Gratitude Blooming Podcast

Send us a textWe're taking a step back this week to explore the question of "Why gratitude?".  One answer is self-care. The brain has a biological bias to focus on the negative and gratitude disrupts this bias. This negative instinct sits in our amygdala, which while only the size of an almond is nearly as old as the dinosaurs. The other "why gratitude", and the one that is truer to our hearts, is because we are human beings and yearn for a deeper connection to each other and the world around us.Gratitude is the bridge where we can cross from our own self-care to the care for each other.Yes, we have this “reptilian-brain” that is often quicker to respond to the unexpected than the prefrontal, executive decision-making part of our brain. Yes, gratitude releases dopamine and serotonin, which give us both motivation and emotional stability to disrupt our default settings of fight-flight-freeze.Gratitude makes visible what you value. It’s proactive and prosocial.We hope you take some real-world lessons from today’s live gratitude practice with the Gratitude Blooming team, Belinda Liu, Omar Brownson and Arlene Kim Suda.   The themes of discovery, growth and patience feel super resonant this time of year! Remember, the most important practice is the one that works for you. And to dig deeper into the complex colonial history of Thanksgiving in the United States, check out the Bioneer's website.We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review. For your holiday and end of year gifts for loved ones and colleagues, check out the Gratitude Blooming shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com.  Use this code to enjoy 20% off everything in our shop:  BLOOM22You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you! --- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textOur Full Length Conversation with VC Tang on Self Care inspired by the Allium Triquetrum/3-Cornered Leek (Card #10) We're cooking up some gratitude this week with this long-form interview with VC Tang on the theme of self care as it relates to community care.  We hope this conversation inspires you to nourish yourself by cooking and eating with others!VC is an author, cook, and martial artist who happens to have an MBA and an entrepreneurial spirit.  She just released her first cookbook and it’s got tasty stories and recipes from her Thai community.For her, cooking is an artform that is as much about bodily sustenance as it is about feeding our spirits with stories.  When not in the kitchen, VC has spent most of her career in nonprofit program management, and is also a Taiji and Zen practitioner, and a proud alumni of the Berkeley Thai Temple’s performing arts program. Find out more about VC and support her work:IG @stirfrystorieswww.stirfrystories.comCrowdfund the book tour at buymeacoffee.com/vctangWe appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Get your holiday shopping done early at www.gratitudeblooming.com and enjoy 20% off with code: BLOOM22 --- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textOur full-length conversation with Pastor Keith PK Jenkins on Growth and the Grapevine (Card #33)This week, we’re excited to preview an upcoming episode on the theme of Growth and the grapevine by sharing our long-form interview with Pastor Keith PK Jenkins.Keith is a strong leader who through humility and compassion gains access to the hearts of other leaders. His honesty and integrity creates opportunities for him to be a bridge builder. He effectively communicates cross-culturally and bridges the  generations. He’s a seasoned leader and father in the faith who ministers with a prophetic anointing.  He is passionate, inspiring, bold and humorous. Through his personal testimony and transparent delivery of the gospel many come to faith in Jesus, are healed and inspired. Follow: Instagram - @pk_pastorkeithFacebook - @KeithPKJenkinsTwitter - @Keith_O_Jenkins--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textTeacher and thought partner Norma Wong (Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi) joins us to reflect on everything from ancestry to neuroscience to her own childhood influences. Abbot of Anko-in, an independent branch temple of Chozen-ji, Norma articulates the Collective Acceleration of this moment, which also serves as the title and inspiration for the second season of our podcast. Inspired by the Gratitude Blooming theme of remembrance and the poppy, Norma challenges us to exercise more choice. She asks, do we choose to bloom or stay in the ground? Plus, she shares how together we might rise to the occasion, and not get swept away by the tide.Wong serves practice communities in Hawai‘i, across the U.S., and in Toronto, Canada. Among her areas of teaching: waging peace; leadership and strategy in the 7 generations context.Wong served as a state legislator, on the policy and strategy team for Governor John Waihee, and community organizing and policy work in the Native Hawaiian (indigenous) community.  She is a Native Hawaiian and Hakka who lives in Kalihi Valley on the island of O`ahu in the Hawai`i archipelago.For more info: Zen resources at https://kaweloku.comRead the book Bankei Zen by Peter Haskel Sign up for Collective Acceleration monthly talks:  email collectiveacceleration@engagingvoices.org  We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com.--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textThis week’s theme of Wholeness embraces both the light and shadow. Artist Arlene Kim Suda shares this inspiration from Jun'ichirō Tanizaki — 'Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.’We are encouraged to remember the beautiful grays and that our wholeness will never destroy us. Joined by the intuitive and thoughtful strategic advisor and executive coach Stephanie Ervin, she reminds us that “We are more than our jobs that we show up to do.”  Her company is named Feathership and is a reimagining of leadership that can be both light and powerful. She sees this type of wholeness as a path to liberation, even when she’s had to reconcile her own bi-racial identity and to accept herself, she had to forgive those who were hurtful. Over the past decade, she has founded, designed, and led strengths-based leadership pathways for the public education system. Her award-winning work on action research and communities of practice has been featured in Mills College's research publications. Learn more at Feathership.com or follow her on instagram @Feathershipdotcom. We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com.--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textLife is not a script. It is a conversation. Life is going to life. How are you connected to it? Cultural anthropologist and culture keeper Dr. Erika Powell shares when she learned to pray from a Lakota elder. In a meadow in South Dakota, the elder shared: everything is alive and everything is listening to you. Before this moment, she asked whose inbox was getting my prayers. When she connected to the life all around her, everything changed. She says, your purpose is to be human and to have this human experience. To connect to our shared humanity, the light and dark.The artist Arlene Kim Suda shares this theme of prayer through both her drawing of the rhododendron juxtaposed with three triangles. She also read a piece from the poem Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot, which includes the beautiful paradox: "Teach us to care and not to care / Teach us to sit still." How do we build compassion and be non-attached? All of this is an invitation to be less judgemental. We all want to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com.If there’s a project, idea or vision you’d like to bring to fruition or clarity, Erika is the creative midwife that you want to guide you & help you navigate the process & journey.  Fostering transformation at the personal & professional levels as well as creating workplaces & cultures where employees thrive are at the heart of Dr. Erika Powell's work and teaching. Dr. Powell is bilingual in Spanish, holds a doctorate in Instructional Technology & Design from the University of Virginia, and a MS.Ed in Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Haverford College.https://thepowellconsultinggroup.com/--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textBeing there for each other. That’s the core inspiration for bar owner and author Cedd Moses. He says, “It’s not worth growing unless we can be there for each other.” He is on the path to redefine the hospitality industry with his bars and company Pouring with Heart, which is also the title of his new book: Pouring with Heart: The Essential Magic Behind the Bartenders We Love.This week we explore active listening, moving from technical skills to human skills and with Cedd Moses we are reminded of the aphorism that culture eats strategy for breakfast. His company is 450 people strong and his vision is to grow to 2,030 by 2030 based on values of lovingkindness. His book starts with this quote: "In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they're about brains, but in the future, they'll be about the heart." -Dame Minouche Shafik, London School of EconomicsScience also supports this heartfulness approach. Meditation leader Jack Kornfield shares that researchers like Richard Davidson have amassed evidence that measurable changes to our brain and nervous system occur 10x faster when heart practices like compassion and lovingkindness are incorporated with mindful attention.The flower for this podcast is inspired by the gardenia and the theme of gentleness. The art is an animated gif, which moves a soft pink circle into the black and white sketch of the gardenia. It creates the feeling of permeability and invites us to soften our edges. How would you interpret the art? We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com.Find more about Cedd Moses here: https://www.pouringwithheart.com--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textThis week we invite you to alchemize your belly breath. To transform pixels to atoms. To go from digital to analog. With guest Dr. Paul Chengpo Wang (aka Sifu Paul), we invite you to retreat into your well-being and wholeness. The Gratitude Blooming theme is patience, represented by the chamomile. Our artist Arlene Kim creates her first animated gif, a fun and delightful homage to Takashi Murakami. Her chamomile flowers light up as guides to joy and restfulness. When Dr. Wang is not traveling around the world to teach or treat patients, he enjoys training and being in nature, meditation, and retreat. Besides application of classical acupuncture, Chinese medicine, neigong, martial arts, calligraphy, guqin, and perennial philosophy, his interests include scientific findings in photobiology, quantum biology, the autonomic nervous system, the mirror neuron system, the microbiome, telomeres, epigenetics, mitochondrial disease, intergenerational trauma, and the fundamental forces.Dr. Wang earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Integrative Biology with an emphasis on human locomotion and biodynamics as well as minor studies in Chinese philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley. He also attained a Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine (MSTCM) and a Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM), both from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is professionally accredited by the California Acupuncture Board as a Board Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc). His official certifications as a Sifu of WingChun (詠春拳師傅), WingChun Fifth Technician Grade (詠春第五級技士), WingChun Combat Instructor (詠春技擊教師), and Escrima Fifth Level (武器第五段士) are conferred from the International Academy of WingChun (IAW).Website: daocenter.comEmail: info@daocenter.comInstagram: @sifupaulwangFacebook: /paulcwangSubstack: daology.substack.com--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textThere is a myth about scarcity. When we connect to each other the separation and supremacy that rely on the idea of scarcity fall away. Inspired by the rose of sharon, this week we talk abundance with poet, strategist, designer and philanthropic and capital advisor Taj James of Full Spectrum Labs. His father from Alabama and his mother with Scandinavian roots via the midwest, for Taj the spiritual and political were connected like the front and back of his hand. Since the age of six, he was focusing on fixing the world, in particular the idea that man is separate from nature. We are nature. Taj studied with Thich Nhat Hahn in Plum Village where he learned mindfulness leads to concentration and concentration leads to insight. Moreover, he was told by a monk that a river of love flowed through him night and day. He was loved. You belong here. With this insight, he felt the power of being kind, including to yourself, and the importance of paying attention. With inspiration from Howard Thurman, Taj reminds us: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”Follow Taj James on IG @tlrjames73We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com.--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!

Send us a textPlay with this moment. It may give you an opportunity to dance with the sublime. This week we talk with community leader and environmentalist Effie Turnbull Sanders and explore the theme of Reverence inspired by the Gratitude Blooming sunflower. Last year, Effie brought the Gratitude Blooming Circle practice to her team at the University of Southern California where she is the VP of civic engagement and economic partnerships. The weekly practice has helped her team become both more vulnerable and playful, which has been important with more remote working. Effie also shares how as a six year old in a rural coal town in Virginia beginning her own dialogue with nature. Her reverence for nature has only grown since then. Active in public and nonprofit service, Turnbull Sanders is currently a governor’s appointee and environmental justice commissioner for the California Coastal Commission. Turnbull Sanders has been an active board member and adviser to the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. We appreciate your support and help so we can bloom! Please take a moment to give us 5-stars and share a review.You can always email us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We want to hear from you!Check out the new Gratitude Blooming journaling notecards at www.gratitudeblooming.com--- Join us live on substack to participate in our monthly community practice: https://gratitudeblooming.substack.com Create an intentional practice or give meaningful gifts with the Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candles and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com. Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4: Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao CenterIf you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow. Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!