Awesome Stories 345

/ November 25, 2017

This week Awesome Stories brings you kindness, nuclear facts, and resiliency.

Kindness School

Seattle, Washington is home to the Puget Sound Community School whose mission and focus are based on kindness. The director, Andy Smallman, believes that if you create a nurturing environment and help build character, then the academics and related skills come automatically. Teachers are hired for their character and students are taught the value of kindness. I love how they take their projects out into the community and subjects are chosen by the students.

Nuclear Facts

Here’s a great video that highlights the facts about nuclear energy. For too long, nuclear has been held back based on false information and fear. For example, now that Germany has moved to abandon nuclear energy, they are using more coal and increasing emissions while claiming they can supply their energy needs with renewables like solar and wind. If we are going to help the planet and reverse climate change, then nuclear energy is the best source of clean and safe energy. Nuclear has the least deaths, lowest environmental impact, greatest energy capability, smallest footprint, and least material consumption per energy output. And that is the current nuclear technology. Advances in the nuclear industry will reduce the risks even further with small reactors, fast reactors, new fuels like thorium and salt, and much more. Kudos to New York state for creating a plan to encourage nuclear with incentives designed to level the access.

ResiliencyAwesome Stories, flow

This article about choosing authenticity over positivity really speaks to my heart. Having gone through a very difficult period several years back, I too found that positivity is not the answer for dealing with depression, pain, and other hard feelings. It’s good to know that more and more people are waking up to the wisdom in embracing the full range of our emotions. I found the research showing that positivity often decreases our happiness to be most enlightening! Please remember, we aren’t suggesting you can’t be happy, or that choice and focus aren’t important. We are suggesting that well being comes from embracing the full range of emotions and experiences, resulting in a more resilient person who is able to both cope and help others.

May we flow with life, embracing the richness of feelings and experience. Blessings, Brad

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22 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 345”

  4. Loved these! Puget Sound Community School sounds a lot like where I work. Authenticity over positivity – yes! Depression and anxiety aren’t things where you can just say, “yeah, I’ll be happy.” I’ve gone through periods where I’ve been depressed even though I naturally default to being a pretty bubbly person. I make a choice to be grateful and focus on the brighter side of things, but it was never a choice to be depressed. I think the perception of what it is, is changing, but still I think too many folks don’t understand that it’s a serious medical condition. In any case, glad you shared that, too!

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  5. I really struggle with this last segment Brad. Choosing authenticity over positivity. When communicating with others, I tend to put a glossy finish on life (and my inner workings). Works for a while, but I suspect that this false exterior precipitates those depressive episodes that we try so hard to avoid.

    For the 1000th time Brad… You really do find amazing stories to curate for us. Namaste

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    • Thanks for being honest Gabe. I think many of us struggle both with depression and how to “present” ourselves. There seems to be more awareness about depression with a growing openness to letting people be themselves. And you make a very interesting point that hiding our feelings might actually bring on more depression. May we learn to embrace the fullness of who we are. Namaste…

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