KindSpring Weekly: Spotlight On Kindness: Hidden Posted by Guri Mehta, Jun 21 2021 The latest issue of 'Spotlight on Kindness' weekly newsletter is themed: Spotlight On Kindness: Hidden Influence Of Social Networks.Editor's Note: The nature versus nurture issue has been debated in Psychology pretty much since the beginning of this field. Are we predominantly the products of our genetic makeup or our environment? However, for this week's newsletter, I was more curious about how our current social networks (or community) impact our behavior. Does it predict our current or future behavior? This week's video brings up interesting questions and offers an insightful reflection on the hidden influence of our social networks. --Guri

Nuggets From Shay Beider's Call Posted by Ameeta Martin, Jun 20 2021 Last Saturday, Cynthia Li and I had the privilege of hosting an incredibly inspiring and illuminating Awakin Call with Shay Beider. Shay Beider had a moment of clarity while still a pre-med college student at UCLA. Shadowing doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and watching a girl tremble with fear before surgery, she suddenly awakened: “It doesn’t have to look like this.” Shay realized she could serve children and their families with something she’d already been delivering—healing touch. To put herself through college, Beider had been working as a massage therapist. Why not bring gentle, caring touch directly into healthcare? Beider would eventually create a new therapeutic approach called Integrative Touch Therapy -- providing hands-on therapies for kids, as well as supporting families and communities at little or no cost to the families. Since its founding in 2005, her organization has become a leader in pediatric integrative medicine. The future of healthcare, ... Read Full Story

Nuggets From Wakanyi Hoffman's Call Posted by Brian Conroy, Jun 19 2021 On June 5th, we had the privilege of hosting Awakin Call with Wakanyi Hoffman. Wakanyi Hoffman is a storyteller, author, mother, and global citizen. Formerly a journalist for Kenya's largest newspaper, she is currently based in the Netherlands, where she teaches the art of oral storytelling to promote a values-based education for young children and diversify the knowledge base of global citizenship education. A "global nomad" with strong African roots, Wakanyi and her husband have been raising their four multicultural and mixed race children across three continents, on a mission to teach them to embrace the whole world as their home. She harnesses the ancient wisdom of her cultural roots for today's internet-globalized youth through African Folktales Project, an open-sourced resource of indigenous wisdom and knowledge for school children. Guided by the African Ubuntu philosophy, Wakanyi meets new cultures as “an opportunity to learn about the many ways that we express ... Read Full Story

Bonnie: Three Quotes And A Prayer Posted by Meghna Banker, Jun 18 2021 [Below is an edited transcript of a dedication Bonnie offered last month from the Christian tradition, during a Prayer Circle for India amid the country's escalating Covid crisis.] [Or, view here in browser window.] Hello everybody. Good morning. Good evening. Good middle of the night, whatever it is for you. I am so touched by the stories that I heard. I live in Southern California and yet I have this deep connection to India from having visited there and from my close relationship with so many people from the service space ecosystem. I just remembered, as you were speaking that three years ago, on Mother's Day, we had the Jai Jagat children at our center singing, we had an animal parade for them and a lunch for them, and their presence changed so many lives. Their simple being just changed so many lives. So I think about the people that I do know ... Read Full Story