Saturday, May 15, 2010

Russell Simmons at Ferebee Hope Community Charter School


Many celebrities talk about giving back to the community but you never see them or the works they claim to do.
Well, Russell Simmons is really walking the walk.
He walked into Ferebee Hope Charter School in SE Washington DC with little to no security. He walked around stopping in class rooms to speak to students before settling into the library to speak to a group of parents and teachers about meditation & financial literacy.  Initially, I was like “Oookay, what in the heck do meditation and money have to do with each other?” but as soon as he begun to speak it made total sense. He started off saying how he would like to see meditation in schools and that he was on the advisory board for Community In Schools Charter Schools. He believes that teaching children abundance will enable then to achieve more in life and that if children “believe they have everything they will be able to get anything”. This really struck because we so often act from a place of not only lack but starvation. Our children see things on television and when they can’t get them they immediately whine and cry about how so and so has this toy and object and why can’t they have it?  But as Russell  was saying if we teach our children to be grateful for what we have and how blessed we really are then they will be happy and operating from a happy place is what brings wealth.
I know this all sounds a little kooky to some folks, but honestly what miserable unhappy person do you know that has achieved real success? I personally don’t know any.
Russell’s short but timely talk was very inspirational and motivating. It was good to see him reaching out to the community and promoting change in real, tangible ways.

Russell Simmons is a fashion and music icon and the author of the book; Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success