Did you know that research has proven that the single most influential factor to sustained happiness is acts of kindness and service to another? To do something greater than yourself, reach out to another human being or engage in a cause that you feel is worthwhile. Studies have shown time and time again that social status, wealth, culture, religion, material items……none of these can sustain happiness in life alone. But with consistent acts of charity, philanthropy or kindness a life of happiness is possible. We noticed our blog post did not email out this past week. In case you missed it click HERE to read about the launch of Dylan & Delany’s book, the magic wands, our story of how it all came to be and how these kids characters are going to help teach and cultivate consistent kindness in kids. From now until December 23rd we are doing all sort of fun things all focused around kindness and acts of generosity and love that have the capacity to change the world and warm our hearts. Lots of ideas for kids and also some fun stuff for adults. Here is a little sample of what we have in store:

• Daily giveaways for even $5 donations from amazing companies – things for kids and things for adults.  Anyone you know might have $5 to spare to help us get these kindness programs into schools and organizations by bringing this book to life so keep spreading the word!
• Incredible stories of hope, love, kindness, and inspiration. Some big, some small but nonetheless will enhance your holiday season and change the way you want to spend these next several weeks.
• Ideas on how to keep our kids focused on small things they can do each day to spread acts of kindness over the holidays. We are aiming to gear them away from retail madness everywhere they look and turn that into, “See that toy, Mom? How can we get some toys like these to kids that don’t have any?”.
• Sharing organizations and people that are doing amazing things in the world by taking a simple idea and a passion and making changes. Things we can partake in, even if just by spreading the word that these services are available.

To keep the fun going we are continuing to post gifts each day on our Facebook page up for raffle. Many of these items can be given as holiday gifts or for yourself. Odds are really great right now, probably 1 in 5 so get as many people donating even $5 if you can for a great prize. As a sneak preview (and in case you do not have a Facebook account) here are the raffle items for this week: Monday:  Autographed Food for Talk cards by Julienne Smith. We wanted to put them close to the holidays for some great fun at the dinner table Thanksgiving weekend. Tuesday: 3 Bari classes in Newport Beach ($90 value). This is an amazing hybrid workout from NYC ISP found and LOVES. I wrote a blog post about it recently. To hear about why I felt this is one of the best workouts around take a look at my blog post from July 2014 Wednesday: 50 custom invitations or cards by Fabulously Unique Designs (value $75). FUD offers baby shower, event and holiday cards. Thursday: 1 hour birthday party package (OC and IE, & LA only) with Elsa or Anna appearance, crafts and dance instruction from OC Dance Productions ($225 value) Friday: Cardio Barre Irvine Gift Basket (4 classes, CB DVD, CB towel, barre socks, CB bag and CB tank valued at $170) Saturday/Sunday: ISP Kindness Bucket with gift cards, wands, toys for kids, Word Rocks and hand-made Moose & Magnolia kindness cards (value $95) Keep spreading the word for us! If you know anyone who can benefit from the postings we will be doing or the gifts we will be giving away encourage them to link to our social media pages or sign up for the blog!

Have a wonderful week friends!