United By Stoke is the RAVEN 425 RISE ABOVE Podcast

I never want to get political so I won't but what has been showing up on news feeds on line got my heart a little heavy. When I think of some of our most powerful influences in society in the 100 years- Mr Gandhi, Mr Martin Luther King Mother Teresa... they all say things such as : darkness can not bring us light - hate will not over come hate ... only love and light can do that. So as I view people across the world 🌎 putting out negative 👎 messages against something or someone... it's creating more negative 👎- you cannot be Anti War but we can be Pro Peace ✌️ do you see the difference... the words we use have power. Positive actions will win!! Let's stay up fam...

I somewhat lost my voice...it was a new experience for me and it got me thinking of a lesson we do often in soto zen which is the lesson of "what if I die tomorrow" we keep the presence of our mortality in our awareness so we can be very astute of how important and or not important things are in our day to day life. So my lesson my light bulb 💡 moment the last couple of days was... what if my voice never came back.... I would not be able to get out all the words I have in me- and I still have so much to say- I feel like I just got started!! It truly showed me how important and finite our time here is. Let's make every second count!!❤️🙌👊

One ☝️ thing that has become very clear to me so I am sure some of you must experience the same vibe is how confusing the idea of how to eat health is! 🙏🤔I mean there must be a zillion different ways that people claim are the ONLY WAY we should be eating~ man I am a seasoned vet when it comes to knowledge on food and even I get confused 🤷‍♀️- yet there really really is a simple answer. So first you just need to know what foods agree with you... and next is stay away from the Don'ts - the artificial sugars the pre packaged foods, the pre made foods, the fructose the pop - so on and so forth -once you can get that one out of the way.... sky 🌌 truly is the limit !!!❤️🙌👊

Not even a week or 2 into the New Year and so so so many people are telling me just how awesome 😎 amazing 😉 brilliant 2018 has been and how utterly horrible horrid and unacceptable 2017 was...My mind has been blow away yet again. 2017 - 365 days.... and they all sucked??? 5 plus days into 2018 and it’s magical 🧙‍♀️ euphoric- the best ever??? For me I look 👀 at the game for what it is the long haul. We are human there are peaks and valleys not every second or every minute of every day is going to be EPIC but there sure as phuck are a lot of those moments. Let’s be grateful- thankful 🙏 ohhhhh wait for it appreciative for this blessing called LIFE.... it’s a simple change to the way we look 👀 at the world 🌍 when we awake in the morning!! Let’s get it fam 2018 and beyond!!!🙌👊❤️

A lesson I learned from the old zen monks about 4 years ago... has resurfaced into my present day awareness. As I continue on in my personal journey of life... I sometimes as we all do being human stumble and have to pick myself up and in those moments there are times that I wonder wouldn't it just be easier if someone gave me this.... just this one time just this one ☝️ thing... why do I always have to fight so hard... and as of late this story continues to be ever present in my mind. That without struggling to get out of the cocoon the caterpillar 🐛 that has now turned into a butterfly 🦋- without that struggle the time spent fighting to get out of the tight cocoon it made for itself - that if someone came and opened it up for the Butterfly 🦋 then it would never fly and never realize its true potential ❤️🙌👊- if it's given to us... we are doing ourself a dis service 💥

I had 2 encounters this week with a close group of family friends - they were as well together with their entire family when I ran into them. We spoke each time about their brother whom at one ☝️ point was a very good friend of mine. Over the years he has been having issues and his health relationship and job statues which have all been effected. Numerous times we have broke bread -chatted and made some plans for the road to betterment- for whatever reason none of them took for him. So this last week when it was said "you know they just need to come talk to you" .... it hit me again like woooow 😳this is again my lesson no one else's. It is up to us to do... NOT seek permission from others to feel that we are able to do it ... only you -only I have to power to make something happen... no one else - especially when it comes to your own well being - let's make it happen again today - better than we were yesterday ❤️🙌👊

The trifecta of true healing as told to me by numerous indigenous people and as well eastern healers is the mind body and soul connected- the yin and the yang - the energy counts in our body and around us and if that is out of wack .... meaning if we are truly unhappy 😔 with our life but put on a smiling face to impress others.... or living our life for others - at some point ☝️ this off balance will create some form of dis ease in our body and if we don't pay attention to it at some point it will slow us down. Self awareness is so important here... we have to live our lives for ourselves so that we can then give back to those around us.... let's not dim our own bright light!!❤️🙌👊

The term splintered or shattered soul is a known way of thinking in the eastern healing ways. I was told today that I can eat kale and do yoga 24/7 but if my mental game was not on point ☝️ then at some point through all the micro issue that come from being unhappy angry sad.... whatever the case may be - that at some point year after year this shows up in our body as some form of disease 😕🤔- so the journey of the last 9 years continues onward and upwards..... better ever day!

I met a man who is in his mid 50's today and as we spoke he dropped the word BITCOIN... and I was like hey 👋 hold on how u know about that?!!! He then proceeded to tell me that the job he was doing while talking to me (security guard) was just one of his 3 jobs he does to make money 💰 to keep a roof over his head while he puts himself through a business degree at a university😳🤔 I was taken back a little and by that I was so impressed and inspired by him that we sat and chatted for almost an hour. I just kept asking questions the why the how the who..... Part of my journey and lesson's was started by being inspired by those who were older than me and breaking all the rules and stereo types that came with age !!! 💥 this guy lit me up - inspired me to keep on keeping on!!❤️👊🙌

We continue on about how to really make our change count. To make a goal 🥅 then plan out a task and or tasks to do daily and repeat the tasks until they become habit... then re vamp those tasks to continue on wards and up wards! We need to do the tasks which means we need to take actual action to implement and execute on our goals for change. Check each task off and at the end of each day we can see how we are starting to improve and implement our goals ❤️👊🙌