tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84237823243134589952024-03-13T06:11:28.629-07:00PapihoodNotes, observations, and experiences of a Chicano father of three boys.Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-54980922413332004372022-09-04T22:55:00.001-07:002022-09-04T22:55:12.803-07:00Open Heart<p>I have more questions than things to saw right now, but they sprang up from something a past teacher once told me. I am very expressive, and open, and naïve in a lot of ways, trusting, and taking things at face value, more than some other folx, and much more than Western society sees as acceptable. This was even more pronounced when I was younger. A long time ago, after being involved in ceremony for a few years, this teacher told me that he had doubted whether I was strong enough to last. That, because of my perceived sensitivity, that he perceived me as weak, and too weak for ceremony, too emotional I guess. Ceremony requires that we be open to our emotions, it forces it really, whether we're ready or willing or not. Funny that my emotional openness and expressiveness is what he perceived as the weakness.</p><p>The questions that came up right now while I was remembering this experience of being told that my "overly" emotional expressiveness was perceived as weakness, is why is it that society places so much emphasis on being emotionally closed and paints this as "strong", while seeing emotional expression and openness as weak? I can see how sometimes when we are extremely expressive and open that can leave us raw and potentially open to manipulation, that it can lead us to getting pulled in all kinds of different directions all at once, and how those people in our lives that fall off the cliff of mental wellness into the many abysses of mental illness appear to be emotionally and psychologically "overly expressive" or "open" and this can then be connected to a perceived weakness in them. But I also see how our vulnerability, our ability to feel with and in the presence of others in our lives is one of the most powerful ways to connect and help hold space for healing, growth, and empowerment. How our open heart is what allows the healing to happen. Maybe that's why it is painted as weakness, because they don't want us to heal? And maybe the embrace of being so closed is a residue of our ancestors' coping to survive the harshness of oppression, that maybe they had to allow the callouses to grow thick around their hearts and their emotional selves, to survive the pain and hopelessness? </p><p>It might feel easier to close ourselves off, its less work in the beginning, and feels safer. But in the end it adds to our isolation, it literally closes us off to connection and healing. </p><p>That's my ramble for today. I guess I had more to say than questions to pose.</p>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-27059550175053723082022-04-23T15:40:00.010-07:002022-08-02T16:37:04.582-07:00Ban CRT? Just another racist call to erase our history.<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGoOITFzQ0mu39wpAR-H-B4enYQBh-7odY-kLusL2sf6FVU5-I9tn9wW-PvVkYdZhmryhqvbVkBxttGmgY3q0eFyKdbyto0p7u3hzspzvG8IiNebHptqp4BAwo-8Uq0mVVczad4TwkTjK0z5YSUq9DN0P5EiFiZs9su7I1IqaJ63h24vMd5WTOpOEYg/s5464/pexels-kelly-l-4642503.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3070" data-original-width="5464" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNGoOITFzQ0mu39wpAR-H-B4enYQBh-7odY-kLusL2sf6FVU5-I9tn9wW-PvVkYdZhmryhqvbVkBxttGmgY3q0eFyKdbyto0p7u3hzspzvG8IiNebHptqp4BAwo-8Uq0mVVczad4TwkTjK0z5YSUq9DN0P5EiFiZs9su7I1IqaJ63h24vMd5WTOpOEYg/w400-h225/pexels-kelly-l-4642503.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="PlusJakartaSans, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", Ubuntu, sans-serif" style="white-space: pre;"><span> </span><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/roadway-with-end-racism-now-title-in-town-4642503/">Photo by Kelly L</a></span></span></span><div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span color:black="" new="" roman="" serif="" style="font-family: arial;" times=""><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 24pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -6pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can you imagine if someone kicked down your front door, planted a flag in your living room, and declared your house their property — and then justified this theft, the murder and rape of your relatives, and the pillaging of your home, by stating that you were a savage subhuman heathen? This is exactly what European powers have done for centuries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, justifying their theft of Indigenous lands and the brutal treatment and genocide of Indigenous people with </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Doctrine of Discovery</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; which was a set of documents produced by the Vatican between the years 1452 and 1493, stating that Christian kingdoms had the right to all land occupied by non-Christians, and that all of these non-white pagans were subhuman and could be enslaved, exploited, and murdered at will. In 1823 </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the US Supreme Court,</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> citing the Doctrine Discovery, ruled that Europeans had the ultimate right to “discovered” land and that the United States, after declaring independence from the English crown, had inherited this right of sovereignty over Native land. </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark Charles</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> makes clear that the Doctrine of Discovery is a documentation of white supremacy, setting the precedent of the dehumanization of Indigenous people, and all people of color, throughout the world, which is followed by multiple documents and supreme court decisions founded on this same white supremacist doctrine of dehumanization of all people not fitting the white male upper-class identity codified. European expansion, propelled by this doctrine, and Manifest Destiny, was deemed, as </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Richard Drinnon</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> states, a form of progress, modernization, nation-building, and “Americanization,” involving “an assault on family structures and the village” </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(p. 372)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The assault on family and village, on the culture and language of our communities, continues today with attacks on our attempts at creating humanizing liberatory spaces that address the historical, material, and social realities that impede on our freedoms.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 24pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -6pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sea of </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anti-CRT (critical race theory) and anti-history bans</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that have been proposed in over 28 states, and enacted in 12 either through legislation or other means, is an echo of these past attempts at devaluing and demonizing not only people of color but the very telling of our stories and truths. This round of calling for the censorship of history as a means to interrupt so-called divisive and anti-American aims was spurred by Christopher Rufo, a conservative film-maker, who as he was reviewing Zoom recorded clips of training sessions on anti-racism and diversity during the pandemic decided that </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“‘Critical race theory’ [was] the perfect villain.”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> After Rufo’s appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox show, </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rufo was intimately involved</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in consulting the white house on the executive order issued by Trump in September of 2020, banning federal training contractors from utilizing “critical race theory.” Trump continued to push racist ahistorical narratives through the creation of </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the 1776 Commission</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, on November 2, 2020 by executive order, aimed at countering the historical notion, put forth by the 1619 project of the New York Times, that the institution of chattel slavery plays a central role in the formation of the United States as a nation. One of the most ridiculous assertions of this anti-CRT movement, one </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">perpetuated by state Rep. Steve Toth in the Texas state bill he authored</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is that MLK himself would have been anti-CRT, an assertion ignoring MLK’s overtly anti-racist words and actions, and those of the civil rights movement, which are at the core of critical race theory itself — stark conversations and confrontations of the realities of structural, systemic, and historical racism in the US are necessary in order to create a more just world and society. As a clear insult to the Black community and memory of MLK the 1776 commission released its ahistorical “findings” on Martin Luther King Jr. day, 2021.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 24pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -6pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The current attacks on telling historical truths is far from new. It can be seen in how the culture, language, and families of people of color have been devalued and demonized as deficient and lacking, assertions that have origins in the beginning stages of imperialism and colonialism — in the numerous declarations of the subhuman nature of people of color as a means to justify their enslavement, exploitation, and murder. It can be seen in how politicians and academics, at the culmination of the civil rights movement, painted the culture of people of color as lacking in the qualities and values that aligned with prioritizing education and the overall betterment of their communities, essentially </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">blaming people of color for the racist policy outcomes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of structural racism and poverty. It can be seen in Texas where </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lawmakers refused</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to have historians fact-check their history books, which described </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enslaved people as “workers”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and in how Arizona lawmakers banned Mexican-American studies in K-12 public schools as radical and anti-American </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(a ban struck down in federal court in 2017)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. These Mexican-American studies programs </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">empowered Chicana/x/o youth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, helping them see themselves in history and schooling, to better understand their role in fighting against ongoing racist policies, and led to higher rates of engagement, testing, and graduation.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 24pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -6pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our fight against systemic racism starts with us calling out its many iterations — it starts with naming the calls to ban the teaching of real history as exactly what they are — racism. To disrupt the telling of the history of oppression and racism in this hemisphere is a call to “make America” even more racist “again”. The telling of our history as people of color is one of the main responses we have to disrupting systemic racism, to disrupt the racist narratives that have been perpetuated by the omission of any mention of the history of the violent realities of colonialism and its many iterations. Ethnic studies is the field that makes this telling of real history its core mission — telling history in ways that empower communities of color, that empower youth to tell their own stories.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 24pt; padding: 0pt 0pt -6pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chicana/o studies, an element of ethnic studies, calls on the empowerment of Chicana youth and communities to tell our own stories, to </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rewrite the racist history</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that has been perpetuated as justification for our oppression. Educators who embrace ethnic studies have known for decades that ethnic studies, when designed and taught well, centers and values </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">community cultural wealth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">positively impacts students’</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(of all ethnic backgrounds) academic engagement and performance, rates of graduation, sense of self-efficacy, critical thinking, and levels of democratic dialogue and outcomes. As </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paulo Freire</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, renowned critical educator, would have us remember, it is through telling our own stories, naming our world for ourselves, </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8423782324313458995/2705955017505372308#" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">our counternarratives to the dominant stories that devalue our culture</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, language, and history, that we, as Chicana people, la raza unida, el pueblo unido</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #292929; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> will be able to empower ourselves to overcome the trappings of structural racism and create humanizing liberatory spaces. We need more educational environments where telling our stories of struggle and triumph, personal and historical, student-led and community-driven, are not only welcomed, but are the primary drivers of our schooling process — these narratives of social justice, community, and beautiful strength in the face of oppressive adversity are what allow for all children to feel welcomed — to know that all of our cultures, languages, and lineages belongs within the intellectual and academic spaces of our society.</span></p></div>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-87287862327818839872022-03-26T10:32:00.006-07:002022-07-27T17:53:13.419-07:00Old Man Rant<p>Things I hate about getting old: every little bump and bruise hurts for way too long, much longer than they used to. Was playing lacrosse with my two youngest and one of them smacked my elbow as they were playing defense (I had looked at my elbows before leaving the house, but I didn't grab them - I should have). The rest of the day and into the next day my elbow felt like I sprained my whole arm - like really?!? My index finger, the top joint, has some kind of ligament dilemma, and it's been hurting for days, maybe weeks. Seriously. Go jogging around with the boys again, and my knees start screaming at me (maybe it's because I spend all day sitting at this computer).</p><p>Things I like about getting old: patience. I have a lot more patience (sometimes). I hope I am little wiser every day, at least about some things. I get to see my children grow and grow - and while I love every stage and they were really cute when they were younger, their personalities are getting more and more visible. It's beautiful to see them struggle - again, sometimes. Sometimes, with these schools, it's just a headache - I keep forgetting that humanizing practices, seeing students as human first and rule followers and compliance machines second, is just not what most schools are about. </p>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-12262434416534329722022-03-24T00:28:00.003-07:002022-09-05T21:00:07.677-07:00Learning Loss in the Banking System of Education<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9PicVY47Ic9YiVVLtZqVKsp4IZwt2_JW2_RcpDlnTPSyPRS-9kSK3I4Sv8a_AYJWnFMCOGx9xx2YZVSOAOemPVko2uAkdgnHYPqz1EugRK8zg9glXbMfusmZzuml49s_7ioMs71lloSKbyuvAw_2v4fyFkFSj9ExTM1b6vHyJpboSr5Oh4mUGTWFgFg=s3117" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2078" data-original-width="3117" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9PicVY47Ic9YiVVLtZqVKsp4IZwt2_JW2_RcpDlnTPSyPRS-9kSK3I4Sv8a_AYJWnFMCOGx9xx2YZVSOAOemPVko2uAkdgnHYPqz1EugRK8zg9glXbMfusmZzuml49s_7ioMs71lloSKbyuvAw_2v4fyFkFSj9ExTM1b6vHyJpboSr5Oh4mUGTWFgFg=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The term learning loss assumes that learning is linear, that youth can be in a state of non-learning, and that our current measurements of student learning are effective. It also assumes that there are times that we are losing what we have learned. While I do think that we get rusty with things that we do not practice, as I have experienced this myself, I am not sure the term “loss” captures the essence of this phenomenon; while my swimming is rusty, I am not going to drown in a pool once I have learned to swim; while my Spanish is rusty since I have not been regularly using it, I can still find my way through a conversation, and with some practice and social connection I will grow right back into my previous capacities, my neural networks will wrap some more myelin. We (and definitely youth) are learning all of the time, every day, every moment. Youth may not be learning what “we” want them to learn, but they are learning - there is no such thing as a non-learner, or non-learning (with rare exceptions in the case of acute physical damage or neglect).</p><p>The concept of "learning loss", akin to the achievement gap, is based on the use of standardized testing, and represents a colossal failure in our school system - but not a failure of our students to learn or be open to learning. If for decades we continue to see the same results from standardized testing why does the system continue to employ the same testing methods and ask why we don’t see change?</p><p>A focus on relationships, caring, and community building are the key elements to creating educational spaces where students will engage in deep learning because they know they belong and have agency. It is in these holistic structure where we focus on the overall health and well-being of youth in order that they be open to taking the risks and sharing of themselves fully, stances necessary for students to effectively build their academic, intellectual, and social-emotional capacity. These interrelational and interconnected factors are the primary necessities of a school community, especially after and during a worldwide pandemic during which our communities have experienced trauma, loss, and disruption. Coming back to school and focusing only on the “rigorous” implementation of academic instruction, essentially eliminating time students have to create community and connection, will only lead to more loss, trauma, and disruption to both academic learning and overall wellbeing. </p><p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-learning-loss-disparities-grow-and-students-need-help" target="_blank">Dorn et al’s</a> concerns about the disparity in opportunities for students of color and other marginalized populations are not unfounded. However, their argument is based on standardized assessments and the concept that grade level buckets of knowledge are to be deposited into each students’ brain at each stop along the linear factory model of banking education. Learning is so much more complicated than this and requires holistic collaborative formative forms of assessment, not standardized one-size fits all students, from every community, testing. Of course it is imperative that youth access and develop academic rigor and capacity, in numeracy and literacy, and in art, science, dance, movement, cooking, crafting, music, athletics, critical thinking, acting, medicine, social-emotional dynamics, and so much more; this holistic community responsive and personalized education will not be accomplished in equitable ways if all we keep looking at are the results of standardized tests as our measure of success.</p><p>The building of community, of relationships and student agency, is the way forward to building students’ academic capacity. While access to the resources necessary to learn (such as internet, devices, and in person instruction) are very necessary, the gap in access for excluded and underserved communities has been in existence for decades (centuries). The world-wide COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare these disparities, inequalities, and inequities in access to quality education. What we do now with this information should <b>not</b> be to turn back to the decades old models of oppressive capitalist driven schooling methods that have consistently, systematically, and historically created these very disparities. It is time that we see this biological disruption as the beginning of a prolonged social, economic, and political disruption of the status quo. This requires economic and political will, a will that, sadly, I am not confident the dominant social order will permit to persist and take root. But that for dammed sure doesn't mean I'm giving up. </p><p>As <a href="https://youtu.be/d5iHl7nBLXE">Dr. Betina Love so poignantly and powerfully states</a> - the pandemic showed us that school systems, despite the decades long lack of political will (and supposed economic capacity) to respond to the calls of transformation, stop on a dime, move quickly, and provide some of the resources and changes that seemed "impossible" prior to the pandemic - stopped using standardized tests, gave one-to-one devices for all children/families, relied on trusting teachers' pedagogy, expertise and ingenuity - treated almost like professionals (no?), relied on trusting parents as integral partners in education, provided flexible schedules and hybrid models, tech companies gave out free internet, "compassion over compliance". . . So we know these changes are not only possible, they are realistic and doable. So how do we keep this same energy and spirit going? That is the only question in my heart and mind. </p><p>What was normal pre-pandemic was not healthy for our communities - as Dr. Love compels us to fight for - we need to maintain and reinvigorate the trust in teachers, parents, and students that was readily given during the beginning stages of the pandemic - the flexibility around due dates, grading, and standardized testing and curriculum - the abolishment of punitive compliance driven policies - let that shit rest - it's done - at least it should be and we know it has been done before and can be done again.</p>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-33249947055489200682022-03-12T09:32:00.003-08:002022-03-12T09:37:37.203-08:00Student Learning is 100% Teacher Responsibility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1qwYb-89WkfomfBSZKFd9woe7h9c9FK7VOzVDU10LeRT8dxv6pGyCsWTRAps4cTxC4VfPhyLiMZjd16X_Flb1_NKvLqlvZlYKqWjxHG7j500JvaL2AsZtU77KnSJCXWINCKJEO3aqM9k-164SlUAzuF5P6VgsYjEWYHJNLL9l-9DTO2DPeN9dgcADnw=s1184" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1184" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1qwYb-89WkfomfBSZKFd9woe7h9c9FK7VOzVDU10LeRT8dxv6pGyCsWTRAps4cTxC4VfPhyLiMZjd16X_Flb1_NKvLqlvZlYKqWjxHG7j500JvaL2AsZtU77KnSJCXWINCKJEO3aqM9k-164SlUAzuF5P6VgsYjEWYHJNLL9l-9DTO2DPeN9dgcADnw=w400-h364" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.criticallyeducated.com/" target="_blank">Mario Echeverria</a>, educator, school leader, and friend of mine, swears by an interview question for teacher interviews. "How much of a student's learning is your responsibility?" To which there is only one answer. 100%.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had an interesting exchange on Twitter a few days ago, with a stranger. At first we misunderstood each other, as most exchanges go on social media, but this stranger was there for sincere communication. We are both teachers, educators, and students and we both listened to each other in an attempt to understand the other's point of view. </div><div><br /></div><div>He had an interesting first reaction to my statement that teacher's are 100% responsible for student learning. First, he felt that idea could be used to scapegoat teachers, from outside of education, to put the blame of the ills of schooling solely onto their backs, which is a genuine concern. Teachers are blamed for a lot when it comes to the poor outcomes in schools. I reassured him that I am a teacher myself and am not trying to scapegoat anyone. Instead I want to push teachers to embrace the role of curating educational environments were students can bring their whole selves and engage in true dialogue around their learning processes and capacities.</div><div><br /></div><div>His second concern was that making a statement like this, 100% of student learning is up to the teacher, can potentially reduce a student to a thing, to an object, that the teacher must put upon. That it can potentially strip students of their agency in co-creating educational spaces, that it could be used to uphold a banking system of education. I again reassured him, that the learning that I speak of is liberatory, predicated on the empowerment of student voice and agency in the co-creation of learning spaces. </div><div><br /></div>This statement is about the power that teachers do have to curate the environment in their classrooms and spaces. Teachers have institutional power to grade, to punish, to stifle, to oppress. Or their power can be used to uplift, empower, and value. Students have power too, as can be witnessed in so many forms of expression, walkouts, outspokenness, and quiet resolve to resist - but many students are disconnected from their power as well.<div><br /></div><div>Dr. Jorge Ramirez Delgado shared this quote from Anzaldua with us during our semester's course, “The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, mexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, Asian--our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the 'real' world unless it first happens in the images in our heads” (Gloria Anzaldua, 1999). </div><div><br /></div><div>My father work tirelessly to awaken our Chicana/o/e awareness within everyone he met, to help spark critical consciousness and dialogue in every interaction possible, to shed light on our inner struggles of oppression, and create the conditions for change within the social order, to co-create liberatory spaces. That is the true power of love, to create transformative healing and emancipation, bit by bit, moment by moment, from the shackles of the contorted constraints of colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It is 100% the move of a teacher to create a liberatory space, to humanize every child, to hold high expectations of each kid, and to stop at nothing to help each child reach their goals. The passion and purpose need to be aligned. Literally, kids' lives depend on it." <a href="http://www.criticallyeducated.com/" target="_blank">Mario Echeverria</a> (2022).</div><div> </div>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-62102700198358941472022-02-08T23:37:00.005-08:002022-02-08T23:37:44.996-08:00mindful moments<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLOiFZxbqvzzSnIKpQGvGaEQQQqUwPfhlMBXu2TR_NPY2XddQIcKKthkxiHkD-KHZmenKQKpVC0KzLe0Q-_CudrU4djho3LZJ5UfPsKbzj41nqzsNT7dy0s7nrt2HMr5G1c5WgGpOqNmAwqnCUi2HKJsexVOwFOFoUXQpz6P8ENU2sZiB4I2Ww1DSjtg=s1564" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1564" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLOiFZxbqvzzSnIKpQGvGaEQQQqUwPfhlMBXu2TR_NPY2XddQIcKKthkxiHkD-KHZmenKQKpVC0KzLe0Q-_CudrU4djho3LZJ5UfPsKbzj41nqzsNT7dy0s7nrt2HMr5G1c5WgGpOqNmAwqnCUi2HKJsexVOwFOFoUXQpz6P8ENU2sZiB4I2Ww1DSjtg=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>My favorite definition of mindfulness is, "returning to the present." Mindfulness meditation is the repetitive practice of returning to the present moment, of noticing when we are distracted, or thinking about something other than our current focus, and returning our attention to our intentional focus - such as returning to our breath in vipassana. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>Mindfulness can take on many forms, other than just sitting meditation. Being present with the ocean or any body of water; watching the waves undulate across the sand, listening to the ebb and flow, or to the trickle or roar of the fluid cascading sparkle of the water before us.</div><div><br /></div><div>A walk in nature, a jog, or a run. The flow of a good game of basketball, our minds focused on the present moment, our bodies in rhythm, our hearts in coherence. Creating visual art, focused on colors and textures running from our hands as medium meets medium. The flow of writing as our minds are focused on the turn of words and sounds of pens, pencils, or the keys' clackity clack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mindfulness can be practiced at any time, during any activity, in any situation. It gives us a chance to get to know our inner-worlds, to become familiar with our patterns of thought, to familiarize ourselves with our internal dynamics, our relationship with the external world, and to exercise our mental attention and focus on the present.<br />
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How much time do you spend rushing your teeth in the morning? Two or three minutes?<br />
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How long is your shower; ten, fifteen, maybe twenty minutes?</div>
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How much time does it take to shave, fix your hair, or put on makeup? </div>
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<div>I know I tell myself many times, through both my actions of avoidance and my inner-monologue, that I don't have time to meditate or to be mindful, that I lack time for a mindful moment. But I know I really do. What might I be avoiding? Maybe an unseen pain, or an attachment to a pattern or habit that I find comfort in?</div>
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<div>We can make a shift to be more mindful, intentionally. Five minutes as we sit down before we eat our lunch. Five minutes after we park at work or after we get home, sitting in our car. Five minutes after a Zoom meeting, five minutes outside in our backyard, porch, or taking a short walk. Do we have five minutes for peace of mind and whole heartedness, for self-compassion and loving kindness? I can make the time. I can imagine myself open to daily mindful moments.</div>
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</div></div>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-4779167736189455522022-02-05T11:19:00.001-08:002022-02-05T11:19:24.143-08:00Bar Soap - Yep, a post about bar soap<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4orJ_jYso3aM_chA0fFdOeJ_JcZOuRnAw9lfjRgiAjJE3O32Wz0u_fblxZxQWfLI_8Psj7A0-OLe2oyHbbX9ScRIKhnPRTDf-Fs902rG5Yyz2Luz0dfTqwcs-fD2OXQrXMlPMjylVx8ijho4M8OJYQBrS93G5u-iQ3HO4bm5toNKkraiIPUEnFT4mvg=s1496" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1496" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4orJ_jYso3aM_chA0fFdOeJ_JcZOuRnAw9lfjRgiAjJE3O32Wz0u_fblxZxQWfLI_8Psj7A0-OLe2oyHbbX9ScRIKhnPRTDf-Fs902rG5Yyz2Luz0dfTqwcs-fD2OXQrXMlPMjylVx8ijho4M8OJYQBrS93G5u-iQ3HO4bm5toNKkraiIPUEnFT4mvg=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Thanks to my brother Ricky I have started to use bar soap, specifically the Defense brand of bar soap with tea-tree and eucalyptus oils. I had to buy new bars a few weeks ago and I realized that I really didn't have any way (or where) to put the soap in between showers - it just sort of sat there on one of our two ledges getting smaller and smaller with every other shower (even when I wasn't using it). So I did some internet sleuthing to see what kind of soap dishes or containers I could to extend the life of the bar. I found a few that made sense, but the two that I was draw to the most both had problems (in my mind at least). I was about to buy a bamboo one, but all of the reviews talked about how it just mildewed within weeks of use. There was another one, a porcelain one, that looked good, but in my mind all I could image was me dropping it in the shower and having to clean up a mess of ceramic shards. </p><p>The other day, as I was using a natural loofa, and I realized I can just put the soap bar on top of the loofa. So far it seems to have worked really well, the soap bar stays much drier in between showers than before (when I used to reach down between bottles and just find a goopy edged bar). I do have to say, if your loofa is a bit long, or curved in any way, you may have to find a little nook, as I have, to slightly lean the loofa with the soap on top, so that it will not fall over between showers. </p><p>If you're into bar soap and would like to look into other ways to prolong the life of your soap bar, check out these two links below. I found them to be pretty interesting.</p><p><a href="https://looacademy.com/store-bar-soap-in-the-shower/">9 Ways to Store a Bar Soap in the Shower and Make it Last Longer - Loo University</a></p><p><a href="https://nul.care/news/how-to/how-to-store-soap-and-shampoo-bars-properly/">How to store soap and shampoo bars – nul</a></p>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-69579957112617527502022-02-04T22:49:00.006-08:002022-07-27T17:52:19.453-07:00Pressure to Produce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgR3c3AmplB1nSJ1sYgtfSly-ETSKaK7iqZZVx1bDyrjGvHEf7sYb5S1_w7O8_Jjl88M9gWmuUbxWYvQWwZb7xKNC8SkC90VmGWoHIlZYYHgFyfCwJ6ASpe6Q3eCv1CAUlahkVTlIJoSaLZmwdxuwAASym7Gp0d-jV6SvXhd6oyFQU1rUiuiGVy35Z97w=s6016" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4015" data-original-width="6016" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgR3c3AmplB1nSJ1sYgtfSly-ETSKaK7iqZZVx1bDyrjGvHEf7sYb5S1_w7O8_Jjl88M9gWmuUbxWYvQWwZb7xKNC8SkC90VmGWoHIlZYYHgFyfCwJ6ASpe6Q3eCv1CAUlahkVTlIJoSaLZmwdxuwAASym7Gp0d-jV6SvXhd6oyFQU1rUiuiGVy35Z97w=w400-h268" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I was talking to a good friend of mine, another educator, just checking in the other day and in reflecting on our conversation I thought about how capitalism's pressure to produce over everything else ruins so much. In particular I was telling him about how so many aspects of my life involve reading and writing right now, from my day-job in education, to my PhD work as a student, and even teaching the one class that I facilitated last semester at USD, liberal studies 100. My friend said, then you must be getting really good at writing. To which I responded, maybe, but I don't feel like that right now. I feel burned out. Of course, now I'm sitting down to write about it, about how I feel burned out by how much writing I've had to do lately, and I'll process this burned out feeling, by writing about it, ha!</p><p>An idea struck me though. Within my PhD program it feels like I really want to work hard at becoming an elite athlete (an elite scholar), but instead of having room to practice our craft, instead feeling like we have space to really flourish, to move openly, and in ways that feel right for each of our bodies (minds and spirits), instead of being trusted to trust our own body (mind), intuition, and movements, it's like we're being asked to break up boulders with sledge hammers, over and over again. It's tiring. I was already tired (this pandemic has me exhausted). And so when I go to practice my own techniques, my own movements, I'm tired, burned out, feeling like the breaking down of the boulders hasn't really helped me progress in my path.</p><p>Granted, part of my burn-out, probably a large portion of it, is the COVID-blues. I am so sick of this panorama, er, I mean pomegranate, wait, wait, I meant to say pandemonium - uh, well, I think you know what I'm talking about, I hope. Or maybe I hope that you don't, because that would mean either you really don't understand what I've just written which is just fine, probably better to spare you the re-traumatization, or you're reading this from some distant place, or time - more likely time - after this has blown over and is in the annals of history.</p><p>Back to the topic, of capitalism ruining everything. My current PhD experience has some parallels with my (now) 15-year old son's high school experience, during his first semester of 9th grade. Without getting into too many intimate details, the basic gist of the connection between my experience and his is that we are struggling to help his school understand that some of their grading policies and procedures have been punitive and unrelated to our son's learning. That the compliance task-heavy nature of the industrial model of schooling is taxing, mind-numbing, soul-sucking, creativity crushing - and ultimately dehumanizing. I mean, we haven't said all of this to his teachers and school leaders, and while I think they would actually agree with some of (or even a lot of this) they, like so many educators, continue to perpetuate these cycles and systems of capitalist-driven punitive structures.</p><p>So why do we have grades? Is it to measure learning or effort? What is the definitive difference between an A and a B? Is it measurable, consistent? Is it like temperature, where a 10 degree difference in Celsius in one classroom is the same as in another? No, right? Can we be sure that the difference between two grades, the differences in assessment or evaluation of student work by a teacher, is the same between all instances of As and Bs throughout all Western forms of schooling? Of course not. An A in one class, from a particular teacher, with a particular student, is going to mean something completely different than an A in any other class, or even in the same class with a different student. So why do we keep using them as if they measure something tangible, real, or valuable - like effort and hard work? And is "effort" and "hard work" what we want to or should be measuring? </p><p>Let me be clear, effort and hard work are keys to growth, but is that what we should be measuring in our school settings? How hard a student worked? Is it measurable? Is one student's 3 hours of focused time and effort the same as another student's 3-hours? If I can write 5 pages in less time than my brother (and I know I can), does that mean that I can get a better grade in less time with less effort? So we aren't really measuring effort then, right? Maybe these concepts of hard work and effort, that we attempt to measure, or pretend to measure, with our schooling systems' grades, are graded because they translate easiest into the capitalist working conditions that exist in our society? Maybe.</p><p><br /></p>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-76160648419473254272019-11-03T01:10:00.000-07:002019-11-03T21:37:56.647-08:00The power of meditation and the silliness of serendipity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today while waiting in line at Sprouts to buy my lunch I decided to be mindful - to focus on the present moment, kindly, nonjudgmentally taking note of my feelings and thoughts, and do a little walking (standing in line) meditation. As I took my first deep breath and allowed my focus to set in on my state of being I could feel anxiety rising in my belly. I had looked over at the other line that I didn't get into and noticed that it was shorter. I looked over again and the person I would have been behind was being rung up while I still had two people in front of me. I heard the thought, <i>I should have gotten into the other line.</i> I focused on my breath and the anxiety; I noticed jealousy, jealous of the few extra minutes that my alternate-reality self would have had. Thoughts and feelings swam around, thought, <i>I had made a mistake</i>, <i>I was missing out</i>. These feelings and thoughts were powerful reminders of how often I operate outside of the present moment. I focused in on the present moment noticing the clerk at the register in front of me checking a $100 bill she had been given for authenticity. Then the person in front of me was being served. I stayed focused on my breath. And now I am here present with the clerk.</div>
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As I turned to leave I was looking down at my wallet and I had to stop as I almost ran into the person leaving from the other register. It was the woman I would have been behind, the one that had gotten to the register while I was still waiting in my line. I left her pass in front of me and a smile burst across my face. How silly of me to have worried in the first place, I had chosen the faster line (and missed out on an extra minute or two of meditation).</div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-82717074777527536052019-09-06T01:46:00.001-07:002019-11-04T22:42:22.253-08:00The perils of online education and the dopamine rabbit hole: is it 2 in the morning already?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not saying I think that online education is the reason I stayed up past 2 am today. But if I wasn't taking an online class that pointed me to a clip of the Carmichael Show, which I had never heard of, which led me to IMDB, and then Jerrod Carmichael and his stand up on YouTube, and then clips of Gaffigan and then Whose Line Is It Anyway, would I have been up until 2 am today? <br />
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Is it my lack of will power or discipline? Or maybe the computer itself and the internet and how my brain interacts with the ideas, images, and perceived social interactions? The muse of my amusement, the traction of my distraction. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia">Maybe it's the dopamine hit and the attention getting YouTube </a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia">logrhythm</a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia"> that has me hooked?</a><br />
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So what can I do to limit my exposure, to hone my tool, the computer, the browser, so that I can stay focused on my academic endeavor, and get some sleep?<br />
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Use an instance of Chrome that opens with the sites I need for my class, University website, University email, blackboard (or other LMS - learning management system), and a Google drive folder with class documents. Keep it simple, less distraction, an empty desk, a clean slate. But isn't part of the beauty and power of education and intellectual stimulation traversing rabbit holes? (Just maybe not YouTube rabbit holes?)<br />
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I mean <a href="https://youtu.be/tgIqecROs5M">maybe it's my ADD baby</a>? Really though, maybe not necessarily ADD, but I have to admit even before computers were my fix, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, reading, playing chess, talking with friends, or on some other inner trip. I wonder what keeps me up like this at night? Is it any different, typing away on this draft in front of this luminous screen, than writing in a notepad? Reading this article on a tablet versus holding a physical book? I'm still not sleeping.</div>
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The title of this post is misleading. I'm missing the point, or rather, I'm mixing two messages. We need to be careful how we interact with any tool, any medium. <a href="https://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/when-novels-were-bad-for-you/">When books/novels first became popular in the 1800s there was an outcry of concern</a>: all of these people indoors for hours reading, immobile, daydreaming, distracted from the real world work to be done. <br />
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Computers are not necessarily a problem (although my cellphone might be...damn Blogger and Blackboard apps handy on my nightstand I still haven't slept tonight at all. It's 4:33 in the am).<br />
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Learning is exhilarating. I'm enthralled, excited in the most literal sense as my intellect has been turned on and it's not turning off. I'm exuberant about the prospect of learning and growing and teaching and contributing to our body of knowledge.<br />
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My favorite quote from Professor Joi Spencer so far is, "All knowledge is political and shaped by power." So simple and so true. My father confidently and emphatically stated that teaching is political, that all action (and inaction) is political in nature as it speaks to our power <u>and</u> culture. I have the beautiful opportunity within my community to facilitate the creation of new knowledge, to love each other in public, to create more social justice to transform our society together.</div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-44800072543333267352018-09-03T09:33:00.002-07:002018-09-09T22:05:33.744-07:00How often do you . . .<div class="graf graf--p" name="b3a8">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> rawpixel.com on Pexels</td></tr>
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How often do you take a bite of food and masticate intentionally, slowly, deliberately?<br />
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How often do you put another bite of food in your mouth before the first bite is finished?<br />
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How often do you deliberate on what finished means? Are you done when there's no more chewing? Are you done when you swallow the last morsel? And how long do you wait before taking the next bite? How often are you present in that moment, as you swallow, feeling the food move down your esophagus while savoring the aftertaste?<br />
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How often do you lick your lips? How often are you present in the moment, focused attentively on chewing, tasting, savoring, and swallowing?<br />
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I encourage you to get a glass (or bottle) of cool (or cold) and take a big sip, and close your eyes as the water runs down your esophagus and into your stomach, and focus on the sensation of the cool liquid. In every moment there is beauty, uniqueness, a lesson. In every moment. How many lessons do we miss every minute, every hour, every day?</div>
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How often do you eat, chewing unconsciously, swallowing bite after bite, shoveling food into your mouth while your mind is on other tasks? How often do you ignore your present moment? How often do you ignore your body and its needs and its experience? How often do your mind and body act in unison?</div>
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Interesting and informative articles and links related to mindful eating:<br />
<a href="https://zenhabits.net/what-is-mindful-eating/" target="_blank">What is mindful eating - zen habits</a><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/dining/mindful-eating-as-food-for-thought.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Mindful Eating as Food for Thought - NY Times</a><br />
<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-albers/mindful-eating_b_1265865.html" target="_blank">The Surprising Benefits of Mindful Eating - Huffington Post</a><br />
<a href="https://www.mindful.org/6-ways-practice-mindful-eating/" target="_blank">6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating - mindful</a><br />
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Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-52419392370023842872018-04-27T22:30:00.001-07:002018-09-03T09:58:45.619-07:00Embrace the Eternity<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguaVQuhw5c2yFre1_o1_JREp79KTebcIHgQbDWLzaukqjSHK4MAbMqBwxDT4LiokHxUCy-uGwyxwrtBlhdedL2usTBta8GgjBQa2OV3bmxFnJxm8AEuorNi-1eMjJeOAIC11NBeTx2MajL/s1600/abstract-astronomy-constellation-1025469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguaVQuhw5c2yFre1_o1_JREp79KTebcIHgQbDWLzaukqjSHK4MAbMqBwxDT4LiokHxUCy-uGwyxwrtBlhdedL2usTBta8GgjBQa2OV3bmxFnJxm8AEuorNi-1eMjJeOAIC11NBeTx2MajL/s400/abstract-astronomy-constellation-1025469.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://www.pexels.com/@faaiq-ackmerd-383634</td></tr>
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Sometimes during the first few moments of meditation I get a feeling of overwhelming eternity — this moment, these seconds, feel like they are lasting forever, as my thoughts race and my mind keeps telling me that I need to be doing other things, anything, something else other than sitting here breathing.<br />
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How long did I set my timer for? How many minutes will I be sitting here, doing nothing? If these first few seconds feel so long and unendurable, how is the rest of this meditation going to feel? Is this really the most important thing for me to be doing right now!?!<br />
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Embrace the eternity — the empty space that our mind fills with thoughts and worries. The pain that rises out of the darkness. Embrace it. As unbearably long as it may feel, this moment is fleeting. Every moment, every group of moments, will pass, eventually, inevitably.<br />
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Turn into it, lean into your discomfort. Like an empty desk, a mind with a sense of never ending time is key to creation and ideation — it is a precursor to the deep work that will lead to breakthroughs.<br />
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Embrace the space, with no phone calls, no checking of emails or statuses, no comments or likes; embrace the space where thoughts will rush in and where we can embrace and accept each thought, and clear out our cache, clear a space in our mind for deep work.<br />
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Embrace the eternity of the moment.Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-17099024334113705772017-09-22T07:55:00.003-07:002022-07-27T18:01:44.936-07:00They're just words<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><div>(Friendly warning, profanity abound in this piece)</div><div><br /></div><div>“They’re just words,” my father told me. I don’t remember how old I was but it stuck. My father didn’t care if I cussed — he dropped f-bombs on the regular. He didn’t do it carelessly, but it was most certainly effortless.</div><div><br /></div><div>My dad was adamant about it too — they are words like any others, with purpose, function, and beauty. Fuck, for instance, can be a noun, “I gives no fucks,” a verb, “fuck off,” turned easily into an adjective, “That’s a fucking apple,” and used to enhance adjectives too, “That’s fucking crazy,” just to name a few of its many uses.</div><div><br /></div><div>As a teenager I took it to the extreme, fuck being one of the most common words I used on the daily. My best friend had had enough one night and interjected in the middle of one of my fuck-infused rants. “It loses its meaning when you over use it like that. It loses its power.” I had not heard this kind of criticism before, not admonishing me for using the word itself, but for misusing it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fast forward to about a year ago, when my boys, at age six and nine, starting cussing in the back seat while I was driving. I thought, why not break it to them, these are just words. “Papa didn’t say anything,” one of them whispered to the other, as I was contemplating my response. “Papa did you hear what he said?” I responded that I did. “Why didn’t you tell him anything?” And so I broke it to them.</div><div><br /></div><div>They are just words. “What do you mean Papa?” They are words like any other, with specific meanings, and nuance, with so many creative functions and uses. You simply have to know how and when to use them — the proper contexts and situations.</div><div><br /></div><div>My boys thought this was the best news ever! They started cussing and cussing in the back seat. I explained again to them, there are proper places and situations to cuss, and improper ones. School is not a proper place. With your brother in the back seat, that might be ok with your father driving. I explained all of this, still thinking that this was somehow going to work out for my six and nine year old.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have talked to my kids like they are adults since they were born, spoken to them without dumbing anything down, no baby-talk, no nonsense (actually lots of nonsense, nonsense is fun). Expecting my children to behave like adults based on what I told them — that was expecting too much.</div><div><br /></div><div>It took them almost two days to figure out that in front of their mom was not the right context. The first time they dropped a bomb and their mom laid into them they said I had told them that it was okay to cuss. I had to explain to them again, and to my wife, what I had said — they’re just words, but have to be used in the proper contexts. This did not go so well with my wife, not that she didn’t agree, but she knew better than I did at the time, that our boys were not ready for this knowledge, this freedom.</div><div><br /></div><div>My boys are still in the process of realizing the power of their words. They see that they have power, they witness the results of their words in action. Through experience hopefully they will come to understand how and why choosing their words carefully and intentionally is vital to the impact and outcomes of their interactions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Knowledge is power. And words can be powerful too, if we use them effectively, nuanced, in the right context, with the right timing and inflection. The classic school yard saying that sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me is hogwash— baloney — poppycock (and not the sweet crunchy poppycock). Words can and do hurt — we hurt each other all of the time with what we say and how we say it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once you learn something, it cannot be taken away. And once you say something, most of the time you cannot take it back. You have given life to your voice and your energy, putting your ideas, thoughts, and emotions out into the world. Be careful what you say, how you say it, to whom, and in what context. Be thoughtful and intentional. Words are beautifully powerful and as with any power we can uplift and heal or we can tear down and destroy. The choice is yours.</div>Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-587419778459541842017-09-18T07:58:00.000-07:002017-09-18T08:02:02.810-07:00Notifications — huh—yeah — what are they good for?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Notifications, not as serious as war, which is absolutely good for nothing, are good for something; to notify you of note-worthy things, hopefully.</div>
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I remember when my phone would incessantly take control of my attention at random moments in the middle of conversations, while I was focused on other things — interrupting my focus to notify me of responses to tweets, Facebook posts, virtual buildings being constructed, and signing monsters who needed to be tended. Was any of this by choice? Sure, I had downloaded apps and allowed their automatic notifications to remain active. Was it intentional and deliberate. Most certainly not.</div>
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We should not be subservient to our phones — it should be the other way around. Our phones should do exactly what we want them to do. I have turned off all notifications on my phone except for: texts, chats, phone calls, and my calendar app. Simple. I also put my phone away at various times of the day, when I am not willing to be interrupted by any of these functions.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVT3NIeRuoljG5dPFepq7v7r_FaCdny25yDA8C1BVff_XmoUmL9NgKKjWpSK25wCwQojTw6pkXfylgb6icf-6GyBDa_5yaN_728L0LKUELZeCoDJ7clD_Da0NA9VJT9szlRtGuDESnycmM/s1600/Screenshot_20170912-091800-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="720" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVT3NIeRuoljG5dPFepq7v7r_FaCdny25yDA8C1BVff_XmoUmL9NgKKjWpSK25wCwQojTw6pkXfylgb6icf-6GyBDa_5yaN_728L0LKUELZeCoDJ7clD_Da0NA9VJT9szlRtGuDESnycmM/s320/Screenshot_20170912-091800-2.jpg" width="320" /></a>I have turned off all notifications on my except for: texts, chats, phone calls, and my calendar app. Simple. I also put my phone away at various times of the day, when I am not willing to be interrupted by any of these functions.</div>
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If we are going to be interrupted by our phones it should be for a good reason. It should be planned out and intentional on our part. I am using the new Google calendar “Reminder” function as a means to turn my phone into a reminding device — to remind me to meditate, journal, and complete my workouts and Tai Chi. </div>
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If you are going to be interrupted by your phone, it should be because there is an urgent matter in your family or at work, because an old friend is looking to get a hold of you, or because you have decided that this interruption is important and is part of the intention you have for yourself for today, for your life. If your phone is interrupting you simply because you’ve installed a new app and it’s notifications are on, and this isn’t a deliberate choice on your part — I think you’ve lost control of the device. Make it intentional. Make your phone enhance your life not distract from it. </div>
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Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-79413131507408228412017-09-11T17:05:00.001-07:002017-09-11T17:05:26.744-07:00Digital Hygiene<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-Usvt4wbHVKx83YBjIGz24qJCT9fBhYFVbzmdrV-gCdGhBLBLSyoZq2vj3fJOeM2CUk62Cx8iR1J-xr6KvHRMHzwyS_EwnK7qbHWu7G4USpxl3iNxJTfkTeGBZJ5i4dnHp_2R7DpmDYP/s1600/rodion-kutsaev-184298+Cell+phone+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-Usvt4wbHVKx83YBjIGz24qJCT9fBhYFVbzmdrV-gCdGhBLBLSyoZq2vj3fJOeM2CUk62Cx8iR1J-xr6KvHRMHzwyS_EwnK7qbHWu7G4USpxl3iNxJTfkTeGBZJ5i4dnHp_2R7DpmDYP/s640/rodion-kutsaev-184298+Cell+phone+3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/0VGG7cqTwCo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "San Francisco", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration-skip: ink; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out, opacity 0.2s ease-in-out; white-space: nowrap;">Rodion Kutsaev</a><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; color: #111111; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "San Francisco", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; white-space: nowrap;"> on </span><a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "San Francisco", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start; text-decoration-skip: ink; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out, opacity 0.2s ease-in-out; white-space: nowrap;">Unsplash</a></td></tr>
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I am struck by how much time and energy, how much focus and productivity I have gained by following a few simple steps in digital hygiene; (steps inspired by <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@thisissethsblog" href="https://medium.com/@thisissethsblog" target="_blank">Seth Godin</a>’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/five-steps-to-digital-hygiene.html" href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/five-steps-to-digital-hygiene.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Five steps to digital hygiene</a> and by my interactions with my altMBA alumni in the 30 Day Challenge alumni channel). </div>
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There are three main ideas I have put in place that I have found to be instrumental in freeing up time and mental energy:</div>
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<li class="graf graf--li" name="4f4b">Turn off all notifications except for calls, texts, chats, and calendar notifications.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li" name="15dc">Quit social media and gaming on your phone — no more Facebook or Twitter, no more Signing Monsters or Bomb Beach.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li" name="3f32">Ignore all of the negative energy — quit reading negative comments and exchanges on the internet.</li>
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It took me a while to follow Seth’s first step — turning off email and social media notifications on my phone. At first when I turned it off, I found myself jonesing for a fix of attention, looking at my phone wanting to “check-in,” to “interact,” longing for the constant stimulus I had grown so accustomed to.</div>
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Even after turning these notifications off, I still found myself checking in on Twitter and Facebook, often; I found myself spending hours enthralled in emotional battles with people I have never met and never will — battling back and forth with no real result other then more and more virtually inspired vitriol. </div>
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Fast forward a few months, I am interacting with the altMBA alumni community, expressing my desire to make time for writing, time to interact in positive manners online, and in person with my family. So I decided in November of 2017, a few weeks after the presidential election, to quit social media. I uninstalled Twitter and Facebook from my cell phone. I stopped checking in online all together.</div>
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At first, as with the notifications being turned off, I still was looking to fill the space left by the absence of these interactions. I found myself spending more time on slack and LinkedIn. After a while though I felt satisfied without these interactions. I found more time in my hands. I started writing more and spending more time present with my family.</div>
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The difference now in how I interpret notifications on my phone is striking. I don’t feel a need to constantly be interacting, to be connected to any virtual stimulus. Emotionally I feel lighter and clearer. I am no longer embroiled in online battles of “wit” or anger infused tweets and comments. My digital hygiene is much improved.</div>
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I encourage you to examine your digital hygiene. Are your online interactions as fruitful and emotionally balanced as you would like them to be? What need or part of you are the conversations and interactions you are involved with satisfying? Is your cell phone enhancing your life or interrupting it? Or both? It’s up to you. It’s your turn to decide and act.</div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-60978021654407873162017-09-08T07:21:00.001-07:002022-07-27T18:02:26.089-07:00If you don't see color, then you don't see me<div class="graf graf--p" name="f276">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSrQVHIwBXzCOq6U-PfB3mOa67Mmez_ltlsssPRy_rdedRJK7ZEncxyNt6ECtdSHkzb9xF0oB6Gj_jOBn9jk5e_Pb0TbT8A5G6BcbdDAr_cTvAuAMwMOeSIXWVmlYv-g1lygFezDan8jX/s1600/cropped-different-skin-color-hands.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1500" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSrQVHIwBXzCOq6U-PfB3mOa67Mmez_ltlsssPRy_rdedRJK7ZEncxyNt6ECtdSHkzb9xF0oB6Gj_jOBn9jk5e_Pb0TbT8A5G6BcbdDAr_cTvAuAMwMOeSIXWVmlYv-g1lygFezDan8jX/s400/cropped-different-skin-color-hands.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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During a discussion about race and racism at a professional development meeting at my workplace one of my colleagues said, “I don’t see color.” Another of our coworkers responded, “If you don’t see color, then you don’t see me.” She went on to explain that she is black, and that if you claim to not see her skin color then you don’t see her, nor her culture, struggle, and history.</div>
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If you take a stance of ‘not seeing color’ so as to not allow the color of people’s skin to affect how you treat them, to instead see them as human beings, not defined by their race or ethnicity, I commend you for taking this noble stance. Unfortunately this perspective ignores the influence of our culture, of the hundreds of years of policies, practices, and ideas that have a direct affect on our biases, our worldviews. ‘Not seeing color’ ultimately originates from an experience of not having to see color — it arises out of the idea that we have a choice to act and experience the world without consideration of skin color or race. Sadly, our culture is steeped in racism and to ignore color is to discount the current racial discrimination found in our country’s institutions; systems that affect people directly everyday of their lives.</div>
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The fact is that we do see color. Not seeing color is pretending. It’s there right in front of us every time we look at someone. It would be easier if we didn’t see it, if we didn’t have to deal with it, no? If we didn’t have to be troubled with the messy work of confronting our country’s racist past, present, and future; it’d be easier. I would much rather spend my time on something else — but that’s not a choice I am willing to make. It would be easier if we didn’t have to confront our own biases and prejudices, learned from our families, from society, from the media, from our shared history of racism and violence. But I’m not interested in easy work and I hope you aren’t either. We must educate others about racism and strategies to combat and dismantle it — we must face it head on.</div>
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The work of anti-racism requires that we see each other clearly, in all of our beauty, in order to celebrate our differences in skin tone, in hair color and texture, all of our differences, so that we can acknowledge and address the inequalities, injustices, and violence that have been institutionalized and perpetuated based on these differences in appearance. The work of anti-racism requires that we celebrate each other — that we celebrate our unique cultures and honor each other for the struggle and work that our communities have put in making strides toward changing our world — toward ridding our world of racism.</div>
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One of the places you can start is with yourself. Do the work to mine your subconscious (and conscious) thoughts and patterns for your biases and prejudices based on race. If you truly believe that you do not see color, do work to truly assess this ability. Root your bias out, find the places where your own ignorance or misconception leads you to make assumptions, misleads your actions down paths you would rather not be on. Where in your family and your experiences have you created road-blocks to making positive connections with people who look and are different than you, people of other cultures and ethnicities? Find these road blocks and do the hard work to remove them.</div>
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We have to connect with each other, now more than ever. And it will take every single one of us, no matter what color we are, to step forward and make a stand against racism. One of the first and most important steps is to educate yourself about the history of racism. I like to start with the study of racist policies.</div>
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Laws making interracial marriage illegal were some of the first overtly racist laws and were passed in many of the British colonies in the Americas (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States#Colonial_Era" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States#Colonial_Era" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Virginia and Maryland being the first</a>). These laws were put into place to help quell the unity between white indentured servants and black slaves in the colonies who had intermarried, created cohesive communities, and rose up as part of various rebellions (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bacon’s Rebellion</a> being one of these). There were also many laws giving white indentured servants more rights, benefits toward and after freedom, and preferential treatment compared to black slaves (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Howard_Zinn-A_peoples_history_of_the_United_States.pdf" href="http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Howard_Zinn-A_peoples_history_of_the_United_States.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">A People’s History of the United States, Zinn, pages 49, 67</a>). From here we can move through slavery and emancipation, Jim Crow era disenfranchisement, segregation, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/05/30/where_to_find_historical_redlining_maps_of_your_city.html" href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/05/30/where_to_find_historical_redlining_maps_of_your_city.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">red lining realty practices</a>, right into <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/01/13/achievement-gap-between-white-and-black-students-still-gaping" href="https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/01/13/achievement-gap-between-white-and-black-students-still-gaping" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the achievement gap</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" rel="noopener" target="_blank">lack of higher education representation</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline" rel="noopener" target="_blank">school to prison pipeline</a>, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cops-race-injury-20160725-snap-story.html" href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cops-race-injury-20160725-snap-story.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">disproportionate police violence</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://youtu.be/V66F3WU2CKk" href="https://youtu.be/V66F3WU2CKk" rel="noopener" target="_blank">imprisonment of people of color</a>.</div>
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<em class="markup--em markup--p-em">(All of this being the trajectory of the policies of racism in regards to primarily African-Americans — not to even mention the history of racist ideologies, practices, policies and events in regards to Native American, Chican@, Latino American@, Asian American, Pacific Island American and Middle Eastern American populations).</em></div>
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All of this can feel very overwhelming. I know. I have a full-time job (work as a high school administrator), have a wife and three children, a part-time job (teach martial arts once a week), and can barely find time for the dishes and laundry. But no matter how much I feel or don’t feel the direct effects of racism today — it is my responsibility to take steps to fight against it everyday. This is real, and it’s not going to go away on its own.</div>
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No one can legitimately deny racism’s overt presence in our country and in our institutions after white supremacists marched in <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/us/charlottesville-protest-white-nationalist.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/us/charlottesville-protest-white-nationalist.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Charlottesville Virginia on August 12th</a>, one of them violently driving his car through a crowd of anti-protesters killing one and injury many (especially after president Trump’s statement, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/us/trump-charlottesville-protest-nationalist-riot.html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/us/trump-charlottesville-protest-nationalist-riot.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">“This egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides</a>,” essentially equating these violent white supremacists to the anti-racist protesters). Trump, with support from Attorney General Sessions, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/28/16214600/trump-police-military-sessions" href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/28/16214600/trump-police-military-sessions" rel="noopener" target="_blank">is now calling to militarize our police forces</a>. The militarization of our police forces along with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/02/it-took-jeff-sessions-just-one-month-to-turn-obama-era-drug-policy-on-its-head/?utm_term=.e8c87014334f" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/02/it-took-jeff-sessions-just-one-month-to-turn-obama-era-drug-policy-on-its-head/?utm_term=.e8c87014334f" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sessions’ ongoing roll-out of tough-on-crime and war-on-drugs policies</a> sadly means more police violence and more incarceration of American citizens and disproportionately more Americans of color.</div>
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You can get directly involved with groups like <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/about" href="http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/about" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Showing Up for Racial Justice</a>. You can seek out workshops like the mentioned in the article, “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/embrace-race/its-time-for-white-parents-of-white-kids-to-bring-the-resistance-home-f9a1b5de3bf1" href="https://medium.com/embrace-race/its-time-for-white-parents-of-white-kids-to-bring-the-resistance-home-f9a1b5de3bf1" target="_blank">It’s Time for White Parents of White Kids to Bring the Resistance Home.</a>” We all need to talk openly about race and racism, about our culture, our upbringing, and the realities of our shared history and present — about the struggles that have been hard fought and the fight that is still ragging.</div>
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Be that person who speaks up any time you hear someone say something that contradicts the reality of racism. Stand up any time you witness an assumption or statement that flies in the face of the reality of present day racism and its historical trajectory.</h3>
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We each need to take stock of our own privilege and leverage it. It is every single person’s responsibility, your responsibility, to empower diverse groups of people in our lives. At all of the tables where you have a seat — you need to do everything in your power to create a seat for someone who is different than you, who looks different than you, and thinks different than you. Without the inclusion of members of diverse communities in our institutions of all kinds we will not build the base that we need to combat racism.</div>
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It is up to every single one of us to make sure our world is a more inclusive world — a world that recognizes and acknowledges color but that does not make those differences the basis for exclusion, violence, and punitive action.</div>
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It is up to you to not ignore the beautiful color and diversity that you see — but to acknowledge every person’s fight for their right to humanity. It is up to you to end racism — every day, at every meeting, in every board room, at every table, in every institution.</div>
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Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-69832682144260629012017-09-03T13:43:00.004-07:002017-09-03T13:46:09.065-07:00Breath<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWQ9Ifu96WqVGz6IbbqibmPGjC8rsfxlD_UVoTwSz-WjcxdXKcbHKemdzuxCoSkRI_DNI44tnr7Yl9ptlNeZ3xSkZoUK_vn2VIMu1a4j-lVYZS9L0y4EaANCXpf40zyu8jyBRcASSIhA_/s1600/pexels-photo-305818.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEWQ9Ifu96WqVGz6IbbqibmPGjC8rsfxlD_UVoTwSz-WjcxdXKcbHKemdzuxCoSkRI_DNI44tnr7Yl9ptlNeZ3xSkZoUK_vn2VIMu1a4j-lVYZS9L0y4EaANCXpf40zyu8jyBRcASSIhA_/s400/pexels-photo-305818.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture by Scott Webb via https://www.pexels.com/u/scottwebb/</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">One of my major goals in practicing mindfulness, both through meditation and Tai Chi, is to help restore my body’s natural flow of breath, to maintain healthy relaxed deep breathing throughout my day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Breathing is the most important action of our lives, everyday, every minute, every moment. I have regularly practice deep belly breathing as my main breathing method, imagining my belly filling from the bottom up (and out) as I inhale and emptying from the top down as I exhale. Recently one of my favorite acupuncturists gave me a new visualization for my breathing practice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When you inhale imagine an empty balloon in your stomach expanding out in all three dimensions, all six directions — out and back, up and down, left and right. Especially focus on the expansion backwards as you inhale, gently messaging your kidneys, adrenal glands, and lower spine. As you exhale slowly, imagine the expanded balloon shrinking again in all thee dimensions until it is shriveled and empty. The acupuncturist stated that this focus on gently messaging your adrenal glands, lower back, and kidneys, can help to reduce anxiety and stress — both of which I have been struggling with lately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Since I have consistently focused on mindfulness and breathing practice I have been more able to maintain deeply breathing during stressful and intense interactions at work, and this allows me to stay more present in my cortex, to better avoid getting caught up in impulsive, emotional, and unconscious reactions to events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My next step is making this happen for my life at home. For some reason I am still allowing myself to get carried away and caught in quick unconscious reactions in my home — getting angry and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://itsyourturnblog.com/yelling-yelling-yelling-the-middle-way-a8a3a67c9973" href="https://itsyourturnblog.com/yelling-yelling-yelling-the-middle-way-a8a3a67c9973" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">yelling</a> at my family members sometimes. I find myself <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/04/cursing-gravity.html" href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/04/cursing-gravity.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">cursing gravity</a> when things are clearly out of my control. My next intentional practice is mindful parenting. Breath, relax, and note that it is all going to be okay.</span></div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-77130380237637705602017-08-30T20:31:00.000-07:002017-08-30T20:39:50.524-07:00Mindful Driving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few months ago I started to practice mindful driving. I turn off the radio, no music, no podcasts, just the sound of the air rushing over the car, the engine, the tires gliding over the road, and the other cars around me. I focus in on my breathing, slowly and naturally breathing in, starting deep in my belly, and slowly exhaling.<br />
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Please note that the goal of mindful driving is not to go inward, it is not a replacement for daily meditation practice, but is instead a practice of applied mindfulness. As said in one of my sons' favorite books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Monkey-Happy-Lauren-Alderfer/dp/0861716833" target="_blank">Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda</a>, "Mindful, like your mind is full of the present." While practicing mindful driving I am more acutely aware; I focus on scanning the road and surroundings. I can maintain a mindful observation of my experience, rather than getting caught up personally in other drivers' actions or other uncontrollable conditions (like traffic). <br />
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I practice mindful driving most often while on the way to work, and I find my thoughts roaming around my work day, around my goals and tasks for the day. As with my other mindfulness practices, once I realize I am dwelling on any one thought I allow it to flow away so that I can refocus fully on the present. I find that I gain a greater sense of clarity for the day, without the distraction of the radio. I have also found myself feeling calmer and my breathing practice fortified.<br />
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At first inspired by trying to squeeze mindfulness practice into any small corner of time I could find, driving mindfully has become a daily practice of mine. Again, this is not a replacement of daily mediation practice; focused meditation practices are like exercises for your mind - attuning to the present moment and being open and flexible, maintaining a sense of observation rather than attachment. Mindful driving is an application of mindfulness outside of a closed/controlled environment, with the goal of being present in each moment, fully attuned and immersed in the flow of action while maintaining a sense of calm observation.<br />
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I encourage you to experiment with applying mindfulness to different realms in your life, remembering that the goal is to improve you ability to focus on the present moment, to be aware and observant, to maintain calm. Apply your mindfulness muscle.<br />
<br />Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-68789189063917445082017-08-22T00:47:00.001-07:002017-08-22T01:05:12.224-07:00Writing Everyday<div class="graf graf--p" name="1b94">
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I write everyday. Emails (way too many), texts, letters, and angry tweets (well I used to, haven’t been on Twitter since November of last year). After my month long journey through altMBA7, after interacting with amazingly generous and inspiring people, and after watching this <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://youtu.be/AtfvZ_KOiZY" href="https://youtu.be/AtfvZ_KOiZY" rel="noopener" target="_blank">30 minute interview with Seth Godin</a> — I am reinvigorated to write more publicly, to express myself with the intent to inspire impactful change in others — in you!</div>
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As a part of my writing habit I have recently started daily journaling again, a habit I maintained as a teenager. As I teen I stuck to mainly diary entries and stream of consciousness ramblings. Now I write in my journal with four main foci: <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">gratitude, brain-dump, observations of interesting things, and bullet journaling.</em></div>
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<li class="graf graf--li" name="caf2"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">Gratitude: </strong>I write a list every night and every morning to amplify the positivity in my life. So many <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201504/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-gratitude" href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201504/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-gratitude" rel="noopener" target="_blank">positive healthy benefits</a> to <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="http://happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/" href="http://happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">activating gratitude</a>. I find the humility that I embolden with acknowledging the privileges I have and the gratitude I feel for my life to be priceless.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li" name="3827"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">Brain-dump,</strong> stream of consciousness, free write; whatever you want to call it. Everyday I write for at least ten minutes with no clear aim or goal other than to clear my mind, to work my writing muscle. Sometimes there are creative pieces that come streaming out. Other times it’s meandering rambles clearing out the noise. Prune diligently.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li" name="a317"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">Observations</strong> of interesting things, thoughts, questions, inspirations. Review these notes often and you will be rewarded.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li" name="4740"><strong class="markup--strong markup--li-strong">Bullet journaling</strong> is a form of organization of lists than can be <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://youtu.be/fm15cmYU0IM" href="https://youtu.be/fm15cmYU0IM" rel="noopener" target="_blank">kept very simple and straight forward</a> or <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157274211970886840" href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/157274211970886840" rel="noopener" target="_blank">be leveled up</a> in <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" data-href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/108227197275552299/" href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/108227197275552299/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">countlessly creative manners</a>. The flexibility of the format has allowed me to be creatively organized.</li>
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Writing everyday. Shipping, everyday as long as I count emails.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">PS</strong> A <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@miguelangelsoria" href="https://medium.com/@miguelangelsoria" target="_blank">wise man</a> told me (as he was told by a wise woman with whom he worked) that you should consider every email you send public, as being shipped out to the world. Imagine every email you send on the front page (at least for a few minutes) of the New York Times or Washington Post (or Yahoo! News). Don’t send anything out that you wouldn’t be comfortable standing behind in the public sphere. Clicking the send button relinquishes any control you have over who else it reaches.<br />
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">PSS</strong> If you are interested in more on journaling, check out the following two more in depth pieces on journaling, writing, and habits of the mind:</div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="https://journal.thriveglobal.com/start-journaling-54ea2edb104" href="https://journal.thriveglobal.com/start-journaling-54ea2edb104" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Life Changing Habit of Journaling</a></blockquote>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-successful-people-spend-10-hours-a-week-on-compound-time-79d64d8132a8" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-successful-people-spend-10-hours-a-week-on-compound-time-79d64d8132a8" target="_blank">Why Successful People Spend 10 Hours a Week on “Compound Time”</a></blockquote>
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Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-55994470465939401022017-08-17T06:16:00.000-07:002017-08-17T06:42:09.697-07:00Empty Your Cup<div dir="ltr">
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During the most recent <a href="https://altmba.com/" target="_blank">altMBA</a> meet-up, Mark Guay and I met at <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Trilogy+Sanctuary/@32.8430028,-117.2759401,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dc03e484c86b2d:0x12dc3359dfd8bc6b!8m2!3d32.8429983!4d-117.2737514" target="_blank">Trilogy Sanctuary</a> - a beautifully vibrant locale. Mark brought two books to give to me based on his inspiration after reading my blog (this blog) and having visited Chicano Park. I am touched. So thoughtful and heartfelt.<br />
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Once we got into the meat of the meeting, as I was sipping a cup of cold brew coffee after weeks without coffee, I found myself feeling a bit unhinged, excited, talking and talking, organizing my thoughts as I explained my feelings of being overwhelmed, of feeling like a hamster running in a wheel. Mark jotted notes on sticky notes as I spoke. He interjected, even interrupted me at one point, and I am glad that he did. I had started my spiel with the premise that I felt unorganized.<br />
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"It's not that you are unorganized," he told me, "you seem very organized, using two digital calendars and a self-made journal organizer. You aren't prioritizing effectively." He asked a few key questions, like, "How many people do you have that you can delegate to?" I have at least four that I can consistently delegate to, and with some of my plans for added staff roles, even more. Am I effectively delegating though. Not yet. Mark brought up mindfulness, and I explained that I practice various forms of mindfulness on a regular basis.<br />
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And then the it hit him. "Do you journal? Not like this bullet journal, but write, just to get thoughts out and onto the page?" he asked. "Not recently, no." "Try five minute brain dumps every morning, or at night," he suggested, "write whatever comes to mind. It will help clear your mind." It didn't strike me at first as potentially the key to my de-stressing, the throwing off of the hamster wheel blanket; until we went downstairs and while heading to our cars Mark mentioned one of his favorite Buddhist Koans (and one of my favorites as well):<br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“It is overfull. No more will go in!”</em></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Like this cup,”</em> Nan-in said, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”</em></span></blockquote>
How can I possibly focus on any one thing when my cup is overflowing? I must first empty my cup.<br />
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<a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/can-a-complicated-bullet-journal-help-you-get-more.html" target="_blank">Bullet journaling</a> is key and I have noticed benefits to clarity and focus when I commit the time to fully engage and work on my journal daily - at least 15 minutes every day to clear my cache, check on upcoming tasks and events, and set my intentions for the day. What I have not been engaging in is brain dump journaling, stream of consciousness writing for the sake of writing and clearing my mind. I used to write in a journal everyday in my youth. Maybe the hamster wheel of achievement and career accomplishment, of family obligations and commitments, got in the way? No matter what the reason was that I stopped - I will start a daily writing journal today. (And I look forward to <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/3-reasons-writing-is-great-for-your-mental-health.html" target="_blank">the mental health benefits</a> of my <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/blog/benefits-of-writing/" target="_blank">writing</a>).<br />
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I will empty my cup, and when I pour too much in, I will empty it again.</div>
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Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-27217272629158477572017-08-12T07:15:00.000-07:002017-08-12T07:49:45.387-07:00Let it go<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When someone is hurt by my actions or when my actions cause a loss of opportunity for myself or others, I dwell on my mistakes. I wallow in my guilt and shame. I get stuck in the past. Sometimes this lasts days and it stops me from being productive, from being able to be my full self and from having my full capabilities.<br />
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Two monks were walking together when they came upon a river. At the river’s edge was a woman, two small to cross the roaring river on her own. The monks had vowed never to touch a woman again. One monk began to cross the river, leaving his companion and the woman on the bank. The other monk approached the woman and motioned for her to climb onto his back. She did, and he helped her across the river. After they crossed, she got down and they parted ways. The two monks walked together again, away from the river for some time before either of them spoke. The monk who first crossed the river spoke, “Brother, you broke your vow. In order to help that woman you touched her.” The second monk responded, “Yes, I did. But I put her down at the edge of the other bank, and you, you are still carrying her after all this time.”<br />
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Learning to let go will help me stay in the present moment. And what about worry?<br />
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My therapist asked me a question years ago, when I was worrying and asking what if this happens, or that happens. He asked me, “Where did you just go now?” I was dumbfounded for a second, “huh?” He repeated himself, “Where did you go while you were worrying, contemplating all of the negative what ifs?” And it struck me. I was going into the future. Just as with the dwelling on mistakes takes me to the past, worry and anxiety take me into the future. One that I cannot predict.<br />
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Mindfulness is a practice that can help us stay in the present moment. Not caught dwelling on the past nor worrying about an unpredictable future. The Buddhist koan I relayed above speaks to this mindfulness, to staying in the present moment. I still struggle with what this present mindedness means for planning, and in the case of the koan and my first mention of mistakes and errors, what that means for broken commitments and damage done.<br />
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My papi was not a fan of religion. He quoted Karl Marx's "Religion is the opiate of the masses" on various occasions to me. My father was a materialist and did not believe in anything science couldn't prove.<br />
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Let's look at Marx's whole quote though, as the one above is taken slightly out of context. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." Here we can see that although the basic element is still in place at the end of these phrases, Marx does acknowledge the soulful and heartfelt role that religion plays in people's lives. <br />
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I am not a Buddhist but I have found that I can learn a great deal from all religions, from any and all cultures. At the base of most religions are very simple values: love, selflessness, service. And in this case, mindfulness, another form of selflessness.<br />
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In the thralls of mindfulness one can part from their body and see the present situation almost as if from third person. One can detach from the need to be right, or to feel wrong. One can release the need to take the situation personal, and can breath and be present in the cortex before reacting; when mindful we can make decisions rather than react. <br />
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When I am effectively mindful I still feel emotions, I still have thoughts, but I do not get as caught up in them as when I am not mindful. I can accept that they exist and I can let them be without having to identify myself with each thought and emotion. I do not have to act until I am ready. I can simply be.<br />
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<br />Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-86708918972654419512017-08-11T18:58:00.004-07:002017-08-11T21:36:43.643-07:00Yelling, yelling, yelling - the middle wayWe yell a lot in our family. My papi yelled a lot. I learned it from him. To bottle my rage. And mijos, you learn it from me. Last week, while your mother was away, I had to apologize to you boys for my yelling, for my rage spilling over, for my low threshold and tolerance of your exuberance and silly playfulness. <br />
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I have been struggling with setting boundaries, with where to be firm, and where to be soft, and where to be permissive. I need to stop yelling, to listen to each of you and your voice. And most times your silly mode is acceptable. But sometimes it is not.<br />
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To be silly and light hearted. (I have written about this before, and pretty sure I will again). I know that I will live a much more rewarding and longer life by softening my heart by embracing silly playfulness. <br />
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Keep in mind the middle way. Let's consider the guitar and its strings as an example. If I tighten the strings too tight, they will give off shrill sounds when played. They will not last; they will be too brittle when plucked and eventually snap before their time. If I loosen the strings too much, they will not produce a lasting sound at all and what they do produce will be low and garbled, clanging haphazardly against the body and neck of the guitar. When I tune the guitar strings just right, in the middle, not loose and not tight, that is when they produce honey sweet sounds for our hearts and ears. Keep in mind the middle way.Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-53552162026351542512016-11-09T22:34:00.000-08:002019-04-01T23:42:54.053-07:00Principles of the Chicano Movement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My papi, Rene Nuñez, taught me that Chicanismo arose out the need for Mexican-Americans to carve their own space into the political landscape of the 60s and 70s, with roots reaching back through tens of thousands of years of existence in the Americas, with the survival of European conquest and colonization sparking the mestizaje that defines so much our identity today, through the Mexican-American war, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo" target="_blank">Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo</a>, up to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Grove_Incident" target="_blank">Lemon Grove Incident</a>, through to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots" target="_blank">Zoot Suit Riots</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_L.A._walkouts" target="_blank">blowouts in East LA</a>, right up to el <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Espiritual_de_Aztl%C3%A1n" target="_blank">Plan Espiritual de Aztlán</a> y el <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_Santa_B%C3%A1rbara" target="_blank">Plan de Santa Bárbara</a> - And he taught me that ultimately Chicanismo was not an ethnicity, or even an ethnic identity, but instead a state of mind,a perspective, a world view, and that this state of mind could be adopted by any human being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The three main principles my papi taught me about the Chicano Movement are: 1) Self-Determination; 2) Higher Education; 3) Community Empowerment and Involvement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Self-Determination</u>:</b> Every person has a right to define themselves, to define their identity, find their history and their roots. From my experience with self-determination, I believe that every person knows who they are and what their purpose is. Sometimes it takes some deep work, to look inside and connect with roots and community in order for people to figure this out for themselves. No one has the right to tell me, or anyone else, who they are, how to identify themselves, or to limit their potential or purpose in our world. We have a right to determine this for ourselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Higher Education:</u></b> Critical thinking, reading the world as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire" target="_blank">Paulo Freire</a> would put it, is another human right, and a skill that every person deserves the opportunity to develop. It is critical that we gain access to the intellectual, political, and social resources provided to us through higher education. High education is another right of every human being in my interpretation of Chicanismo. It is important that through our involvement in higher education we are able to take part in the creation of our story, of the history of our people, and of the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>Community Empowerment and Involvement</u>:</b> The most critical element of Chicanismo, according to my father, is giving back to our community - taking on the role of an organic intellectual, who harnesses the resources gained through higher education and brings access to these resources back to his or her community in order to empower our communities to determine their own identities and have the opportunity to gain ever increasing access to educational and political resources.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">René defined them in more depth, and in slightly different terms, as you can see in this excerpt:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...principles of the Chicano Movement: 1) The need for Chicanos to recover their history distorted by biased observations of the Chicano reality - that portrayed Mexicans as apolitical, apathetic and amoral; 2) The need for Chicanos to become trained to challenge the negative views that are that are part of that biased history. To provide them with the tools to become critical thinkers who can deconstruct the negative portrayals of the Chicano reality and in the process produce their own history; 3) To train Chicanos to give back to their communities. To help them understand that as university students they are the leading intellectuals of their communities - the writers, the artists, the doctors, the engineers, the teachers, the politicians, the community activists, and so forth; and 4) To help the students see that they have a choice of two roads to travel as intellectuals. The first is an intellectual in the service of the political/cultural system that produces the biased views of people of color and gender... the second is an 'Organic Intellectual' in the service of his or her community - an intellectual that dedicates him or herself to work with and through their communities to help those communities resolve their problems.</span></i></div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-85398405256067784812016-08-19T01:22:00.005-07:002016-08-22T22:23:57.145-07:00A Few Principles of Emotional Health and Wellness<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of us are a little bit crazy. We grew up in an imperfect world, with imperfect parents, who hopefully did the best that they could. We have all experienced some form of trauma.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All emotions are good and necessary. If we limit one emotion, then we limit our capacity for all emotion.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emotional health is being able to experience our emotions freely and at times extremely; not limiting our ability to experience any of our emotions in their entirety, while also not getting stuck for too long in one extreme or another. Emotional health is also the ability to keep our experiencing of extreme emotion from harming others. Ultimately, the ability to fluidly experience the entire range of our emotions while not allowing them to consume us and our actions is a sign of emotional health.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When two people act out of their craziness together, that is when people get hurt. If one person can stay calm, can keep their craziness out of the interaction, while the first person is acting out, there is a much better chance that no one will be hurt.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We can only go as deeply with someone as we have gone with ourselves. Without doing work to shed light into our own deepest darkest places, we will run from and help others avoid their dark places.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be a soft place to land. Allow yourself to land softly.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lean into your discomfort. Do the emotional labor. Dance with fear, and pain, and anger, and hatred, and happiness, and sadness, and love.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all relationships, whether through intensity and/or duration, we experience all aspects of each person in the relationship; there is no hiding.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px;">Thought without emotion is endless possibilities with no ability to choose or decide.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have all been traumatized in some way. We have all developed coping strategies, mechanism, dynamics, and patterns. If there are any behaviors that you hope to change you must ask yourself, what do I get out of this behavior? How does this behavior, this belief, this strategy, serve me now? Am I willing to change this behavior if it no longer is serving my current needs? With what new behavior can I replace this old strategy? What new plan can I develop, experiment with, and embrace to serve my current needs?</span></div>
Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8423782324313458995.post-36503221757559603012016-08-01T22:14:00.000-07:002016-08-03T22:59:35.148-07:00Self-Defense and Self-Preservation <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqLIQpbqd_-W3uupJJWhpJwMtnBxKDIuQ7Y58vKbPmh7TY03RUAzShLC4znb4Uju6WaoYwXgWu1zOSYmmUcuPX0O-WFIe5WSQNupFTG7KZOgSAV8Y6WvLmJ7sHcMRzYen8SZkWX8Kdic41/s1600/img008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqLIQpbqd_-W3uupJJWhpJwMtnBxKDIuQ7Y58vKbPmh7TY03RUAzShLC4znb4Uju6WaoYwXgWu1zOSYmmUcuPX0O-WFIe5WSQNupFTG7KZOgSAV8Y6WvLmJ7sHcMRzYen8SZkWX8Kdic41/s400/img008.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rene Nuñez - Front Kick - circa 1972</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">My papi used to tell me, "Pull your toes back. Point your foot, now pull your toes back," while demonstrating how to make that happen. I tried and I tried, I practiced and I practiced, and I can remember when I got it, when my body listened to my mind and I could pull my toes back while extending my foot. The proper form of the foot during a front kick, putting the ball of the foot in front as the furthest point from the body.</span></i><br />
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On July 22nd I had the pleasure of assisting master Marcellus Walker in the facilitation of a self-defense workshop. Marcellus is openly compassionate, notably calm, yet direct and unflinching in addressing the uncomfortable reality of self-defense. I appreciate his openness to help others develop their martial arts abilities, to face the ugly reality of personal combat and physically defending oneself, while simultaneously emphasizing the beauty and creativity of the art.<br />
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The most important aspect of self-defense is psychological; the mental willpower to physically control a situation, and if need be inflict physical harm on another human, in order to preserve one's life. As Marcellus puts it, "We have a right and responsibility to return home each day to the people who love us, who expect to see us and talk to us later that day."<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">One of the first steps in self-defense is the </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiai&source=gmail&ust=1470376346702000&usg=AFQjCNEGLteLzyP0MrCq6KXh-StO48IZZw" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiai" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">ki'hap</a><span style="background-color: white;"> (or </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_kia_mean_in_Tae_Kwon_Do&source=gmail&ust=1470376346702000&usg=AFQjCNHBCfa3SaJu8x8Sg81_EFTFb2l0rQ" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiai" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">kiai </a><span style="background-color: white;">in Japanese pronunciation) - <a href="http://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_kia_mean_in_Tae_Kwon_Do" target="_blank">to yell with great energy or "ki</a>". The ki'hap has both mental and physical implications. Physically the ki'hap is a forceful breath, invigorating the body and mind during a time of potential stress and rigidity. Mentally the ki'hap can help the practitioner gather courage and express their intention to engage in a psychical confrontation, whether in practice, competition, or a real life self-defense situation. Our voice is our first defense, our first expression of self-preservation.</span><br />
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My father was a practiced martial artist. He studied Tang Soo Do earning a red belt, one below black, before, as he described it, he attempted a jumping side kick over a chair and blew out his knee on a botched landing. My father also studied and practiced the art of self-preservation, the preservation of our cultural identity as Chicanos, as descendants of the first people in the Americas, as humans who have a right to determine our own identities.<br />
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Papi embodied self-preservation, and he wasn't quiet about it. He modeled it day in and day out, in all aspects of his life. He made the determination and preservation of our culture, language, identity, and right to quality education and free speech his life's work. <br />
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At the workshop, a little over a week ago, the connection of the physical and the psychological, the martial arts of self-defense and the mental willpower of self-preservation crystallized for me. It is imperative that we empower the voices, the willpower, of communities whose identities are marginalized within the mainstream, that we empower their voices of self-determination and self-preservation. It is the first step in each community's ability to control their own identity and cast off limitations and barriers. Voicing our willpower to live, to define ourselves, is the first step in self-defense.<br />
<br />Gabriel Nuñez-Soriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08849022706547690392noreply@blogger.com0