Recipe: Raw Coffee-Cashew Cake

The cake still inside the spring form

One of my favorite aspects of the raw food movement has been the discovery of absolutely delicious desserts that are also quite easy to make. And for me, as I prefer not to eat dairy or regular sugar, they provide a great alternative that I can bring when I am invited for a dinner, picnic or any kind of celebration.

I have tried many recipes by now, and there is one cake in particular, which everyone seems to love. It is the “Cheese” Cake from the Rawtarian, a young lady from Canada who also has many other wonderful recipes. If you can, give it a try. It so tasty! I make it with just a few variations on the crust, which I may post about another time. 

But today I want to share a cake that I have come up with, based on that recipe and another one, but which uses coffee as one of its main ingredients. I stopped drinking coffee maybe five or six years ago, and although I do not mind not drinking it, I do miss the flavor of coffee in desserts like ice cream or custards. I found a raw coffee cake, and made it, and although it was great, I felt I could come up with something we could like better. So I combined both recipes in a way, and this is what I came up with. So far, everyone who has tried it has absolutely loved it, and most of all, myself. I didn't know I had missed the flavor of coffee so much! I honestly cannot seem to get enough of this cake. So, here is the recipe, so you guys can try it too. One note, I make it with a Vitamix and a food processor. I am not sure how it would work with a regular blender, but you can try soaking the cashews overnight, so they become very soft.

There are three steps to the cake:

CRUST (from this recipe)
1 cup pecans

1 cup dates

2 tablespoons cacao powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Put the pecans in a food processor and process until it becomes like rough flour. Then add the rest of ingredients. Pat it down into a spring-form pan.

FILLING:

3 cups of cashews. soaked in water for at least 3 hours, then rinsed

3/4 cup brewed coffee

3/4 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup maple syrup

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Put everything in blender and mix well. Add it to the crust and freeze. The next day do the other two steps.

SALTY SAUCE:

4 dates

about 1/2 cup of coffee (whatever is left over from the filling) or more

1/4 cup cashews

1/4 teaspoon salt

Soak the dates and cashew in the coffee for at least two hours. Then put it in blender with salt and blend well. You may need a bit more liquid. Add water. Pour over frozen cake.

WALNUT TOPPING:

1/2 cup raw walnuts

2 dates

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

For the topping, put everything in food processor and grind. Use it to decorate the pie.

Let me know if you try it, or ask me to make one for you. I love making them! And we can have it together. Even better.

Lots of love.

Tip #70: Believe in the future

Thanks to the Swell app, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I discovered the TED Radio Hour program. Recently they had a very interesting show called Predicting the future. As always, the program has several parts, but there was one in particular that caught my attention, "How personalized will medicine get." They interview the engineer Nina Tandon about her TED talk (embedded below) on tissue engineering. She has also just published the Kindle book Super Cells: Building with Biology. She mentions the potential of something called induced pluripotent stem cells, which was just discovered in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka and Sir John Gurdon and which garnered a Nobel Prize of medicine for them in 2012. What she mentions in her talk, and I have seen first hand unfortunately, is how each disease is different in each person and how a medicine or treatment that I may take or do will have completely different results in somebody else. But this kind of stem cells are induced in the lab from our own cells (so they also don't carry the ethical problems that embryonic stem cells have) and thus, we can try medicines in the organs created with them with the benefit that we will know for sure how our own organs will be affected. Her talk is only seven minutes, so I encourage to watch it, as it gives us much needed hope.

It also gives me immense hope that, although the talk is from 2012, I myself just heard it about three weeks ago, but since then, even more exciting news have come out in relation to this line of research:

• They have just discovered a process that is even faster and cheaper to get stem cells. (NYT article)
• Induced pluripotent stem cells will be tested in people with age-related blindness (Slate.com article). This is very important because in her talk she mentions that, treating a disease this way with people will be the first step to using this method for everything. So, this was just a hypothesis in 2012 and now it is a reality. 
• Creating platelets through induced pluripotent stem cells may also be a possibility. (Science Mag. article)

These news make more tangible the idea that we can create personalized medicine for each one of us. I believe we live in an age of miracles, and this looks like another one to me.

What do you think?

Tip #69: Do a photo challenge

(Let me just warn you that there will be some shameless self promotion at the end of the post. I just want you to be aware of it from the beginning)

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

                                                Dorothea Lange

When the first cell phones which took pictures came out I remember thinking that that was the stupidest idea I had heard. Who, in their right mind, would use a phone to take a picture? Well, I'm glad I don't work as a consultant for a phone company, for I was clearly completely wrong. Now, we use our phones to take pictures so often that many of us (me included) have forgotten when was the last time we actually used a real camera.

One great advantage of this is, of course, that we carry a camera in our pocket almost constantly. And people, particularly the younger generations, are taking advantage of it and snatching images at a frenetic pace. Not only many more people are taking more pictures, but we are sharing them publicly in social media sites built exclusively around these images, like Instagram or Snapchat. I, myself, am a devoted user of Instagram. I started like one does these things, just getting my little toes wet with a picture or two and following a couple of friends, but it then grew to a very nice group of friends, family and admired people and/or photographers. My Instagram feed has become a daily source of inspiration.

I noticed one day that people on Instagram were doing these challenges, which consisted of taking a picture a day for a period of time, following a specific prompt. You would also add a special hashtag (the # symbol) and when you would click on it, you could see all the other pictures which had been posted following that same prompt. When I decided to do one, I observed that strangers were liking my pictures, but actually these were other people who were doing the challenge and had also seen my picture when they clicked on their hashtags. I then followed their lead, and every time I posted a picture for a challenge, I would also "like" several other pictures from strangers that I enjoyed. I have tried doing at least three of those monthly challenges and although I never really finished the whole month, it was still fun to participate and be part of a community.

So, today, I'm suggesting here that you do a challenge too, because they just may make you happy. These are the reasons why I like them:

• They make you look at things from a different perspective.
• They force you to stop what you are doing, pause, and consider the beauty around you. 
• They make you more appreciative of what's around you.
• You feel connected to other people and to humanity in general.
• At the end of the challenge, you have a very nice set of pictures to show of.

Here are some possible challenges for your consideration, included one a friend and I created:

• #fmsphotoaday: The ones I participated in before, created by a designer in Australia, Chantelle. I like the prompts she suggests, because sometimes, they really make you think and look for beauty in simple things.
• #100happydays: This one does not have prompts. Instead, you have to take a picture of something that makes you happy every day for 100 days. I like the premise of this one and I think I would do it if I was not already doing one. I learned about it from my friend Deanna.
• #365project: As the name indicates, you take a picture every day for a year, to document your life.
• #InstagramELE: This is the one my friend Adelaida, who also teaches Spanish, and I created for our students, or anyone who wants to practice Spanish, so they can practice by taking daily pictures after prompts and, if they want, also commenting and enjoying other pictures from others trying the same. (Here is the total shameless self promotion I mentioned at the beginning)

The truth is, even if you decide to do a challenge, you actually don't need to share your pictures with anyone. You can save them in a folder on your computer or your phone. I do like the added social aspect, but I know many of you are shy and that's fine. In any case, you will have those beautiful moments saved, which otherwise may have just disappeared.

Well, as always, I would love to hear your thoughts. 

Have a great week!

Tip #68: Listen up

Today, I would like to share a great app for the iPhone that I recently discovered. It's called Swell and it is described as "the Pandora for news radio." You can tell the app what kind of programs you like or not and it will find recent tracks that match your taste. If something comes up, and you don't like it, you can swipe it and a new track will start playing. They also intersperse top of the hour news bulletins from your favorite news media. In other words, absolutely heaven to my ears.
Here are some of the programs I have discovered thanks to the app and some episodes I heard lately and liked:

• Freakonomics Radio: I had heard of the book and some of their controversies, but this podcast is quite surprising and entertaining. I enjoyed this episode about the new Pope and his recent comments about the free market (40 minutes). 
• NPR's Planet Money: Again, surprised that I could like economics so much. Loved the latest one I heard, perfect for February, Dear Economist: I need a date (21 minutes).
• Five Minute Dharma: Just as the name indicates, these are short Buddhist lessons about practical issues.
• 99% Invisible: It is described as "A tiny radio show about design." I liked this one about Bubble houses. 
• NPR's TED Radio Hour: I saw this program in the NPR line up and thought to myself that I did NOT need any more TED talks in my life. Well, I was wrong. This program is wonderful, as it will select a topic, then choose two or three related TED talks, show some snippets from them but also interview the speakers, giving the listeners a more current version or commenting on the other talks. I really enjoyed this one, and probably will write a post about it soon, Predicting the Future (about an hour, but it is divided in segments).

There are other radio shows and podcasts that I already knew and this year I am making more of an effort to hear them, so I put their feeds in my Podcast app. Here they are:

• On Being: This show is a conversation by its creator, Krista Tippett, and very interesting guests, covering all kinds of human endeavors. I have not heard one I did not enjoy or learned something new in. I'm leaving you with an older episode, because what was said about business could be so well applied to teaching and other aspects of our lives: Seth Godin on the Art of Noticing and then Creating (about 1 hour).
• Sounds True Producer's Pick: These are short (about 10 or 12 minutes) podcasts, which represent selections from larger shows. If you need quick inspiration, these are phenomenal. Here's one I heard last week and enjoyed: "What is Interpersonal Neurobiology?" with Daniel Siegel (iTunes link). 
• Sounds True Insights at the Edge: These are longer conversations (one hour or slightly more) and maybe they are also a bit challenging, but I feel I learn so much from any of them. 
• Dan Pink's Office Hours: This show is described as the "Car Talk for the human engine." Many different and interesting topics, often about education, but also about business or life. I liked this interview of Tom Rath about his latest book, Eat, Move, Sleep. An eye opener.

I also have old favorites, like This American Life, On the Media or Radio Lab, which I still listen to, although not as often.

So, how do I have time to listen to all these? I don't, but, by using my phone as a radio, I am able to sneak in parts of these shows when I'm doing things like laundry, sometimes walking and definitely in the car on my commute to work. I also like to snooze for my naps to the sound of the radio, so I technically do not hear everything, but, that's one more thing I like about Swell, that I can go back and check on what I missed. I definitely am watching less TV these days as well, but the shows my family likes are a bit too violent or scary for me, so I'm glad I have a radio near by. I feel that by listening to these shows I continue my learning and am entertained at the same time and I decided to write this long list because I'm hoping someone else may like these shows and see their value as well.

What do you listen to? (¡Y perdonen por el rollo tan largo mis lectoras de España!)

Lots of love to everyone.

photo credit: bricolage.108 via photopin cc

Tip #67: Spend time with your "friends"

Last weekend, my husband and I went to New York City to see Kris Carr on an event called Crazy, Sexy, Miracles that she had with her friend, the motivational speaker Gabrielle Bernstein. I think that, by now, every one who knows me, also knows that I am a total groupie when it comes to Kris Carr. I love her, admire her, follow her on Twitter and Instagram and go to her events whenever I can.

This was actually the third time I had gone to see her, although I don't have a picture of the first time I did, in 2011. At that time, a very kind soul had given me a ticket to see her in my town, as this person (whom I hardly knew) had found out that I had just being diagnosed with a recurrence of my cancer. At the time of the event, I was actually in between scans and consultations and we still did not know exactly what stage my cancer was, but things were not looking rosy. So I went to see her alone, on a cold January night, and after hearing her story (she has a rare form of cancer and 20 tumors in her lung and liver) I remember thinking, "Wait, this lady just said that she has done a huge number of things to keep herself healthy, including putting coffee up her butt, and she still is not cured???" And although I had a book from her (the same nice person gave me the ticket and book), I did not stay for the book signing portion of the event, as I just felt like running home and shutting my mind altogether. But, eventually, I did read her book, and together with the Anticancer book from Servan Schreiber, it helped me understand that being cured maybe is not so much the goal, but instead, we need to try to be as healthy as possible in our every day and hope we can stay that way for a long, long time. And the truth is, this does apply to everyone, not just cancer patients. So she became my hero and my inspiration.

Last weekend's event was wonderful, and although she did not really say anything new, it is very nice to hear her talk about the evolution of her journey. She also signed her Crazy, Sexy, Kitchen book for me (highly recommend it, if you want to eat healthy and delicious recipes) and we had a chance to talk for 30 seconds. I told her that by now, she is indeed my friend, although she just doesn't know it (of course, she does not remember me). She was kind and gracious and she said that she was glad to know. I was happy I had another opportunity to thank her for having guided me so well in this adventure.

And the rest of the weekend was also perfect, as we had a chance to meet a dear group of friends in New York City and spend a lazy Sunday in a charming restaurant having brunch with them. Perfect recipe for me before the whirlwind of the academic semester swallows me and I forget to take time to connect with my soul. These friends are as important in my life as my new, fictional friends. I'm very happy, and thankful, I have both of them to rely on.

Well, I know I have already talked about the importance of friends in other tips, but I think it is nice to remember it often. Don't you agree?

Tip #66: Sleep

Think about this fact: If you live to be 90, 32 years will be spent asleep. That's one of the facts mentioned in this TED Talk from Russell Foster, a circadian neuroscientist who studies the sleep cycles of the brain. He also talks about how this third of our lives has been considered in history, and how our view of it changed, from something that is soft and delicious to a superfluous waste of time (he mentions many interesting quotes about these two poles). And it seems like the invention of the light bulb might have been the beginning of this shift, this idea that we had conquered darkness and therefore we may not need sleep. But, of course, this is not the case. More and more research is showing that, in order to feel well, to be healthy, even to have less mental problems, we need adequate sleep. Three years ago, one of the things my nutritionist advised me to do, together, of course, with eating healthier, was to make sure I would sleep enough hours, and in order to do that, I was told to use a dark eye pad, make sure there was absolutely no light in the room, move all electronic devices away from your head, and other tidbits like that. I was surprised at the recommendations, but there is powerful research that shows that there is a clear correlation between lack of sleep and breast cancer. 

Just in the past months, I have been made even more aware of how the importance of sleep is finally being recognized. Here are some links:

• Sounds True Dr. Ruben Naiman : Falling in love with sleep. This is an hour long podcast, but well worth it if you have the time, because Dr. Naiman clearly explains how we need to start looking at sleep as something beneficial. We have been brainwashed into thinking that "sleep is for wimps" (according to the the TED Talk, Margaret Thatcher said that), but it is in our detriment to keep that attitude. He gives good, specific advice about how to achieve a good relationship with sleep. 
• In this article (How to Improve (and Increase) your Sleep), the author of the book, Eat, Move, Sleep, explains how we need to prioritize sleep. I heard him (Tom Rath) being interviewed by Dan Pink in his Office Hours show, and it is another interesting podcast to hear.
• From a coupe of weeks ago, this New York Times's article, explains the recent discovery that we need sleep in order to clean the junk out. So, that's why we need it.
• And here's the TED Talk from Dr. Rusell: Why do we sleep. 

Being from Spain, I still love to take naps. Of course, I cannot take them as often as I like, but I'm glad at least that this is finally not seen as a lazy's person hobby (and if it is, too bad).

Lots of love as always.

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc

Tip #65: Practice empathy

Last December, I ran into this cute video, which is an animation of a fragment of one of Breneé Brown's talks, The Power of Vulnerability. It is very short (under 3 minutes), so I encourage you to watch it. It explains the difference between sympathy and empathy, and how empathy is really much more important and difficult.

It is funny and poignant, and when I saw it, it made me realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many people who have shown immense empathy for me when I have needed it. They have gone down the hole and have held my hand and stayed there with me. But the clip also made me think that this is, indeed, a difficult skill and I would like myself to get better at it. It is challenging to bite your tongue and not say an "at least ..." sentence, when that's exactly what you are thinking. Or even avoiding to try to come up with a solution, when, of course, there is none, but arriving to your friend's home empty handed makes you even sadder. I also think sympathy is very valuable, maybe more than what the clip would indicate, but I agree that it is just a first step. In her book Daring Greatly, Breneé Brown also says that empathy requires some vulnerability, and that's probably another reason for my difficulty. 

Well, I hope you enjoy the clip. As always, this blog is just my "folder" of ideas to improve my life, and your comments (online and off) make it so much richer. When you see me, let me know if my exercises in practicing empathy are working. :) 

Recipe: Bread with tomato (Pan con tomate)

This is a new category of posts that I'm starting this year, as some of my friends have asked me about the recipes I use. Some will be recommendations about recipes from other websites, some will be my own, and some, like today's, will be my interpretation of a classic or well known recipe.

I would like to start this category with a very simple breakfast idea which we just ate. If you are a Spaniard, I think you can stop reading now (if you hadn't already when you saw the title), as this is a very common dish in Spain, and I'm sure you already know how to make it (or, if you are in Spain, you can just go to the corner cafeteria and ask for one, the preferred method of eating this dish while one is there). It is also very similar to an Italian bruscheta. As with everything, I'm sure mine will be slightly different from the traditional one, as I like to add herbs to everything because of their high antioxidant content in just a little pinch, plus the added flavor they provide. Well, here's the recipe I use:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tomato
• 1 or 2 T of olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt to taste
• Oregano to taste (I put at least a tablespoon)
• 2 pieces of toasted bread (my favorite lately is Ezequiel Sesame Sprouted Grain Burger Buns, but it is absolutely delicious on  any baguette style bread)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the tomato in half, from the middle (not from top to bottom).
2. Using a cheese grater (like the one in the picture) grate the tomato until you only have the skin left. I usually do this on a large plate, which I will use later to serve it.
3. Add the olive oil, salt and oregano and mix well.
4. Cut the garlic clove in half (you can leave the skin on, it will peel off by itself) and rub the clove on the toasted bread, as if you were applying a cream to it.
5. Now you can spoon the tomato mixture onto your garlicky bread.
6. Enjoy!

This, of course, can have many variations: my husband skips the garlic, my oldest son prefers to add basil instead of oregano. You can get very creative with something so simple. And I like it for myself because it is very nutritious, as these videos from Dr. Greger remind us:

• Oregano is an excellent antioxidant as I mentioned already.
• Olive oil could serve as the fat needed for phytonutrient absorption.
• Garlic belongs to the number 1 anticancer vegetable family.
• And here's the information about tomato's lycopene (excellent nutrient to prevent prostrate cancer, for example).

Dr. Greger also reminds us that each single meal should contain foods that are high in antioxidants, so this breakfast can fit the bill so we start the day on a good foot on that respect.

I hope you like this new section and let me know if you try this pan con tomate!

Tip #64: Stop - Look - Go

As I reflect on the past year, I have to say that it has been a very generous one in every possible aspect. I have had an abundance of health and friendship, wonderful travels, far and near, and many interesting developments in my job, the main one being that I am now surrounded by an excellent team of caring people, who have become my teachers and my daily inspiration. I have also lost way too many friends from my support groups, but I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to meet these caring, kind and brave women who have now become angels.

I know my presence in the blog has not been as frequent as last year and I'm not too sure why, but I think that it is a sign of my business with regular life, which I think it is ultimately a good thing. On the other hand, I do believe this blog helps me in ways I cannot know, so I'm hoping next year will be a slightly more prolific one. I will not give myself challenges or deadlines, but I will work on my discipline to get the things I feel I need for my well being done, but with ease, and mostly, with love.

Today I have a lovely TEDTalk to share with you, which contains a message worth repeating to myself: only by being grateful, we can be happy. The speaker is the Benedict priest David Steindl Rast. He has a simple but powerful message that he summarizes like this. In every situation in life we should do three things: Stop, look and go, just as if we were crossing a street. This is what he means, (as explained in his recipe for grateful living in 2014, found in his wonderful website):

Stop! -- so that you will not hurry past the gift this moment offers you.

Look! -- so you will recognize this gift: the opportunity available now.

Go! -- that means: Do something with this precious opportunity!

He reminds us that every moment offers an opportunity, and, as it is the end of the year, I'm thinking that we can apply that to 2014 as well. I'm hoping that this new year I will be able to recognize the gift I have been given just by being here writing this. Here's the link to his talk, as I'm unable to embed it here, but I hope you watch it and enjoy it as much as I did.

Happy New Year and thanks so much for reading my blog!

Tip #63: Quantify yourself (a little, at least)

The beach where I take many of my daily walks

About a month ago, I bought myself a Jawbone UP, which is an activity tracker that you wear on your wrist. I decided to get it because Gym-Pact, the iPhone app which motivates you to work out and which I have been using since January 2012, started accepting 10,000 steps as a daily workout, tracked by the Jawbone UP. From my readings about bone building exercises, I knew that you need to move more than just 30 minutes a day if you want to make a difference in your density, so I felt I had to move a bit more.

Today, I'm happy to report that I love my Jawbone UP. It not only tracks your steps, but you can also configure it to do different things, like let you know that you have been sitting down for a certain amount of time (I have set it up for 30 minutes), wake you up within a time window when it feels like your sleep is not too deep, track your sleep, etc.

And I also want to share a very short talk (under 6:00 minutes) about the new phenomenon known as the "quantified self," which fits well with my Jawbone UP and Gym Pact obsessions. If you haven't heard about this, it is the idea that we can now measure and track many aspects of our lives (food we eat, time we sleep or exercise, etc.) thanks to smartphones and smart devices and apps. We can then use all the data we collect about ourselves to improve, in theory, our life.

Of course, this can be taken overboard, like this woman who wears 21 fitness trackers, but I think that judiciously used, these trackers can definitely help us improve any aspect of our lives. Here's the talk:

For more information, here are some more links:

• A comprehensive article from the New York Times, The Data Driven Life, written by the same journalist who gives the TED talk.
• An NPR segment, Self-tracking Apps to Help you Quantify Yourself, which mentions many interesting apps.
• A very intriguing website called Personal Experiments, in which you can sign up, devise your own experiment (say, take a specific supplement) and track your health with and without it, as well as share the results with other people who may be doing something similar.

I have to say that I've discovered that 10,000 steps is a long time walking! Many days I (accompanied often by my husband, sometimes the kids and friends too) go to Seaside Park, a beach near our house - in the picture - to complete the required steps. But, although it is time away from my busy day, I am finding some added benefits: the peace and serenity of the ocean fill my heart, I breath calmness, feel close to nature and, on top of all that, I'm sleeping much better. 

Do you use any of these apps or trackers? Let me know!

Tip #62: Learn (or relearn) another language

Well, it took me some time, considering my job is precisely teaching a foreign language, but here it is. I'm going to tell you how new advances in neuroscience are showing that the brains of bilingual individuals are "nimbler, quicker, better able to deal with ambiguities, resolve conflicts and even resist Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia longer" (From TIME, How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual). And, according to this other article,  The Bilingual Brain, it seems that the effects on the brain of knowing another language help children be able to focus more and concentrate longer during school tasks, but the benefits are also extended to adults, not only because of the already mentioned delay in dementia and Alzheimer's but also because bilingual adults seem to have a more dense gray matter, which helps them process language and communication better. One possible explanation, according to the same article,  is that bilinguals may get more oxygen and blood to the brain and keep nerve connections healthy, which, in my view, could possibly benefit the whole person.

And today I'm going to share with you a TED talk, which is not really about all this, but it is still fascinating. It describes a start up called Duolingo, which you may have heard about. As a professor of Spanish I prefer to think that to learn a language it is still better to take a class, or better yet, take a class in the country where the language is spoken, but I definitely see a lot of pedagogical value in Duolingo. And I do like that it is free. At the moment, you can learn Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, English and German, but they plan on adding more languages. What I like is that it is very simple, and it is also fun (as they have taken cues from gamification), and you can create a team with friends so you can motivate each other.

But besides checking out Duolingo, I would like you to see the talk because, to me, it is very inspiring. The speaker is a wiz kid from Guatemala who is one of the computer scientists who invented the "Captcha" system. He explains that part in detail, so I will not say more here. But I am extremely excited to see how he (and his team at Carnegie Mellon) have taken the idea of all (millions) of us doing just a little (typing a few words, spending 10 seconds on it) and using that labor to actually digitize old texts. And with Duolingo, his goal is to have everyone translating the web. I'm not sure that Duolingo can do that, but I have a feeling that he knows what he's talking about.

Although I also see the potential for this kind of enterprises to obliterate many jobs in the future, maybe even mine, I still see this type of projects as the beginning of something remarkable which will be helpful for all humanity. For example, in medicine, when we can use the data from every single patient who has something like cancer, we can probably start seeing more clearly patterns which will help us find a solution to it. I already touched a bit upon this when I talked about abundance, and this talk reinforces that idea.

Here's the talk, with the subtitles in Spanish, so we all start practicing:

And do not get discouraged if you feel like you are too old to learn a new language. I think that that's one of the beauties of Duolingo, that they make it simple for everyone, and, if nothing else, treat it as a game, which is also very good for you, as we will see in an upcoming tip.

Let me know if you have tried it already. And, as always, thanks for being there, on the other side of the screen, for me.

Tip #61: Be open to new teachers

Last May, I saw a documentary named Living on One Dollar. It looked like something that could be useful for my classes, as it was about four young Americans traveling to Guatemala, and experiencing the life of the poor in that country. Well, I really enjoyed it, did show it to some of my students, who also really liked it, and then got to work trying to find the funding to bring the two young creators (two of the students in the film) to our campus so our students could have a chance to meet them and be inspired. I'm glad to say that they will be in Sacred Heart University this Wednesday (Sept. 18th, 2013) at 7:00 pm, just in case any of you also want to see them. But, fret not if you can't, as they also happen to have a TED Talk that they gave in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last year, before the launching of their documentary and the campaign which has followed, Livingonone.org.

There are many inspiring messages for young people from their adventure, like follow your dreams, don't just think about things but do something about them, friends together can do incredible things, and so on. But in this tip, I just wanted to point out something that Zach Ingrasci mentions in the TED Talk. Both he and Chris Temple were Business students and their motivation for going to Guatemala was to try to find a solution to poverty by first understanding how the poor really live. So, they knew the theory, they wanted to live the practice. But, among many other surprises, they found that the poor themselves became actually their best teachers. They showed them what needs to be done in order to survive and how they used ingenuity, wisdom, and tools like cooperation to achieve it. I hope you have a chance to watch their talk (aptly subtitled "The Financial Secrets of the Poor.") explaining it much better then me.

I don't think we need to travel anywhere to find teachers and lessons to be learned around us. But we do need to have our hearts open to them. We often dismiss the known or obvious or, sometimes, do not consider that others can show us anything new, but we need to listen with love, wonder and patience until the lessons are revealed.

 

In the same manner, I do believe that we all are teachers and we have to remember that our message or our actions will touch people in ways that are not known to us. We just need to keep saying it.

Tip #60: Change your lens

This is one of my favorite talks. I have already talked about it before in Tip #19: Nourish your friendships and Tip# 52: Start with happiness. I always enjoy watching it because Shawn Achor is not only interesting but also very funny.

He specializes in positive psychology, which has as its aim to improve everyday life by trying to understand all the fulfilling aspects of human behavior instead of focusing on mental illness.


I hope you watch it, as it is quite entertaining, but if you don't, here are some of my favorites quotes from it.

It's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.

90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world

75 percent of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.

If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise.

Dopamine, which floods into your system when you're positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier, it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way. 

Recently, the New York Times had an article about a new book called Up, from a professor of medicine, Dr. Hilary Tindle. She connects a positive outlook with better health outcomes. So, it is not only that a positive frame of mind helps us to be more successful and happier, but also to be healthier.

And, if you need further reading, Lissa Ranking (Mind over Medicine) tells us about 10 fun ways to reduce cortisol levels, which can be making it harder for us to be more positive in our daily lives.

Let me know what you think. And if it you are a pessimist, I definitely want to know your thoughts!

Tip #59: Forgive

Beautiful present

In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to look for a TED talk suited for that theme. I just went to TED.com, wrote the word "mother" in the search box, and voilá, here we go, I found the absolute perfect one, not so much because it is about mothers, but because I found a topic, forgiveness,  which I have been meaning to write about anyway. I'm still surprised I had not talked about it before, so I'm really glad this is giving me the chance to include it here.

I know from experience that forgiveness is hard, but if we just look at its health benefits, it can help us lower blood pressure and cholesterol, make us sleep better, and strenthen our inmmune system.

But, of course, it is also much more. According to my beloved psychologist Rick Hanson this is what it can do for your spirit: 

      Fundamentally, forgiveness frees you from the tangles of anger and retribution, and from preoccupations with the past or with the running case in your mind about the person you're mad at. It shifts your sense of self from a passive one in which bad things happen to you, to one in which you are active in changing your own attitudes: You're a hammer now, no longer a nail. It widens your view to see the truth of the many, many things that make people act as they do, placing whatever happened in context, in a larger whole.

And Michael McCullough, author of Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct, explains in this interview for the radio show On Being that we are actually wired for forgiveness, but also for revenge, and that they both served an evolutionary purpose, but in the end, forgiveness is the more important, as it enables humans to build peaceful communities. But his research suggests that we do need to work hard at it, and that the more we forgive, the easier it gets and the better we will feel.

I think we all know this already. But it is great to see that the science of well being and evolution agree that this is something worth our while.

I'm going to leave you with some more stories to read of amazing acts of forgiveness, including today's TED talk. Read them when you cannot forgive the stupid guy that was so annoying today at work, so you can realize that, yes, that stupid guy is also a human being like you and maybe he was just having a hard day today as well. These stories describe incredible acts of courage. I hope they inspire you as well.

• Can Forgiveness play a role in Criminal Justice? A rather long, but very compelling, New York Times article about the concept of "Restorative Justice," illustrated with the story of the murder of a young woman by her boyfriend, and the actions that her parents took to actually help him. 
• No more Taking Sides, Another episode from the radio show On Being that describes the unlikely friendship between an Israeli woman who lost her son to a Palestinian sniper and a Palestinian man who lost his brother to an Israeli soldier. As the description of the program says, "they don't want to be right; they want to be honest."
• Finally, here's today's TED talk about two mothers who found forgiveness and friendship after 9/11.

Although Mother's Day is an artificial holiday, I still enjoy the idea that we take the time to celebrate mothers (or nurturers, sometimes you do not need to actually have your own kid to be an incredible mother to those around you). Mothers do tend to be quite good at forgiving. Let us all learn from them.

Tip #58: Make sure you know what you are eating

Not just apples

Today's TED Talk is the story of an ordinary mother whose child suffered an allergic reaction while having an ordinary breakfast. This mother, Robin O'Brien, is now being called the Erin Brokovitch of food, as she is on a mission to educate and empower consumers in the US about what corporations are doing to the food we are putting in our plates and into our bodies. Before being a full time mother, she used to actually work as a food industry analyst, but she has turned all that knowledge and energy into researching the impact of food in our health, particularly new ingredients, such as engineered milk proteins or modified corn or soybean seeds. She also has written a book about her experience, The Unhealthy Truth, and has created The Allergy Kids Foundation, whose mission is "to restore the health of our children and the integrity of our food supply."

I know that most of you already know about Genetically Modified Foods, and other artificial ingredients in most products sold in our supermarkets, but I still hope that you watch her talk, as it is powerful, full of interesting (and terrifying, I must add) information and quite inspiring.

(Here's the transcription of the talk into Spanish) 

Here are some of my takeaways from the talk:

• Any product from the supermarket which comes in a box probably contains allergens.
• In the US, if it hasn't been proven dangerous, then it is fine to eat. Thus, many countries around the world do not allow ingredients that are considered perfectly fine here. 
• Our tax dollars are actually contributing to the protection of corporations that use genetically modified seeds which are patented.
• Organic foods are much more expensive than regular food in part because there is additional regulations that organic farmers need to comply with. 
• Companies like Kraft, Coca-Cola and Walmart use different recipes in different countries, always leaving the worst ingredients for the US, as the regulation is so lax here.
• Our health care system is also impacted by these GMOs. Our bodies are not used to these synthetic new products and our health care system cannot take care of all the new numbers of ill people because of it.
• We all have the power to change the world, even if it starts just by changing what we serve at our table.

And as she said on Twitter today:

The most toxic ingredient in our food supply is greed.
— Robyn O'Brien (@unhealthytruth) April 28, 2013

All this reminds me of the newest book by Michael Pollan, Cooked, in which he tells us that in order to be healthier and probably happier we just need to go back to simply cooking what we eat. He mentions that corporations use the cheapest, lowest quality products they can find, and then add lots of unwanted ingredients that make us like their stuff by masking it. It's not so much a matter of eating one group of foods or another, but making sure we buy real ingredients, preferably organic if we are talking about produce, not from GMO crops, cooked at home from scratch, and try to enjoy that meal with those you love, in a slow way. I try to apply his rules about processed foods when I go shopping: don't buy anything with more than five ingredients, ingredients that you cannot pronounce or that your grandmother would not recognize.

Do you read the labels of the food you eat? Are you concerned about GMOs? Tell me what you think and, as always, thanks so much for reading.

Tip #57: Context is everything

Everything I have learned in my journey to health and happiness so far points into one direction: cells, alone, don't determine what will happen to us. Isolated events are not what can heal us, but connectedness is always necessary. This TED talk explores this notion as well. Mina Bissell is a Distinguished Scientist in the Life Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.The talk is actually very entertaining to watch, even if you are not that interested in cancer research, because it is one more example of how we do need to look at things from different points of view and her journey through that idea as a scientist is quite inspiring.

 

Most scientist, even still now, believe that a single cancer cell is sufficient to cause cancer. And maybe this is true. But I learned from Servan Schreiber that autopsies of people who die in accidents or other causes show that most of them had cancer cells in them, but those never became full blown disease.

 

In this talk talk, Dr. Bissell gives us several examples of how the context and architecture surrounding the cells will determine what happens to them, not the cell alone. For example, mammary gland cells of pregnant mice will get ready to produce milk, but if you transfer them to a Petri dish, this stops happening immediately. In the talk, she gives us some examples of cancer cells which also will behave differently according to the environment where they are placed, and if they are injected into an embryo, they do not grow, but stay suspended there, peacefully. 

I remember when I first I learned about Kris Carr, after my rather gloomy diagnosis, I thought "Wait, this lady has changed her life around 100%, has changed what she eats, what she does, what she thinks, even puts coffee in weird places in her body and she is not cured???" And she still not. It's been 10 years since her diagnosis and she is thriving but her metastases are still there, not moving, not growing, not gone, but still a part of her. I had to learn that it is not the cell itself, it is not cured / uncured. It is more like, "change your life ~ find what works for you ~ change the context" What happens next is a mystery, but it can be a beautiful one.

In this talk, Dr. Bissell at the end mentions these lines from the poem "Among the School Children" by Yates:

O body swayed to music,O brightening glance

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

I hope you enjoy this talk and remember that it does apply to everything in life, don't you think?

As always, thanks so much for reading.

Tip #56: Let's get in an abundance frame of mind

About to burst.

You all know by now that I'm quite the optimist, who likes to look at the positives aspects of life. And that's why this is one of my favorite TED talks (although, I will admit I have many, many favorites). Here's this nice man, who sounds very intelligent, telling me that we all have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future, even though there are several wars going on, there is poverty, we are destroying the Earth with our pollution, and we still haven't found a cure for cancer.

He tells us something very different: how extremely fortunate we are to live in this moment in history.  This talk is 18 minutes, but I still hope you watch it. The speaker is Peter Diamandis, and the talk is based on his book Abundance, the future is brighter than you think. (By the way, I like to have the subtitles in Spanish for my family in Spain who reads the blog, but as a Spanish teacher I also think it is another learning tool for those of you who took Spanish in the past, as I'm sure it can bring back words long forgotten or you may even acquire new ones, like cognates. In any case, I hope it is firing up your neurons! You can also just turn the subtitles off).

Here are some quotes I like from the talk:

Over the last hundred years, the average human lifespan has more than doubled, average per capita income adjusted for inflation around the world has tripled. Childhood mortality has come down a factor of 10. Add to that the cost of food, electricity, transportation, communication have dropped 10 to 1,000-fold. Steve Pinker has showed us that, in fact, we're living during the most peaceful time ever in human history. And Charles Kenny that global literacy has gone from 25 percent to over 80 percent in the last 130 years. We truly are living in an extraordinary time. And many people forget this.

Consider each one of those statements and pause. In just one hundred years our life span has more than doubled. Which means that if I had been born in any other time before I may have been already dead. This, alone, is extraordinary and a cause for celebration. The same for everything else in that quote.

When I think about creating abundance, it's not about creating a life of luxury for everybody on this planet; it's about creating a life of possibility. It is about taking that which was scarce and making it abundant. You see, scarcity is contextual, and technology is a resource-liberating force.

It is the part about "creating a life of possibility" that I really like. I was brought up believing you had to go though life working hard and being nice towards others, which I think it could still be a good goal, but it does not sound like a life of possibility. Now, through the things I write on my computer I can reach people I don't even know, who may find solace or learn something in what I have to say. That, to me, is just incredible. And it is so true that scarcity is contextual. We often consider life from the things we don't have: time, beauty, money, and we forget to be thankful for everything we do have: time (like the Holstee manifesto says: "if you don't have enough time, stop watching TV."), beauty (honestly, look at yourself in the mirror, will ya? Yes, you are definitely cute.), money (do you have a roof over your head? I thought so.). The scarcity point of view permeates everything we see.

And he also tells us about other miracles:

Think about it, that a Masai warrior on a cellphone in the middle of Kenya has better mobile communication than President Reagan did 25 years ago. And if they're on a smartphone on Google, they've got access to more knowledge and information than President Clinton did 15 years ago. They're living in a world of information and communication abundance that no one could have ever predicted.

Yes, scarcity is contextual, and that quote let us see how far we've come.

And this is how he ends (for those who will not watch it):

 Ladies and gentlemen, what gives me tremendous confidence in the future is the fact that we are now more empowered as individuals to take on the grand challenges of this planet. We have the tools with this exponential technology. We have the passion of the DIY innovator. We have the capital of the techno-philanthropist. And we have three billion new minds coming online to work with us to solve the grand challenges, to do that which we must do. We are living into extraordinary decades ahead. 

I see it already. I know we still do not have a cure for cancer and many of my friends are still dying from it (and I may too), but I see that finally doctors are looking at things differently, that young investigators are collaborating in innovative ways, that many new types of treatments are in the pipeline.

I'm also hoping you see it too. In fact, you can and probably will also contribute to this abundance. We are definitely lucky to live in this moment.

Let me know your thoughts. Are you in an abundant frame of mind?

Tip #55: Sometimes, we all need a pep talk

I'm still doing my walks to work, on most days.

Well, it's been a bit of a long pause, here at the blog. I guess the idea of two posts a month did not work out that well in February. And I have started a new professional project that keeps me away from many things I should be doing, like my weekly yoga (I still do Priscilla, but just 3 days a week), even mediation, when I finally had found a program I was really enjoying (and had paid for!). I feel a bit like the picture on the left, a bit bare from the winter, with ugly piles of snow that I need to get rid of, but there is still a bright, big, beautiful sun above and I need to concentrate on that. So, this will be a brief post, but I just needed to be here again. And what I most needed was a Pep talk and, as always, one found me, for within the mostly seriousness of TED talks, this was also there. I'm sure many of you have already seen this kid and, if you haven't, you need to watch this clip (less than 3:30 minutes). He is cute, funny, clever, sweet. And, in real life, this 9 year old boy actually suffers from Osteogenesis imperfecta, or Brittle Bone disease, and has already broken his bones more than 70 times. But that doesn't stop him from doing his favorite activity, dancing, and he encourages us all to do the same, among many other awesome things, like he says.
Please, watch it and smile with me.



These are my favorite quotes from it, with my comments:

• And if life is a game aren’t we all on the same team?. Yeah, really, what's wrong with us, people.
• This is life people, you got air coming through your nose, you got a heartbeat. That means it’s time to do something. It's true, we all can do something. I can write a blog that makes me happy, can't I?
• But what if there really were two paths. I want the one that leads to awesome. Me too. Even though sometimes that's just so hard, because we don't believe that we are enough.
• If we can make everyday better for each other, if we’re all in the same team, lets start acting like it. 

And this week, I was also inspired by this blog post by Seth Godin, You already have permission.

Just saying.
You have permission to create, to speak up, and stand up.
You have permission to be generous, to fail, and to be vulnerable.
You have permission to own your words, to matter and to help.
No need to wait.

So, people, like Kid President says, you've just been pep talked. Now, go do something. :)

Let me know if you liked it. And feel free to give me a pep talk anytime. I tend to always need one.

Tip #54: Write letters (to strangers)

So, I have to say that I both miss writing a weekly post and enjoy the free time I now have on Sundays. I am then working on how to balance those two things. But it's a funny thing to observe that the deadlines I set up for myself do work, and procrastination is always at hand and thus, I said I would write two posts a month and here we are, the last day of the month, inching up to the last minutes before the (fictional / personal / why important) deadline expires.

In the meantime, I just saw this talk and I felt that it could really become a great tip. It has the added advantage that it is a short one to watch, just under 5 minutes. I found out about it in this  teaching blog (if you teach languages, that's one of my favorites). Hanna Brencher is a young woman who has battled depression in her life. When she was in college, her mother used to write her letters (not e-mails or texts) and she felt that those letters always comforted her. She decided one day to start writing nice, cheerful, kind letters to strangers and she just would leave them everywhere, in libraries, coffee shops, the subway. She wrote about it in her blog and two things happened: one, she started feeling much better, as she discovered a purpose in her life which gave her immense joy; and two, people started asking for letters, mostly for others, sometimes for themselves. From that, the wonderful webpage More Love Letters was born. In there, you can ask for requests of a letter or a bundle of letters for you or someone else, or you can volunteer to write these love letters to strangers.
Here's her talk (with subtitles for my family.-NOTE, if you get this in an e-mail you may not see the talk. Just go click on the title to go to the page).

I'm not sure whether I will actually do this tip myself or not. Maybe I will. But I was inspired by it because I think she is making connections which are so crucial to our well being. And I was also reading this week about a study which shows that giving time, gives you time.  This is what they observed:

"We compared spending time on other people with wasting time, spending time on oneself, and even gaining a windfall of “free” time, and we found that spending time on others increases one’s feeling of time affluence."

I think I may start by writing love letters to people I know, like the suggestion of "Charge your battery" in Tip #52. I have to say, I've been getting some of those lately and it does feel amazing to be on the recipient side. On a silly note, I have found a  "machine" version of the love letters. It's an app for the iPhone called At-a-boy, which was developed by Dan Ariely, a researcher in behavioral economics. The app gives you a compliment (which has been submitted by people - so it's not totally machine-like) every time you open it. Ariely says that we humans are not only affected by negative comments, but also by positive ones, and I have to say it is true. It's one of my favorite apps. I love to get those compliments, every single time.

Have you ever thought about writing to strangers? Would you do it? Let me know!