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Kindness revolution on the web


There's a revolution that is spreading hope, inspiration, love and kindness around the web. Their members don't use colored ribbons or theme songs to promote their cause. Instead, they encourage you to use your words, photos and art to do random acts of kindness, recognize the good in people and appreciate your daily life. If you are going through a tough day or you need a little lift, leave those gossip sites and angst-ridden blogs for a while and hop over to these sources of inspiration. Read them for a quick good vibe fix. Better yet, join the kindness revolution. HOPErevo While at a coffee shop at Broome St., New York, Krystyn Heide chanced upon a handwritten postcard tucked under a painting on the wall. As if warning anyone who might take pity on homeless people on the streets, the note read: "Don't fall victim to the space stealers. Oust the scum of our streets. They are wasting valuable oxygen. Scare them off into the sewers where they belong." Later that day, trucks and crowds gathered on the same street, this time outside a Hollywood celebrity's apartment. Rumors started going around that Health Ledger was found dead in his room and had taken his own life (he was found to have died of accidental drug overdose later). Going through a tough time herself, Heide was struck by the seemingly unkind note and the life of an actor who, despite his fame and fortune, died alone. That day, she decided to write her own notes and scatter them in the streets, much like the postcard she saw in the coffee shop. But these notes would be different: they were messages of hope. Hoperevo.com was launched on February 18, 2008. Since then hundreds of people have joined in the hope revolution, writing encouraging notes in Post - its and painting words on little cards. Messages like "It will be okay" and "You matter" were stuck on random trees along the street or on a banana sold in the grocery store with the hope that someone will be inspired by the words, even for just a moment. Join the revolution: Write your own hope notes and stick them inside a co-workers' cubicle, on the window of a taxi cab, or on the screen of an ATM machine. Have a Post-it and pen handy and write messages wherever you feel there's a need for inspiration. You may just be the last hope that will save someone's life. You are beautiful How many times have you been told you are beautiful? Lucky you if you hear it a lot, but for many people who do not, there’s a website that aims to "make the world a little better" by appreciating everyone's beauty whoever or wherever they are. In their official statement, the team behind the movement said, "You Are Beautiful uses the medium of advertising and commercialization to spread a positive message. Projects like these make a difference in the world by catching us in the midst of daily life and creating moments of positive self realization." This takes the hope notes scale up a notch by using street signs, billboards, and building installations to spread their message. You are beautiful has found its way to a yellow cartoon billboard in Oslo, Norway to big lettering on a sidewalk in Toronto, Canada. It was scrawled on the shore of a beach in Devon, United Kingdom and even on the snow in Anchorage, Alaska. One of the largest installations an advocate made was done with 8-foot high lettering along a road in Philadelphia. Join the revolution: If doing graffiti is part of your bucket list, then let this message be it. Find a blank wall or a billboard and paint "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL" in big bold letters. With three simple words, you'll help people gain more confidence in themselves and raise their self-esteem. Things I've learned in my life so far Stefan Sagmeister kept a diary that had a special section entitled “Things I have learned in my life so far." To share his life lessons, he would shoot mini-movies or use public installations to illustrate his maxims. During the 2008 Six Cities Design Festival in Scotland, Sagmeister collaborated with illustrators and artists to produce six 33-foot inflatable monkeys, each holding one word from the saying: "Everybody always thinks they are right." The angry white monkeys were installed in various poses in the cities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, and Stirling. On his site, Sagmeister throws back the question to his readers and encourages people to use different art mediums to share what they have learned in their life so far. One contributor sent in a photo essay using make-up, trinkets, and accessories to spell out the sentence: "To amour, take off your armour." Another used almost 5,000 matchsticks to spell out the words “I am most productive in the morning." In his first motion graphics project, he flew to Singapore and shot a video for the sentence "keeping a diary supports personal development" with the words spelled out in bamboo lettering. In Amsterdam, he mobilized over 100 volunteers in sorting out 250,000 pieces of Eurocents into four different shades and spreading them on a 300-square meter public square. After eight days, the coin installation read: "Obsessions make my life worse and my work better." Join the revolution: With the wide reach of the Internet, your photos, videos or blog have the power to reach millions of people anywhere in the globe. Use that power to share your life lessons to the world. GMH In May 2009, Gaby Montero and Emerson Spartz thought of a way to balance the negativity around the web. Taking their cue from the site FMyLife.com where users post how their day was ruined or why their life is crappy, Montero and Spartz created Givesmehope.com where people can share inspiring and uplifting moments throughout their day. “It's like Chicken Soup for the Soul - the 21st Century, Twitter-style version. Because with all of the hurt and suffering in the world, who couldn't use a few more reasons to hope each day?" the site said. With 39,784 fans on Facebook, 9,294 followers on Twitter, 5,467 subscribers on their site and hundreds more on Tumblr and Youtube, the GMH team is slowly but surely making more optimists by the day. One of the top GMH entries, submitted by jayfizzy, said: “I woke up one morning to hear the birds outside my window and my mother cooking breakfast downstairs. I've never cried so much in my entire life. I had been deaf since the age of 8." Another entry by happyididn’tdoit said: “A long time ago, I was on the verge of committing suicide when a guy came to the roof to have lunch. He saw me climbing over the railing and asked me to share his lunch with him. After receiving my puzzled look, he explained, "everyone should die happy, or at least with a full stomach." We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last month." GMH received a lot of love stories so they decided to put up a separate site solely dedicated for them at Lovegivesmehope.com. Join the revolution: Look for hope and inspiration every moment of your day. Send your own entry to the GMH site or shout it out on your Twitter and Facebook account. Start your own love and hope revolution. Life is not perfect but it certainly is beautiful. Sure there will still be annoying things that will happen to you everyday but if you always look for love, hope, happiness and beauty, you will most definitely find it. – YA, GMANews.TV

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