And as I go on with my life, it’s clear that with every moment, the uncertainty of this statement diminishes while its certainty grows.
Yes, I may die today
And when that moment comes, the only thing that will matter is how I made everyone feel in each of my interactions.
Yes, I may die today
The core of my character defines how I live and what motivates my every action.
Beyond what I say, my character speaks volumes about who I am.
Ethics, character, principles, consciousness, and morality define who I am.
This election could be the last one I vote in. Yes, policies are important—but only if they arise from a consciousness grounded in ethical and moral values. My vote reflects who I am and what truly matters to me in my life and in my relationship with you.
“I may die today” is a Tibetan mantra that reminds us of our priorities in life.
5 science-backed habits that will actually make you happier
Brunch with a View Gala to Support Mental Health, Oct 19th at Viewpoint Brewing in Del Mar
The Zen Den Experience at Cause SD Oct 23, 2024: From Purpose to Action
“Adventure is not outside man; it is within. ”― George Eliot
The Case for Explorers’ Day: This year, I won’t be celebrating Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day. More than 530 years after Christopher Columbus led an expedition across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, many Americans still see the navigator as a symbol of their country’s origins. Others see him as a progenitor of colonialism, enslavement, and genocide. So, the day that honors him, the second Monday of October, is unusually polarizing among federal holidays.
While Astronauts Probe Outer Space, Psycho-Nauts Probe Inner Space
What we can do to help ourselves and others navigate the journey towards joy and happiness…
The Pleasure Principle:
Moons ago, Dr. Paul Pearsall, elegantly blending neuropsychology and the kahuna traditions, inviting us to go beyond the conventional questions to determine our health and wellbeing we hear in our average of “7 minute annual doctor visits” – from gleaning familial history, to our diet and what we ate, to exercise and how much and how often, to our stress level and how stressed we felt, to asking if we were happy!
Many with genetic predispositions, lousy diets, limited exercise, and high levels of stress, seemed to offset these “preconditions” because they loved what they were doing and self-reported as happy.
The Pleasure Principal matters!
BTW, this is not an excuse to eat poorly or be coach potatoes, but speaks to the power of pleasure in our lives…
You deserve Joy!
A New Model for Assessing Mental Health:
Recent frameworks, rather that simply focus on symptomology and severity of symptoms, adds an additional dimension to the consideration set on the “WHY” axis; namely flourishing or languishing.
Some of us have tons of symptoms but are seemingly flourishing. Others are asymptomatic but seem to be languishing.
DSM-5 “labeling” is less about helping us, and more about managing cost (not managing care) in a system that cares more about money management than real people issues, so explore both symptoms and the languishing/flourishing continuum for your own wellbeing!
An Updated Reframing of Stress and Addressing It:
Our old model for dealing with stress, asked limiting questions such as “how do I cope”? The new model posits higher order questions and reframing like when demands exceed resources, we are stressed, so it is up to us to resource ourselves, rather than hunker down, bite the bullet and pretend nothing is happening…
If you just need some modest tweaks to your current state, the next link will help you resituate.
If things are a bit more severe than that, for you or loved ones, please consider professional support like Fundamental Health with “Brunch with a View” happening locally on October 19th (read on)
5 science-backed habits that will actually make you happier: They’re all easy, don’t worry.
The Brunch with a View Gala to Support Mental Health, Oct 19th at Viewpoint Brewing in Del Mar:
Wyatt Hinshaw, Founder & CEO of Fundamental Health, is joined by the mother (Cate) of Fundamental Health’s first client, to chat about the mission of the organization and how Fundamental Health connected Cate’s son with a health provider that changed the son’s life. Hinshaw and Cate discuss Fundamental Health’s impact since its December 2022 inception, along with the October 19, 2024 “Brunch with a View Gala” that will be held at the Viewpoint Brewing Company, with me co-hosting this podcast interview.
Use the Code: Causeconf30off and get 30% off the ticket price and connect with kindred spirits to do purposeful work both for yourself and at the systems level.
You can Tune up and Tune in at the Mission Fed Zen Den with massage stations, yoga, singing bowls, breath breaks and 13 practitioners offering you personalized self-care all day!
Oct 23, 2024, from 8am to 5pm at the Sharp Prebys Innovation and Education Center
Use the Code: Causeconf30off and get 30% off the ticket price and connect with kindred spirits to do purposeful work both for yourself and at the systems level.
We will be sharing a San Diego Doughnut Economics Portrait, and Mission Fed is sponsoring a Zen Den where you can get complimentary wellness and self-care sessions all day in multi-modalities from massage to relaxation to acupuncture and more…
More on the Doughnut-
How Do We Measure Success?
“What if economics didn’t start with money but with human wellbeing”?
Even the creators of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) felt it was an inadequate measure as it does not count intangible upsides like Taylor Swift’s IP or the value of Childcare, or on the other side of the ledger, the adverse consequences and downsides like climate change, deforestation, ocean apocalypse, extreme heat, etc.
We are putting together a San Diego Doughnut Portrait with CalDEC (California Doughnut Economics Coalition) to solve for this important but complex question- in partnership with academia, business, government, and the social sector (nonprofits and philanthropy)
“The future is not the result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created – created first in the mind and will, and created next in activity.
The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating.
The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
Confront the Brutal Facts-
Earth just sweltered through the hottest summer in recorded history: Amid an onslaught of lethal heat, surging disease and record-breaking storms, global temperatures this summer climbed to the highest levels on record.
A critical system of Atlantic Ocean currents could collapse as early as the 2030s, new research suggests It uses state-of-the-art models to estimate the shutdown could happen between 2037 and 2064, and that it’s more likely than not to collapse by 2050.
Teens invent remarkable device while searching for way to save community: ‘Can be implemented anywhere in the world’ The team intentionally designed its product for use in even the poorest areas of the world. Beyza and Diyar are two members of the Turkish Team Ceres, runners-up in the Earth Prize who created a new crop-boosting technology called Plantzma. Euronews reported that the idea came from Beyza’s reading on exoplanets, faraway planets orbiting stars other than the sun. “I was reading NASA’s articles so much, and NASA has so much work about plasma and its wide range of uses,” she told the publication.
These reviled birds of prey literally save people’s lives As a young man in the 1990s, walking to school in New Delhi, Anant Sudarshan would watch the vultures perched along telephone wires, waiting for the discards of nearby leather tanning factories. So, when the birds started to disappear, he couldn’t help but notice…
6 Life-Changing Lessons from the Biggest Studies on Human Happiness
The Autumnal Equinox
The 6 Qualities of a Wise Leader–and How to Cultivate Them In the age of AI, human wisdom is more valuable than ever. But true wisdom requires these six skills
6 life-changing lessons from the biggest studies on human happiness: Sick of chasing happiness, instead of enjoying it? You may be stuck on what psychologists call the hedonic treadmill. Here’s how you can step off it. September 16, 2024 What’s the one thing in life that you know could really make you truly happy? Getting a raise? Buying a new car? Winning the lottery? Whatever the key to the happiness puzzle looks like for you, chances are you’re searching in all the wrong places.
The autumnal equinox was this past Sunday, September 22, 2024, at 5:43 am PDT.
It marked the start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.
The equinox reminds us about the passage of time, the motion of the Earth, and the changing of the seasons.
Translated literally, equinox means “equal night”.
On the equinox, the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world, about twelve hours of each. This is because the sun is positioned above the equator.
On this day, the Sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west.
At the moment of the autumnal equinox the Sun crosses the equator from north to south.
After the autumnal equinox, the days become shorter and the air cooler.
Wishing you a special day, symbolic of balance in our life and with the environment.
My first experience with volunteerism, at about 11 years old was feeding formula to undernourished kids in a slum in Bombay, now Mumbai, which less than a mile from where we lived, housed nearly a million people in a couple of square miles!
My peers thought I was nuts, but it shaped my world view and sparked a profound appreciation for how different life can be based on luck of the genetic draw, circumstances, and how each of us can do our part to make life a little better for those around us.
Decades later, I would never have imagined, that in one of the most prosperous nations on earth, kids in San Diego were going home hungry over the weekend.
I thought this was a developing world problem not a firstworld problem, but alas, this is a reality for way too many San Diegan kids and their families.
Indulge me in watching this 5-minute video and if you feel inspired, donate even $1 to help address food insufficiency in our community.
Thanks for your open heart, generous soul, and consideration!
But for the grace of God and winning the genetic lottery go I and perhaps you too…
The surprising truth about loneliness in America American men were said to be in a “friendship recession,” with a survey finding the number of men without any close friends increased fivefold since 1990.
Young people today are stressed, depressed and reshaping the happiness curve Young adults — ages 18 to 25 — report being unhappier now than people in their 40s and 50s. Here are some potential explanations and solutions.
Buy Experiences instead of Possessions to Build Social Connection Shared experiences, more than material things, bring people together Mind & Brain The human being is a “social animal,” as Aristotle suggested. We have a fundamental need to belong. Yet we are living in a time when the U.S. Surgeon General has warned about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. A lack of social connection can have negative consequences for both our mental and physical health. How, then, might we encourage the feelings of connectedness that are so integral to our well-being?
Neuroscience Says Doing This For Just 1 Hour a Week Can Make Your Brain 5 Years Younger Research shows keeping your brain sharp as you age is easier than you probably imagine.
6 Expert-Endorsed Techniques to Help You Get to Sleep Fast (and Stay Asleep!) Here are some real tactics you can use next time you’re having trouble falling asleep
Ikigai is a huge predictor of a longer, happier life. Here’s how to find yours: A cognitive neuroscientist explains the science behind this ancient art. People on the Japanese island of Okinawa are among the planets longest-lived.
One factor for this is that they tend to eat a highly nutritious, plant-based diet.
But another is more psychological and has to do with having meaning and purpose in life – what the Japanese call ikigai. Many studies suggest there are benefits to having ikigai.
Gus Walz’s unbridled emotion on the DNC stage opens the door to more understanding of neurodiversity The best way to learn about neurodivergence is by listening to neurodivergent people themselves.
Pets Can Be a Positive Investment in Your Wellbeing-
4 Ways Your Pet Helps Your Health Having a pet isn’t just about the joy of wagging tails and cozy cuddles – it also can be an investment in your well-being.
‘I got you, girl’: A toll collector’s unexpected reply to a driver’s tears When the toll collector asked Leahruth Jemilo how she was doing, she burst into tears. The collector’s response has stayed with her ever since.
Neuroscience Says This Is the Easiest Way to Boost Your Mood and Cut Your Risk of Depression This low-effort, completely free intervention to improve your mental health is backed by new Harvard research.
Scientists Picked Apart the Human Brain’s Trash Disposal—and Found Something Incredible This secret mechanism could lead to major neurological advancements.
Crying during the Olympics? You’re not alone. What mental health experts say about fans getting emotional. Turns out, being a fan is actually good for you.
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Greek Proverb
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that
gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder” Gilbert K. Chesterton
Gratitude!
First thanks to all of you that voluntarily chose to contribute to help offset Mailchimp and WordPress costs to support this one-man band- Soul Food Friday!
I am humbled and honored that we collectively raised $875 of the $1,000 goal thanks to both anonymous donors as well as Jason M, Wayne O, Feroza A, Lee B, John R, Kathy D, Kelly Mc, Rober C and Sean C.
Thanks again!
If you are local-
“Summer’s here and the time is right, for dancing in the streets!”
I will be jamming on percussion to the classics with Drivin the Bus this Saturday from 6 to 9pm at Coomber Craft Wines in Oceanside, at 611 Mission Ave.
Drivin The Bus will also be playingSunday evening from 7 to 10pm at The Kraken in Cardiff and I hope to join the second half of this gig after a prior commitment.
Neuroscience Says Olympians Like Simone Biles Use the ‘Autopilot Trick’ To Achieve Peak Performance. So Can You The neuroscience of how Olympians get in a flow state will help you perform better at whatever you’re trying to master.
The England team have a breathing coach to help calm their nerves – here’s what you are doing wrong When the Three Lions train there is a focus in camp on how their breathwork, as well as their footwork, can give them a winning edge. Suzy Cox looks at the experts drafted in to help and why they believe changing the way you breathe helps change how you think and feel.
These foods promote longevity and well-being in your 70s, study finds Physical health, cognitive functioning and mental health all saw an uptick in later life with the correct diet. How do you age gracefully? There is plenty of advice out there, ranging from the expected to the downright weird, but time and time again it comes back to the old faithful – your diet. A new study unveiled at Nutrition 2024 outlined how fewer than 1 in 10 people were able to live free of disease and maintain good physical, cognitive and mental health to age 70 and beyond.
‘My Cardiologist Dad Swears by This One Super-Simple Habit, and Now I Do It Every Day’ Sure, he looked a little kooky at first, but it’s definitely paid off.
Eating 30 Grams of Fiber a Day Is Optimal for Gut Health—Here Are 10 Fiber-Rich Foods to Help Meet Your Goals Most Americans aren’t eating enough fiber daily.
Whirlpool is partnering up with global nonprofit to provide thousands of off-the-grid washing machines: ‘It’s an … empowerment engine’ It’s easier to ship worldwide, and having the recipients assemble it will give them a greater understanding of how it works and how to fix it. While most Americans rely on washing machines to clean their clothes, that’s not the case everywhere: Over half of the global population washes clothes by hand. It’s a time-intensive and physically demanding process that often falls disproportionately on women.
Summer Appeal: Can YOU Help Support Soul Food Friday?
If you would like to help defray my out-of-pocket costs for Mailchimp email services, and WordPress hosting, which is a little over $1,000 per year, I would really appreciate the “pay what you can afford” support for this one-person purpose project. I will continue to curate content and publish what matters most on a weekly basis as I have done for the last 13+ years. Thanks in advance for your consideration as no amount is too small, plus it lets me know this investment of time and energy does make a difference.
He wore a toga and spoke Latin. This ancient philosopher can help you survive the anxiety of the 2024 election: If you’re agonizing over what might happen in this November’s presidential election, consider the wisdom of ancient Stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, who offer three pieces of advice that still are relevant today.
Billions of people just felt the deadly intensity of climate-fueled heat waves: Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace.
Researchers make important discovery that could reduce ER visits by over 60%: ‘The improvements that can be made are really meaningful’: “We need to tie those investments to public health outcomes.” We all know how relieving a good shade tree can be on a 100-degree day. But what if trees could dramatically reduce heat-related illnesses and deaths in our world’s hottest cities? Researchers recently published findings in the International Journal of Biometeorology about how increased tree cover and reflective surfaces could reduce emergency room visits in Los Angeles. The study is critical because rising temperatures impact human health.
Researchers develop method of desalination that could save millions of lives: ‘A paradigm shift is essential to sustain human life’: On a large scale, desalination is a promising method to provide abundant fresh water. Australian researchers have announced a breakthrough in desalination science that has the potential to provide millions of people with clean water. The experts from the Australian National University are perfecting an alternative to creating fresh water from seawater that’s more cost-efficient and uses less energy than reverse osmosis and other common methods.
Polar Bear Tries To Get Attention From Fishing Ship. When Crew Notices, They Lower A Rescue Vessel: The small village of Kaktovik, Alaska, receives a grand arrival of polar bears every summer. Trained Inuit guides take tour groups on a whimsical boat ride to photograph these bears up close and personal. With a life on the line, both visitors and locals alike scrambled to save a polar bear.
Happy Soul Food Friday! 