Last Tuesday, on World Kindness Day, Vicky, Shamash and I had an amazing day and Kindness Circle at a local junior school near our home. We were quite blown away by the wisdom of the children!

First we started the morning with a couple assemblies.

Shamash and Vicky crested a few slides on what kindness means with some fun interactive quiz questions for the assembly, such as “Put your hand up if you think doing acts of kindness can help you live longer.” :)

It was so interesting for all of us, including the teachers, because they backed up answers with real statistics.

We shared the Unsung Hero video from KarmaTube, which was loved by all. We explored some deeper aspects of the video, too, such as the contagious nature of kindness.

Afterwards, we had two smaller Kindness Circles with the older students. They seemed to pass in a blink of an eyelid -- simply sharing stories and reflections around acts of kindness we've received.

Elena, the headmistress has been such a kindness enthusiast in the whole process. She already is so aligned in shared values. I got to experience some of this when I went along to a staff meeting last week. She begins every staff meeting with a circle of sharing from the teachers on something positive from the week. Posters with empowering words are everywhere. She’s carrying out a 7-day Kindness Challenge, too!

In reflecting back, I'm amazed by how the universe unfolds these opportunities to be of service. :) Since joining a Kindness Circle at a San Francisco high school couple years back, my heart had been holding space for a similar circle at a school in London one day. :)

Serendipitously, last month, I had a meeting with Elena, the headmistress -- which was a slow story and ripple from a gratitude circle with Nimo and Trishna earlier this Fall! A friend who works at the school heard me talking about the takeaways my 8-year-old nephew took home from the gratitude circle, so the headmistress reached out about bringing more values-based sessions at their junior school. From our informal conversation, I learned that they already have circle time with the children where they talk about social issues and best practices, as well as introduce yoga and awareness of well-being into the daily timetable. They seem really committed in cultivating kindness into the daily timetable so we've been exploring a few other experiments, such as a regular Kindness Club. Elena even came up with a "Kindness is Kool” catchphrase for the school! :)

More stories and ripples to come soon...! :)