World-Renowned Peace Activist Satish Kumar Blesses the Museum of Happiness
Earlier this month, we were delighted to host our very first summer festival. Spreading love and kindness is at the heart of everything we do, so what better name for the festival than ‘Be the Love’, inspired by the wise words of Gandhi, the event ran over 3 days, each one with a different scope.
Day 1 - Be the Love You Wish to See in Your Community
We brought together families, children, elders who might otherwise be alone from North London Cares, animals (special appearance by Guide Dog puppies in training!) and everyone in between for a relaxing and fun-filled day exploring love in the community. Highlights included rib-tickling Laughter Yoga and the light-hearted educational touch of the School of Play, who delighted us with their fun and games. The icing on the mindful cake was a Loving-kindness Meditation, where we sent love to ourselves, and then out into our communities and the rest of the world!
Day 2 - Be the Love You Wish to See in Yourself
Our delightfully mindful Co-Founder, Shamash Alidina, started off the day with a Kindfulness talk and meditation, to get everyone into the right frame of mind for self-compassion. There was also mindful photography, a Hugging Your Demons Workshop, a talk entitled, “You Deserve To Love Your Life And Yourself” and finally a Self-Love Silent Disco!
It was inspiring to see people overcoming traumatic experiences and making friends with parts of themselves that they had struggled with in the past. The atmosphere was beautifully nurturing, and people felt moved to share personal experiences for the first time. The day truly heralded the need for filling your own cup, to enable caring for others, and how important this is for the world - the world needs each and every one of us to be able to share our unique gifts, and we can only do that if we take care of ourselves regularly!
Day 3 - Be the Love you Wish to See in the World
Having shown love to ourselves, and to our communities, it was time to spread love out into the world. The day began with nature games in Regents Park, where we connected with nature and came to appreciate that we aren’t separate from it, but we are in fact an integral part of it! The more we connect with nature, the more we can connect with ourselves! There was an Art for Relaxation workshop and a co-creation Rapping Workshop which showed us that kindness can be spread in so many creative ways.
We were thrilled to have the uplifting Satish Kumar give a talk on ‘Being the Love You Want to see in the World’. He had travelled all the way from Devon for only an hour - a real example of service to humanity. We were really moved by his words, especially the piece he wrote entitled ‘Love is All’. The festival ended with beautiful immersive sound bath, followed by a Loving-kindness Meditation.
It was so heartwarming to see smiling faces, sharing and caring, and we would like to thank everyone who brought their energy for helping to cultivate more love, peace and happiness in yourselves. In doing so you’ve shared it with our communities and it will spread out into the world like a great big snowball of love! Thank You!
Written by the lovely Sarit Gafan, Museum of Happiness Community Coordinator.