying happening?
Who can you tell?
How can you help make it stop?

Pass it on...

Compassion- video

Show the following video:
http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/82-Taxi

Processing:
1.  Do you think it was easy for the man to give up his taxi?
2.  Why do you think giving up his taxi was the right thing to do?
3.  Would you have done the same thing?
4.  On the other side of this- do you accept the service or help that others offer?

Give a little love

The following video depicts how being aware of others and helping them in small ways can make a big difference in the lives of others.  This is a YOU TUBE video so please be careful of what may pop up afterward.  There is also a scripture at the end that you will want to stop the video before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID0kgP9IVhs&safe=active

Last Act of Kindness

The following video tells a story about an officer who's final act of kindness was caught on video.  There will be a short advertisement before the video starts.  Be sure that what you are showing is school appropriate and please get the video ahead of time.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/44167629#44167629

Discussion:
What kinds of service did Jeremy(the officer) perform as a career?
What was so significant about Jeremy paying for the cookies?
What service did Jeremy give besides feeding the boy? (he encouraged him to reach his goals)
Would you behave differently if you knew you were being video-recorded?
What acts of kindness can you do that do not cost any money?

The Circle of Kindness

This video is really special. NO ACT OF KINDNESS, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, IS EVER WASTED.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMmozPVUj-s&feature=em-share_video_user&safe=active

If you can't access this video, you can find more stories on this website. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/27/random-acts-of-kindness-believe-in-the-human-race_n_1680813.html#slide=1223923

Benefits of Compassion

Why develop compassion in your life? Well, there are scientific studies that suggest there are physical benefits to practicing compassion — people who practice it produce 100 percent more DHEA, which is a hormone that counteracts the aging process, and 23 percent less cortisol — the “stress hormone.”
But there are other benefits as well, and these are emotional and spiritual. The main benefit is that it helps you to be more happy, and brings others around you to be more happy. If we agree that it is a common aim of each of us to strive to be happy, then compassion is one of the main tools for achieving that happiness. It is therefore of utmost importance that we cultivate compassion in our lives and practice compassion every day.
How do we do that? This guide contains 7 different practices that you can try out and perhaps incorporate into your every day life.
http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-cultivating-compassion-in-your-life-with-7-practices/

Definition of Compassion

Let’s use the Wikipedia definition of Compassion:

Compassion is an emotion that is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce the suffering of another; to show special kindness to those who suffer. Compassion essentially arises through empathy, and is often characterized through actions, wherein a person acting with compassion will seek to aid those they feel compassionate for.
Compassionate acts are generally considered those which take into account the suffering of others and attempt to alleviate that suffering as if it were one’s own. In this sense, the various forms of the Golden Rule are clearly based on the concept of compassion.
Compassion differs from other forms of helpful or humane behavior in that its focus is primarily on the alleviation of suffering.

http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-cultivating-compassion-in-your-life-with-7-practices/

Cultivating Compassion

The Dalai Lama stated the following steps to build compassion in your life:

1. Morning ritual. Greet each morning with a ritual. Try this one, suggest by the Dalai Lama: “Today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” Then, when you’ve done this, try the practice below.
2. Commonalities practice. Instead of recognizing the differences between yourself and others, try to recognize what you have in common. At the root of it all, we are all human beings. We need food, and shelter, and love. We crave attention, and recognition, and affection, and above all, happiness. Reflect on these commonalities you have with every other human being, and ignore the differences. One of my favorite exercises comes from a great article from Ode Magazine — it’s a five-step exercise to try when you meet friends and strangers. Do it discreetly and try to do all the steps with the same person. With your attention geared to the other person, tell yourself:
1. Step 1: “Just like me, this person is seeking happiness in his/her life.”
2. Step 2: “Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life.”
3. Step 3: “Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness and despair.”
4. Step 4: “Just like me, this person is seeking to fill his/her needs.”
5. Step 5: “Just like me, this person is learning about life.”
3. Act of kindness practice. When you have have improved your practice of imagining how the other person may feel, take the exercise a step further. Imagine the suffering of someone you know or met recently. Imagine that you are that person, and are going through that suffering. Now imagine that another human being would like your suffering to end — perhaps your mother or another loved one. What would you like for that person to do to end your suffering? Now reverse roles: you are the person who desires for the other person’s suffering to end. Imagine that you do something to help ease the suffering, or end it completely. Once you get good at this stage, practice doing something small each day to help end the suffering of others, even in a tiny way. Even a smile, or a kind word, or doing an errand or chore, or just talking about a problem with another person. Practice doing something kind to help ease the suffering of others. When you are good at this, find a way to make it a daily practice, and eventually a throughout-the-day practice.
4. Those who mistreat us practice. The final stage in these compassion practices is to not only want to ease the suffering of those we love and meet, but even those who mistreat us. When we encounter someone who mistreats us, instead of acting in anger, withdraw. Later, when you are calm and more detached, reflect on that person who mistreated you. Try to imagine the background of that person. Try to imagine what that person was taught as a child. Try to imagine the day or week that person was going through, and what kind of bad things had happened to that person. Try to imagine the mood and state of mind that person was in — the suffering that person must have been going through to mistreat you that way. And understand that their action was not about you, but about what they were going through. Now think some more about the suffering of that poor person, and see if you can imagine trying to stop the suffering of that person. And then reflect that if you mistreated someone, and they acted with kindness and compassion toward you, whether that would make you less likely to mistreat that person the next time, and more likely to be kind to that person. Once you have mastered this practice of reflection, try acting with compassion and understanding the next time a person treats you. Do it in little doses, until you are good at it. Practice makes perfect.

http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-cultivating-compassion-in-your-life-with-7-practices/

Amazing Video

Simply re-wording a sign.....
http://vimeo.com/27372319
This is a very powerful video.

Processing:
How did people respond to the original sign?
What inspired the woman to change the sign?
Why did the new sign make a bigger difference?
How did the new sign make people feel?
How can you use positive words in your own life to help people?

Patience

Questions:
How many of you have poured cement before? 
How long does it take?
Is it easy to make it smooth?

Watch the following video:
http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/107-Wet-Cement

What did the older man do when he saw the boy?
What did he feel?
How did he handle that feeling?
What can be learned from this video?
How do you react when someone wrongs you?
How does waiting to respond help you have a better response?

Forgiveness

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." - Alexander Pope 

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.^[1]

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope



Happy Ending

Karen Klein’s Happy Ending

Some of you may remember the story of Karen Huff Klein, the 68-year-old bus monitor who was badly bullied and berated by four seventh-graders, who recorded and then streamed the assault online.
Amid the 10 minute long stream of insults, swearing, and even physical approach which drove the woman to tears, one boy even states that, “You don’t have a family because they all killed themselves because they didn’t want to be near you.”
Klein, in addition to being widowed at 51, lost one of her children to suicide 10 years ago.
The deeply personal and savage assault on her, further compounded by going viral online, surprisingly may have a happy ending thanks to a random stranger online, Max Sidorov. Max saw the story and decided to start an online campaign to raise $5,000 for Klein to enjoy a vacation, but the campaign went viral, too. Over 32,000 people have contributed more than $700,000 to Klein – a whole lot more than her normal annual salary of just over $15,500.
With the new funds, coming this next week likely without taxes, Karen is going to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, but has no intentions of sitting around sewing. Not only does she intend to help out her family, but she also wants to get involved in helping to prevent bullying and suicide.
“I’m not a great speaker… but I would like to try to do something,” she says. “Kids write to me and tell me that they’ve been bullied. The kids that get bullied…I hate it.”
All of this coming from one act of cruelty and childishness. Thankfully, we have four brats trying to berate one adult, but 32,000 compassionate people looking to make things right. Karen says it best:
“I didn’t realize there were so many nice people out there in the world.”
http://www.changeathought.com/professionals/public-service/karen-kleins-happy-ending/

Remember, bullying ends when people quit putting up with it.  If the people surrounding them on the bus would have stepped in and stopped what was happening, Karen's feelings could have been spared (of course she wouldn't have reaped the benefits later).
How did the "internet bystander" help her?
Why were the words hurtful to her?
 How has she turned this into a positive experience?

Happiness

A Beautiful Winter

For her 8th birthday, Winter Slade decided that she wanted to do something different. Instead of presents, she decided that she wanted to help protect the pine marten, a relative of the ferret whose habitat is being threatened. Though her birthday isn’t until November, Winter can’t stop talking about it.
But the road to victory hasn’t been easy. When she first started telling her friends about it, their parents effectively shut her down, openly talking about her “stupid idea” right in front of her. Their skepticism is definitely understandable, we’ve all been around long enough to see examples of bad charities and over-hyped promises, but poor Winter was crushed. On her way home from school, she openly started crying, asking her mom why her friend’s parents “said I was stupid.” Her excitement was crushed by jaded adults.
Realizing that they needed to shift gears, Winter’s mom, Michelle, took to Reddit on a Thursday night. There, she put out a simple plea, “Please help me restore her faith in humanity.” When she awoke the next morning, she’d started to see some results. People had responded to her plea, and Winter had almost $100 donated to her name. As the day progressed, more and more people contributed – praising Winter’s kindness and sharing how Winter had inspired them as well. Overnight, Winter’s dream was coming true. By Saturday, Winter had nearly $2,500 raised and a beaming smile.
There’s one important detail that makes this story stand out, but that Winter’s mom intentionally kept a secret in her plea to ensure that Winter got the spotlight. You see, Winter needed this excitement. Her mother has been fighting a long battle with cancer, which consumes much of their lives. Michelle shares that Winter is “my oldest and most concerned. She thinks about it a lot and cries about it a lot.”
For Michelle, the most important part of this journey is seeing her daughter happy again. It gives her something to be excited about instead of worrying about what might happen tomorrow.
http://www.changeathought.com/family-friends/children/beautiful-winter/

Compassion

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.
Frederick Buechner
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/compassion_2.html#32Okt5TergKkpuc5.99

Compassion

Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.
Chogyam Trungpa

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/compassion.html#2pF91ysp11lCk6AX.99

Compassion

"Abraham Lincoln because he was a man filled with great compassion who believed that all men are created free and equal, and was not afraid to stand on that platform. The way Lincoln lived his life has served me well in mine."
Sidney Sheldon

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/compassion.html#2pF91ysp11lCk6AX.99