The Ripples Pondcast

This is a different kind of episode for us; I invited my longtime friend Pidge (we've known each other since 5th grade!) to an experiment: we'd each bring a handful of questions to the table for discussion and exploration. The conversation went longer than we originally anticipated, but we had such a blast! I'm already wondering who I'll invite to the conversation next...

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

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Enjoy this replay of our May 2025 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community (https://www.patreon.com/RipplesGuy for more info)

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

You can also watch the video replay here.

Intriguing article on Hope vs. Optimism

Slow Hope

Slow Hope post on Instagram:

Slow Hope: Rethinking Ecologies of Crisis and Fear, by Christof Mauch

This 2019 article lays out why and how the author began using the term “slow hope.”

Resilient Hope

You can access 13-minute video and audio summaries of the four pillars of our WE GOT THIS resilience sticker, because it’s still true that WE GOT THIS if we come together with Curious Minds, Open Hearts, and Calm Spirits while we Nurture Health.

WE GOT THIS Sticker: If you'd like a sticker, this Google Doc will give you options for how to get one (for free, if you want!):

Active Hope

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience & Creative Power, by Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone

Three Questions for The Great Turning:

Where and how are you turning up?

What are you turning away from?

What are you turning towards?

Hopeful Stories we didn't get to:

Nearly 40 Years After Chernobyl’s Nuclear Explosion, the Area Is One of Europe’s Biggest Nature Reserves

Violin of Hope

Peace Tree turns 400 years old

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this replay of our March 2025 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community (https://www.patreon.com/RipplesGuy for more info) We followed our usual format:

pebble (a resource that I've found useful in my work or life)

boulder (and activity I'm using personally or professionally)

ponder (a collection of information and ideas I've been pondering)

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

You can also watch the video replay here: https://youtu.be/w9q6O6_HW1Y

WARM UP

Just for Now, by Danna Folds

PEBBLE

My Unsung Hero Podcast (via NPR’s Hidden Brain)

Nice News

$100k financial assistance for Olympic & Special Olympic athletes

Owls in Towels

BOULDER

Don’t like to exercise? Try this simple, science-backed trick:

“Fartleks” — meaning “speed play” in Swedish — are an effective way to add intensity to activities, which a growing body of science indicates can make your workouts more beneficial.  Fartleks are an informal version of interval training. To start fartlek training, head outside, warm up for a few minutes at whatever activity you most enjoy — whether it’s walking, running, biking, unicycling or snowshoeing — and then pick a landmark a short distance ahead. It could be a tree, a colorful mailbox or an unusual rock formation. Pick up your pace until you reach it. Then, drop back to your original pace, let your heart rate and breathing slow, and look for another landmark. Vary the distance between these goals, and aim for perhaps 30 minutes of fartleks once a week to start.

PONDER

"Everything is horrific and along side it is hope.

Everything is dark and along side it there is light.

The question becomes, “How do we cultivate a practice of noticing so that we can also speak into existence the things that are going right?”

When we have algorithms that are so tuned towards catastrophe, brains in fact that are so alarmous, such drama queens…

that we forget the practice of noticing beauty.

To rewire my brain and my heart is to speak aloud the things that I find beautiful.

And that gives me hope. There’s such a smorgasbord of beauty around us, and we often feel guilty in naming it, as if that detracts or cancels out the severity of what we’re facing. I don’t think it does. What the universe is always asking us to do is to become bilingual."

~Alok Vaid-Menon, shared by Josh in New Hampshire

lightly edited from these informal remarks

Get your WE GOT THIS Sticker here!

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this replay of our January 2025 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community (https://www.patreon.com/RipplesGuy for more info) We followed our usual format:

pebble (a resource that I've found useful in my work or life)

boulder (and activity I'm using personally or professionally)

ponder (a collection of information and ideas I've been pondering)

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

You can also watch the video replay here.

PEBBLE (resource)

Volume Control: a guidebook for highly sensitive people in a loud & spiky world

by Jen Butler

BOULDER (activity)

Buddha's Five Remembrances, often recited in Buddhist practice, are reflections on the nature of life and human existence. They are:

1. I am of the nature to grow old.
2. Aging is unavoidable.
3. I am of the nature to experience illness.
4. Illness is unavoidable.
5. I am of the nature to die.
6. Death is unavoidable.
7. Everyone and everything I love will change,
8. and I will be separated from them.
9. My actions are my only true belongings.
10. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.
11. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

These remembrances serve as a reminder to live mindfully and ethically, accepting the impermanence of life.

Here's the Dan Harris podcast episode I learned about this from, and here is a simple image of them I made for my iPhone

Here's a link to the resource page of Depolarization Resources I mentioned, too.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this replay of our December 2024 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community

We followed our usual format:

pebble (a resource that I've found useful in my work or life)

boulder (and activity I'm using personally or professionally)

ponder (a collection of information and ideas I've been pondering)

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

You can also watch the video replay.

PEBBLE

Spirited – Ripple (Cut Song) – Closing Credits Scene w/Lyrics

https://youtu.be/SdjfxxxQmWo

Spirited — “That Christmas Morning Feelin'” Lyric Video | Apple TV+

https://youtu.be/lVirAsKISyc

Spirited — “Do A Little Good” Lyric Video | Apple TV+

https://youtu.be/As_Sp64ahlA

RIPPLE (Cut Song) Lyrics

https://genius.com/Will-ferrell-sunita-mani-tracy-morgan-patrick-page-and-the-spirited-ensemble-ripple-cut-song-lyrics

BOULDER

Thermostat of Expectations

The Gift of Nostalgia

Enough Nog

Simple NO balls (SNO Balls)

I am enough!

I have enough!

My effort is enough!

My skill set is enough!!

My current mood is enough!

What others bring to

the table is enough!

My life is enough.

Today is enough.

I am enough!

PONDER

May we all be HEALTHY.

May we all be SAFE.

May we all be WISE.

May we all be at PEACE.

"I wish for you… a season in which there is room for the complexities that occur during this time. A season of complicated memories, of happiness and pain, of comfort and loss, of disappointment and fulfillment…. A season of joy which also has room for sadness, because gladness and sorrow take place together.”

~Bruce Marshall

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

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This is a condensed version of the We Got This resilience content that have helped lots of folks navigate challenge and change in the last four years, even the big, hard stuff that's come along lately.

RESOURCES:

PDF you can print out and fill in while you listen to this overview of the WE GOT THIS resilience content.

JPG IMAGE with all the information filled in:

Google Doc with information on how you can receive a WE GOT THIS Sticker.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No matter how GOOD or how HARD your life has been lately, it turns out there are simple, proven techniques for creating feelings of joy, happiness, peace and gratitude. I'm excited to unpack some of the research and share a handful of easy, practical steps you can take to make your good days a a little more fun, and your hard days a little more bearable.

Enjoy this replay of the October 2024 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community (https://www.patreon.com/RipplesGuy for more info)

The notes & links are located in this Google Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFLUMj5jAGpZIwNUDrPjPNICyswEkOoKw-xkAUZmxAA/edit?usp=sharing

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy this replay of the September 2024 Monthly Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community.

We followed our usual format:

pebble (a resource that I've found useful in my work or life)

boulder (and activity I'm using personally or professionally)

ponder (a collection of information and ideas I've been pondering)

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

You can also watch the video replay on YouTube

PEBBLE

Quick Splashes PDF https://2rpl.me/i/QuickSplashes_2024.pdf

ALSO: here is a Washington Post article about a family whose Halloween decorations made a big impact on a stranger who drove by every week on her way to chemotherapy: https://wapo.st/3B1wHIK

BOULDER

"What would it mean to be done for the day?"

Oliver Burkeman’s “The Imperfectionist” Newsletter:

https://ckarchive.com/b/xmuph6hrqdp04hrnppvnqc2le6lllbn

PONDER

A. Human Givens, or "HG" Therapy: https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-look-after-your-emotional-needs-with-human-givens-therapy

Emotional Needs Audit: https://www.hgi.org.uk/sites/default/files/hgi/Emotional-Needs-Audit.pdf

B. Loving Ourselves isn’t a FEELING. It is a JOB.

2-minute clip of Matthew Hussey talking on Drew Barrymore Show

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1834646823689838

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedrewbarrymoreshow/reel/C-vBypOurD9/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedrewbarrymoreshow/video/7403755233295338798?lang=en

C. Cold Showers

Cold showers are a thing, and they might be (really) good for you (CONSULT PHYSICIAN OF COURSE)

Men's Health article: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitness/a29810653/cold-showers/

Wikihow post: https://www.wikihow.com/Take-a-Cold-Shower

D. Who’s behind all the scammy messages you’ve been getting lately?

"Search Engine" podcast episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/search-engine/id1614253637?i=1000648461088

CNN article: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/17/asia/pig-butchering-scam-southeast-asia-dst-intl-hnk/index.html

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the audio recording of our monthly Zoomy Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community. Weshared several stories & ideas from my summer adventures. The notes and links from the session are pasted below. You can also watch the video replay here.

PEBBLE

Pixar's Inside Out 2 adds anxiety, embarrassment, ennui, envy, and a hint of nostalgia to the original team of emotions we got to know in the first movie: joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. Trailer here.

BOULDER

3 sounds to stimulate the vagus nerve

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1004031721415676

1. hmmmmmm

2. ohm/aum

3. ha

PONDER

A. The Sonder of Musings…

I originally came across the word "sonder" in the mesmorizing 10 minute video called SOULFULLY BEAUTIFUL from Reflections of LIfe (who I first learned about from Grateful Living: https://grateful.org). I then learned the term SONDER, defined as "the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it. The word was coined by John Koenig, who compiled a compendium of created words in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and also created a short video just to unpack his special word Sonder.

B. Dementia is not a Death (Psyche.co article)

Dementia is not a death. For some, it marks a new beginning

C. 10+ Happy Songs

I originally stumbled upon a list of 10 songs that will make you happy based on research from a music psychologist

in articles in Inc. and Science Times. I put the 10 songs in a Pandora Playlist:

And then I stumbled upon this list on Spotify that also claimed to be "the 10 happiest songs" based on research.

D. Finally, the artwork I picked up from an adorable shop in downtown Frisco, Colorado called Stay Sunny Frisco

" It's all connected, you know.

Your gifts, your circumstances, your journey.

None of it is by chance.

Embrace it.

It's molding you."

~Ash Weisel

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the audio recording of our monthly Zoomy Zoom with the Team Ripples Patreon Community (https://www.patreon.com/RipplesGuy for more info). This month we followed up last month's "Why Can't We Get Along" talk on polarization with a deeper dive into some of the ideas and resources we touched on previously.

The notes and links from the session are pasted below.

If you'd prefer to watch the video replay you can watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pl3jRVBuN-s

PEBBLE: Similarity Index https://www.allsides.com/similarity

BOULDER: Polarization Detox from Starts With Us: https://startswith.us/pdc/

PONDER

Podcast interview we mentioned:

The Growing Edge Podcast episode #43: hosts Parker Palmer & Carrie Newcomer interview John Paul Lederach.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-growing-edge/id1420185401?i=1000555807039

During the intro, they read from an October 2020 Humanity United article, “How the United States Can Step Back from the Brink”

https://humanityunited.org/perspectives/how-the-united-states-can-step-back-from-the-brink/

Polarization Resources (from previous epsiode: https://bit.ly/DepolarizingResources

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/ripples.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.