Month: November 2022

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

The Spirit of Thanksgiving and Love Big!

It is Hard to be Hateful and Grateful at the Same Time-

The Health Benefits of a Random Act of Kindness:
A simple act of kindness does much more than help the receiver, studies show, and any kindness you give to others is also a gift to yourself.

Health benefits of a random act of kindness | CNN

Love, Happiness, Peace and Purpose are Perennials Not Seasonal-

The Happiness Formula for Any Age:

The happiness we seek can require investing earlier than we think—and may help us align our expectations and reality at the end of life.

A New Formula for Happiness – The Atlantic

Small Habits Can Make a Big Difference-

If You Spend Your Day Staring at a Screen, Doing Just a Minute of ‘Eye Yoga’ Can Ease Neck, Jaw and Forehead Tension:

Try These 5 Eye Exercises for Tension Relief | Well+Good (wellandgood.com)

Making Ethical Food Choices-

Why Giving Up Meat Is So Hard? Try “Reduce- atarian-ism”:

Now more than ever, people are attempting to reduce their meat consumption for ethical and environmental reasons. But in 2020, the U.S. ate more beef than the rest of the world, consuming a whopping 27 billion pounds.

Why giving up meat is so hard — and recipes to make going vegetarian easier | Here & Now (wbur.org)

Stay in Tune-

Researchers played Lady Gaga for rats. They bopped their heads like humans.
The rats in the study listened to an array of music from Mozart, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Queen and Maroon 5.

Lady Gaga, Queen played for study rats. The animals bopped their heads (usatoday.com)

Thanks this week go to all of you.

Extending you and your loved ones much love, happiness, peace and purpose!

Please pay it forward and model that attitude of gratitude!

Love,

Neville

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder”- Gilbert K. Chesterton

 https://twitter.com/NevilleB108
 https://www.facebook.com/nbillimoria

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Celebrating 40 Years of Teaching the Wisdom Traditions at UC San Diego

Where Did the Time Go?
40 Years of Teaching the Wisdom Traditions at UC San Diego:

If as a student at UC San Diego in the 80’s, you said that 40 years later I would still be teaching on campus, I would say you were nuckin’ futs!

Yet, this weekend, we find ourselves hosting a mini-camp, banquet and roast, celebrating 40 years of my teaching the wisdom traditions (martial arts, yoga and meditation) for the campus ecosystem and with the generations of students over the years, touching thousands of lives- now all over the world.

What started as a recreation club while a Muir college student in the dorms is the longest running contiguous program on campus, thanks to the help, support and loyalty of so many students, friends, and colleagues- many who are Sensei in their own right that have grown their own black belts and contributed to our community wellbeing.

Part of the prep work for camp includes some self-reflection, which is always in order as we tend to venerate action and vilify reflection in our human doing v. human being roles.

Here are a couple of examples I thought the Soul Food community would find beneficial so they are in this week’s missive for your wellbeing.

The first is the PERMAH Survey-

The PERMAH Survey is all about self-assessing your wellbeing, exploring the presence in our lives of Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning Accomplishment and Health.

This free, confidential, and fast survey can help you to gauge your current baseline with respect to your wellbeing, your functioning effectively, and your ability to flourish even in challenging times, particularly with the enhanced focused on self-care and mental health we are all experiencing nowadays

Check it out here:

The PERMAH Wellbeing Survey | Wellbeing | Michelle McQuaid

Strength to Strength-

Strength to Strength is a powerful presentation by Arthur C Brooks at Harvard, based on a book of the same name (that some of us read as part of a book club) and serves as a practical roadmap to finding success, happiness and deep purpose in the second half of life.

If you are seeking more love, happiness, peace and purpose it is worth a listen:

Live from Klarman Hall – 6/17/2022 – From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life – Video – Harvard Business School (hbs.edu)

You can play this like a podcast in the background while driving, cooking or cleaning if time is limited, but I do strongly encourage you to check it out.

A Blast from the Past:

Here is a short vid of the Inaugural True Triton Award I was honored to receive many moons ago

It speaks to the importance of volunteering and community engagement beyond writing fat checks and how we can all make a difference of consequence:

True Triton—Neville Billimoria, ’82 – YouTube

Finally, to end on a joyous sonic note enjoy the Sultans of Swing in the prime of their lives!

(Or go crank your favorite tunes)

Thanks this week go to Dr. Dan D and Awakening Conscious Leadership, Dr. Alan D professor extraordinaire at UC San Diego, Matt L and the men in the Conscious Leader Collective, and all the amazing members of our Aoinagi Karate community near and far that have stuck by me through thick and thin, especially my wife Barb!

Please pay it forward with purpose, bare it all, and stay in tune with your inner and outer nature!

Love,

Neville

Baring it all!

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“A strong wind may destroy a sturdy tree, but the willow bends and the wind passes through.” – Sensei Gichin Funakoshi