Brooklynsel

Out of 50 trials, 90 percent of participants experienced a significant reduction in their anxiety, in under 15 minutes. Try it for free (and then review please!) or check out sessions on Youtube (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0UfYVSbzO8keiIX-Wz5GatqrdiF-Vbsa&si=FiZ7Pj3iyS1LU9u6). Or message me for a free session. It involves mindfulness, yes, a bit of life coaching, and yes, movement. It may revolutionize your life. It has mine. Free for next two days on Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1TTG1DJ/

Anxiety Transformation: 5 Steps Towards Inner Peace Anxiety Transformation introduces a powerful method for reclaiming inner peace in five steps by: 1. Articulating what's bothering you 2. Considering the hidden question beneath your worry 3. Expressing the anxiety through a simple movement 4. Embracing an empowering belief 5. Establishing an acti...

Did you know there are 2 wolves inside of YOU?
The red wolf thinks only of yourself,
the green wolf considers others.

I'm creating puppets to bring this concept to life!
Which one do you like better?

My new book is part of a voter registration competition (free digital copies always available upon request, as always). Voting is through joinrec.com/thinktank and vote for “From the Barbershop to the Booth.” It takes 5 seconds to fill out the vote. Would you be able to vote and maybe share with a couple folks to vote, too?
Here's more about the idea:
From the Barbershop to the Booth is a live podcast event series that will energize young men in Philly, ages 18-35, to vote. Hosted in barbershops across Philadelphia, these conversations will feature dynamic presenters, community leaders, and local celebrities discussing the power of voting. Sessions will be live-streamed, recorded as podcasts, and accompanied by artistic installations that reimagine voting booths as spaces of reflection. With local artist activations and engaging conversations, this initiative combines art, storytelling, and civic engagement. Voter registration will be a central focus at every event. By participating, young Philadelphians will be inspired to register and vote for a brighter future.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ27C5TL/

I am doing my first David Peck questions show in my studio for this Sunday at 6 PM.
It will be interactive experience with some traditional acrobatic shows. There are two seats left. If you're interested, private message me please.

At the beginning of my acrobatic dance class, I ask everyone to share their name and anything we should know. It’s an umbrella question meant to address the range of needs of everyone. A few students mentioned their physical ailments. Some shared what they wanted to learn in class. One student was distracted by my shirt. Not the guacamole stain, but the text, which said, “No Cheese Down That Tunnel” I first heard the phrase when a coach at a Landmark meeting (worth looking up Landmark if you don’t know) tell a student who was immersed in blaming the world, that there’s no cheese down that tunnel. Brilliant! It immediately reminded me of my bike ride to class, in which a clueless biker turned suddenly without looking, crashed into me, and had some terse words for my ears. Well, if you know me, I don’t mind being wrong, I don’t mind being in pain, but if you want me to go from 0-10, blame me for something I am not at fault for. While I appreciated the material for a good therapy session, I was stunned in the moment and it took me a bit of time before I was able to catch up to him. But I did. And his first words were that I should have made a sound if I was passing him. A crowd gathered, curious as to what I was going to do. There was no cheese down this tunnel. I explained to him that he needs to look before turning and he caused me pain. He gave me a forced apology, more due to the size of my body and my steel gaze, but I accepted his apology and headed to class, biking slowly to recuperate my serenity. Then the same biker passed me by a few blocks later, rang his bell, and said, “That’s what you should have of done.”
I shared this story in class, as that is what I wanted others to know, before we started, giving me a little space in case I was unduly loud or aggressive. We went late because opening circle became a bit of story time for a few people. One student shared that he was kicked out of landmark, which is odd because they’ll do just about anything to keep you there. And I realized sharing is a tunnel that has cheese waiting for me, and others, at the end of the maze.

All weekend, the following books are free on Kindle....and you know I want those reviews.....
Sports Fan Therapy
Questions for the Heart and Mind
Questions to Awaken the Soul
Family Life Goals
Social Emotional Poetry (For the classroom teachers out there)

No Kindle? No problem. All my books are always available digitally, only a request away.

Free digital book for New Year's Resolutions in the classroom, the social emotional way.

For 20 years, I taught New Year’s resolutions on the first day of the new calendar year. The lesson always generated hopeful energy and students were excited for 24 hours. Unfortunately, the energy dissipated after a day as almost no one kept their resolutions for even a day, myself included. Keeping resolutions is far more difficult than declaring them.

For my 21st year of teaching, I set out to do something different. I have learned new strategies for achieving goals and resolutions as a community through being certified as a life coach. I dropped the pretense that everything could be done through willpower and created a growth mindset environment in which we learned from our failure and supported each other as a community to develop strategies for goal achievement. Every day, I went through the same process that I asked my students to go through, sharing both my successes and failures. That changed everything. Why? I stepped out of the traditional teacher role of telling kids what they needed to do and stepped into a different type of leadership: modeling being human. I also made space for group support by posing questions about how to solve problems to the community rather than possessing all of the solutions. And when it was time, I shared goal achievement techniques with an enthusiastic audience. Only then did my students experience success in achieving their goals.

Students needed the support of a community. Daily accountability was necessary to increase success. Planning and executing small steps was crucial. And evaluating your mindset, feelings, and beliefs could free you from unseen obstacles. There was so much more to teach than simply make a resolution.

Social Emotional New Year’s Resolutions and Life Goals shares this recipe for success. https://www.sellifeskills.com/projects-3

Fourth and 10
Almost 40 years ago, I was addressed individually in the huddle for the first time with specific instructions on fourth and 10 on the last drive against the best football team in Brooklyn. Our star quarterback, Eddie Bishop, singled me out at a time and place where no one else was given individual attention. I was the right guard, physically being the shortest guy in the team, and also out of place having the only punk haircut and earring underneath a football uniform in all of New York City. This appearance marked one for death in most Brooklyn neighborhoods, but I embraced an alternative identity as a reaction against 80’s conformity, yet simultaneously sought the glory offered from playing football. And gloriously, in this moment, I stood out to Eddie Bishop the star. I felt special.
My placement on the offensive line happened because I walked into the wrong room on the first day of training three years earlier. My dream of ever carrying the ball was subsequently squashed. I found different success surprisingly, as a blocker for someone else’s glory that never felt different or separated from my own. It’s what a team is and what I was fortunate to be a part of.
At this moment, Eddie demanded ex*****on. I was flattered. For years, all he had to say to me that I had a big ass, dozens of times a day. I celebrated the recognition for a split second, but not having a party though as we had a task at hand. We needed 10 yards. My job was to move horizontally on the line and smash an unsuspecting defender, that when executed correctly, meant, unearthing someone as I cleared space for the Eddie. It was my moment of glory.
The play call was a bit of a surprise. No one ever calls a running play at fourth and 10, at any level of football. Our coach was not wise. In the playoffs the previous year, on the last play of the season with the game on the line, he called a running play that was never called before and never since. You might think this means a special gadget play, like the Philly special. But no, it was a move of panic, a poor choice, a glorious ending for the other team, but not us.
When the play was called this time, we just followed orders. It was the 80s. we couldn’t control the play, but we could control how we did it. What words did Eddie Bishop use to me in that moment? It was something like, “Mo********er, you better block.” Mo********er is a Brooklyn term of endearment when used in the right tone. Like Samuel Jackson does. Eddie’s tone was not sweet. It was a demand and a call to attention to the moment and I appreciated his leadership, even if I felt simultaneously a bit scared. In times of uncertainty, clear direction is a lifeline towards action.
When the place started, I launched myself to the left, seeking the last player at the end of the line of scrimmage. What I didn’t expect is that their best defender, twice my size, who was supposed to be blocked, was not. And so 5 feet before I was supposed to hit someone else, I hit this building and was ricocheted backwards. Oddly, it was just enough space for Eddie to run behind and off he went beyond the line of scrimmage. If you look at the film, there was a linebacker waiting to hit him immediately, but maybe because the opponent never suspected a running play at 4th and 10, or maybe because the field we were on was 99% dirt and the linebacker couldn’t see through the dust, Either way, Eddie ran right by him into the secondary and got 10 yards. Our offense followed that with a game-winning drive against a team none of us thought we would ever be beat. It was our championship moment in a season in which we did not win a championship. We performed a Brooklyn miracle,
On the way off of the field, we were celebrated by hundreds of fans elated about our victory. It justified and rewarded thousands of hours of practice, like getting a standing ovation at a rock concert, or a loving glance of approval from a parent, which is not something I ever got before in my life.
I am telling the story today, because Eddie and I, and many of our teammates, are headed to Midwood field on Sunday to support fellow hornet Danny Landberg, and his attempt at five consecutive city titles, as a head coach of Erasmus Hall’s football team. One and two generations later, all of us, support youth, in a variety of ways, giving opportunity for glory, in whatever box it comes in. You only need that experience once to know how special it is, and then dedicate your life to give it to others.

Ideally, gratitude lessons happen before Thanksgiving, and more ideally, as a part of a mindfulness practice, but it’s never too late. My tip?I found that students who are able to connect to gratitude can easily connect to its benefit. But a gratitude practice can exclude and shames those students who don’t connect to its value.. So I like to include some scaffolding steps.
1. A little bit of venting why it’s hard to connect to gratitude sometimes.
2. Seek something small, almost inconsequential to be grateful about, so there’s not pressured to feel something.
3. Lead conversation around their experience with gratitude in the past.

These three steps can clear space for gratitude.