A Drop of Happy

Affirmation: I am the author of my story

Let's talk about Shannon Sharp, Sean (Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, Love) Combs, and the case for resilience, including the four core components of resilience: connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning.

Building Your Resistance

Reveal Your Thoughts: Part 1

What are you feeling today?

Reveal your thoughts to a trusted confident! 

In my research on stress management and wellness, I have found that the basics of the basics is knowing oneself. Knowing who you are, knowing what your values are, and knowing how you react to things allows a person to better prepare for life’s ups and downs. However, sometimes that is not enough. Sometimes you have to take it further and share certain parts of yourself. Share your feelings and emotions whether it be venting or expressing love or connecting on a mutual experience. Since we are social creatures we need to connect in ways that deepen our experiences. At the end of the day keeping things bottled up is not healthy.

This leads into some salient points from these two articles.

The Case for Embracing Our Emotions Part 1 Review

• Emotions can help us learn about ourselves

Let me tell you how not even ten minutes into this movie, I was ticked all the way off. Because who the hell are these evil, small-town, backward-ass police officers to manhandle and malign this man, Terry Richmond, who was simply riding his bike while being black!

Rebel Ridge takes place in a small town, you know the Jason Aldean type small town, the sundown type small town, the small town that you drive carefully through, the small town that really should just be avoided driving through, of Shelby Springs where Terry Richmand, former Marine, is trying to post bail for his cousin. Unfortunately, before he can do that, he runs into a pair of bad-apple-cops that abuse him and steal the money he was going to use for bail. I thought, oh this is a Jason Statham movie where he now has to kick everyone’s ass to get revenge. 

Rebel Ridge stars not-so-newcomer Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride, Don Johnson as Cheif Sandy Burnne, and David Denman as Officer Evan Marston. This movie was in the making for quite some time and had some delays before being released one of which was losing their leading man, John Boyega. He ended up pulling out the movie which stirred some rumors but later released a statement that he had to leave the production due to family reasons. In comes Aaron Pierre, another British actor, to take over the role. All in all the acting was solid. 

Although the overarching theme is police brutality mixed with the good old dose of small-town prejudice, Rebel Ridge introduced an overlooked area of exploitation of “legal” seizure of assets during a police stop also known as civil assets forfeiture. In the movie, Summer revealed that they can keep the money even if the person is not charged with any crimes and to get it back one would have to go through a costly legal battle which is usually not worth it. This was another layer of messed up corrupt activity happening in this town. So plot-wise and storyline-wise they had a lot to work with because that was only the tip of the corruption happening in Shelby. I thought they did a good job of not-so-subtly but subtly enough weaving those themes in. 

My main issue with this movie was that it sorta kinda got boring at times. Which, weirdly enough, I cannot completely attribute to the pacing though. I thought the pacing was good because it allowed for some understanding and background building. I really wanted to see more well-placed action. Maybe I just wanted to see more of Terry kicking ass. I cannot quite figure out what the issue was but it needed a little umph where umph was not. Aaron Pierre and how they wrote him and how he carried out the character I thought was very well done and I would love to see more of Terry Richmond. My other issue was the ending. I don’t care for ambiguity and filling in the blanks. I like things to be tied up in a nice bow and clarified. It did not give me that. 

Again, I enjoyed the cast and their chemistry. The film definitely evoked emotions and Aaron as Terry Richmond did his thing. Is he the next big thing? I hope he doesn’t have any skeletons hidden anywhere because once a brother starts to rise there’s a target on his back. I am rooting for him though. I have not watched any of his other projects except Old and I don’t remember his character so I am going to have to revisit that. The others are mostly on my avoid list but I hear he does hold his own. So I am looking forward to what he will bring to the table. 

Rebel Ridge 7.5/10

Do you really store stress in your body? This Times' article takes a deeper look into the idea that we store stress in our bodies and there is nothing we can do about dealing with it. 

Read the full article 

Listen! Listen, listen, listen to me! Go see this movie. I realize I am late on seeing Alien: Romulus as it came out in theaters two weeks ago, but I have arrived. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this film. They went with a younger crew this time, portraying a group of green young adults who were just in search of a better life. There was an affinity towards them succeeding built in early on. Considering, I had recently rewatched the first Alien movie, this one felt almost full circle to me. This of course was the intention considering it is somewhat of a sequel to Alien and a prequel to Aliens, taking place 20 years after the events of Alien. 

Alien: Romulus follows Rain, played by Cailee Spaeny, and her “brother,” Andy played by David Jonsson, as they decide to help scavenge a ship so they can realize their ultimate dream of going to another planet where they can see the sun. They join a group of four others to steal some well-needed supplies from an abandoned ship that has orbited into the range of their planet. 

What are you feeling today?

Cast your net wider!

Sometimes we may be limiting ourselves whether it be physically or mentally. Sometimes we need to let those things go that keep us bound.

Break free from those barriers and cast your net wider but what does that really mean?

Reach out more than you thought you could. Open yourself more than is comfortable. Open your mind to new possibilities. When I think of casting your net wider, I think of expanding oneself. This is different from extending yourself or spreading yourself too thin. Please do not do that. We spread ourselves enough. This means being more open to the varieties that life has to offer.

Do not limit yourself. This requires self-awareness and imagination. It is not easy but you can start by thinking about who you currently are, where you currently are and what can you do to broaden your mind.

Successful People: The 8 Self-limiting Behaviors They Avoid

How Negative Self-beliefs Can Impact Your Life

Belle is now available to stream for free with commercials on YouTube movies. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Belle and a great supporting cast. This came out some years ago but I did not catch it at the time. Glad I was able to watch this time around.

01:05 Journal prompt: Self-love Affirmations

02:28 Movie review

06:20 Zong trials

08:00 Movie Rating

10:30 It's on YouTube

11:00 Spoiler alert. Stop here or keep going for a summery

11:30 Summary and movie discussion

This is not a movie review of It Ends with Us. It is a look into the behind-the-scenes drama and why we sometimes must be careful of what we choose to watch.

01:57 Journal prompt: The Unexpected

04:49 Healthy escapism

07:20 Colleen Hoover for the money

08:15 Justine Baldoni

09:20 The Drama

11:54 Bridgerton

18:45 Triggered

Deadpool & Wolverine’s USA release has held the number one spot for the past two weeks. It also has the record of being the highest-grossing R-rated movie opening. I contributed to that by taking myself to the movies to check it out. The critics love it apparently. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 79% and IMDb at 8.1. Google Reviews has it at 4.5/5. Did I enjoy it? Yeah. I think what I liked most about it was the easter eggs and the nostalgia from the different superhero characters showing up. I did not watch most of the previews. Once I heard Wolverine was in it, I already knew I would see it. So I was pleasantly surprised seeing Elektra played by Jennifer Garner, Blade played by Wesley Snipes, Johnny Storm played by Chris Evans, and Gambit played by Channing Tatum. 

The story's writing could have been better but I enjoyed the entertainment value. 

Deadpool & Wolverine Podcast Timeline

00:20 Journaling benefits

01:22 This show’s journal prompt

03:33 Deadpool & Wolverine the critics loved it

05:30 Pleasantly surprised

05:52 Channing Tatums Gambit

07:22 My rating out of 10

11:00 Recap and Spoilers