Your Soul Food for Friday January 16, 2026: Being Nicer, Pleasure for Self-Improvement, Silence YOUR Inner Critic and Art Could Save your Life!

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

  • 8 Ways to Become a Nicer Person
  • Why Pleasure is the key to self-improvement
  • How to finally Silence your inner critic, according to psychologists
  • Art could Save your life! Five creative ways to make 2026 happier, healthier, and more hopeful

8 Ways to Become a Nicer Person:
Experts agree on a few easy tips for our modern times.

8 Ways to Become a Nicer Person | TIME

Why pleasure is the key to self-improvement:
Forget puritanical self-discipline – the way to really make a new habit stick is to lace it with instant gratification

Why pleasure is the key to self-improvement | Psychology | The Guardian

How to finally silence your inner critic, according to psychologists:
The criticism coming from your inner voice isn’t always the most constructive. But psychologists are working on ways to help your negative self-talk. January 10, 2026 I am lazy. I’m a slob. I’m [something that can’t be printed]. These are the thoughts that pop into my head when I’m scrolling senselessly on the sofa, or after finding another bag of withered salad in my fridge, forgotten thanks to the takeaways I chose to have instead of preparing my own healthier options.

How to finally silence your inner critic, according to psychologists | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Art could save your life! Five creative ways to make 2026 happier, healthier, and more hopeful:
Engaging in creativity can reduce depression, improve immunity and delay ageing – all while you’re having fun

Art could save your life! Five creative ways to make 2026 happier, healthier and more hopeful | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian

Please pay it forward with purpose!

Love,

Neville

Welcome to Soul Food Friday: A weekly blog to feed, grow and energize your soul – Happy Soul Food Friday!

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Your Soul Food for the Last Friday in 2023: Create Joy, Believe in Yourself, Stay Spiritual, Commune through Music

Happy Soul Food for the last Friday in 2023!

This week:

  • Make Joy Your Mission
  • Believe in Yourself
  • Experience the Beauty and Diversity of Human Spirituality in Pictures
  • Commune Through the Power of Live Music

WINTER’S CLOAK by Joyce Rupp:

This year I do not want the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap of silent stillness, its cloak of long-lasting embrace.
Too much light has pulled me away from the chamber of gestation.

Let the dawns come late, let the sunsets arrive early, let the evenings extend themselves while I lean into the abyss of my being.

Let me lie in the cave of my soul, for too much light blinds me, steals the source of revelation.

Let me seek solace in the empty places of winter’s passage, those vast dark nights that never fail to shelter me.

Mission Joy!

If you want to appreciate real joy from two masters of the craft and haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend watching this movie of the final meeting of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Sage wisdom and laugh out loud funny!

Home – Mission Joy

How to Believe in Yourself:

If you want to unlock your own potential and unleash your self-mastery in the new year, this is great listen!

How to Believe in Yourself | Hidden Brain Media

In pictures – human spirituality in all its remarkable beauty and diversity
Love, commitment, dedication, and faith — the many forms of devotion as seen through the lens of one photographer.

In pictures – human spirituality in all its beauty and diversity | The Independent

If you are local on Jan 4th 2024:

Join me on Thursday January 4th at the Music Box for some Righteous Live Music to Kick Off the New Year with Strange Crew!

As we turn the bend on another cycle around the sun, reflect on our resolutions while tolerating disillusions, if more live music is on your Santa list, here is your opportunity to launch into the New Year with the verve and vivacity that is all you…

Strange Crew (and me too) will be playing at the Music Box in Little Italy on Thursday 1/04/24 along with 3 other bands including ZenZag (Reggae Fusion), The Joshua 3 (U2 tribute), and Headmaster (Smiths fans…not impersonators).

So, grab your friends, family (21 and up), neighbors, workmates, frenemies- and come let your hair down.

YOU are in!

I can get you as many complimentary tickets as you like for this killer venue, so don’t be bashful- now is the time to be indulgent and spoil your friends too. This works as a holiday gift that extends into the new year and everyone will appreciate your magnanimous nature.

Simply email me ASAP at nevilleb@missionfed.com  re: the number of tickets you want + your mailing address and voila you are on the nice list!

More on these fun bands can be found here: ZenZag, Strange Crew, The Joshua 3, Headmaster (musicboxsd.com)

And here is a sampler to whet your whistle: Strange Crew – YouTube

Thanks this week go to Kurt C for the poem!

Happy New Year everyone…

Love,

Neville

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