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Tag: resilience

Angela Duckworth, The War of the Worlds, The Hunt, The Art of Improvement, and a Bhagavad Gita Verse

Sunday Supplement #173 (September 1st, 2024)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

Please take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”

– Angela Duckworth

Book of the Week:

The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells was a prolific writer with over fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His famous book The War of the Worlds was serialized in 1987 Pearson’s Magazine and Cosmopolitan.

The novel follows the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist and his younger brother as Martians invade southern England.

As the aliens move across the country in huge three-legged machines, they incinerate those in their path with a heat ray and toxic gasses.

The War of the Worlds is one of the first novels to depict a conflict between humans and extraterrestrials.

H.G. Wells’s science fiction classic has never been out of print and has been adapted into many different mediums, including the famous radio drama by Orson Welles.

Movie of the Week:

The Hunt

The Hunt, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and written by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, currently ranks at #95 on IMDb’s Top 250 movies list.

Mads Mikkelsen stars in this Danish film about a teacher living a solitary life while struggling over his son’s custody.

The teacher’s life slowly improves as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but the new boost is shattered when an innocent little lie gets loose.

The Hunt was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the 2014 Academy Awards. It is an upsetting story, but it is well done and worth watching.

Brainfood of the Week:

Ten Ways to Build and Develop Resilience | The Art of Improvement

This The Art of Improvement video starts by stating that we all encounter hardships and that we can either let them swallow us up or make the best of them.

Resilience is the ability to pick yourself back up and move forward after tragedy or challenges—deciding not to quit. 

The Art of Improvement explains that resilience is a skill, not an innate ability. It must be built up and developed over time through mindset shifts, practice, and healthy habits.

The video then highlights ten ways to build and develop resilience. Two of my favorite tips are to be proactive about problems and to change your mindset about adversity.

I’ve featured The Art of Improvement in a few previous Sunday Supplements. Their videos focus on helping viewers learn how to better themselves and be more productive.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“And that determination which cannot go beyond dreaming, fearfulness, lamentation, moroseness, and illusion— such unintelligent determination is the mode of darkness.”

– Bhagavad Gita 18:35

This Bhagavad Gita passage is an interesting insight into how we can determinately get lost in our own negativity.

We often stumble or find ourselves facing adverse situations. In those moments, it can be easy to drop your head or to think of past failures.

This Bhagavad Gita verse reminds us that this way of thinking is lost in emotion and will only lead us to darker places.

We must pay attention to our emotions but find balance and remind ourselves that we can take action to improve our situation.


Find the right mode of resilience, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Mary Halloway, The Mastery of Love, Groundhog Day, TED-Ed, and Galatians 6:9

Sunday Supplement #75 (October 16th, 2022)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

I hope you take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“Resilience is knowing that you are the only one with the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.”

– Mary Halloway

Book of the Week:

The Mastery of Love – Don Miguel Ruiz

Don Miguel Ruiz was born to parents who belonged to the Toltecs of Mexico. He chose to follow a different path than his ancestors and decided to become a surgeon.

However, after a near-death experience, Ruiz devoted himself to mastery of the ancient ancestral wisdom of the Toltecs and later passed on what he learned.

In The Mastery of Love, Ruiz highlights assumptions and fear-based beliefs that lead to suffering in relationships and undermine love.

The book shows how we can heal from the ill practices and traumas that affect our relationships so we can return to loving ourselves and loving others.

Ruiz’s books have been on the New York Times’s bestsellers list for over a decade. In Sunday Supplement #38, I featured his book, The Four Agreements.

Movie of the Week:

Groundhog Day

Harold Ramis’s film follows a narcissistic weatherman who finds himself stuck in a time loop on Groundhog Day, fated to keep repeating the same day.

The 1993 movie stars Bill Murray as weatherman Phil, Andie MacDowell as producer Rita, and Chris Elliott as cameraman Larry.

The three travel to Punxsutawney for the annual coverage of the Groundhog Day festivities but cannot leave the same day after a blizzard hits.

As Phil continues to wake up on the same day, aware he is destined to repeat that day continuously, he goes through an existential journey.

Groundhog Day has a brilliantly comedic script, but the core of the story is grounded in meaningful themes that help it rise above a simple movie just for laughs.

Brainfood of the Week:

How to Stay Calm Under Pressure – Noa Kageyama & Pen-Pen Chen | TED-Ed

The video discusses different experiences of succumbing to pressure and starts with the distraction theory, suggesting performance suffers when losing focus on the task at hand.

We can get caught up with the precise details of our actions, worry about our performance, and lose sight of the goal.

Kageyama and Chen then highlight performance tips: practicing under pressure, pre-performance routines, and removing internal doubt about how to achieve goals.

The TED-Ed video is animated by Olesya Shchukina and is a quick lesson on how we can get overwhelmed by pressure and how to overcome it.

If you check it out and enjoy the video, check out some of the other TED videos I’ve featured on previous Sunday Supplements.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

– Galatians 6:9

I think some of the most challenging times occur when you’ve put in enormous effort but don’t get the desired results.

This Bible verse points out a few things for me that I try to remember when I encounter low moments in my life.

One is that it might be too early to judge my efforts. Another is that the harvest might not be what I expected, but there should be something valuable I can take from it. And the last thing is to not give up on doing good things. 

I always try to remember this last one because if I can acknowledge and appreciate the good of my efforts, I can always find more energy to move forward.

Acknowledge your good efforts, love yourself, and have a blessed week ahead!

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