Theory to Practice | 4/19/21

Pretty productive and relaxing day yesterday. Did what I wanted to do from an Action Item perspective and made time to think and learn deeply out in nature. Drove about an hour north to Lake Norman to spend the late afternoon / evening up there. Spent about an hour reading Meditations Book 1 and the next hour+ reflecting on it and thoughts that were sparked from it.

I felt so relaxed and at ease yet alert during that time. Focused in on the messages from the book and the related content that I'd consumed in the past couple of days. I had listened also to the 1st episode of Desi Deconstructed, a new podcast. The guest, even though only a year older than me or so, had lot of experience and insights into psychology, therapy, thoughts-feelings-behaviors, model minority, and more. I do like that they recorded maybe 4 hours worth of content with the guest and broke out the episodes into 2. Idk if that'll be the norm moving forward but having that in-depth convo without the need to cut it short makes both sides relaxed. I believe it was one of their friends though so let's see if it happens with organic guests as they grow. That and an education podcast episode I started, the College Admissions Scandal Netflix documentary, the Chicago 7 Doc I watched last night on the way back. SOO many takeawys. Feel like I can't spend time 'learning' until I've properly debriefed from each of these individually and collectively.

Aside from all that though, I felt yesterday as if I'm just naturally attracting the friends and social circles that I want to be a part of. IF I post more intentionally on social media things that are consistent with my approach and mindset and activities, then those are the people that will come into my life (more). For example, yesterday I created deeper connections with Pragya, Trevor, and Sai Santosh. All people I want to continue to learn about b/c we share the same types of values. I didn't force anything. I just let things happen and let the energy that I'm radiating connect with anyone who also has that same energy.

Oh, the other thing yesterday that happened in the morning was I connected and played with Cole. I gave him a copy of Jaspreet's book, Aya and Avi's Airplane Adventure, and helped him start to read the book. He chilled in my room while I 'taught' him some math and English, so that was pretty neat. He was also writing a story (a 1-sentence story) so I helped him with that. We then played in his room for a bit. During that though, he got a bit too excited and he ripped up one of the existing booklets that he had. This was a perfect time to employ what I had theoretically learned in Childhood Matters of treating children with respect, acceptance, and compassion. Instead of getting angry or saying, "No, you shouldn't do that!" I brought him over and we sat down together. I asked him why he did that. "Why did you rip up the book?" "Is there a reason you ripped up the book?" In a calm voice and tone. He said he didn't know. Then we made a pinky promise that he'd never rip up a book again. Only time will tell if he keeps that promise, but overall I think I handled that situation well.