What are you here for?

[Green renaissance]

“What are you here for? What are you living for? We’re here to do something, and it starts from being able to listen to that little voice inside.” – Nirmala Nair

Nirmala doesn’t want to live a settled down life. She continuously questions the status quo and works towards living a more authentic life.

Vocabulary chunks to learn from the video :

• I’m a social misfit
• I’m quite unusual in my thinking
• Settle down
• Sharing the ability to question the status quo
• Be comfy
• What are you here for?
• What are you living for?
• A tiny little thing
• To be disconnected inside
• Time has become linear
• I have a deadline
• An enthusiasm to discover
• Ready-made answers
• We don’t go out and engage
• We don’t relate
• We don’t discover
• Take the risk to follow ones’ heart
• Make mistakes
• That is authenticity

 

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When was the last time you played?

[Ikea]

Over the years, IKEA has conducted some of the world’s largest research studies on child development and play. In 2017, IKEA continued to explore the topic by researching the importance of play for adults as well as children. This year’s play research identifies five key motivators of why we play – and the mental and emotional benefits inherent in them.

Vocabulary chunks to learn from video :

• A playful state of mind
• We wanted to understand how and why people play
• What adults’ view on play is
• I play to be happy again
• A diverse group of people
• To find out what play is
• What play is not
• Play is typically active not passive
• It is spontaneous
• It is satisfying not frustrating
• It is lighthearted
• Super-duper important
• Play to connect
• Play to express yourself
• Play to escape
• Play to explore
• Play to prepare
• It can make people’s life better

Happiness is taking what you can in the moment

greenrenaissance.co.za

Our world has become so full of daily demands. Helen has found a way to escape this.

“It feels like land has become so cluttered with so much stuff – cellphones, and cars, and appointments. When I’m in the water, it feels like the one place that I can get away from everything” – Helen Walne

Vocabulary chunks to learn after watching the video :

• I’ve gone through phases
• When is this phase going to end?
• This one is going to stick
• Something so immersive
• Not just physically but mentally as well
• I grew up on a farm
• Far away from the sea
• I’m trying to find my way around water
• Taking what you can in the moment – right now
• Cluttered with so much stuff
• One of the few places that we can get away from everything
• It slows everything down
• It’s magical, it’s truly magical
• There is this entire world that you have never experienced before
• Just floating and looking
• It’s not just underwater it’s under wonder

The power of gratitude

Teacher Whitney Cole at Oak Ridge Elementary School in Sacramento knows how powerful gratitude can be, so she has her sixth grade students keep a gratitude journal that is impacting her students beyond the classroom.  [soulpancake.com]

Vocabulary chunks to learn from video :

• Gratitude journals
• 3 Things that you are grateful for
• It forces a happy end to the day
• Everybody can find success in their gratitude journals
• Saying thank you
• Being grateful for what you have
• It might make a hard day turn into an easy day
• I’ve actually changed
• It continues, it starts becoming part of their everyday behavior
• They are still inspired
• They have high hopes for their future
• You get to shape who they are
• Then you get to watch them fly on their own
• She means a lot to me

 

 

 

What’s your strength?

soul pancake

How do we persevere against unfathomable odds? Poet Mosley Wotta delves within himself to answer life’s biggest questions, finding rhyme and symphony in the most unlikely places. In the first installment of spoken word with Mosley Wotta, let him motivate you to look beyond yourself.

I feel sunny

Vocabulary chunks to learn after watching the video :

• Calm down and relax
• Playtime
• Get back into learning
• All the things I had to worry about
• Using our senses
• Mental wellbeing
• Go round the circle
• Breathe in and out
• I think the point of it is because..
• I’m not exactly sure

 

 

Be mindful

[Apple UK]

 

“Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you carefully observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to your current experience, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. ” [Psychology Today]

Vocabulary chunks to learn after watching the video :

• Make the deadline
• How many likes did I get?
• Busy lives
• Our brains aren’t wired to be constantly switched off
• Take some time to quiet your mind
• Be in the moment
• It can make you less stressed
• Improve your health overall
• Be mindful
• Finding a moment
• Take a few deep breaths
• Feeling better already

 

Can you fill a jar with gratitude and happiness?

[Think Avellana]

Read more here