Steve Gross is the Chief Playmaker at Life is Good Kids Foundation. The mission at Life is Good is to spread and harness the power of optimism to help kids heal from the impact of childhood trauma. The way that they do that is by partnering with the frontline men and women who dedicate their lives to building, healing, and creating life changing relationships with kids.

Memorable Quotes:

• “We have problems. We have challenges. There is suffering. But we can never lose sight of the opportunities that exist amidst the obstacles if we want to make things better.”
• “But just being alive, we are going to suffer. And when we're suffering, nothing soothes that suffering more than somebody seeing us, valuing us, and treating us with love and kindness.”
• “Our emotions are going to get the best of us from time to time, but when we become aware of it, we can take action to try to mitigate the response and to try to make things better.”

What You’ll Learn:

Why kindness is so important to cultivate, how to use kindness to impact those around you, and how kindness affects children specifically.

This Episode Includes:

• The origin and mission of the Life is Good Kids Foundation.
• Professionals who interact with children need to have a “kind human disposition” as much as their professional skill set.
• We will have suffering in this life but the power of optimism and kindness has the strength to get us through the suffering.
• Steve’s father was the chief influencer in his life and continues to influence how he treats other people.
• Kind people are never unhappy people.
• Adverse childhood experiences, sometimes referred to as ACES, are overwhelming and frightening events that leave children feeling powerless. The most common are abuse, neglect, witness to violence, and severe household dysfunction.
• Almost every single human has some sort of childhood trauma.
• Childhood trauma can impact the way our brain develops.
• Kindness and love can soothe suffering.
• Getting to know others, seeing them, and truly valuing them means being curious and not judgemental.
• We can use the resources, privileges, and opportunities that we have to help others.

Three Takeaways From Today’s Episode:

1. Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
2. It's not about perfection. It's about connection.
3. Practice changing your “I have to’s” into “I get to’s.”

Mentioned In The Episode:

• No Hard Feelings by the Avett Brothers
• Life is Good Kids Foundation
• 31-Day Kindness Campaign
• Small Changes Big Shifts
• CityWide Facilities Solutions

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Further episodes of Small Changes Big Shifts

Further podcasts by Dr. Michelle Robin

Website of Dr. Michelle Robin