“To teach is to learn twice.” – Jim Kwik
These updates are to help me learn and improve, as well as bring awareness to others so they can improve their lives as well.
Quotes I’m Pondering:
“If you did not get what you want, it is a sign that you did not really want it; or, that you tried to bargain over the price.”–Rudyard Kipling
Lessons from my dad (the most interesting man in the world):
“Learn to speak with analogies.”
People often tell me that they are amazed with how patient I am with listening and understanding what they mean… I think that’s because I grew up listening to my dad's allegorical explanations! Nevertheless, I think this is an important lesson because I believe people think in images. So, being able to express an idea to someone via a parable or image
can really help present information, and so your audience understand your intention.
Torah Portion, Pinchas (July 6-7):
To ensure I am always learning and reflecting on the week, one weekly habit I started about 2 years ago was reading the weekly Torah portion. Then, I will write about a valuable lesson that resonated with me from the portion because each weekly portion offers some insight to my personal life and some knowledge about current events. I hope my insights offers value to you as well or encourages you to reflect on your own life.
In addition, our rapid advancements in technology are outpacing our advancements in spirituality. We are all living in a world where we are tied to our technology, so I believe we must find ways to lift our spiritual and religious life to the same level.
I think this is a valuable lesson we can discover in this week’s Torah Portion Pinchas, the eighth section of the Book of Numbers. Of all the lessons we can learn from this Torah portion, striving for greater fulfillment is one most evident today. At the end of this portion, G-d instructs Moses about the special communal offerings during the seven days of the holiday of Sukkot. On the first day, the Jewish people were instructed to sacrifice 13 young bulls, then 12, 11, and 7 on the seventh day. As it is written in Daily Wisdom, “on the following day…only one single bull was offered up.”
What can we take from this? Complementing lessons from Daily Wisdom, the slow progression of constant sacrifices can be analogous to our own gradual sacrifice of our material goods to where we become less reliable on them. Once we tame our material addictions, we can make a leap into more spiritually fulfilling things, just as the number of bulls sacrificed dropped from 7 to 1.
Books I’m reading:
One of my summer goals has been to read 10 books. By now, I have finished 5 and currently deciding which to get next. I have just finished reading Vishen Lakhiani’s The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. Given to me surprisingly by my mother, this book is about questioning the rules we grew up with in our cultures, how to examine them, and update them to how you want to live – obviously, so long as they’re not hurting anyone or anything. In short, this book is an excellent outlet for increasing your awareness and perception of life through various insights and practices that can bring you to a blissful state of being. Vishen presents 10 laws for an extraordinary life. The one that resonates the most with me is number 7: Live in Blissipline. “Extraordinary minds understand that happiness comes from within. They begin with happiness in the now and use it as a fuel to drive all their other visions and intentions for themselves and the world.”
Daily Habits:
I am a big advocate for healthy routines and habits; as Aristotle once said, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Now, there are many, many quotes about morning routines and habits that help you win the day and your life that I can get into. But, one that has really helped me maintain my strength while recovering from my concussion, has been daily gratitude. Science has shown that gratitude has the strongest link with mental well-being than any other character trait. Head injuries by nature screw up your motivation, attention, focus, concentration, joy, and more, so I found it imperative for my recovery. In addition, it is a successful habit I started prior to my injury and will most likely continue because of its immense benefits.
Foods/Drinks I’m trying:
I welcomed a concussion into my life and discovered (3 months later!) that my cervical vertebrae is out of alignment, which is pinching on a nerve in the back of my head and restricting blood flow. To reduce the inflammation that builds up, I was suggested by my craniosacral therapist to go on an alkaline diet. My first step was to try Organifi’s Green juice which is filled with vital nutrients and antioxidants that alkalize the body. Moringa, just one of the ingredients, has 7x as much vitamin C as oranges, 2x the amount of protein found in milk and 4x the amount of bioavailable calcium, 4x the amount of vitamin A found in carrots (Information received from The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson).
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