Changing this 1 Word in your thoughts can boost Mental Toughness and Resilience, says performance coach Why is it easier to give advice to a friend rather than to ourselves? Psychology expert Steve Magness, who has coached executives and sports teams like the Brooklyn Nets boost their mental strength, explains how a simple change to your inner dialogue can make you more resilient.
Nurture Your Soul and Open Your Heart: Sunday June 26th, 2022
Summer Solstice 2022-
The Summer Solstice:
Here is wishing you a wonderful summer solstice!
This is a time of changing seasons.
On Tuesday, June 21, summer began in the Northern Hemisphere.
The summer solstice is the longest day and the shortest night in our year.
The sun sets farthest north on the horizon.
At this time of the year, the days are warm, all the plants are energized by the sun, and the land is filled with rich new growth.
Summer is truly a celebration of the primal creative force of nature, fertile, and blooming with abundance.
Humans for many millennia have marked this sacred time in the yearly cycle of life.
Celebrating the solstice can be a beautiful reminder that our lives are part of a larger order, always changing always renewing.
The beginning of summer represents a time for purification and renewed energy.
This is a time of cutting through resistance and obstacles, using the sun energy to illuminate and light your way upon your path.
Fire is especially important, symbolizing the light, heat and power of the sun.
Into a fire, you can throw a piece of paper with written goals to achieve, and anything to release.
Now is a good time to plant seeds for a more intuitive, simpler and natural lifestyle.
Stay in tune with your inner and outer nature!
Juneteenth 2022-
What is Juneteenth, and how is it celebrated?
Celebrated annually since 1865, Juneteenth is considered the longest-running African-American holiday. But as many as 60 per cent of Americans know “nothing at all” or only “a little bit” about the holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. Here, we explore the history of Juneteenth and explain its significance
In states where Juneteenth is still not a day off, activists see a missed opportunity It has been one year since Juneteenth became a federal holiday, but in roughly half of the country it is still not an official day off.
The recent shooting in Buffalo, New York, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime, has yet again highlighted the threat posed by domestic terrorism in the U.S. At the center are violent extremists – the most lethal and persistent of whom are white supremacists and anti-government militias. They’re part of a deeply interconnected movement which, since the 1980s, has pursued a mission to topple the U.S government with guerrilla warfare. Today, this movement is made up of highly-organized groups with paramilitary capabilities, but it hasn’t always been this way. This week, we trace the rise of the modern white power movement.
A racist Juneteenth sign at a Maine insurance agency sparks backlash online An image of the sign displayed on the front of the business was shared online Monday, gaining the attention of thousands across social media.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented human tragedy. Beyond its immediate impact on physical health, the COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated psychological suffering and mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, as pandemic-related restrictions were introduced in various forms in many countries. This has highlighted the urgent need to address the mental health dimension of the pandemic, in addition to the physical health aspects. People around the world embraced yoga to stay healthy and rejuvenated and to fight social isolation and depression during the pandemic. Yoga is also playing a significant role in the psycho-social care and rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients in quarantine and isolation. It is particularly helpful in allaying their fears and anxiety.
Join Us Online for a Live Meditation on Love with Sublime Live Music
Sunday June 26, 20224:00 – 5:00PM Central TimeNo Fee, No Registration, Join Online from AnywhereClick Here to Join
Open your heart to all of humankind. Our intention is to activate the power of love, kindness, and compassion to transform individuals, families, communities, states, nations, and the world to address the many areas that so desperately need love and healing. Through our powerful group focus, wounds will be healed and new paths will be walked. As we join together, we will uplift humanity and strengthen our bonds to our interconnected planetary ecosystem: One world under Love
Featuring a Special Performance byAward-Winning Harpist Isabel Cardenes
Just last week harpist Isabel Cardenes played with the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. We are blessed to be joined by this gifted 18 year-old who is known for her sensitive musicianship and unique self-expression. Isabel is passionate about using music for healing and social change. She is the perfect artist to help us co-create a more loving future. Read More
Simply Click Here to JoinJoin us online this Sunday from 4:00 – 5:00PM Central Time(2PM Pacific/5PM Eastern)When the Zoom meeting reaches the maximum number of attendees, you can watch our Livestream on the Love Hour YouTube channel
The Longest Day is the day of the year with the most light — the summer solstice. And it’s the day Mission Fed has committed to fight Alzheimer’s disease! We’re participating in The Longest Day, a fundraising event to advance the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. Mission Fed is also very proud to be the title sponsor for Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month all throughout June in San Diego. Many of our employees, board members and members’ families have been touched by this disease and we want to help.
Did you know that Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America, and one of the most feared? Left unchecked, it can destroy finances, families and futures.
Today, an estimated 50 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, including more than 6 million Americans. In the United States alone, more than 11 million friends and family members are providing their care. We must take action now, or these numbers will continue to rise.
Stand up to the darkness of Alzheimer’s and join us in making a donation today to help the Alzheimer’s Association support all those facing the disease. Thank you!
Mission Fed Just Earned Juntos Avanzamos Designation:
The Only Credit Union in San Diego County and Why It Matters
We recently celebrated this milestone with a Juntos Avanzamos Proclamation Ceremony to support the spirit of what Juntos stands for, a commitment to serving and empowering Hispanic consumers. If you have a few minutos to spare, I encourage you all to watch the video with ceremony highlights, and focuses on how credit union members and our community will benefit from these financial inclusive efforts.
What’s the oldest tree on Earth—and will it survive climate change? Bristlecone pines in the western U.S. have been alive for nearly 5,000 years, but an upstart Patagonian cypress challenges that record.
This woman navigated a 3,000-mile Pacific voyage without maps or technology Polynesian wayfinding has long been a patriarchal tradition. Lehua Kamalu is breaking the mold—and helping to lead a revival of the ancient skill.
To Fall Seven Times, To Rise Eight Times, Live Starts from Now-
High school hurdler bounces back from a fall to seal an incredible victory Race favorite, Abby Dennis of Old Tappan High School, NJ, gets up after falling at the Bergen County Championships to win the 100-meter hurdles.
Thanks this week to all of you that do important and meaningful work, that love and preserve nature, that help humanity way find our journey ahead and model perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds…
If you find this blog valuable, please subscribe and share it, as many of us are not ok, and you never know whose life you are going to positively touch with a small act of kindness:
Optical Illusions: What Causes Them? Try Some Out! Abigail Howell, a biomedical student at Arizona State University, explains that there are three different types of optical illusion, in which the brain incorrectly interprets what the eyes are seeing:
Only 1% Of People Can Spot Second Tiger In This Optical Illusion Get your eyeballs around this trippy tiger picture, and prepare for your mind to start fizzing as you try to spot the hidden second tiger
A rare, 5-planet alignment will take over the sky this month Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will align in the month of June, with the waning crescent moon making a special appearance on June 24.
Watch Carlos Santana Re-Record ‘Oye Como Va’ With Musicians From Around The World The Playing For Change video features Cindy Blackman Santana, Becky G, Tito Puente, Jr., Rubén Rada, and more than 20 others
Thanks this week goes to Bob C, technologists making life better, and musicians playing for joy and change!
Please pay it forward this week, as many of us are not ok, and you never know whose life you are going to positively touch with a small act of kindness…
An Elementary Schooler Told This Child Psychologist Not To Worry About School Shootings, And The Reason Why Is Gut-Wrenching “I just got done with a session with an elementary schooler who asked me if when I saw the news yesterday, I was sad like her mommy or if I was scared.”
Pope Francis and a cardinal say it’s time for the U.S. to act on guns “It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday, as he sent condolences to families in Uvalde, Texas.
‘The Onion’ has republished a grim headline about mass shootings 21 times since 2014 The satirical news site publishes modified versions of the article after major mass shootings, always with the same headline: “No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. Murders and suicides plummeted. It was one of the world’s largest mandatory gun buybacks — and it was a smashing success.
San Diego students walk out of class to protest gun violence after Texas school shooting In the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of students from San Diego County and across the country walked out of their classrooms in protest of gun violence.
Comfort dogs have been deployed to Uvalde, Texas, from near and far At least five organizations in and beyond the state have sent dogs to Uvalde, where they are visiting hospitals, churches and schools. Many have responded to other mass shootings across the country.
A Florida class president couldn’t discuss being gay in high school graduation speech — so he talked about his curly hair The class president at a Florida high school says he wasn’t allowed to share his experience as a gay student in his graduation speech or how the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law will affect students like him, so he talked about something else that makes him a little different from his classmates — his curly hair.
3 books all recent college graduates should read, according to a career expert There’s no manual for what to do after leaving school, but books can provide practical advice and inspiration on how to succeed in this next chapter.
Why we need to keep every soul safe, alive and thriving-
5-year-old Italian piano prodigy plays astonishing Mozart for competition audience The young pianist impressed the competition judges with instinctive talent, well beyond his years…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu
This week:
Armani’s Mambo
Women’s Rights with Amanda Gorman
The latest chapter in our deepening moral and political crisis in the US
The American economy is lumbering under monopoly and oligopoly
Did you see the Super Flower Blood Moon last Sunday?
Student with non-speaking autism gives powerful valedictorian speech
Strangers save a woman who had a medical episode while driving
Boxer Terence Crawford’s 7 year old daughter loses her shoe, then dominates field in stunning track meet
Armani’s Mambo to Feel From the Soul:
Reset your soul scape with this original composition by my son Arman:
Armani’s Mambo is an original Mambo inspired by Latin legends such as La Sonora Santanera, Poncho Sanchez, Louie Cruz Beltran and more… Vamos a Bailar!
The latest chapter in our deepening moral and political crisis in the US-
The Numbers Don’t Lie in America’s Gun Violence Problem:
Over the past decade, the Anti-Defamation League has counted about 450 U.S. murders committed by political extremists.
Of these 450 killings, right-wing extremists committed about 75 percent. Islamic extremists were responsible for about 20 percent, and left-wing extremists were responsible for 4 percent.
Nearly half of the murders were specifically tied to white supremacists:
Source: Anti-Defamation League
As this data shows, the American political right has a violence problem that has no equivalent on the left. And the 10 victims in Buffalo this past weekend are now part of this toll. “Right-wing extremist violence is our biggest threat,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, has written. “The numbers don’t lie.”
Buffalo is part of that unfolding American tragedy:
Events in Buffalo require a response that goes far beyond allyship…
The American Economy is lumbering under monopoly and oligopoly-
What BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are doing to the Economy:
Their combined $22 trillion in managed assets is equivalent to more than half of the combined value of all shares for the companies in the S&P 500 (about $38 trillion)
The world’s oldest person is a French nun who enjoys chocolate and wine A 118-year-old nun living in a nursing home in southern France has become the world’s oldest living person, according to the Guinness World Records.
There’s a reason humans melt when they see ‘puppy dog eyes,’ new research reveals Researchers compared facial movements among wolves and dogs, finding that the domestication and the desire to be chosen has shaped dogs’ muscles.
My neighbor got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
I saw a Mormon with only one wife.
McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.
Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
A picture is now only worth 200 words.
The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.
Called to get Blue Book Value on my car. They asked if gas tank was full or empty.
And finally…
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Afghanistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
(Suicide is no joke. If you are struggling please call 800-273-8255.)
Gratitude-
Thanks this week go to Starla L, UCSD Alumni everywhere, Bob C, & The Mission Fed ArtWalk Team with help from Simpler and Simpler
Please Pay It Forward, Share with your Social Network and Subscribe to make it easier to get this to you…
Global and local implications of looming climate catastrophe continue unabated. What will it take for us to attend to this perilous condition without denying reality on the one hand, or awfulizing it on the other?
Here are some powerful examples of what is happening that are worth our attention, and some positive responses both from indigenous traditions as well as from modern science…
Outside the Supreme Court, A Life of Purpose and Pain Ends in Flames:
Wynn Bruce, whose life was shaped by a devastating car accident and Buddhism, set himself on fire on Earth Day in what his father believes was a climate change protest. If the world ignores Bruce’s death and disregards the warnings from scientists about the actions needed to curb the world’s warming, they argued, millions more people will die by fire.
“We See the Storm Coming”: U.S. Struggles to Contain a Deepening Global Food Crisis: Biden officials are scrambling to limit the damage from fast-spreading food shortages sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine, but they face an array of complex political and logistical challenges.
An Ice Shelf the Size of Rome has Collapsed in Antarctica Nasa scientist says complete collapse of Conger ice shelf during unusually high temperatures is ‘sign of what might be coming’
As Lake Powell hits landmark low, Arizona looks to a new agency, a $1 billion investment and Mexican seawater Gov. Doug Ducey hopes to solve the state’s water woes during his last year in office as decades of drought strain water supplies from the Colorado River.
Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West’s megadrought: water or electricity Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, is drying up.
An Ocean of Noise: How Sonic Pollution is Hurting Marine Life: Today’s oceans are a tumult of engine roar, artificial sonar and seismic blasts that make it impossible for marine creatures to hunt or communicate. We could make it stop, so why don’t we?
Whale Takes Tourists for Ride Near Mexico By Lifting Boat on Its Back and Swimming Away: A passenger aboard the boat said the playful whale “gently” lifted the boat and swam with the vessel on their back “twice” before swimming away
For the First Time, Wind Power Eclipsed Both Coal and Nuclear in the U.S.: For a single day at the end of March, wind was the second-largest source of electricity generation, the Energy Information Administration says. Natural gas is still the nation’s largest power source.
Learning From the Ingenious Wisdom of Our Ancestors-
Why Did the Ancient Maya Abandon Their Cities?
As we face an uncertain future of our own amid a climate crisis, are there any lessons we can learn from the Maya about how to live sustainably on this planet?
The ancient Maya flourished in modern day Mexico and Central America for millennia. They built incredible cities and they had sophisticated knowledge of astronomy, architecture and the natural world. But although Maya culture continues to exist today, around 900 AD, many of their great settlements collapsed, and today they lie in ruins. CrowdScience listener Michael wants to know – how did the Maya sustain their populations successfully for so long? And what happened 1000 years ago that led them to abandon their cities? To find out, presenter Melanie Brown travels to the forests of Western Belize. She visits the archaeological site of Xunantunich to learn about what life would have been like for the Maya living in what was once a prosperous city. She hears about the importance of water to the Maya way of life in this region, and their ingenious methods for capturing and storing rainfall. She meets archaeologists using lasers and drones to map Maya settlements that have lain hidden by jungle for centuries. And she discovers what material from the bottom of lakes can tell us about how the Maya faced a changing climate, which may have had huge consequences for their society. This episode was released on Earth Day 2022.
Spring Time: Why an Ancient Water System is Being Brought Back to Life in Spain: A project to restore a 1,000-year-old network of water channels is helping farmers in the Sierra Nevada adapt to the effects of the climate crisis
The most important story is the story you tell yourself, about yourself!
Warning- Adult Content
This Poem was shared with me recently-
This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin:
While I appreciated the sentiment, I also felt a compelling urge to offer up a counter-narrative, and composed this alternative rejoinder in about 10 minutes:
This Be The OTHER Verse
(Philip Larkin In Reverse)
We all have a mum and dad.
You would not be here if they weren’t.
Generations survived when others died.
Paranoid, hoarders, but yes they thrived.
With their history comes some baggage.
It’s inevitable, like rotten cabbage.
That over time will surely decay.
But it’s what we make of it on the way.
Take the good. Improve the bad.
Pass it forward or pass it back.
Evolution means we change.
For the better- not victims of the deranged.
We all have a story, a script, and a state.
Change your story or own your fate.
Turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones
Warrior mind in ancient bones.
Women passes on life to all.
Each one special, large or small.
Make every moment count and matter.
For better pancakes use better batter!
Yes some will try to “fuck you up”.
Choose your mindset, say enough!
Then Philip Larkin will eat his words.
And cast his poem to the birds.
What is the story you tell yourself about yourself?
Your story is what happened- objectively
Your script is how you choose to interpret what happened to you- subjectively
Your state is what you are doing in this moment, to move you closer to your purpose or alternatively away from it
Manage your state in this moment, and if you don’t like the script that was written for you, rewrite it!
“Don’t Believe Everything You Think!”
Too much pleasure can lead to addiction. How to break the cycle and find balance:
Radical honesty promotes intimacy
Be it sugar, social media or sex, the response in our brain is the same: It produces the “feel-good” neurochemical called dopamine, which brings on feelings of pleasure and motivation. “It may be even more important for motivation than for actual pleasure,” says Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford Medical School psychiatrist, researcher and author of the new book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
Have you ever been in a position where you had to choose between someone you care about and a value that you hold dear? Maybe you had to decide whether to report a friend who was cheating on an exam, or a co-worker who was stealing from the tip jar. This week, we tell the story of a Detroit police officer who found himself in this sort of dilemma, forced to choose between people he loved and the oath he swore to serve his community. What happens in our minds when we have to decide what is right and what is wrong?
Source: Anti-Defamation League
Happy Soul Food Friday! 