https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180826120732.htm
NPR's Michel Martin speaks to Mark McKinnon, a former political media advisor for John McCain, on his personal and working relationship with the senator.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180826120754.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180826120756.htm
Sunday's earthquake caused power outages and landslides as the island is still recovering from another quake earlier this month that killed more than 400 people.
(Image credit: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)
Maple syrup, cheese and craft beer. To these Vermont products, now add hemp. Farmers in the state are increasingly growing it to extract a compound called CBD for its purported medicinal benefits.
I often read about the power of choosing one’s thoughts, or something along those lines: shifting perspective, flipping the script, quieting negative self-talk, and so on. It sounds so compelling and empowering, yet so elusive. Most of the time, I feel that my thoughts choose me. I often wish—especially when they’re particularly exhausting—that they’d choose someone else.
Once in a while, I’m able to choose different thoughts, or to change a gloomy perspective. The amount of effort that it takes to do this consistently surprises me: it’s so much greater than what I expect, so much more work than my self-help reading prepares me for. Sometimes I don’t succeed at all, and I’m left wondering whether I’m trying to choose new thoughts or bullying myself away from thoughts that, no matter how tedious, are honestly and stubbornly mine.
This tug-of-war has been on my mind a lot in the past week. At many moments when my outlook felt particularly grim or negative, I invited myself to envision things turning out differently, or to resist making any sort of prognosis about how they’d be. Sometimes it worked, albeit through a lot of effort, and I was proud of myself for challenging assumed narratives.
Then this weekend rolled around, and for various reasons it feels impossible to escape my own worrying and nervous mind chatter, to resist chasing after fearful thoughts. Added to it all is the frustration of feeling as though I ought to be able to see things differently, to quiet my mind more efficiently. What’s all of the meditation and mindfulness practice for, if not to make this less of a struggle?
Usually when I’m wrapped in knots like this, the best path forward is a simple self-compassion practice. For me, it starts with doing kind things for my body (generally this takes the form of cooking something I like to eat), and if I’m lucky it can evolve into a gentle acceptance that I am where I am, and I’m doing my best. Sometimes it helps to imagine that I’m treating myself as I would a friend who was having a particularly tumultuous inner day, or even that I’m tending to a younger self or inner child.
This post catches me midway through that process, having just whipped up a tasty lunch that felt self-caring and a post-prandial nap that was equally so. Racing thoughts haven’t quite subsided, but the physical self-care that so often initiates self-soothing is underway, and that’s a good thing.
As I was sitting down to write, I realized that choosing to be self-compassionate is its own form of perspective shift: I may not be able to select different thoughts than the ones I have, but I can resolve to stop dwelling obsessively within my thoughts and to focus on my body, my breath, my whole being.
I also realized that, to whatever extent choosing different thoughts is possible, there’s a reason it’s not easy work. My fallback narratives about the way things are and have to be are informed by really old stuff: old fears, old experiences, old assumptions. They’ve safety of the familiar working in their favor. A new outlook, no matter how ostensibly hopeful or fresh, may actually register as a greater threat than I consciously grasp when I’m thinking about all of this.
These realizations have been helpful. Now I’m feeling more aware of a familiar kind of turmoil, but choosing at least to recognize that the possibility of something different exists, to acknowledge my own efforts toward change, and to detach a little bit from how it all goes. At least for today.
Wishing you self-compassion and small acts of self-acceptance as we enter a new week. And here are the articles and reads that caught my eye in the last seven days.
I catch cooked more couscous than I needed this week to serve with the tagine recipe from Power Plates, so I’ve been searching for summery couscous recipes to use the leftovers in. Lindsay’s couscous summer salad is a feast for the eyes, and I love all of the varied fruits and veggies she uses in it.
Sneh’s Mexican bean & mushroom vegan chili will be in my slow-cooker recipe rotation once the DI begins: so hearty and simple.
What better to serve a bowl of vegan chili with than Emilie’s scrumptious jalapeño zucchini cornbread?
I haven’t made a nut-based spread in a while, and Sophie’s beautiful, golden cultured turmeric cashew spread is calling my name.
Finally, I need to find a Labor Day get together to attend specifically so that I can bring a bushel of Jessica’s loaded vegan potato salad with coconut bacon. Delicious!
1. My idea of mindful eating has evolved over the years, but it’s never resembled anything even remotely distraction free. As someone who lives alone (and even when I didn’t live alone), I like eating in front of the TV or with my Kindle. It’s taken me a long time to admit this without a little bit of guilt, and to furthermore admit that, even though I pay a lot of attention to how my food tastes and smells, I tend to eat pretty quickly and to polish off my plate without asking myself along the way if I might already be satisfied. None of this aligns neatly with the “mindful eating” that’s often written about or presented to me in articles.
I smiled when I read Carrie Dennett’s thoughts on mindful eating for the real world. It’s a nice reminder that mindful eating can and does look different for all of us, and that awareness and distraction can actually coexist.
2. I love NYU Langone’s effort to serve more healthful and sustainable foods to patients.
3. Let’s hear it for a new generation of veggie burgers (and other innovative plant foods)!
4. Plastic pollution in oceans is getting more and more attention in science journalism these days, and I was struck by Erica Cirino’s elegant article on how it’s now traveling up the food chain.
5. There’s nothing I love more than cooking for friends, but I’m all too prone to making apologies for the food I prepare; I qualify that it’s no big deal, apologize that it wasn’t something else, note that I didn’t have time to make something that isn’t on the table (and consequently not being missed by anyone but me).
It’s taken me a while to figure out how much this dampens the mood of a meal. People gather to appreciate what’s there, and they usually love something that’s simple and good. I may be thinking about what my food isn’t, but my friends aren’t.
When I read Emma Laperruque’s thoughts on not apologizing for her food, I nodded my head firmly in agreement. And, especially in the context of how I’m feeling today, I like her words about the value of “fake it till you make it,” so to speak:
That’s the funny thing about white lies: They can be so aspirational. I like to think that the more you act like the person you want to be—less self-deprecating, more self-loving; less frantic, more calm; less judgmental, more empathetic—the more you become that person. And then, eventually, what’s the difference?
What’s the difference, indeed?
Happy Sunday, friends. This week, a favorite new vegan taco recipe, with a go-to, four-ingredient sauce thrown in for good measure.
xo
The post Weekend Reading, 8.19.18 appeared first on The Full Helping.
Rita Ekwere, also known as Ray BLK, is the first unsigned artist to win the BBC Sound Of poll. She tells NPR's Lakshmi Singh why it's important for her to highlight social justice issues in her music.
An update on the march by white supremacists in Washington D.C.
NPR's Lakshmi Singh speaks with Des Moines Register food critic Brian Taylor Carlson about the good, the bad and the ugly new food offerings at this year's Iowa State Fair. Pickle beer, anyone?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180812170115.htm
I started a blog post on Friday but then the weekend started and I haven’t paused from having fun to finish the post. No apologies – I am soaking up all the summer that I can!
My parents were in town and we did a little bit of everything – outdoor concert at the beach, beach day, brewery, dinner out, and more beach. Piper slept until after 9am on Saturday when I had to wake her up – that has never happened! We wore those kids OUT.
It has been great beach weather, but not-so-great outdoor running weather. When Mark and I hit the pavement for a run together on Saturday afternoon after a morning at the beach, it was a struggle. It was a hard, sweaty 3.75 miles. I just kept thinking of all the people who would be doing the half ironman in our town this weekend and it kept me going.
Saturday night we went out for dinner and I had this amazing Michigan berry salad with burrata. And rosé. A great weekend of good eats, good drinks, exercise, and my family. What more could I ask for?
When I was planning my weekly menu, I wanted to keep things quick and easy. The less time in the kitchen the better, especially since a good portion of today was spent meal prepping, making lunches for the week, and making another huge batch of pesto with our garden yield.
As I often do during life’s hectic times, I resort to slow cooking. A few weeks ago, I ran home at lunch to throw this meal in the slow cooker – a very quick and easy effort. Not being huge beef eaters, it’s hard to find beef recipes we LOVE…however, this is most definitely one of them! Although it’s higher in sodium than I’d like to see, it was worth the splurge, especially since all of the other nutritional facts were on track. This meal is a sure way to please everyone at the table, especially the kids! DELISH!
Be well,
https://preventionrd.com/2018/08/easy-slow-cooker-mongolian-beef-weekly-menu/
Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is unacceptable in all circumstances. NPR's Don Gonyea speaks with Sister Helen Prejean about the history of the church's stance on capital punishment.
There are 18 fires blazing in California, and officials say this year the wildfires have spread faster and burned more land earlier in the fire season than usual.
(Image credit: Noah Berger/AP)
The Manafort trial continues next week with expected testimony from Rick Gates. NPR's Don Gonyea speaks with lawyer Shan Wu, who previously represented Gates, about what to expect.
The US may have lost Meghan Markle, but they’re about to gain a whole family of royals.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden has announced via Sweden’s Royal Court that she and her family are relocating permanently to the United States. She—along with her husband, Chris O’Neill—are headed to Florida with their three children: Prince Nicolas, Princess Leonore, and Princess Adrienne, who is only four months old.
@princess_madeleine_of_sweden
“The time and opportunity for the United States is good for the family when the children are still in preschool age,” it said in a press release.
Upon first thought, it may seem like a crazy move. Florida is about 5,000 miles away from Sweden—not to mention very different in culture and climate. But Madeleine and her husband, Christopher O’Neill, are actually very connected to the States.
The couple met in 2010 when Madeleine was working in New York City. O’Neill is British American and his mother lives in Palm Beach, so perhaps the move is so the family can be closer to her. Also, after the royal pair got married in 2013, they stayed in the States for a brief time and welcomed their first child, Princess Leonore. In the years after, they decided to decamp to London and Stockholm, where they had two more children: Adrienne and Nicolas.
The Royal Court confirmed that, upon their move, the family will leave the British capital but still keep a residence in Sweden.
Which city or town in Florida is still unknown— however one thing that’s for sure is that they’ll have little use for their fancy embroidery clad frocks in the Peach State.
The post A Royal Family is Relocating to the United States appeared first on MiNDFOOD.
https://www.mindfood.com/article/royal-family-relocating-to-the-us/
