You may have seen the ‘free hugs’ videos from around the world…like the ‘Song Around the World’ videos (see our Inspiring Videos page), these touch me deeply each time I watch one. Essentially, these feature footage of people offering free hugs to passersby, and the idea for free hugs campaigns has spread far and wide, inspiring many people to offer hugs to complete strangers in their own cities.

While I always love watching these, it never occurred to me that I could do it. Recently, however, that changed and I felt the urge to do so. I was as surprised as anyone at my suggestion, and I have my friend Alex Wu, whom I met at the recent Steve Pavlina Conscious Growth workshop, to thank for actually taking me seriously, and taking me up on it. Alex the Brave, as I now call him, showed up on the designated day with is own ‘Free Hugs’ sign and his arms outstretched to humanity…in short, he was incredible, and very inspiring. Thanks also go to Alex’s friend Steve, who filmed much of the footage but who was too shy to participate.

I left Steve’s workshop with a stronger sense of our human unity and feeling of connection than I’ve ever felt before, and it spilled out on this day when we were offering hugs to strangers on the streets of Toronto. The entire experience was fantastic, and when I see my own daughter in the footage being such a generous spirit, I’m truly, deeply grateful that we did this.

Without further ado, here is the video – after much editing and playing around with it, I am most pleased and I hope you will enjoy it!

Some lessons I learned more deeply this day include:

• NEVER judge a person by their appearance. We knew this, didn’t we? The sweetest looking little old ladies often didn’t take us up on the offer of a free hug. The burly men we made snap judgements about (‘they won’t want one’) more often than not instantly said yes, and so on. How easy it is to make quick judgements and how unconsciously we do so…it was quite a surprise to me. Alex also shared value with me in the way he held out his arms to everyone, without reservation. Even if he was making judgements in his mind, he certainly didn’t demonstrate any difference in the way he approached passersby: each was unequivocally offered a hug.
• What other people think doesn’t matter, and yet it’s all that matters. For days before this event, I was nervous. I was embarassed and worried about putting myself out there in such a visible way, until I realized that I was way to focused on what others think. With conscious intention, I took the focus out of my head and into my heart, and poured it out to others that day. I conquered my ego-based thoughts – fear of ridicule, rejection, disapproval – by acknowledging and moving past the paradox: it doesn’t matter what other people think (do it anyway, because you want to), and it only matters what others think (do it anyway, because it will bring joy to people and make their day). It turns out we really did make a lot of people’s days, including our own.
• You really do get what you give. We not only gave out tons of love and hugs, but of course we GOT lots too! Each time it was like a jolt of positive energy, and it felt wonderful and made the whole thing very worthwhile. For every few who mumbled something about H1N1 or not needing a hug or wondering what the catch was, there was someone who gave us a fabulous hug, and we all felt amazing – huggers and hugees. So many people told us how great the hugs felt!
• We need more love. You need it, I need it, my city needs it, the world needs it. Many people who have already seen this video have written me saying they were brought to tears by it, and some even said they wished they were there or would like to do something similar in their own cities. If we all so readily recognize in watching this our deep need for connection and kindness, why do we save it for special occasions – weddings, holidays, funerals? What lessons are we teaching our kids when most of the adult human population thinks it’s weird to hug for no reason? Our planet and our species are crying out for love – healing, joyous, empowering, love – and you have it inside you. Share it!
• A crowd follows a trend. We noticed that when one person would hug us, the surrounding people would then hug us also. BE the change you want to see in this world, as Ghandi told us. Be the light, be the beacon, be the example.

Thank you, Universe, for this incredible life I live. Thank you for each moment, each breakthrough, each poignant emotion. I am so grateful. Love to all of you reading this!

xox

Shauna

A lot of people are afraid that they cannot travel or experience life or live more because it’s expensive and they can’t afford to miss work because they need the money and even worse they are scared to lose their job and that they won’t find a better one. So the question today that you should be asking is this: What will I regret at the end of my life? What will I regret in 5 years? Working my fingers to the bone on the job or the fact that my life passed me by?…

Click here for Part 1

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