Hello,
What's On My Mind is a weekly newsletter where I share some of my thoughts, stories, and ideas to raise awareness; enable personal growth; nourish an open mind; encourage self-discovery; and empowering myself and others with individual responsibility.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I hope you find them of any use.
The magic of words
Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. We cast spells all the time with our opinions. [...]
There was a woman, for example, who was intelligent and had a very good heart. She had a daughter whom she adored and loved very much. One night she came home from a very bad day at work, tired, full of emotional tension, and with a terrible headache. She wanted peace and quite, but here daughter was singing and jumping happily. The daughter was unaware of how here mother was feeling; she was in her own world, in her own dream. She felt so wonderful, and she was jumping and singing louder and louder, expressing her joy and her love. She was singing so loud that it made her mother's headache even worse, and at a certain moment, the mother lost control. Angrily she looked at her beautiful little girl and said, "Shut up! You have an ugly voice. Can you just shut up!"
The truth is that the mother's tolerance for any noise was nonexisting; it was not that the little girl's voice was ugly. But the daughter believed what here mother said, and in that moment she made an agreement with herself. After that she no longer sang, because she believed her voice was ugly and would bother anyone who heard it. She became shy at school, and if she was asked to sing, she refused. Even speaking to others became difficult for her. Everything changed in the little girl because of this new agreement: She believed she must repress her emotions in order to be accepted and loved. [...]
This spell was cast upon her by the one who loved her the most: her own mother. Her mother didn't notice what she did with her word. [...]
These types of spells are difficult to break. The only thing that can break a spell is to make a new agreement based on truth. The truth is the most important part of being impeccable with your word. On one side of the sword are the lies which create black magic, and on the other side of the sword is the truth which has the power to break the spell of black magic. Only the truth will set us free.
Excerpt from The Four Agreements - A toltec wisdom book
Teachings & Insights
The things you can see only when you slow down - page 156 -
Pain caused by one person can be healed be another. But before you go out to meet someone new, make sure to give yourself time to be whole again. Otherwise you may end up using the new person you meet.
Video - Harry Mack
A true word magician and positive vibes!
Quote(s) to contemplate
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” - George Orwell, 1984
Fundamentals - curiousity, thought, breath, water, nutrition, nature, rest, movement, relationships.
The bear crawl exercise works the entire body and is commonly included in boot camp and CrossFit workouts, spartan training, and other high-intensity exercise programs. Intermediate and advanced exercisers can benefit from including this move in their total body workouts.
Benefits of the bear crawl
When performing the bear crawl, you use almost every muscle in the body. This exercise works the shoulders (deltoids), chest and back, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and core. Do bear crawls regularly and you can build total-body strength and endurance.
No equipment is needed for this exercise, but you do need a wide-open space in which to move. An outdoor space is ideal.
How to do a bear crawl
Start the bear crawl in a push-up position. Hands are beneath the shoulders, the back is strong, and your core is engaged. The feet should be hip-distance apart with heels off the floor.
Move forward by simultaneously moving the right hand and the left leg in a crawling motion. Your knees never touch the ground.
Switch sides immediately after placing weight on the right hand and left leg, moving the left hand and right leg forward.
Continue in a crawling motion, moving forward for your desired number of steps or distance.
Keep the body relatively low during the bear crawl, as if you are crawling beneath a low-hanging net or bar.
Podcast - Rebel Wisdom
How will Russia's invasion of Ukraine shape the world for decades to come? Samo Burja is a geopolitical expert who has developed a reputation for bucking the conventional wisdom. In this conversation he makes his predictions for the future, explaining how he believes we are misunderstanding Russia, how China is playing an economic long game, and the lessons from history in understanding what will happen next.
Did you know...
Sugar is as bad for you as cigarettes.
We all know smoking is one of the worst things you can do for your health, but a more stealth killer may be having the same level of impact: sugar. Just as cigarettes have long been linked to preventable mortality from cancer, heart disease, and stroke, researchers have increasingly found that consuming added sugar leads to similarly deadly conditions.
According to a 2016 report in the journal Nutrients, too much sugar leads to "a variety of chronic diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as well as cognitive decline and even some cancers."
Thank you for your spending your valuable time on reading this newsletter. Your support is much appreciated.
Joey van Tilburg
