Your Soul Food for the first week in February 2026: The Importance of Smaller Steps

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Martial Arts Begins and Ends with RESPECT!

As some of you know I am a student and practitioner of the wisdom traditions, (martial arts, yoga and meditation) inspired by being born in India to an Indian Dad and British Mum, and living there until I was 14 years old, when we transplanted to California with one suitcase apiece, inspired by the values and opportunities for a better life here in the United States.

At that time, America was the exemplary for meritocracy, opportunity, inclusiveness, and modeling values the whole world wanted to emulate.

Not sure that is the case today, but that is a separate matter…

I have been teaching traditional karate at UC San Diego for 43 years, rounding out an academic curriculum for bright minds with a whole-person embodied practice that fosters competence, confidence, and character.

We might think values like respect, honor, humility, benevolence, etc. are ethereal.

This video might invite you to revisit that belief in the context of a mind/body/emotions/energy system:

How to Transform Your Body Through Bowing [Naka Tatsuya’s BUDO KARATE ]

Take a minute to embody respect in your being and with others, and see what happens…

Driven to Distraction?

The 1-Minute Trick to Calming Down Your Nervous System
‘Active noticing’ is an easy way to reclaim your thoughts.

The 1-Minute Trick to Calming Down Your Nervous System | TIME

Empathy for All Sentient Beings:

Scientists Finally Understand How Animals Experience Joy
Scientists have known for a while now that animals feel pain. When it comes to other emotions, like joy and happiness, they weren’t so sure. Pain makes sense. Everything feels like it would wince when you pinch it. But to say an animal is experiencing joy felt a bit too close to anthropomorphism, as if we were projecting human qualities onto an inhuman creature. So, the scientific community largely ignored animal joy.

Scientists Finally Understand How Animals Experience Joy