Peace Day and Random Acts of Kindness Week

Well, it's another fine day for peace and kindness with today being International Day of Peace.

The International Day of Peace ("Peace Day") provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982.

Anyone, anywhere can celebrate Peace Day. It can be as simple as lighting a candle at noon, or just sitting in silent meditation. Or it can involve getting your co-workers, organization, community or government engaged in a large event. The impact if millions of people in all parts of the world, coming together for one day of peace, is immense.

International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.

So happy peace day everyone! I can only hope that one day the "day of peace" will turn into a week of peace, just like the Random Act of Kindness Week Campaign being put on by the Vancouver Sun.

As I had mentioned in my last post, The Dalai Lama is making a visit to Vancouver, B.C. very soon to take part in the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates in Dialogue. To celebrate the Dalai Lama's visit, the Vancouver Sun is hosting a Random Act of Kindness Campaign. Take part in the Random Act of Kindness Week from September 21st until September 25th and tell your story to have the chance to be published in their paper and online.



Also listen to CKNW 980AM on Friday, Sept. 25 for "Good Deeds Day" - an entire day devoted good deeds of B.C. citizens - what a great place to live!

I'd love to hear what you may have done to celebrate International Day of Peace or what your good deeds will be this week. And if you were lucky enough to score tickets to the Peace Summit, please let us all know what you thought. Post on Twitter @creategoodkarma or post a comment here to inspire the world with your random acts of kindness.

Let the good stuff keep on comin'!

Share Your Happy Place

I couldn't be more ecstatic to have been bombarded with happiness on Friday. I received an email from a friend of mine that I haven't spoken to in ages, I read another great gratitude blurb in the newspaper, AND was reminded of the upcoming visit of the Dali Lama in Vancouver for the Peace Summit. If only I could have grabbed tickets!

So to start, here is this first of the few great things I got yesterday. Not only are they asking you to share your happy place to win a great prize pack but they will be donating 50¢ per entry to the David Suzuki Foundation. Now that's some great karma!

I personally have many happy places. But I think the top of the list would be vacationing with family, friends, or the love of my life. It doesn't matter where I am, just as long as I'm with them, I'm happy as a clam.

So what's your happy place?

Karmic Freebie #2

A while back I heard a good karma story that inspired this latest freebie.

A gentleman pulled in to a Starbucks drive-thru, made his order, and pulled up to the window to pay. Before he paid he told the cashier to include the order of the person behind him.

Little did the cashier know, these two didn't know each other, so you could imagine the surprise when the driver pulled up to pay for his order and was told that it had already been paid for by the kind stranger.

When it comes to good deeds, I always enjoy the personal connection - the smile, the handshake, the cheery salutation - so this latest freebie is a marriage of those two ideas. And you don't have to limit yourself to using them at a Starbucks :) You can use these in a number of ways and they can be printed from your own computer on printable business cards. They're generic too so they can be passed around from person to person.

I'd love to know in what creative way you're using these or if you have a similar story to share, please forward it along!

Download the latest freebie here and let the good karma begin!