Many years ago, I heard a story on the news about a girl who was bullied. She posted a video
telling the world her story. She later committed suicide. This story greatly impacted me,
because I could not fathom how people could be so cruel as to have such drastic results.
I began speaking and teaching on the importance of kindness, because I truly believe that we
can create a kindness domino effect, with one kind act leading to another and so on. I taught
kindness classes in elementary schools, gave a TEDx talk on kindness, wrote and published a
book on kindness, and over the years became a go to person on kindness.
What I’ve learned over the years, is that kindness starts with ourselves. We need to treat
OURSELVES with kindness first, before we can treat others in a kind way. How many times have
you been hard on yourself or angry with yourself, only to turn that anger on someone else?
Hence the phrase, “How I feel about me is a direct reflection on how I feel about you.” And so,
the Perpetual Kindness Self-Compassion Retreat was born.
Being a woman myself, I know first-hand how hard we can be on ourselves; the things we tell
ourselves throughout our day, thoughts and ideas that were planted when we were little girls,
social media influence, family, old beliefs, etc. These all contribute to our self-worth, and
somewhere along the line we often forget about taking care of ourselves in our daily life.
I am very passionate about being kind towards ourselves, and towards others. I’m also
passionate about women being kind towards themselves, and creating a supportive community
of women; women who cheer for one another, who support one another, and who genuinely
care and are happy for those around them.
Imagine you at your best self, taking care of your needs, contributing to the better good of our
world, and creating a kindness wave that will eventually transform our world.
This was my hope in creating the Self-Compassion Retreat, and I feel we, as women, have done
this. I’m so grateful to meet you, to be a part of this community, and I hope to see you soon at a
retreat where we can learn and continue to grow together.
Take care of yourselves, and with much love,
Denise
