MIRACLE MOMENT®
“Forget everything else and remember your humanity.” Albert Einstein
A MESSAGE from Founder/Executive Director, CYNTHIA BRIAN
November 13-19 is World Kindness Week and if there ever was a time that we all need to consider kindness as an essential human emotion, it is now. Life is complicated, chaotic, and constantly challenging. When we pause long enough to consider the feelings of others and be kind, we can connect in a meaningful way. Kindness breeds kindness. With kindness as our guiding light, cooperation and community evolve and multiply. Our Kindness Coordinator, Karen Kitchel, offers ways for you to act with kindness. At Be the Star You Are!®, we encourage kindness in all of our daily activities and spearhead outreach programs that are kind and inclusive. We donate uplifting books to those in need. We produce and host radio broadcasts that empower and inspire. We organize and participate in events that create and foster community while making a difference. Kindness is king!
My parents taught me to treat others as I want to be treated. Most of us practice this lesson as a basic need of every human is to love and be loved, to appreciate and be appreciated, to be effective and make a difference.
How can you be kinder? First, be kind to yourself. Treat others with respect. Offer compliments and speak in a positive manner. Find the good in someone and let them know you appreciate them. Compliment often and criticize less. Donate your time and resources to a charity or cause you believe in. Help someone in need of support. Open your heart.
Practice being kind and you’ll feel a big boost of the love hormone, oxytocin. You’ll be less stressed and discover joy in the little things. Kindness is contagious. Pass it around!
Smile with kindness and remember you humanity.
Cynthia Brian
Founder/Executive Director
Be the Star You Are!®
PO Box 376
Moraga, California 94556
Cynthia@BetheStarYouAre.org
https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org
DONATE: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504
A WEEK OF KINDNESS
by Karen Kitchel
This week promotes the importance of being kind. The purpose of the week, celebrated in November each year, is to help everyone understand that compassion for others is what binds us all together.
What to do?
Interrupt the ordinary
Think about the people who help you get life done (trash collector, mail delivery person, etc.) Interrupt them with a bottle of sparkling water or candy bar and a “Thanks for what you do.”
Ice cream scattering
While at the grocery store, pick up a box of ice cream bars and drop them off at a local shelter. All you have to say is “Enjoy!”
A line to say to make someone’s day
“You are really good at what you do!”
Magazines for the homeless
If you enjoy reading, gather your used magazines and take them to a homeless shelter.
Kindness cards
Make up a few note cards to keep in your car or purse to randomly give to those wonderful folks who keep restrooms clean or the person who fills your water glass. Cards can simply say: “You are appreciated.”
Treat Someone
Going out for lunch or a cup of coffee? Choose a random person and tell the server you will pick up their tab.
Karen Kitchel is the Kindness Coordinator volunteer with BTSYA. She purchased the book, No Barnyard Bullies, as a gift for every kindergarten student where she is a volunteer teacher. www.scatteringkindness.com
BOOKS TO INCREASE KINDNESS
Encourage kindness and inclusivity in children with two new picture books, No Barnyard Bullies and Family Forever. True stories from Stella Bella’s barnyard of adopted animals, teach children positive behaviors. The animal kingdom is filled with timely and timeless tales that are relatable to humans. The animal family of Stella Bella’s Barnyard Adventures experiences complex encounters that challenge their integrity, individuality, and character while amplifying an assortment of expressions and original viewpoints to co-exist as a group. The barnyard animals address critical issues facing children including bullying, nature, power struggles, adversity, adoption, homelessness, creativity, justice, health, kindness, ethnicity, and being different through a cultural lens of hope and resolution. With visually rich illustrations, each picture book inspires, motivates, and moves children to appreciate all animals while learning the lessons the natural world teaches.
For teens and adults, check out the Be the Star You Are! series of books offering positive, uplifting stories for living, loving, laughing, and learning to make a difference. The trilogy includes Be the Star You Are!, 99 Gifts, Be the Star You Are! for Teens, and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers. All purchases benefit Be the Star You Are!® charity.
The holidays are coming and books are gifts that keep on giving.
Buy all five books in a package at https://www.bethestaryouare.org/book-gift
Buy individual books by clicking on the ONLINE STORE at
https://www.BetheStarYouAre.org
MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR SANTA DAY!
On Saturday, December 2, for Santa Day at 5A in Moraga. Be the Star You Are!® collaborates with 5 A Rent-A-Space to provide this annual family-fun event. Volunteers will help kids write letters to Santa and enjoy crafts. Enjoy hot cocoa and snacks, plus get a photo with Jolly St. Nick. FREE event. 5 A Rent-A-Space: 455 Moraga Rd. #F, Moraga.
Thanks to Mark Hoogs State Farm Insurance www.TeamHoogs.com for once again sponsoring Be the Star You Are!® at Santa Day. https://www.bethestaryouare.org/events-1/santa-day-at-5a
SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP!
We have suggestions for you to shop, save, and stay safe. Please use these web sites for all of your shopping essentials.
1. Discounted books at Amazon
2. Coupon Birds: Visit our website and click on the logo. Shop. Earn. Give!
3. Earn a $5.00 bonus by choosing Be the Star You Are!® and shop at over 1900 stores on IGIVE
4. Buy “Read, Lead, Succeed” black tanks and books at StarStyle® Store:
http://www.starstylestore.net/
5. Are you a gamer, lover of new software, or other digital content? Buy all of your favorites at Humble Bundle. This fall, look back with gratitude and pride and look forward with hope and optimism.
DONATE: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/1504
November is also the month where we express our gratitude. As we celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends, we wish you a wonderful, healthy, and happy day of appreciation. Thank you for being part of our galaxy.
Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him. ~ C.S. Lewis
DONATE TODAY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THANK YOU FOR BEING KIND!
Share your smiles!
