#we’re fighting a daily war over our own rights. you’d have to be on 30 cups of coffee to NOT be tired

[ihhfhonao3]

A part of activism is knowing that it’s important to rest and okay to be tired, I think

[tigerkirby215]

5e Poppy, the Keeper of the Hammer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Joshua “HUGEnFAST” Brian Smith and Jason Chan. Made for Riot Games.)

Uh so basically I played Poppy for the first time like last month. And I really enjoyed her. So here’s a Poppy build I’m writing a month in advance. I know Doran’s & Dragons have done a Poppy build but again our views differ slightly and while I think their build is good (and I got some inspiration from it) I’d like to put my own spin on the build too!

By the way check out their Kayn build! To this day my Kayn build is still one of my favorite builds (I just really like Horizon Walker ngl lol) and their build takes it in a similar yet unique direction.

GOALS

Shieldy~ - Poppy may just be a yordle with a hammer but she’s also got a shield to chuck at people.

You; sit - We’ll need stuns and slows to hold the line against legions of foes.

No getting through me - We’ll need to be able to hold the line and annoy any and every champion with a dash.

RACE

Poppy is a yordle which means holy shit I get to use something other than Variant Human. We’ll be going with a Stout Halfling for Poppy to give her some sturdiness as well as some yordle magic. You’d normally get a +2 to Dexterity but thanks to Tasha’s we can put that +2 into Strength instead. You also get +1 to Constitution thanks to your subrace, as well as Stout Resilience for advantage against poisons and resistance to poison damage.

As a Halfling you are Brave for advantage against being frightened, and have Halfling Nimbleness to move through the spaces of creatures that are one size larger than you (which considering that you’re Small is most creatures.) But of course the main appeal of Halflings is their Lucky trait, letting you reroll Natural 1s as the light of both Demacia and Bandle City guides you.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - You swing a hammer that’s about the same size as your body which the strongest men (and women) in Demacia can’t lift.

14; CHARISMA - Poppy is a cute little bean. So cute in fact that not even Vayne will shoot her; and Vayne shoots everyone! (Daily reminder that Vayne sucks and Vayne mains suck #FuckVayne)

13; CONSTITUTION - Poppy is a tank and along with the +1 from our race this will give us a nice health buffer.

12; DEXTERITY - Poppy isn’t the most mobile in-game but she still needs to be able to quickly bodycheck people into walls.

10; WISDOM - Poppy is a little daft and far too humble for her own good, still searching for the legendary hero to wield the mighty hammer.

8; INTELLIGENCE - The hammer which she still doesn’t realize can only be swung by the legendary hero, despite the fact that she swings the hammer around constantly.

BACKGROUND

Officially Poppy wanders around Demacia searching for the one true hero. But unofficially she was trained by captain Orlon as a Demacian Soldier. Thing is neither of the skills really fit Poppy (well Intimidation doesn’t, and we’ll be getting Athletics from other sources) so take Persuasion and Survival to get folk to try out your hammer, or to survive long nights alone on the roads of Demacia. You can keep the Land Vehicles and Gaming Set proficiencies though! (Though Smith’s Tools might also fit if you want to be Blacksmith Poppy.)

Of course your Military Rank will still help. Demacian soldiers recognize your heroic deeds (c’mon guys really it was nothing) and are willing to lend you some military supplies if needed, or let you wander around their camps looking for someone who can pick up your hammer.

(Artwork by Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter to be a simple, practical yordle. Fighters get two skills from the Fighter list: take Insight and Perception to search far and wide for that legendary hero.

You get a Fighting Style at level 1, and I am actually going to suggest Superior Technique from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. This will give you a d6 Combat Superiority die to use on a single chosen maneuver from the Battlemaster subclass. Anyways take Quick Toss to chuck your Iron Ambassador as a Bonus Action.

My recommendation for Poppy’s “shield” would be to ask your DM if you can get a Javelin that does bludgeoning damage, since the Javelin can be thrown slightly further than the other weapons. If they say no a Light Hammer works fine for bludgeoning damage, though you’re going to have to deal with the fact that Light Hammers cost 2 gold for some godawful reason. Or you could just accept that Javelins are going to do piercing damage because damage types really don’t matter much in 5e.

Also as far as your choice of weapons Poppy technically wields her hammer in both hands but as a Halfling you can’t use Heavy weapons effectively. (I’d consider Orion’s Hammer more of a Maul than anything.) Since you’re forced to use regular weapons anyways you may as well wield a Warhammer in one hand for a d8 of damage and a shield in the other for +2 AC. If you really want to bring the hurt feel free to actually chuck your shield at the enemy and then swing that Versatile weapon with a d10 hit die instead!

And finally for some lane sustain Second Wind will let you sip from your refillable potion to heal for a d10 plus your Fighter level.

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, letting them give 110% so you can make sure to get Orion’s hammer into the right hands. Basically you can take another action and bonk your foes twice!

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 3

3rd level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and if you want to smack people into walls then Battlemaster is for you! (Which yeah: that’s why we took Superior Technique for more maneuver die!) Anyways Battlemasters are Students of War and while I’d love to honor the legendary hero Tulok the Barbrarian by talking Calligrapher’s Tools Poppy does have her Blacksmith skin so Smith’s Tools make more sense. If you didn’t get them from your background anyways.

But of course the main feature of the Battlemaster is their Combat Superiority: you have four five (yay Fighting Style!) Combat Superiority die to use on a variety of Maneuvers. You have Quick Toss still of course but you now get three more options. For stuns and slows of any sort Trip Attack will let you knock people over. If you want to knock people into walls first (or more realistically off a cliff) then Pushing Attack will let you bodycheck them with your small yordle body to send them a full 15 feet back! And if you want to set up for your teammates to be heroes then Distracting Strike will keep eyes locked on you so your allies can hit the enemy with advantage. 

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 4

4th level Fighters get an Ability Score Improvement. We’re going to fix our Strength as well as a lot of other things thanks to the Squat Nimbleness feat. Along with the +1 to Strength your walking speed increases by 5 feet (Poppy may be immobile but that’s no reason not to move 30 feet), you get proficiency in Athletics (see told you we would!) and you have advantage to escape grapples.

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack, so you can hit them with both the left and right side of the hammer! And if they’re still up? Action Surge to hit them two more times! "Well, that wasn't the hero."

LEVEL 6 - FIGHTER 6

Ability Score increases are nice. Feats are nicer; take the Sentinel feat to stop foes from running away with your Steadfast Presence. Put simply: enemies can’t dash move away (even if they Disengage) as your opportunity attack will reduce their movement to 0. And if they hit one of your friends you can whack them right back!

(Artwork by Pan Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 1

Hope you didn’t think the character that can swing a magic hammer so hard you’re sent to the opposite side of the map wouldn’t have magic! First level Paladins get Divine Sense to help search for legendary Celestial heroes or evil Fiends and Undead, who are probably being fought by heroes! You also get Lay on Hands for some refill pot healing that you can share with your friends.

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins get to choose their Fighting Style. To armor up we’ll be going for good ol’ Defense for +1 to AC.

Why nothing for our weapon? - Depending on your choice of Poppy you’re either going to be running your hammer two-handed or swing it with one hand. In either case either the Great Weapon Fighting or Dueling fighting style would help. But since I designed this build with the intent of you swapping between stances and the fact that Great Weapon Fighting kinda sucks as a fighting style I didn’t want to take a Fighting Style that would restrict how you use your hammer. Put simply Superior Technique does far more for us as a Fighter, and Defense is universally useful while the other Fighting Styles are somewhat situational.

With explanations out of the way you also get Spellcasting. You can prepare a number of spells equal to half your Paladin level (rounded down; IE you can prepare a new spell every 2 levels) plus your Charisma modifier.

Compelled Duel will be another way to keep enemies in your Steadfast Presence.

Shield of Faith will serve as, well, your shield. Pop it on top of a shield to really stack up that AC!

Thunderous Smite will serve as another way to bring the hammer down on your foes, knocking them back and knocking them prone.

Of course you could just ignore all that in favor of Divine Smite, letting you bring down the hammer to do 2d8 Radiant damage, plus an additional 1d8 Radiant per spell slot above 1st level. If the enemy is an Undead or Fiend, the might of Demacia will let you do an additional d8 of damage!

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath: to be the tank that your team needs go for the Oath of Redemption as you seek to redeem yourself to your friend’s last wishes. Redemption Paladins get the Sanctuary spell to keep an ally safe from being dove onto, and Sleep. "I could really go for a nap."

The main feature of a Paladin Oath is their Channel Divinity of which you have two: your first one Emissary of Peace will let you put on your kindest smile for +5 to Persuasion checks for 10 minutes. Alternatively if a friend is hit you can hit that foe right back with Rebuke the Violent! You use your reaction to force a Wisdom save on the enemy who hit your ally or smack them with Radiant damage equal to the damage they dealt! And if they succeed? Well they still take half damage! This ability has no damage cap so you can smite a dragon with your hammer after it breathes fire on your allies! Just remember that this doesn’t work on yourself, so be sure to put others ahead of yourself... but maybe still stand in the frontline...

You also get Divine Health, because no legendary hero is going to want to talk to you if you have the sniffles!

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get an Ability Score Improvement that we’re going to ignore in favor of yet another Feat! The Charger feet will let you Dash and knock someone into a wall, doing extra damage with your hammer and knocking an enemy back.

You can also prepare another spell but we’re going to wait for...

(Artwork by Shuohan Zhou. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get an Extra Attack... which you already have. Well you’re no legendary four-attacks-per-turn hero after all; just a yordle with a hammer.

You do get second level smites spells though! Redemption Paladins get Calm Emotions to... calm emotions, and Hold Person to keep an enemy stunned for your allies to fight! You can also prepare the good ol’ Aid spell to make both you and your allies tankier, as your Steadfast Presence bolsters everyone in the party.

LEVEL 12 - PALADIN 6

6th level Paladins are Stubborn to a Fault, getting Aura of Protection for some passive magic resistance. You and allies within 10 feet of you get to boost their saving throws by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier. Unfortunately that Charisma modifier is only a +2 at the moment but it still helps!

You can also prepare another spell at this level: Warding Bond was added to the Paladin spell list thanks to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and it will let you make a Knight’s Vow to keep your allies safe.

LEVEL 13 - PALADIN 7

7th level Redemption Paladins get Aura of the Guardian. If an ally within 10 feet takes damage you can use your reaction to take the damage for them instead. You don’t take any of the additional effects and this damage can’t be reduced in any ways. Honestly if locked in a melee it might be a better idea to just use Sentinel instead, but if an ally gets shot by an arrow you can stand in front of them to take the shot for them... You might have to jump a bit if they’re tall though.

LEVEL 14 - PALADIN 8

Hey look at that an Ability Score Improvement! We’re not going to be taking feats and will actually just increase our Strength by 2 to finally swing that hammer full-force!

You can also prepare your final spell at this level at least until you get more Charisma, so grab Lesser Restoration to Cleanse in a pinch. Is Lesser Restoration a little underwhelming by total level 14? No! Because paralysis will always be a danger. "Not like this!"

(Artwork by Rudy Siswanto. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 7

Back over to good ol’ Fighterland. 7th level Battlemasters can tell if someone’s hero material thanks to Know Your Enemy. If you spend a minute studying someone you can learn a variety of features about them, such as if they can lift your hammer. (Spoiler: they can’t.)

7th level of Fighter also means some more Maneuvers and this time we’ll be going into Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for some of the new maneuvers from that book. Brace will let you opportunity attack when an enemy comes up to you, basically. (Might be good to hold onto your reaction for Sentinel or other things however.) And while it might be a bit late to try for grapples Grappling Strike will let you use your Athletics proficiency and high Strength score to grab some people! Even if your ability to grab people is limited because of your size who knows? Your DM might let you ride on them if they try to run away from you! I’d allow it to make grappling more viable for small creatures.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighters get more Ability Score Improvements and with our Strength maxed out let’s finally put some points in Charisma. This will give you more Paladin spells don’t forget, so go back to your Paladin spell list and prepare a new one!

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 9

Level 9 Fighters are also Stubborn to a Fault, with Indomitable letting them reroll a failed saving throw once per Long Rest. With Aura of Protection you’ve honestly got a good chance on just about any save with perhaps the exception of Intelligence.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Battlemasters see their Improved Combat Superiority die increase to a d10 for more some more damage as you swing that hammer around!

You also get more Maneuvers whenever you get new Battlemaster features: to keep enemies focusing the tank instead of your allies grab Goading Attack, because Menacing Attack doesn’t fit Poppy. If you’re swinging at an enemy with high AC however Precision Strike will make sure the hammer ends up somewhere squishy.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 11

11th level Fighters truly learn how to swing their hammer with a third Extra Attack, or six if you Action Surge! "The hammer does most of the work, I just swing it."

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 12

12th level Fighters get our final Ability Score Improvement, and I’ll leave it up to you: more Charisma means stronger Paladin features, but the Tough feat will give you a 40 HP boost at the end of the build.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Careful, this packs a wallop - Smites and Maneuvers on three hammer swings means that you can really bring the smack.

If you're waiting for me to give up, you might be here awhile - Wow who would’ve guessed the character build to be tanky would be tanky? High AC (21 with basic Plate and a Shield, 23 with Shield of Faith) and good health, even without too heavy of an investment in Constitution.

Who knew there were so many heroes? - You’re also a very good team player, holding the line and sacrificing yourself for your allies.

CONS

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, uh... hammer! - Dump stats are never fun. Low INT hurts even with Aura of Protection.

That's okay; I'm playing the long game - Feats are fun and all but so are good stats. I’m just saying Charger is a nice feat but so is a good Aura of Protection.

I sure do a lot of walking - All your abilities run on limited resources, and while thankfully the vast majority of them come back on a Short Rest your limited spell slots only come back after a proper sleep. You’ve gotta spend your mana effectively so you don’t caught without a hammer.

But for a simple gall with a not-so-simple hammer you can do everything you need to find that hero. Keep it polished and make sure nothing gets dented until you find the light that Demacia needs to wield your friend’s final gift! Just make sure you avoid any fields with lollipops; they have eyes I tell you...

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

[dailyaudiobible]

07/27/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 19:1-20:37, Romans 10:14-11:12, Psalms 21:1-13, Proverbs 20:4-6

Today is the 27th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is a joy and a pleasure to be here with you today as we…as we get going in this new week of ours, this last week of this 7th month of the year. So, let's live into it fully and take the next step forward for today allowing God's word to speak into our lives. We’re reading through the book of second Chronicles, which we will continue to do throughout this week. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Second Chronicles chapters 19 and 20 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we’re moving through the book of second Chronicles we come to the story of King Jehoshaphat and a part of that story today is a story we probably pretty much can all relate to, maybe even more so like in these…in this particular strange year than ever before. It's like what was happening was that Jehoshaphat, the king, was a reforming king and…and he had…was like a second-generation leading people back to God but three armies from the other side of the Dead Sea decided to become allies to destroy Israel, And, so, they cross over the Dead Sea and kinda gather at En-gedi, which is an oasis in the desert where freshwater is and prepare to like, you know, attack and destroy Jerusalem. So, word gets to the king and the king realizes, “like this is pretty grave. Like, there's no way that we can defend ourselves against this or like three nations against us with a vast army”, right? And, so, we feel that way at times, like just the way the circumstances have aligned themselves, a bunch of stuff is flying at us all at the same time. And like if it were just one thing, maybe we could try to handle it while keeping life going. But all these things coming down at the same time, it's like overwhelming, right? So, that's kind of how they're feeling, as a nation and that's how we can feel at times. So, king Jehoshaphat getting this news these armies are coming against him, he's horrified by it. But when we’re facing similar circumstances, maybe not on a national level, but, you know, when it’s like everything is imploding in our lives and there’s so many things flying at us that we cannot maintain any of them, we feel the same hopelessness, like this…we’re just terrified by it all, we’re panicking. We’re running in every direction, wasting all of our precious energy just trying to figure out what to do, but not actually really getting anywhere. And that's kind where the story may be diverges because Jehoshaphat didn't do that. Like, he didn't just get frantic and start building makeshift walls and defensive positions and getting all the Army together and figuring out whether he needed to surrender or figure out like what kind of treasures they needed amass and give to this vast horde to get them to go away, some kind of negotiation for peace. Instead, he basically got down on his knees and begged the Lord to tell him what to do. And he called all the people together for a fast before God so that they could seek the direction of the Lord, “what do we do?” This is like the first response not the last response. And, so, often in our lives, like getting down on our knees before God and asking Him for guidance and what to do in this situation, like that's the last-ditch effort, throw our hands up and say I have exhausted myself, I don't want to do. But in this case, the king starts there even in a worshipful attitude. He’s like, “we can cry out to You to save us, and You will hear us and rescue us. O our God, won't You stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that's about to attack us. We don't know what to do. We’re looking to You for help.” And, so, kind of in this posture where the king has humbled himself and called the people together to seek God, and everyone is humbling themselves before the Lord, then this….the…the word of the Lord comes through Levite and he's like, “listen. Listen, this is what the Lord says, ‘don't be afraid. Don’t be discouraged by all this…this mighty army. The battle isn't yours. The battle’s God. So, march out and take your positions and watch the Lord fight His battle. This isn’t your battle. Watch what He will do.’” And we read what happened. They marched out and they started to sing worship to God and the next thing that they knew all the armies that had marched in unity toward the destruction of Jerusalem decided to go to war with each other and they destroyed each other while the armies of Israel watched. So, in our own lives, I mean, there are times where we feel pretty surrounded by it all and pretty overwhelmed by it all and there's no way out. And all these feelings that are described in this story we can understand on an individual basis. And, you know, we can…we can exhaust ourselves trying to fight our own battle even though we know it's a losing battle or we’re gonna realize that we’re going to have to surrender, but not the enemy, to God. And part of surrendering to God is letting go of the expectations of what's supposed to happen. We can exhaust ourselves trying to fight these battles. And we have an outcome in mind that we can't achieve. And, so, we throw our hands up and surrender to God so that He will achieve what we could not, what we want Him to do. That's not surrender though. Surrendering is saying, “I am nothing. I have nothing. I am powerless. I surrender to you, which means I surrender what I think is supposed to happen. I surrender to your guidance, your leadership and your will. I’m letting go. Wherever you're going I'm going.” And it’s pretty remarkable what can happen when we surrender those expectations. In the case of Jehoshaphat and Israel, they just became spectators and watched the enemy destroy itself.

Prayer:

Father, we certainly invite You into that because we can relate. All of us can relate on some level. And some of us are in that position right now. And, so, Your word is speaking like volumes right now. And, so, Father, we invite You into all the things that are going on. Surrender is something that we must master but it is hard to master. And, so, Holy Spirit help us. Help us to see. Help us to turn to You first before we exhaust ourselves and have come into a place of complete panic and we turn to You first before all of that frantic use of energy is wasted. Instead, may we worship You, may we press into You, may we surrender to You with all of our energy, with all of our hearts and watch what You will do. Come Holy Spirit into this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here in our Global Campfire community on our journey through the Bible this year. So, stay…stay tuned and stay connected there.

Check out the Community section. That's where there are different links to get connected, including the Daily Audio Bible woman’s group. If you're a woman and you’re not part of that group, you should probably be. You’d be very encouraged. If you are as we take the journey through the Bible, Jill, my wife leads that. And, so, yeah, get connected there. There’s DAB friends, you can get connected there. That…the links are there. The links are in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com. So…so, get connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link that just lives on the homepage. And I am humbled and grateful for those who have pressed that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button and that's in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if that's your preference, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can reach out by pressing the Hotline button in the app, which is the little red button at the top, or there are numbers that you can dial depending where you are in the world. If it's the Americas 877-942-4253 is number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078. If you are in Australia or that part of the world you can dial 61-3-8820-5459.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

H family this is His Little Cherry in Canada and I had to call. I just had to because Brian read in Romans 8, one of my favorite verses about the spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba Father and Brian explained that that means poppa, daddy, it’s just a very intimate childlike word. And that has come to mean so much to me. At the beginning of this year when my health just tanked and I began to have really serious symptoms of MS I was scared to death and I just felt like I was having my own little personal pandemic because it was confusing, it was chaos, I didn’t know what was going to happen. The worst-case scenarios were going through my mind and fear gripped me. And all of my words were stripped away, and I found myself praying, I found myself praying one word, daddy, daddy. And it came from just a naked vulnerable desperate place. And I think in some ways that was a really good thing. I mean I’m all about words, I love poetry, I’ve always loved language and I’ve loved to connect to God through articulate prayers. I’ve loved reading other people’s profound thoughts and…but when I got sick and still to this day all of that is gone. All of it is gone and what I have left is what really matters. Daddy.

This is Mike from Redding California I’d like you all to pray for my daughter Annie. She’s a heroin addict and today’s her birthday. She’s 30 years old. She’s pregnant, six months I believe. Been praying for her for a long time. She’s already lost three children. She told me that if she loses this kid that she’s gonna kill herself. And I’m just praying for…like you all to join me in praying for her to…for God to change her heart and for her to go into recovery and start a new chapter of her life. It’s heartbreaking. She came to my house a couple days ago crying and wanting help. So, I took her in and unfortunately, I had to go out of town for work and she left. And I’m just so heartbroken. It’s…it’s like having a child that’s passed on that is a ghost somewhere and you don’t get to see or communicate with. It’s horrible. Please pray for her. God bless you all. I thank God for the Daily Audio Bible. I thank this community Lord. I just ask you to bless all the DABbers. God thank you so much for Your Word, and Your presence, your Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hello family, Drew from the Bay Area. Hey, I was trying to call in, but I knew the road noise was just gonna be bad. I’m running into work here. I live in the East Bay and I’m calling in today to tell you that I live in a world of confusion over here. The Oakland outlaws, the unrest, the homelessness. And mainly this call’s for Byron. Byron, praying for you brother. I’m praying for you, your mom, your brother and I’m throwing you a rope of faith my brother. I want you to imagine those ropes that we climbed and where we had to do a physical education test. I wanted you to imagine coming all the way for the Bay Area to you in Florida and beyond. It just wraps around the world and everybody can grab a hold of it. Remember that God is a God of love of faith, grace, and he’ll provide everything you need and the endurance. He says that all things work together for good. All! That’s everything. So, I want you to imagine that for our life and this life here, our days here in the Daily Audio Bible. I want you to imagine a piece of tape over here in Oakland and the rest of it, that rope going around and around the world, that’s eternity. So, one little piece of tape like an inch wide that’s our life here. Byron I’m praying for your brother and your mother but I’m also praying for their spiritual needs. Our God is not a God of confusion and fear. He loves us more than you know, more than I know but I know that His grace is all we need. So, hang on to that rope my brother the rope of faith. And everybody else who’s around the world grab the rope in faith and realize…

Hello, my Daily audible Bible family this is Carmen from Germany and I hope you’re doing well. I have a prayer request for myself actually today and it seems really trival…trivial…small compared to so many of the things that so many of you are going through I listen to daily and I feel like I know each and every one of you. So, that’s why I am reaching out to you because I really do feel like a part of this community even though I don’t call that often. Anyway, my husband started having an affair about three years ago with somebody 28 years my junior. So, I’m 59. He filed for divorce on Thursday. I haven’t seen him in over 2 ½ years and I think the whole time I’ve been praying every day hoping that God would somehow restore our marriage and open to his eyes to him, restore his soul. Regardless, this looks like it’s final now and it just really…oh gosh…it was just really hard. It put me back on an emotional roller coaster, trying to accept that this must be the way God has allowed it to happen because I am trusting in Him. A little bit of fear is there thinking that I probably will be getting old alone because Christian men at my age are really hard to find especially here in Germany. I am American. I’m originally from California but I’ve been here since after high school. So, anyway I would just ask that you all support me, especially the ones of you who have been in the situation and help me to get through this with dignity and grow closer to God in the process. Thank you so much. I love you all.

Hi this is Stephen from Alabama and I just wanted to read a little expert from the God of Your Story, the book that Brian published at the end of last year, what he calls his best of the best of the Daily Audio Bible. And I want to just read this to give you a taste of…of…of how good this book is and how great of a companion it is. This is from July 23rd and it’s in reference to Romans 8:17-18. I encourage you to read that before you read this. He says, “essentially Paul was telling us that our struggles are normal and suffering is a part of life as it was for Jesus but the larger story is that God’s Holy Spirit is within us and He will care for us as a loving father in and through it all. We are in the process of inheriting God’s glorious freedom from the power of sin and death. This good news is hard to encapsulate or contain within such few words. It could fill all the pages of this book and it would be only scratching the surface. Turn it over and over in your mind and heart as You enter this day. Understand that the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is also sustaining your life. Allow yourself to be fathered by God today. You’re not alone and you will never be abandoned. You may be facing difficulties, but they are normal and temporary. The longing for restoration that you feel in the depths of your soul is pulling you forward like all of creation toward that very thing. Everything is going to be okay. You’re going to make it and the joy that awaits you is beyond any words in any book.” Amen and amen. Thank you, Brian. That is so fitting for 2020. God bless.

Hi I’m anonymous. I’ve been a listener faithfully since 2015. I called in late November early December to ask for prayer and I’m asking desperately for prayer again. Please pray that the truth would be revealed and that all truths will be found out and I would be exonerated and removed…and remain free. My husband and I are divorced after 57 years but he continues to deny and lie. Please let all the truth be told soon. And I so appreciate the prayers of all the saints. I could name you that I know, and I just ask you to just please pray that the truth would be told. Thank you so much for your prayers and again I’m anonymous. Bye.

[littleteatimestories]

Connor/Ratonhnhaké:ton x Fem Soldier! Reader: Whatever It Takes (1)

Notes from the author: Hey, hey! So here’s another reader-insert for all of ye, AC fans! Another story that has been piled up in my files. I’m still an AC fan, but my focus is more on TF (short for Transformers) especially on More Than Meets The Eye/Lost Light. Anyway, this was supposed to be a one-shot only, but I’ll turn this into 2 parts so I’ll be writing the last part for this soon.

I'll try to see if Connor will have romantic feelings for the reader because, honestly, I'm having a hard time imagining Connor in a relationship. I will try my very best, though.

Part 1: When You Break the Chains - 🔖 Part 2: ? - 📝

Part 1: When You Break the Chains

“Form ranks!”

You stood straight, your head and eyes levelled directly ahead. It felt like you forgot to breathe in and out of air because you were trying to fit in and, well, not get caught.

“Present arms!”

You positioned your bayonet rifle on your right shoulder.

“Position one!”

You scrambled your feet as fast as you can. You didn’t turn your head nor eyes from anywhere but right in front of you. When you were finally in your position, you stood upright once again. You kept your breathing as balanced as possible, only doing so through your nose.

“Position two!”

Another scrambling of feet was heard. After a minute, you felt a presence beside you.

“Hey,” a soldier greeted, his silvery voice reaching your ears while his attention not turning to you.

“Hey,” you returned the greeting.

You knew him as Jude Sidney. He was a Loyalist and always believed that declaring a revolution for the nation’s independence was only a waste of time. As for your own beliefs and ideals, you actually didn’t know what really was right for this nation. You thought you were only doing the right thing because your brother told you so. He got crippled from his last assignment in the field as a soldier and after a month, the British government wanted him back in duty. At first, he didn’t have any choice, but to comply (The British Army needed more handful of men in order to win the war). However, you pleaded that you replaced him instead. You didn’t want to lose him, not after your father’s death from the war as well.

Protests escalated between you two until you decided to go directly to the army and volunteer yourself, without your brother’s consent anymore and only leaving a letter for him. You pretended to be the younger ‘brother’ of your eldest, even wearing men’s clothing and cutting your hair.

Jude found out your actual gender when you got injured on your right side at one incident. You panicked at that time since fighting really wasn’t your specialty, obviosuly. You were unaware that a medium-sized cannon ball struck at an inch beside you, which toppled you at the side and severely sliced your right side with a pointy tree branch. You tried to run away out of panic when Jude found you. He finally discovered the truth when he tried to treat you and you didn’t have a choice, but to tell him the truth.

After that, he kept his mouth sealed. He can sympathize with your story and promised that he will bring you back home alive to your brother.

“Move!”

You marched forward then your group exited to the left, starting to disperse one by one and going to each of their own respective tasks. You were assigned to guard the weaponry room with Jude (because he insisted the captain that he ‘needed to offer an extra hand to you’ since, well, the weapons room was indeed quite spacious).

“This isn’t really necessary,” you told him after going over to the assigned task.

He shrugged, “You say that, but in the end, I know you needed all the help you can get.”

You nasally sighed. “I can handle this, Jude. It’s not like anyone’s attacking the fort.”

“You may be right on that one. But let’s not forget on what happened to one of us here.” He looked to you with amused, but worried eyes.

You glanced down. Indeed, you remember that horrifying news. Words reached your ears that one of the soldiers slaughtered another one of your ranks. The body was sliced into pieces and the internal organs missing, presumably cannibalism took place. You could just vomit with just the thought of it. Said soldier had already been detained, though you heard that he died due to lack of food and water. Worst-case scenarios can happen if they found out that there was a woman among them.

You closed your head momentarily and shook your head a little. Just thinking about it more made you even nauseous. “You really didn’t have to remind me of that...” You opened your eyes afterwards.

Jude laughed quietly. “Oh, sorry about that. Don’t want to clean up your vomit if you ever can’t take it.”

You lightly punched his arm using your elbow. “Shut up already, Jude.” You sighed. “I’m going to go over there. You stay here.” You walked towards another side of the room.

Jude just grinned and chuckled. He found your minor predicament a little enjoying, perhaps to lighten the atmosphere since the fort that the two of you and the rest of the soldiers were in was not really a typical fort.

Fort Wolcott was a small fortification on the small Goat Island, built to protect the nearby town of Newport, Rhode Island. This was named Fort George in 1730, but later changed it into its current name when the British took control of it after Rhode Islanders burned the British customs ship, the HMS Liberty in 1769.

Honestly, you’d been here for two years, and nothing new has changed ever since that rebellion happened a few years ago; same old routines and tasks. Most of the soldiers had grown weary for just being here and even complained on how this was some meaningless assignment. You heard rumors that all of you were only sent here because the captain did something wrong and this was a form of punishment. From what kind of trouble that he did, you also didn’t know. None of you weren’t able to capture that information.

Some 30-ish-year old man came inside the weaponry room and announced, “Come on, ye two! The captain’s callin’ us. He seems pissed.”

Jude groaned, “Probably another lecture from him. He was just pissed last week merely because we’re sleeping on the job.”

The old man gave a ‘tsk’, “Stop complain’, Sidney. I didn’t like this either as much as you also.” He shifted his attention to you and nudged his head, “Look at (L/n). Least he’s not complainin’. Ye can learn from him.”

Jude rolled his eyes. “That’s because he’s playing safe. He doesn’t want to get scolded by the captain, too. I mean, all of us don’t want to be scolded by him.”

“Whatever, Sidney. Can we just go? If we’re late, we’ll be doubling our punishment.” The old man shook his head in disapproval.

He went out first. You approached the young man.

“You okay?” you asked in a concerned tone.

“I’m fine. Just, you know, a little irked,” he answered rather solemnly.

You just held his arm gently, rubbing it up and down, to at least tell him non-verbally that everything’s going to be alright. Though, you highly doubt that everything was far from being fine.

He looked at you. When he saw that reassuring smile of yours, he immediately shifted his eyes all around the room. He breathed in and out of air then took a step at the side, which loosened your hold from him.

“Let’s go!” he finally declared. “The old man’s right. If we’re late, we’ll be receiving twice the harsh punishment.”

You nodded, and the two of you began to move your feet.

***

“You are not trained to comment on strategy nor are you aware of rebel movements!” the captain roared. “We are under orders to hold Fort Wolcott against rebels at all costs! So stop complaining and just do your jobs! The next man I hear questioning the validity of their tasks will receive ten lashes and seven days in the old dungeon without rations! Am I making myself clear?!”

“Yes, sir!” the soldiers bellowed their answers.

“Your duties and other details for the coming week will be in this dirt-sheet. Those who are assigned in B Company will be doing drills and, until they properly execute formations two and three, there will be no rum rations. Sloppy marching will not be tolerated!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Dismissed!”

Each soldier was given a sheet of their assigned tasks. It looked like you got lucky because you weren’t in the B Company list.

“Great,” Jude muttered. “I guess I’m being punished for nothing.”

His name appeared on the list. You grimaced for him and voiced an apology. He just shook his head and gave a small smile.

“I can handle this.” He then whispered, “Just make sure to save me some of those rum.” He winked and proceeded to do the formation.

You watched him strode off with the rest of the soldiers enlisted. As you were about to go back to your daily task (since you weren’t given a new one), the captain called upon you.

“Sir!” you saluted, making sure to make your voice as deep as possible.

“(L/n), you’ll be shifting your post with Rosenshire. He’s guarding the prison. Give this sheet to him. His new post is in here.” He handed to you the piece of paper.

You bobbed your head. “Yes, sir.”

He hummed and left you without any more suspicions. You were still surprised that no one in the army (except for Jude) knew your true identity yet. You were thankful for that and hoped that this luck of yours may not run out.

***

“The captain has a new task for you,” you told Rosenshire upon meeting him in front of the prison, guarding the door.

“New task? From the captain?” he asked, his voice laced with gruffness.

You resist the urge to roll your eyes by just blinking. “Yes, Rosenshire. It’s none other than the captain himself.”

He forcefully grabbed the paper out of you and you just nasally sighed. Some of the soldiers here were really rude. Jude told you not to get to their bad side because they will definitely include you in their most wanted list. Of course, if you want to lock your secret away, you had to avoid conflict as much as possible.

He opened it. He then scoffed loudly. “What’s this? I have to march formations?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “I guess you’re part of B Company then.”

“This’s ridiculous. It’s not like there’re any rebels in here.”

“We can’t be too careful. Look, Captain’s orders, Rosenshire. I’ll be taking your place.”

He shook his head disappointedly. “This’s gettin’ us nowhere at all.” He took off, nonetheless.

You can sympathize with him and the rest of soldiers here. No matter how useless the formations, trainings, guarding and the like, you had to follow orders. Right now, you find yourself doubting why you had to guard a prison cell with no prisoners at all; well, mostly soldiers who weren’t doing good jobs, but all of them were gone because they usually die on natural causes like a disease or extreme hunger.

Standing there felt like an eternity to you. An hour and a half has already passed when you flickered your eyes to two soldiers, a sniper and a grenadier, hurriedly approaching your direction.

“Is there something wrong?” you asked.

“There’s a rebel inside our fort. Alerted some of our ranks and they’re doing a thorough search,” the grenadier answered.

You crunched your brows. “What? That can’t be...”

“We found the fresh dead bodies of Wilkins and Kidstone. And not only them, but also Smith’s and Condor’s, too. Probably we have more,” the sniper reported.

“Just step aside.”

You weren’t given much time to process of the events unfolding right as of this moment as you trailed behind. As you entered the foul-smelling prison, you got a glimpse of an unknown male, dressed in a white-hooded robe, attuned with blue accents. He looked buff and muscular. You also noticed that he had series of weapons at his back and on his waist. He was definitely not your ordinary rebel scum.

Your grenadier ally put out his broad axe and the sniper pointed the musket at him. You also did the same. What could go wrong? He’s outnumbered.

“Let’s see what you got, rebel scum.”

Then, you heard some cannons being fired, which apparently hit the prison roof and destroyed half of it. All of you stepped aside, but lost balance as the rubble impact was too strong. The sniper hit his head and lost his consciousness while you lightly hit yours on the ground. You were still sensible, but temporarily vulnerable as you tried to recompose yourself.

From what you can still witness, the unknown man fought off the grenadier with all of his strength. He had a tomahawk in his hand, but you were able to catch with your eye another blade under his wrist. Were you being delusional now?

You then saw your ally fell to the ground, red liquid spilling off from his neck. You stared at the unknown man and he also did the same. Is he going to kill you, too?

You were interrupted when half of the prison roof collapsed. You scurried yourself out by sliding away from the debris. And that was where you heard a shout,

“We’re under attack!”

You stared at the man again until he decided that it was time to go. He climbed up the roof, using the debris as his scaffold. Obviously, you weren’t going to let him escape that easily. You grabbed your musket and exited towards the now broken door. You kept your eyes at him as he entered the now run-down and burned down building. You shuffled your feet as fast as you can. You heard another yell,

“Captain’s dead! Shot by cannon fire!”

‘That’s not good!’ you mused. ‘Who’s in command now?’

It didn’t matter anymore. Your objective right now is to kill the rebel. As you continued to go to the building, which you knew to be just the very building where you had been ‘lectured’ by the captain, you heard your real name being called.

“(Y/n)!”

“Jude!” you reached out to him.

He was running towards you when you sighted a rooftop was about to fall right under him.

“Jude, stop! Look out!” You glanced up.

It was too late. The debris fell underneath him.

“Jude!” you screamed. You ran to him. You kept calling for him until he responded.

“(Y/n)! Over here!” He sounded in pain.

You feared the worst. His whole left leg was trapped by the rubble. Gasps of rapid breaths were being released every second by the both of you, mostly Jude’s since he was in much bigger pain.

“Jude!” You kneeled beside him, trying to find a way to get him out despite all the panic. “I-I’ll find a way. We’ll just need to get that out.”

He suddenly held your arm tightly, his eyes drooping. “You need to get out of here, (Y/n)... You didn’t deserve to be here... I want you go back to your brother... With the captain gone... this is your chance... You no longer need to serve this nation... Lead a happier life...” He winced and growled in pain.

Your voice quivered, “W-what’re you saying? I’m not leaving you here!”

Another pile of rubble fell a few inches away from you. Jude held you more firmly. “(Y/n), please... Do this for me... Even if I die... at least I get to see you alive... At least... my death wasn’t in vain because... I get to protect you.”

“Jude...” You couldn’t. You couldn’t just leave him like this! There must be a way to get him out of this! You tried to push the wreckage, but it was too heavy. You need some hands for this. You gazed at him one last time with teary eyes. “I’m so sorry...”

Another rubble was about to fall straight at the two of you.

“(Y/n), go!” He pushed you with more force and the debris came down before it could hit you.

“No!!!!!” you shrilled. You then sobbed loudly.

Your emotional side was almost taking control of you, but you were snapped out of it when you saw a familiar white-hooded man in your peripheral vision. Your soldier instincts emerged immediately as you took possession of your musket and pointed it at him. Your eyes began to puff and your cheeks wet from the tears.

You stuttered out, “S-stop, y-you rebel!”

The white-hooded man only observed you. You were trying not to shake too much, but it seemed failing since it was quite obvious that the tip of your musket was having a hard time pointing it to one direction. Your breaths got even more ragged ever since you poured all of your grief out. You were also making an attempt not to be too emotional since that the suspect was right in front of you.

Another blast in between you occurred and the two of you were toppled at the side. You eyed the rebel as he was quick to his feet. With your musket still intact on your hold, you swayed it downwards, which tripped him down. You were about to stab him with the bayonet when he spoke for the first time,

“Wait!”

His voice was clear, light, and pleasant. You were able to make out his facial features under his hood. You could tell that he was not British. With his dark-toned skin color, you could probably deduce that he was of a Native tribe.

“If you want to live, I can help you. You never have to keep your secret.”

You scrunched your brows down. “What?”

Then, the unexpected happened. The Native man countered you with the same method as you did to him. You were knocked on the ground and before you can even regain your composure, something hard hit your face and you were temporarily unconscious.

***

Connor heavily sighed. He didn’t expect a woman to be serving the British Army; a soldier at that. Women weren’t allowed to be part of the war, but here you were. He then obviously assumed that you must had entered the army by acting as a man. You must have a reason as to why you would risk your life joining in a war where hundreds die just for a belief that independence was not necessary for this nation (at least, that was what the British believed).

He didn’t even know what came over him, but he wanted to let you live. He saw your eyes. You cried. He supposed that seeing your fallen comrades made you emotional and fragile; if not the shaking of the hold of the musket was not evident enough. Besides, he had kind of a soft spot for women unless if he was dealing with the ones who were ruthless, then no mercy.

But, you... He saw something different in you. When he felt the anxiety radiating from you, he thought that maybe you didn’t want to be here or be a soldier at all. It was not that he was being heroic or anything, but he just felt compelled to help you out.

He could have left you there or killed you. It was a hassle bringing you since he didn’t have any more time. The fort can go down in any second now. He attempted to be swift in escaping while carrying you until both of you reached a high point. The ocean was just beneath you and jumping, of course, was the only solution.

Your eyes began to flutter open. “Where...?”

“We need to jump,” Connor blandly stated. He put you down, your balance still a little wobbly so he acted as your support.

“W-what…?”

“I apologize if this is rushed. I have no choice, but to touch you.” He enfolded you in his arms and that greatly shocked you.

“W-what are you doing?!” Your eyes widened.

“Hold on!”

He made the leap of faith and you were screaming.

***

“Captain, with all due respect, why did you bring a British soldier in here? You do know that the moment we touch land, he will inform his superiors!” Mr Faulkner was a bit irate, but trying to be calm as much as possible.

“She will not be being doing that, Mr Faulkner,” Connor emphasized your proper gender. The old man thought you were still a man.

Said old man creased his brows. “She?” He then peered to you. “You’re a woman?”

You nasally sighed a tired one. “Yes, I am.”

“I ain’t believing at all. You’re telling me you joined the army, British at that, and not a single one of them knew who you really are?”

You shook your head, but took that back as you spoke, “There is one who knew my real identity. But…” You pursed your lips.

“He is dead,” Connor finished it for you.

“Killed by a debris,” you almost glared at him. Jude would still be alive if it wasn’t for THIS white-hooded man.

“I’m sorry.”

You wanted to argue back. You wanted to beat him so badly. But, even if you do all that, nothing will change a thing. Jude will still not come back. You chose to remain silent and avoid looking at him as much as you can. You actually wanted to avoid punching his face for real.

Though, of course, you should be thankful that if it weren’t for this mysterious white-hooded man, you wouldn’t even be alive now. You wouldn’t even be in his ship right now. Why did he choose to let you live? He could have had the chance to kill you, but he didn’t.

Perhaps, you could try asking him that, however you were not in the mood to even talk to the man because of the events that transpired. You felt infuriated.

Once you reach land, will you be reporting to your superiors about what happened? Or, just go back to your brother and explain what happened?

Connor asked Mr Faulkner to leave and tend to the ship in his place. The old man did so as he exited the captain’s cabin. The Native opened his mouth,

“I was there to retrieve something.”

“And should that include bombarding the fort?” You could no longer contain not scowling at him.

“I have no other means of escape.”

“Then you could have at least tried harder!” You stood (since you had been sitting down) and almost shouted, your anger already evident. “Do you know how many men that I know died out there? If you just decided to just sneak your way out, then Jude could still be-“ You paused. You could feel tears forming in your eyes. You turned your back from him.

‘You have to stay strong, (Y/n). Don’t mourn for his death now,’ your thoughts advised you.

Silence consumed the room for brief moments. Connor spoke once more,

“We will reach Davenport Homestead in three days.”

“What?” Another one of those confusing moments occurred to you as you turned your attention to him. “We’re not going to dock in New York or Boston?”

“I believed in what Mr Faulkner said. I didn’t save you because I trusted you already. I still have doubts about you.”

“Then you could’ve killed me instead!”

“We are not to discuss that. You will be well taken care off and until I can trust you, I will let you decide on your next course. For now, you will be under my supervision.”

You scoffed. “You sound as if you’re my superior.”

“And might I ask who just let you live?”

Your mouth was open, but no words came out. He really got you there. You just puffed out a breath.

“Stay here for the time being. You can take the bed. I can just sleep at the chair.”

You didn’t say anything and definitely didn’t take a glance at him. He just nodded, assuming that you agreed and finally went out of the cabin.

So, apparently, he was taking you a prisoner.

‘Well, he seemed to be a legit captor. If I’m to go back to Boston, I have to earn his trust then,’ you finally decided in your head as you actually took the bed and let sleep devour you, hoping this would be all just a dream. But, you know it wasn’t.

Part 2 ⏩ (WIP)

[cribcrate22-blog]

[Transcript] – 10 Ways To Grow Tiny Superhumans – Ben Greenfield’s Top Tips For Raising Strong, Resilient, Happy Kids

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/lifestyle-podcasts/raise-tiny-superhumans/

[0:00:00] Podcast Intro

[0:00:59] About the Podcast

[0:05:07] Podcast Sponsors

[0:06:32] Start of Audio Recording of eBook: Children as Superhumans

[0:09:12] Let Them Get Dirty

[00:13:10] Let Your Kids Eat Lots of Fat

Get The Low Carb Athlete - 100% Free!Eliminate fatigue and unlock the secrets of low-carb success. 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[0:15:10] Let Your Kids Fight

[0:16:56] Let Your Kids Stand A Lot

[0:18:33] Let Their Feet Free

[0:21:18] Letting the Kids Be Free

[0:24:06] Podcast Sponsors

[0:26:52] Let Your Kids Join In

[0:29:11] Less Time on Electronic Devices

[0:31:18] Let Your Kids Sleep

[0:33:50] Let Your Kid Relax

[0:36:12] Quick Coherence Technique

[0:37:59] End of Podcast

Ben:  I have a master’s degree in physiology, biomechanics, and human nutrition. I’ve spent the past two decades competing in some of the most masochistic events on the planet from SEALFit Kokoro, Spartan Agoge, and the world’s toughest mudder, the 13 Ironman triathlons, brutal bow hunts, adventure races, spearfishing, plant foraging, free diving, bodybuilding and beyond. I combine this intense time in the trenches with a blend of ancestral wisdom and modern science, search the globe for the world’s top experts and performance, fat loss, recovery, gut hormones, brain, beauty, and brawn to deliver you this podcast. Everything you need to know to live an adventurous, joyful, and fulfilling life. My name is Ben Greenfield. Enjoy the ride.

Hey, what’s up? It’s Ben Greenfield. I sound a little funky on the audio. Sounds a little funky it’s because I’m snowed in in New York City. I’m in my buddy’s condo, his loft here in Tribeca in New York City with snow coming down. Got snowed in last night, thus I’m not in my recording studio. Also, it means I’m bringing you a very special episode today. I decided that I wanted to give to you, to gift to you, this holiday season the entire recording of my book, “How to Raise Tiny Superhumans.” Now, I wrote this book when my children were young, when they were about 5 years old. I, in no way, professed to be the ultimate parent. As a matter of fact, the one area that I questioned myself in most is my ability to be a good father. That’s what leaves me awake at night sometimes. That’s my pain point. That’s the area where I lack confidence. Every day, I ask myself have I been the father that I want my kids to grow up and remember fondly. Every day, I feel like I fall short. I wanted to share that with you because I don’t think I’ll ever think I’m the perfect parent. I think that’s what continues to drive me to discover everything I can about, not only how to raise healthy, young, resilient children, but how to develop amazing relationships with them. This book, being something that I wrote when the children were 5, contains a lot of tips for parents of young children. But, interestingly, a lot of these concepts from biomechanics to exercise to the hygiene hypothesis to many of the things you’re about to hear also work for adults. So, this is something that, even if you don’t have kids, I think you can get a lot out of. This is also something I’d recommend you send to someone you know who does have kids or is planning on having kids or wish they had kids because many of these concepts can even increase fertility.

Hopefully, you get something out of today’s show. I really thought this would be a special one to give to you, take a sip of my coffee here, this is not Kion coffee. This is the coffee from the Laughing Man Coffee Shop down the street. But, you can get yourself some of the fantastic pure antioxidant rich Kion coffee that I have available for you over at getkion.com. But here’s the deal, this Black Friday. You knew it. You knew I’d do a Black Friday. Right now, when you’re listening to this, Black Friday is just a few days off. But what I’ve got for you is I have a coffee package, a special coffee package you can go check out at getkion.com. We give over 20% off of your order. I’ve got a recovery bundle that I put together which are very pure amino acids, Kion Flex, which is the most potent super fuel for your joints that you can put into your body. Everything I’ve been able to discover to assist with joint inflammation and recovery is in Kion Flex. Then, we combine that with some very fine pure triglyceride-based fish oil, exactly the same as you’d find in fish in nature packaged with acids and then Vitamin E. That’s our recovery bundle. And that one’s running over 10% off. Then, we also have our daily Kion Life Bundle where you get the aminos, the coffee, the bar, and then my favorite weight management supplement that we have over there, Kion Lean. You get all that.

So, Kion Black Friday. Also, orders over $100, you get a $25 gift card you give to somebody for Christmas. If you’re over $250, you get $100 gift card. Boom. Give that to somebody for the new year. Give it to somebody different than the one that you gave for Christmas. I digress. Getkion.com, more Black Friday specials than the ones I just mentioned, but that’s where you can get started.

One other Black Friday that I wanted to tell you about was my friends over at Onnit, starting on Thanksgiving, they’re going to do their biggest sale, their deepest discounts. Their nootropic Alpha BRAIN, their all Marvel and Star Wars fitness equipment. They’re also giving free shipping for Thanksgiving. They give 25% off of many of their supplements, 18% off the fitness gear, 20% off some of their functional foods, 50% off DVDs and books, 30% off their cool clothing. In addition to the massive price cuts, the more you buy the more awesomeness you unlock. They’re giving a $10 coupon free shipping and premium free gifts available all year. Here’s the deal, visit Onnit. You can go to onnit.com. That’s O-N-N-I-T dot com slash Black dash Friday. That’s O-N-N-I-T dot com slash Black dash Friday. The free gifts and the doorbuster deals or unlimited supplies you just might miss out if you don’t get over there. Check that out, a few Black Friday deals for you.

The shownotes for today’s podcast, by the way, the shownotes for today’s podcast, you can find at bengreenfieldfitness.com/superhumans. If you want the eBook version of what you’re about to hear, you can get that there, along with any resources that I mentioned. So, that’s bengreenfieldfitness.com/superhumans.

Welcome to the audio recording of Tiny Superhumans, written by Ben Greenfield and narrated by Ben Greenfield.

I have twin boys. Their names are River and Terran. They’re 6 years old. They love to do things like triathlons. They also do Spartan races. They swim 500 meters at a time, run 5ks quite slowly with stops to play in water fountains and balance on curbs, play the piano, act in theatre musicals, cook pad Thai, program LEGO robots, breakdance, and dance overall much better than their father.

Now, whether you have children, you plan on having children, or you know children, the wonderful fact is that you live in this privileged era in which you have the ability to enable the kids in your life to be tiny superhumans who look, feel and perform like optimized human machines. Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews? Are you expecting a little one? The fact is if you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re in a unique position to give the child or children in your life every physical and mental advantage possible. I don’t know about you, but I really, really want that for my children. If you don’t want children, you don’t like children, and don’t know any children, then the cool thing is that the same things that make your kids superhuman make you superhuman, too. So, you don’t have to tune out or quit listening if kids are just not your thing.

Now, think about this. Mozart learned to play the piano at the age of four, composed his first piece at age five, and wrote his first symphony at age eight. Picasso, when he was 12, had a complete grasp of the fundamentals of art and was producing photorealistic anatomical sketches. A couple of weeks ago, when my wife and I took our children to an art gallery, there were amazing and intricate sculptures of fish and bears and bighorn sheep created by some man who had spent his entire life studying sculpture. Then, my wife who studied art in college, explained to me that some guy named Bernini was turning out sculptures just like this when he was eight years old. I looked it up and it turns out she was right. It’s amazing. But these folks aren’t special childhood prodigies, idiot savants or some kind of weirdo autistic geniuses. They’re just normal human beings.

In our modern era though, we’ve forgotten how to nurture and grow an amazing human body and mind. We’ve instead settled for a generation that winds up on people of Walmart.com, attached to leashes, chewing on Ritalin. Yikes. Well, let’s begin. Shall we?

So, we’ll start with number one. Let them get dirty. Now, let me ask you a question. Did you eat your own boogers when you were a kid? Well, it turns out we may actually be hardwired to eat our own boogers. An Austrian study, from last year, showed that kid not actually harbors bacteria that when eaten helps to strengthen the body’s own natural immune system. My kids kiss our dogs on the lips, they lick the floor. I’ve seen them to do this at public coffee shops. Of course, that was when they were a baby. They take an actual real bath about once every three days. I have observed them to rip diapers off and eat their own poop and crawl through entire airports. You know what? I don’t really care. See, it’s no coincidence that in our modern era of antibiotics, antibacterial hand soap, bottle boiling and daily bathing, we’re experiencing new and unparalleled occurrences of problems like autoimmunity, autism, ADD, food allergies, leaky gut and obesity in our kids. The reason for this is that a child’s immune system gets stronger when it’s exposed to dirt, germs, bacteria, viruses, and even parasites. So, if you protect your kid from things like animal poop, dirt, farm animals, lots of other kids, and of course, boogers, they don’t develop their immune systems the right way. They grow up more likely to have issues like skin disorders and gut issues and allergies.

Now, on a very related note, I was actually pretty bummed that when we had our twins, my wife got a C-section. And it wasn’t because it ruined her abs, because it didn’t. I have to say that because she might listen to this someday. It’s because babies born via C-section have been proven to have weaker guts, worse immune systems, and lower amounts of good bacteria. This is also why babies who are breastfed develop healthier immune system, since breast milk contained good bacteria that colonize the gut. Incidentally, this is also why if you weren’t breastfed or never shot down your mom’s vagina, you can actually benefit quite a bit from using probiotics, eating fermented foods, and even using a type of supplement called colostrum which comes from animal breast milk. So quick, take a break, go call your mom and ask her if you were breastfed or born vaginally, and then act accordingly.

Now, when I pick up my kids from kid care at the YMCA, I sometimes get strange looks from the other parents because I go out of my way to remind my kids not to use the antibacterial hand soap. That stuff can create nasty superbugs that can actually hurt your kids, so can antibiotics. I, also, only use soap in the shower once every two or three days. The rest of the time, I just rinse with water. Same thing for my kids. Let those dirt and soil-based organisms thrive on your child’s skin. If no-soap showers are just not your thing, then you may be interested in this New York Times report on AOBiome. This is a biotech startup that created a refreshing cosmetic mist which contains billions of cultivated bacteria commonly found in dirt and untreated water. So, now, you can basically pay for an expensive skin cosmetic to get the same thing you’d basically get from rolling around in your lawn.

So, how else can you get your kids dirty? Well, consider that kids who grew up on farms and large families have been shown to have stronger immune systems. So, go get a horse. I’m just kidding, you don’t have to get a horse or chickens, but you should let your kids have pets that they can get down and dirty with, even a dog or a cat or guinea pig or hermit crab or goldfish or snake or tarantula isn’t an option for you, I did have a tarantula when I was a kid, by the way, then, at least let your kids play with as many other kids as possible.

By the way, have you ever eaten natto? It’s this slimy, snotty, gooey fermented soybean mix. Most of them come in this little white cup with an orange Japanese cartoon character on the side. Just the other morning, I walked in on my son, Terran, eating a giant spoonful this natto stuff he had found in a container in the fridge. It appeared he had dumped a little organic ketchup on there. Now, I personally prefer natto with a little white rice and mustard, but to each their own. Natto is a fantastic dirty food. My kids eat lots of other fermented bacteria rich foods too like kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, and kombucha. Your kid should do the same, and you should, too. That’s all bacteria. It’s dirty and it’s awesome for you.

So, speaking of eating weird foods, let’s take this one step further. Let your kids eat lots of fat, too. Now, my kids eat bone marrow. Bone marrow is chockfull of healthy fats, DHA, and fat-soluble vitamins, which are all incredibly important for your kids’ brain, hormones, and nervous system. In her book, “Deep Nutrition,” Cate Shanahan, who works with the LA Lakers professional basketball team, outlines four important factors that have been proven to determine beauty and symmetry in facial development of babies and kids. Those four factors are vitamin A, D, E, and K. You know what makes all those vitamins similar? That’s right, they’re all fat-soluble vitamins.

Let’s take Vitamin K2 for example. It keeps kids from getting calcified growth plates. Calcified growth plates will stunt the kids’ growth, but K2 is only found in animal-based fats that kids are rarely eating these days. So, my kids drink bone broth. They eat sardines out of the can and drink the oil. They consume plenty of egg yolks and the grass-fed butter. You know how walnuts are shaped like little brains? Those are also really good for your child’s brain. My kids have a big handful of raw walnuts every morning right before they eat egg, scrambled and bacon fat. So, what should your children not eat and what do I keep my kids away from? Well, they shouldn’t eat egg whites. They shouldn’t eat fat free cereals, and they shouldn’t eat low-fat yogurt. They should eat brain food instead. Incidentally, this is also why I personally test my blood four times a year to make sure my total cholesterol stays above 200, because I know, as author Nora Gedgaudas points out in her book, “Primal Body, Primal Mind,” that cholesterol below 200 is actually associated with low IQ. By the way, kids who have low intake of essential fats also have higher levels of ADD, autism and aggression, but some aggression is actually okay, which leads me to point number three, let your kids fight.

Now, at home, we have this game we play with my kids. It’s called, “takedown.” I get down into a low squat position and then my boys run at me and try to take me down. Another game we play is I lie down on the ground on my stomach and both my boys get on top of me, and my task is I simply have to try to throw them and their friends off and stand up. Then, of course, we play the one where I put the “Rocky III” soundtrack on Pandora Streaming Radio. We just fight for rounds until we’re all exhausted. Anything goes. Although the boys know that if they bite, scratch, claw, or go for any cheap shots, that it hurts Daddy.

Roughhousing and fighting are so, so important for your kids. It teaches them how to adapt quickly to unpredictable situations. It teaches them how to deal with pain and discomfort. Even losing sometimes, especially, if you don’t always let them win, which you shouldn’t do. How about this? Did you know that the amount of roughhousing that kids do actually predicts their achievement in first grade better than their kindergarten score tests do? This is because roughhousing increases levels of something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. That increases neuron growth. Now, you might think that roughhousing would make your kids more violent, but that’s simply not so. It’s actually the opposite. Kids who roughhouse are more socially and emotionally mature than kids who don’t, because they understand the difference between play and aggression, between kindness and hostility, and they learn to stick to the rules of morality better. Roughhousing also makes you bond stronger with your kids because it causes both of you to make more oxytocin which is the same bonding hormone that gets released during things like sex and breastfeeding. Of course, roughhouse can get your kids physically active, which I don’t have to tell you is a huge missing component of kids’ lives these days. That leads me to point number four, which is to let your kids stand a lot.

Now, I have a poster that hangs on the wall of my office called, “Think Outside the Chair.” It comes from this book called, “World Distribution of Postural Habits.” I first learned about this book and this poster when I interviewed a bio-mechanist named Katy Bowman on my bengreenfieldfitness.com podcast. The poster shows you over 50 different positions that you could be in during your work day. It’s like the Kama Sutra of standing workstations. I’m going to try a new position right now while I’m talking. I just switched into a lunging position.

Now, you’ve probably seen the news that sitting is the new smoking and that having your butt planted in a chair for eight plus hours a day, or even for two hours at any given time, is one of the worst things you can do for fat loss and heart health. It actually doesn’t even matter how much you exercise at the end of the day. It just matters how much you got up and around during the day. That happens to be one of the reasons that I’m both standing and lunging as I record this for you.

Well, they’ve done the same research in kids. One study last year gave kids the option of using standing desks for an entire school year. Over 90% of the kids chose to stand and those that did burn nearly 100 extra calories a day. Another study found that totally irrespective of the total time kids spent sitting or standing, the more frequent the breaks in sedentary time, a.k.a. recess, the lower the health risk for everything, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, bad cholesterol. Everything. So, recess is good so are standing workstations. They make them for kids. Check out websites like Updesk or Focal Upright or Varidesk.

Now, next, let their feet free. When your kids are standing, you might as well let them not be wearing these big overprotective shoes. Now, I’m very uncomfortable when I’m standing around at a party or a social gathering wearing shoes. I don’t like them. As a matter of fact, I avoid shoes, and actually sometimes pants too, when I’m working at home. I’m that guy who sits around writing and recording in my boxers. Now, my kids also rarely wear shoes like ancient tribes’ been or their own dad. They have these ugly calloused tough bulletproof feet, but they play outside, hike, runs, stand, move, and of course, do their hotel gym treadmill prowler workout. That’s running on a treadmill with the motor turned off, all primarily barefoot.

The reason for the importance of letting your child’s feet free is that the shape and density of your kids’ bones are a direct result of the loads and geometry placed on your kid’s body. This means that the way your child’s foot is loaded will affect the lifelong shape of their pelvis, their hips, their knees, their ankles, their back, and even the space in their chest that their lungs are in. This is why kids with poor posture grow up to be adults with poor posture. Kids who haven’t had their bones exposed to a variety of loads like running or lifting or moving object have been shown to have lower bone density later in life. They suffer from flat feet. Pediatric research is now showing that overprotective built up stabilizing modern footwear can interfere with the development of your kid’s foot strength, ankle stability, and movement patterns for the rest of their life. Your child’s foot muscles atrophy and their foot bones degrade.

Now, this is all reversible. Of course, you can’t reverse it in just two weeks by buying Vibram FiveFingers, getting a stress fracture, and then filing a lawsuit which has been done. It takes patience. Most of my clients need one to two years to make a full transition back to developing strong and natural feet if they’ve been wearing cushioned overprotected shoes much of their life. But with kids, things happen faster. Kids can reshape and redevelop foot structure and bones within just three months.

Besides avoiding modern built-up shoes, what else can you do to give your kids superhuman feet? Well, choose shoes that are super flexible or minimalist. Good brands are Vibram, Vivobarefoot, Happy Little Soles, Bobux, Merrell, and Nike Free. Play foot games with your kids to encourage motor skills and healthy foot development, like they can pick up marbles with their feet and put them into a cup. Massage your child’s feet for a few minutes before bedtime. Use Happy Feet socks which are a special kind of sock that spread the toes and strengthens the feet. You can wear these too yourself. If you live near sand, let your kids run and walk in sand which is one of the best ways to both strengthen and stretch the feet.

So, now that your kids are eating boogers, breastfeeding and barefoot, it’s time to kick them outside and walk away. There’s this article that appeared in the Atlantic Magazine called “The Overprotected Kid.” The article goes into and describes this little adventure playground in a housing development in North Wales. There’s no fancy playground structure with a shiny metal slide and a bright red steering wheel and a tic-tac-toe board. There’s no yellow seesaw with a central balance to make sure nobody falls off. There’s no little rubber bucket swing for the babies. There’s basically just some old tires and pieces of wood. There’s a frayed rope swing that carries you over a creek if you can make it that far.

The article talks about how the day the journalist was there researching the article, the kids were mostly playing with an elderly person’s walker that was, at any given time, used as a scooter, a jail cell, and a gymnastics bar. Well, a preoccupation with safety has stripped our kids of independence, risk-taking and discovery. Kids who don’t have a chance to solve their own problems, control their own decisions, and follow this internal moral compass, grow up feeling less in control of their own lives and fate. They don’t learn to, as this author, James Altucher says, “To choose yourself.”

Now, there’s an essay called, “The Play Deficit.” There are movements like free schooling and unschooling. There are books like “Free Range Kids,” “Baby Knows Best,” “Duct Tape Parenting,” “The Kids Will Be Fine,” and other books. They all show how the loss of unstructured free play and a set of strict rigid play and schooling rules has resulted in depression, narcissism, and a loss of creative thinking and empathy in our kids.

Now, I grew up on six acres of land. I was home-schooled. I’ll finish school by 11:00 and then play outside until it literally got dark. My parents never called me in for dinner or came out to find me. I just showed up somehow alive and having learned a heck of a lot about the world around me, about making decisions, solving problems, exerting self-control and following rules set by me and my tribe of friends. Look at me. I’m pretty messed up, but I’m at least still alive and doing what I passionately love, which is mostly still just playing outside.

Now, my kids are now growing up on 10 acres of land. We do the same thing. We just kick them out the door and they go. Their exercise and physical activity aren’t always supervised by a soccer coach and sidelined, and their playground isn’t always lined with fences and that special soft rubber gravel substitute stuff. Of course, we try to make sure there’s no major hazards like mountain lions and bear traps in the general vicinity our kids are playing in, but we also understand that there’s a big difference between avoiding major hazards and having our kids grow up in a protected bubble. See, growing tiny superhumans isn’t about creating perfect kids. It’s about creating resilient, free-thinking, free-spirited kids who can survive in unpredictable situations and who, perhaps, even think beyond the realm of growing up to be a factory worker or drone, completely devoid of creativity.

Hey, I want to interrupt today’s show to tell you about this stuff called Omax 3 Ultra Pure. This is a fish oil supplement, but it’s very pure. A lot of fish oil is you look at them and they don’t pass what’s called the freezer test challenge. That means if you freeze them, they’ll get cloudy and that’s all the filler. But the Omax 3 soft gel remains totally clear. You get no fish burps at all from it and they go through this really intense distillation process over in Europe and remove saturated fats, toxins, PCB’s. So, all you’re left with are ultra-pure, omega-3 fatty acids. They have actually sold over 500,000 boxes of this Ultra Pure Omax because it’s building up this cult following. So, all the cool kids are taking this one. Anyways though, what they’re offering all my listeners is 60% off a one-month supply. 60%, you heard me right, plus free shipping and a 60-day money back guarantee. To get that, you just go to tryomax.com. That’s T-R-Y-O-M-A-X dot com slash Ben. tryomax.com/Ben. When you go to tryomax.com, it gives you 6% for one-month supply and you can try the most trusted omega-3 on the market today. So, tryomax.com/ben.

This podcast is also brought to you by what I use nearly every day at my house, the detox from heavy metals, chemicals, and toxins to relieve pain and stiffness, to sleep better when I go in there at night. You guessed it. It’s infrared sauna. There’s even the finished study that found that regular sauna use getting there about four to five times a week not only decreases CRP, which is your main biomarker for inflammation, but just four of the 20-minute sessions a week reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, and all cause of mortality, and Alzheimer’s. That was a dry sauna. I would say that the benefits of a near-infrared, mid-infrared, and far-infrared sauna you get all three in a Clearlight. Go far, above, and beyond when you get out of a dry sauna. It’s also low-EMF. Most saunas, infrared sauna, specifically freaking microwave you. This one does not. The one that I use is called the Sanctuary. I like it because I can create an open space in there for yoga or swinging kettlebells, spazzing out. It’s a great little sauna, big sauna actually. You can see all the Clearlight. They call them the Jacuzzi Series. The Clearlight Jacuzzi Saunas at healwithheat.com. healwithheat.com. If use code BEN, you get $500 off and a gift, a free gift. So, you go to healwithheat.com. You can also check them on Instagram. They’ve got Instagram. It’s @clearlightsaunas or healwithheat.com and use code BEN.

Next is let your kids join in. Now, there is this very interesting study done at the University of Essex. In the study, they asked kids to rate how active they thought their parents were. Then, they have those kids complete a test of their own cardio fitness, in this case, a bleep test where a loud bleep sounds, you run about 20 meters, and the bleep sounds again, and you run again. Basically, running back and forth with increasingly shorter recovery times until you’re completely exhausted. What researchers found was that how well a kid did on a bleep test was directly influenced by how active and fit that child perceived their parents to be. In other words, the fitter and more physically active your kid thinks you are, the fitter and more physically active your kid will be.

So, how can you include your kids in your workouts? Well, we do push-ups, bodyweight squats crawls, crab walks, overhead presses and hill sprints with our kids wrapped around our backs, torso, and chests. Obviously, if your child is 15 years old, this may be a fast track to a hernia, but if you’ve got young children, you can simply use them as your weights. They love it, and you get more of that oxytocin released I mentioned earlier too. We play follow-the-leader with our kids, where we’ll go on a hike in the forest or walk in the neighborhood. We use the world as our playground. Balancing on fences, picking up heavy rocks, climbing on obstacles like walls and park benches, carrying each other, crawling, jumping, rolling, walking backwards, walking sideways, and moving in as many fun ways as possible. I even swim with my kids on my back, especially when we’re traveling as a family at these short little hotel pools. Since our kids were born, we’ve also used jogging strollers for uphill sprint repeats and runs and pool kick boards for the kids to kick beside us when we swim laps. We have a local neighborhood family yoga class that we sometimes take our kids to. We drop in for family Zumba at our YMCA. We have mini kettlebells and mini medicine balls at home for the kids to join in our living room workouts. We play tennis at the park and basketball in the backyard. I’m even learning how to breakdance right now with my kids using a breakdance DVD. When it comes to making your kids a part of your workout, the sky’s the limit. If you want to grow tiny superhumans, you must think beyond confining yourself to a treadmill and your mp3 player and doing your workout at 4 a.m. when nobody is watching.

Now, as your kids begin to get dirty, do more unstructured free play, do workouts with you, and sit less, you’re going to find that they, and hopefully you, naturally spend less time on devices, especially electronic devices. This is a good thing. See, every phone has a warning label on it that tells you to keep the distance between the phone and your body at a few inches, in most cases. It’s why my phone is either always an airplane mode or, if I’m using it, hooked up to a special kind of headset called an AirTube headset. It’s also, why based on the absorption of a cell phone signal through a child’s skull being twice that of an adult skull, that I take special steps to ensure I’m not frying my kids from neural degradation, to insomnia cancer and ADD. There are thousands of studies on electromagnetic fields or EMF’s, particularly with regard to children’s health, from smartphones, to Wi-Fi routers, to computers, to game consoles, to smart meters, to microwaves, television and cell towers. EMF’s can be prevalent in just about every aspect of your child’s life. You know what’s scary? Kids absorb far more EMF than adults because their body has a higher water content, which makes them more conductive to radiation. They’ve also got thinner skulls, a growing brain and rapidly dividing cells, making them all the more susceptible to damage.

At our house, we have dirty electricity filters plugged into each room of the house. We have electrical kill switches installed in every bedroom of the house. We don’t use our microwave ever. We play outside instead of using gaming consoles like Wii and PlayStation. Our kids don’t use smart phones, iPads or laptops. We won’t be introducing these until they understand the importance of keeping devices clear of their ears, heads, and the little growing gonads in their laps. It’s funny because I tell people we have a completely stupid home, the opposite of a smart home. There are almost zero wireless signals or Bluetooth signals. As a matter of fact, right now, while I’m talking to you, my wireless router is unplugged and I’m instead hard-wired into the router. This quiet stupid little home is also very important for another thing that’s crucial for creating a tiny superhuman, sleep.

Let your kids sleep. Every night, week after week, month after month, year after year, we have the same bedtime routine in our house. Our kids put on pajamas. They brush their teeth using fluoride-free toothpaste, of course, and then we snuggle up in their bed and I read them a story. We each list one thing we’re grateful for and, finally, I sing and play them a song on my guitar. For that bedtime routine, there’s no blaring television, no phones, no iPads, no bright lights, and no other such melatonin disruptors.

Occasionally, the kids will even come curl up in my bed where I have a full body warming red light bulb. That’s actually one of the best little $10 sleep-packing investments you’ll ever make for your own sleep quality.

Sleep is when your cells and your nervous systems repair. That’s why I geek out on sleep so much. It’s when memories form and the day’s important lessons are cemented. So, by cutting down on sleep, you’ll learn less, you develop less, you’re less bright, you make worse decisions, you accomplish less, you’re less productive, you’re more prone to errors, and you undermine you and your children’s true intellectual potential. Sadly, a kid sleeps an average of an hour less a night than they did 30 years ago. A big part of this is our post-industrial infatuation with productivity. We think it’s okay to use an alarm clock to cut sleep short, okay to work in shifts, okay to travel people, including kids, around the world through multiple time zones and assume their body just bounces right back, okay to save time by sleeping less and working more, okay to pull kids out of bed in time for school. It’s even been shown that daylight savings time, designed by our government to save energy and fuel, actually alters your child’s fragile internal body clock twice a year. That results in lower S.A.T. scores compared to states like Arizona, which observes standard time all year long.

Probably, the worst part of all these is that little kids around the world are woken up early in the morning to go to school to learn. Not only do these kids get stressed and cranky, but their immune systems get undermined and their growth is blunted. Some sleep researchers who understand this problem are now trying to battle the establishment for more school schedules that allow kids to go to school one or two hours later. I realize that a giant groan is growing in the throats of those of you who would rather not have your kids still be hanging around your house at 8 a.m. in the morning. But, my optimistic prediction is that sooner or later, government school authorities and parents will realize that late bedtimes due to overloading with homework and the use of an alarm clock to rip kids from their beds, contradicts the very goals of education. So, if you want your kids to become superhuman, then let them sleep.

Finally, let your kid relax. Have you ever been laying next to your spouse or significant other at night and just felt like something wasn’t quite right? You felt the energy in the room was just off, or maybe you had hot crazy wild sex and everything seemed so right. It’s like you’re one. It’s like your hearts are beating in rhythm. Well, the amazing thing is that your hearts, literally, are synched.

See, your heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in your entire body. Your heart’s electrical field is 60 times bigger than your brain’s. Your heart is also connected to your brain via something called the vagus nerve. This means that your heart signal can directly affect other people’s hearts, their brains, their mood, and their entire body. This also means that an intimate connection of heart-brain synchronization can occur between two people or even between a person and an animal. Your heart’s electrical field extends out in all directions in space around you and it touches anyone or anything with an 8 to 10 feet of where you’re sitting right now.

So, just imagine you’re playing at home with your kid and imagine that your heart is racing, you’re stressed, you’re running from a lion that’s jumping out from your email inbox, rushing around the house with your phone clutched to your neck and hurriedly trying to make dinner all at the same time. Well, your child feels that. It affects them. Your heart signal has a direct impact on your children’s stress levels. This stress affects their brain long-term.

That’s why every morning, before I get out of bed, the first thing I do is measure something called heart rate variability, which is a direct quantification of the heart’s electrical rhythms and gives you instant feedback of whether you have a healthy balance between your fight and flight nervous system and your rest and digest nervous system. If my heart is out of balance, I don’t get out of bed until I fix it, because I know it affects my family, my kids. It even affects my dog. If I find myself engaged in shallow chest breathing or irritable or moody or rushed or stressed during the work day, I stopped again and fix the imbalance. I have a home office and I know that if I’m stressed and if my children are in the vicinity, they can instantly sense that without me saying a thing. It’s just the way us, humans, are wired.

Do you want to know how to instantly fix stress and bring your heart’s electrical rhythms back into balance? Well, it’s done via something called the Quick Coherence Technique. You can easily teach it to your kids, and I’ll teach it to you right now. Do you want to learn it?

Okay, let’s do this. Close your eyes. Okay, good.

Now, with your eyes closed, breathe, deep nasal breathing, deep from your belly. First, focus your attention on the area around your heart, the area in the center of your chest. If you want, you can place your hand over the center of your chest to help keep your attention in your heart area. If you’re teaching this to that kids in your life, have them put their hands on their heart. It’s important that you teach your children to feel their heart and know right where it’s physically located.

Now, imagine that your breath is coming in and out through your heart area. Just find that natural breathing rhythm that feels good to you. Every breath is coming in and out through that heart area, every breath of oxygen feeding right into your heart.

Next, think of a positive feeling. Let’s be even more specific. Think of a child in your life, your son, your daughter, your niece, your nephew, your grandkid. Imagine their face, their laughs, their smile. Imagine their soft hair up against your cheeks as you snuggle them. Hold them tight. Feel their smooth skin. Let those positive emotions wash over you and breathe those emotions, feel those emotions going straight into your heart.

Now, when you’re ready, open your eyes. What you’ve just learned you can do anytime, anyplace. You can teach yourself to achieve that feeling within just 10 seconds. It’s the most powerful stress-reducing, relaxation technique I can give you. And better yet, if you take just one thing from this recording, go to the child in your life and teach that technique to them. Give them that gift and they will become superhuman and I hope you will, too. Thanks for listening.

Tiny Superhumans…

Whether you have kids, plan on having kids, or know kids, you live in a privileged era in which you have the ability to enable the kids in your life to be tiny superhumans who look, feel, think and perform like optimized human beings, and you’re about to hear exactly how.

Mozart learned to play the piano at the age of four, composed his first piece at age five and wrote his first symphony at age eight. Pablo Picasso, when he was just twelve, had an astonishing grasp of the fundamentals of art and was producing photo-realistic anatomical sketches. Giovanni Bernini was churning out intricate, life-like stone sculptures at only eight years old.

But these folks aren’t special childhood prodigies, idiot savants, or some kind of unique autistic geniuses.

These are normal human beings.

Sadly, in our modern era, we’ve forgotten how to nurture and grow an amazing human body and mind and instead settled for a generation of kids that wind up on peopleofwalmart.com – attached to leashes and chewing on Ritalin.

The fact is, we have the capability to enable the children in our lives to become tiny superhumans and grow up with optimized physical and mental capabilities.

But unfortunately, it’s very easy to make parenting and teaching mistakes that create a host of issues in children, including lack of proper muscle and brain growth, immune system weakness, low IQ, stunted growth, obesity, depression, attention deficit disorder, social anxiety, and other frustrating problems that parents now accept as all-too-common.

In today’s podcast, I’m giving you the entire recording of my 2014 book “10 Ways To Grow Tiny Superhumans“.

In it, you’ll learn things like:

-Cutting-edge research on how birth methods, bacteria, dirt, germs, farms, pets, and families make a life-long impression on a child’s immune system…9:00

We’re actually hard-wired to eat our own boogers; strengthens our immune systems.

Babies born via c-section have lower health quality than natural born.

Colostrum is important.

Dirt isn’t necessarily dirty.

Natto. Tastes terrible, but it’s great for you and your kids.

-Why the modern paradigm of low-fat food is one of the worst dietary practices possible for a growing child’s brain and nervous system…13:10

You want lots of fat; my kids eat lots of bone broth.

You want them to eat “brain food.” 

Total cholesterol below 200 is associated with low IQ.

-How to foster an ideal combination of play, healthy competitiveness and a desire to succeed in a child through strategies such as roughhousing and wrestling…15:05

Roughhousing teaches to deal with unpredictable situations; how to lose gracefully; how to deal with pain.

People who roughhouse are more socially mature.

Stronger bond with your kids; releases more oxytocin.

Gets them more physically active.

-Ways to enable your child to spend more time on their feet and wearing the proper footwear – two important decisions that will affect their posture for life…16:50

“Think outside the chair.”

Standing workstations for kids.

Rarely wear shoes.

Kids with poor posture have poor posture as adults.

Overprotective modern footwear inhibits foot health for life. (check out minimalist footwear from Vibram, Merrell, etc.)

Kids can reshape and restructure bones in just a few months.

Choose flexible shoes. Foot games to develop motor skills.

Massage feet; happy feet socks.

-How to immerse your child in healthy and safe forms of unstructured free play that enables kids to solve their own problems, control their own decisions, and follow an internal moral compass…21:09

Preoccupation with safety has stripped our kids of independence, risk-taking and discovery.

Feel less in control of their own fate.

Free schooling, unschooling

Recommended books: Duct Tape Parenting, Baby Knows Best, Free Range Kids

We’re not creating perfect kids; we’re creating kids who can’t think for themselves.

-Creative methods of exercise and fitness that make your children a part of the process…26:50

Use your kids as weights while you workout.

Play “follow the leader”

Jogging strollers.

-What modern electronics can do to a child’s developing brain and body, and how you can protect a child without completely unplugging or disconnecting them from technology…29:00

Air Tube Headset

EMFs hazardous to children’s health. Kids absorb more EMF than adults.

We have a “stupid” home.

-How to enhance a child’s sleep cycles, decrease stress, increase relaxation and even optimize brain waves…31:15

Have a bedtime routine.

Kids sleep an hour less than they did 30-40 years ago.

Lose sleep to go to school.

-Everything necessary to nurture and grow an amazing young human’s body and mind…33:45

Your child feels your stress levels; hearts are synced.

Measure heart rate variability (HRV) (Listen to my recent podcast with Will Ahmed, founder of WHOOP about this.)

Quick Coherence Technique

-And more!

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Ask Ben a Podcast Question

Source: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/transcripts/transcript-raise-tiny-superhumans/

[suadcampbell]

AMERICANISM

AMERICANISM

ISM:

Def: attachment or allegiance to the traditions, institutions, and ideals of the United States.

I love my country. I love its big heart, its unending effort to be fair and good, to be tolerant and encouraging, to be entrepreneurial, inventive, and just.

I hate that it’s attacked so often from within, from people who disdain its roots, its founders, its history, its progress, its genius. I resent their efforts to make me despise our origins and successes. To feel guilty about them. No country has an unblemished history, a perfect record on human rights, a perfect redistribution of wealth. From the beginning of time, there have been conquerors and the conquered. Just look at the world today. Slavery is still practiced today (Estimates range from 21 million to 30 million) in Africa, and Asia. Women’s rights are trampled on daily across the globe. Torture chambers exist and people spend their lives in hard-labor camps. Gays are thrown from rooftops, or stoned, or imprisoned. In this country, you’d think the same horrors are occurring; that we’re as morally corrupt; that we’re abusive and unfeeling, that we’re xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic. We’re still talking about slavery that ended over 150 years ago--but very little is discussed about the slavery happening right now in other countries.

If it weren’t for the brilliance and perspicacity of our founding fathers, our Constitution wouldn’t exist, and we wouldn’t have grown and prospered and been such a force for good in the world. If we dismantle the Constitution, or fundamentally alter it, we will become less free, and subject to the ruling classes exclusively. There will be the very rich and the very poor and no middle class.

We live in a country where roughly fifty percent of the population don’t pay federal taxes. And those who don’t pay taxes are allowed to vote to increase them. Entitlement programs abound. People can afford to eat, and eat well, to own tech stuff, and to send their kids to decent schools. Yet there are factions in this country that squawk and groan that we’re not doing enough, that we should do more. We help people feed their babies, get transportation, childcare, housing, health insurance, and find jobs.

The dissidents in our country want to try the same failed social experiments that have been tried many times throughout the world with terrible results. Millions have died through war and privation. Their souls have been battered, their will squelched, their humanity stomped on. Think of North Korea. Cuba. Iran. China. Russia. South America.

Do the dissidents in our country really believe utopia exists? Or are they genetically programmed to complain and fight and generally be unhappy? I think they’d agitate and pick fights and complain in Shangri La, were they to live there.

Does America get some things wrong? Does it have issues it needs to address and resolve? Of course it does. Should people clamor for change and have their voices heard? Of course, they should. But leave the heated anti-American rhetoric out. Stop guilting Americans into believing they’re lousy human beings and should be ashamed of their country.

I love America. I love our flag. Our exuberance. Our can do attitude. Our stuff. Our freedom. And I am so grateful and happy to live here. What colossal good luck!

Let freedom ring!

[noodlesforequality-blog]

What is feminism?

For today’s blog post I decided to start off with what feminism is, why it’s important, why I support it and call myself a feminist and how to become a feminist or be a better feminist.

What is feminism and when did it start? Well if you look up the definition in the merriam webster dictionary it defines feminism as “The theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.” so to put it simply it’s equal rights between men and women no matter what. Feminism began mostly in the 1850s when women started social reform groups because they realized in order to transform society they needed their own organizations to do so. Women started focusing on the guardianship of infants, property rights, divorce, higher education, equal pay, the right to vote and so much more - many of those things we still fight for today.  It was not until 1928 that all women - not just women over 30 with property qualifications - could legally vote. The right to vote took women 70 years to obtain. From there in the 1940s and 1950s during the war more women began entering the workforce which of course in a way helped women to end the stigma that women shouldn’t work. During the 1960s and 1970s these decades really saw the radicalization of the feminist movement. The entry into the workforce changed the women’s role in the family and feminists started to demand the right to abortion, free childcare provision and equal pay.

Why is feminism important? A lot of people say “oh women are already equal to men.” or “we don’t need feminism anymore.” and those people are wrong. Here’s some reasons why we still need feminism.

1. Women are still being catcalled and harassed on the street. The sad reality of being a woman is you’re going to get catcalled or harassed at some point in your life. Some women experience it daily. This is a terrible and disgusting result of how women's bodies are talked about and sexually objectified. I’ve personally had multiple instances where I was catcalled or verbally harassed. One of my most terrifying experiences was when I was 16 and a grown man told me I had a “nice and full chest” and then proceed to follow me around target and to a bath and body nearby where I ended up telling their manager in which she simply asked him if he needed help and he ended up leaving the store and I stayed there until my mom picked me up. A 2014 survey of women in the US found that 65% had experienced some kind of catcalling, 23% had been sexually touched and 20% had been followed.  

2. Sexual harassment is also common in the workplace and school. Not just women but men too have reported being sexually harassed in the workplace. anywhere between 40-70% of women and 10-20% of men have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

3. Societal expectations have raised women to believe their worth is determined by their appearance. Obviously so many things are wrong about this. Through TV commercials, magazines, ads online, TV shows and so much more women are shown that they have to be thin, dress a certain way or be a certain way. The way media portrays women’s appearances results in women at young ages disliking their bodies and/or having eating disorders. In my own personal experience as a young teen I began over exercising, under eating and I just tortured myself with the idea of looking a certain way. National surveys estimate that 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

4. Rape and sexual assault cases aren’t taken seriously. 1 out of 6 women have been a victim of attempted or completed rape. This always leaves me bothered. You would of course think “oh there is probably a lot of rapists in jail.” but nope.Out of 1000 rapes, 994 perpetrators will walk free I mean don’t get me wrong of course our criminal justice system is a mess (we’ll save that topic for another blog post) but you’d think that people would take the issue of rape more seriously and keep these perpetrators in jail!

5. The government makes decisions about women’s bodies. There of course is a lack of women in leadership roles in certain fields and one of those fields is in the government which causes men over 40 to think that they can decide things for women that don’t represent the views of most women. A woman's right to birth control or an abortion should be her own decision and between her and her doctor. In 2015 17 states passed 57 anti-abortion laws. There was also a few hundred more laws considered but they didn’t pass. Also the Trump administration and congress have made recent attempts to stop planned parenthood from receiving funding from Medicaid and Title X family planning program and these funding cuts for PP could have a huge affect on the 1 and 5 women who have gone to PP within their lifetime.

These topics are just the beginning. There is so many more reasons to why we need feminism such as the wage gap - women around the world not having the same rights and opportunities - women needing to be taken seriously for leadership roles - paying for menstrual products  - male privilege still happening AND SO. MUCH. MORE.

Why do I support and call myself a feminist? If the facts above weren’t enough for you then you should know it is because I myself have been on the side of injustice and I have felt the inequality to men more in my 19 years of life than I can even count. Women are simply badass and can do so so much and we need equality and to be treated fairly. I’m simply sick of being treated as less then because I’m not a man. I’m sick of people trying to tell me what to do with my body. I am sick of my rights being taken from me. I am sick of it all so of course I’m a feminist and will support feminism for the rest of my life.

How do you become or be a better feminist? Read the reasons below to find out!

1. Do your research. Once I first learned what feminism was I did some research not only about feminism but about what feminists fight for, how to apply feminism to my everyday life and how to join and be apart of the fight.

2. Be honest with yourself. You will probably find you have to “relearn” some ideas that you’ve been taught such as what beauty looks like, the privileges that each gender has, racist stereotypes and to the extent to which you might take part in systems of patriarchy.

3. Don’t listen to the good vs bad feminist stuff. I wear makeup almost everyday, I shave my legs and I do respect the men in my life. Does that make me a bad feminist? No not at all. As long as you are striving for equality between genders then good!

4. Don’t stereotype feminists. Feminists are not all women and that is good! Men can be feminists too! We’re not all man hating lesbians or whatever stigma you’ve heard about feminists. I myself am a quiet, keep to myself and calm person but I’m still a feminist and get into debates on feminism and fight for equality every chance I get.

5. Support females. Now don’t get me wrong of course I know feminism is for equality between genders but right now females need support to get their equal rights to men. In no way do I mean for us to put females above men but let’s just support females to get their equality.

6. Check out the links! Below I will add some awesome links for anyone wondering how to be/become a feminist.

10 Ways to Be a Better Feminist

10 Ways to Be a Better Male Feminist

How to Be a Feminist

 The History Of Feminism

Well that’s it for today’s blog post and I hope you all enjoyed it, learned something new or maybe you already know this all but liked the post. Whatever your reasoning is share this with friends or family and comment if you have any topics you think I should write about and go treat people equally and with kindness today! Until next week…