Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.” Also: “Intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee of a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.
Our world is vast, our experiences, identities and ways of expression vary from individual to individual and sometimes it can be difficult for people to communicate with each other. There are verbal and non verbal ways of communication, and at times we greet others with a handshake or with a bow, depending on how and where we were raised. It can be easy to offend someone, or totally lose communication, or other opportunities all by that first greeting gesture and this is why learning about intercultural communication is important.
Interculturality refers to the interaction and exchange between different cultures with the goal of promoting mutual understanding, respect and appreciation. It recognizes the complexity of cultural diversity and the importance of creating inclusive environments that value and celebrate different cultures. Interculturality is something that goes beyond tolerance and aims at creating a space where individuals from different cultures can learn together and work together in shared goals. Now, when we speak of intercultural communication we are talking about how to communicate with others in or from different parts of the world who’s backgrounds may be greatly different than our own. Intercultural communication is about having respect for people who’s cultures are different than ours, having a curiosity about their cultures, and learning about other cultures and customs.
Ways that Intercultural communication benefit society:
Promoting mutual understanding and respect
Enhanced creativity
Enhanced personal and professional development
Stronger communication skills
Promotes social connectedness and shared identity among cultures
Breaks down barriers and unites with a common goal
Appreciation of differences
Gives us skills to handle complex issues regarding culture and communication
On our mission of creating a more equitable and just society we need to not forget how to listen. We must learn when to be silent, think, feel, process and understand before speaking, and this is especially helpful when discussing things like politics, race, identity etc. Many of our global problems are all caused by lack of understanding, lack of appreciation for each other. If we can flip the switch and learn how to communicate with each other, we would learn a lot about ourselves as well, and bring more love and peace into our world. If we can educate ourselves of different cultures, make the effort to actually learn, we would unlock more communication skills that can allow us to communicate more fluently with others as well. It would be incredibly beautiful to see a world who sees their neighbors as friends.
In Asian Buddhist countries that follow the lunar calendar, those certain days depending on the phases of the moon are considered to be sacred and holy days. Those days are called Uposatha Observance Days. On Uposatha days we Buddhists practice even more seriously, even more intensely. We try to eat healthier, more mindfully eating and preparing food. We try to practice meditation with more focus, and also do more spiritual reading. We practice giving, and also compassion and selflessness. These moon phase days or ( Uposatha Days) are considered to be sacred because they relate to the Buddhas life achievements which were all on full moon days. The Birth of the Buddha was on a full moon day, his renunciation also took place on a full moon. He achieved Enlightenment on a full moon day, taught his first sermon and also passed away on full moon days.
Slight is this perfume
of tagara and sandalwood,
best the perfume of the virtuous
blowing even to the devas.
The perfume of flowers does not go against
the wind,
neither that of sandalwood, jasmine, or tagara:
but the perfume of the virtuous does go
against the wind.
The good man suffuses all directions,
Sandalwood or tagara,
lotus or the jasmine great —
of these perfumes various,
virtue's perfume is unexcelled.
Buddha
Many Buddhists practitioners visit temples or monasteries on these sacred Uposatha days. They go to practice with the monastics who are also observing Uposatha more intensely, they also go to practice in a monastic way for a day. There are so many healthy benefits of observing sacred or holy days, practicing alone is good as well as practicing with a community. Some people need their space, and others do better and can study better with a community, however you practice though it doesn’t matter so as long as you practice working on the ( Inner Work), this is what’s important. The Buddhist Uposatha days are supposed to bring us peace of mind, joy, happiness, and less stress. I have found that by observing the practices, living more mindfully and eating vegetarian foods, one can achieve a certain inner peace.
Just like in practicing an art form or a skillful craft, practicing peace and compassion also rewards us with peace. When we can take time to focus on what brings us peace, whatever healthy practices we may have, not just Buddhist practices but any practice, we can come closer to that peace we seek in our lives. Turning this practice into a lifestyle practice reminds us to take time to focus on our mental health needs, to eat healthy and to have time to just breathe and relax. Even if someone doesn’t practice the Buddhist traditions, there is still so much beneficial material that can be applied into ones daily life.
Questions to contemplate
what hours of the day do I feel most relaxed?
What healthy foods do I enjoy eating that leave me feeling healthy and full?
How can I create a more relaxing and peaceful environment in my home?
What meditation practices bring me peace?
How can I practice in a way that liberates me and brings me peace?
“If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nations. When there is order in the nations, there will peace in the world.”
Confucius
Living in harmony with oneself is a practice, it is a lifestyle and it is a spiritual journey within oneself. It is a journey within the soul and heart, a journey into the entirety of the mind. When we can sit in total silence, witnessing each thought, each breath, breath by breath, present with our hearts beat, we are on the right step to inner peace and harmony. To live in harmony with oneself means to love oneself totally, completely satisfied with oneself, having compassion with oneself including accepting what we see as flaws or imperfections. Existence does not create mistakes, instead it simply creates. We are not flawed, we are alive, living and breathing beings that are all different from each other and yet so similar in many ways.
What does “Just be” mean to you?. I think that this is something we should all ponder in depth. For me, to “Just be” means to stand tall, in total confirmation, embracing yourself as you walk compassionately against the winds of an imperfect and oftentimes harsh world. It means to have such a great strength within yourself, a strength so strong that no matter the outer storms, the inner is peaceful and calm. You have arrived within yourself, you’ve found yourself, and you love yourself. This is what “Just be” means to me, and to live this way brings us harmony within ourselves, within our relationships with others and in our environments.
Here are some helpful steps that may guide you to achieving that inner harmony
Focus on keeping a balanced and healthy diet, they say that we are what we eat!
You are human, allow yourself to learn and be imperfect. Wisdom and harmony comes from accepting our little imperfections.
Prioritize self-care by taking care of physical and mental health.
Get plenty of sunlight and fresh air in nature
Keep a healthy social life, friends are important but so is YOU TIME.
Get enough sleep each night, our brains work better with sleep!
Get in touch with your inner artist, creativity births happiness and peace.
Dont be afraid to buy that bright yellow shirt with polka dots if it calls to you, wear it and rock it! Wearing what we like builds up confidence within ourselves.
Set aside time out of each day to practice sitting meditation, this helps us to balance ourselves in life and within our minds.
Get plenty of exercise
Stay hydrated and lower intoxicants like alcohol, lower caffeine as well. Water is our friend!
When we can live a healthy lifestyle, keep a positive self image and make healthy lifestyle choices we begin to live in harmony. We are more peaceful, less stressed out and quick tempered and able to quickly retreat to that zen space within if life starts to get a little crazy. Challenge yourself to be the best version of yourself you can possibly be, and let your beautiful light shine color and love into this world!.
Before we get into discussing how to expand one’s worldview, let’s first take a look at what worldview means.
A worldview or a world-view or Weltanschauung is the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual’s or society’s knowledge, culture, and point of view.[1] A worldview can include natural philosophy; fundamental, existential, and normative postulates; or themes, values, emotions, and ethics.[2]
From Wikipedia
As you can see, our worldview’s are what shape how we experience, view, live and interact in our world. Having a bicultural worldview means that you live within more than two cultures, or participate and are exposed to many cultures. In these cultural experiences we open our eyes to different practices, beliefs and customs that may be quite different from our own. Learning about these differences builds tolerance and we learn to respect and appreciate other cultural customs, beliefs and views, and it’s through this lens that we begin to expand our own views.
Our bicultural worldview is important because it shapes our world and our interaction with our world. Living a bicultural lifestyle gives us a broader sense of reality. We are also able to understand different perspectives and solve more complex issues, and in doing so bring more togetherness and harmony into our world. The bicultural worldview allows us to approach challenges mindfully, create stronger and more unbiased communication skills and to solve conflicts wisely. Narrow and prejudiced worldview’s are grounds for racism, prejudice, discrimination and poor communication skills. Having such narrow views is certainly not beneficial for a peaceful and all encompassing world.
How is having a bicultural worldview beneficial for our world?
There are many ways having a bicultural worldview can be beneficial for our world. Here are just a few
Having the ability to see beyond your own cultural norms
Appreciation and understanding of different cultures
Having respect
Having tolerance
The ability to combine ideas and solve complex problems
The ability to live in harmony with the world
You can expand your own worldview by studying a new language, learning new recipes, learning new religions, teaching your friends and family about a cultural knowledge you’ve learned and practicing mindfulness. Our world is a big with many different perspectives, many of our conflicts come from lack of understanding or lack in communication skills, so by constantly learning and improving your abilities, you are able to live peacefully and harmoniously in a world of differences and complexities.
” The way you dress is an expression of your personality.”
~Alessandro Michele ~
Bruce lee
For many BIPOC/ AAPI artists, it may sometimes be challenging to express themselves in a way that is uniquely original, partly due to the fact that society has a so called “standard” way of expression. They may have an idea about what colors they like, what style of shirt and shoe’s, or what brush strokes to use on a painting, what ink with what brush etc, but still maybe they feel something might be blocked or just missing all together. This is when we must look at our world, we must look at our cultures, we must look into our dreams and the stories that our grandparents have told us. Here, in those things, are the colors and textures that can be used to paint your vision, here is the the medium for part of your expression, the other part is you, your life and your experiences. Being brought up in a multi-cultural, or bicultural home is the greatest blessing of all, never forget that. I say it’s the greatest blessing because it not only challenges our minds, but also opens our minds and gives our mind more windows of light to work with. All of these things and more can influence, and also impact our creativeness and our expression.
Ways to express yourself:
Writing poetry
Working with clay
Writing stories
Painting
Composing your own songs
Keeping a journal
When we are able to find that medium in which we can express ourselves through freely, either by painting, writing poetry or stories, or even creating our own original fashion statements, in those moments we have tapped into our potential of unique original expression. For us POC, we may also at times feel ashamed to express ourselves freely, because of how society may label us as POC, or because of the complexities of culture and religion. It can be so challenging to take the courageous step of liberating ourselves through expression, however once we are able to achieve such, all of the nets society has thrown on us will fall away.
I encourage you to be creative, listen to your heart, respect traditional cultures of your own and others, and live each moment as colorfully possible.
We will all experience anxiety, for example, speaking in front of large groups can make us anxious, however that anxiety can also motivate us to prepare and practice. Driving in heavy traffic is another common source of anxiety, but it helps us stay alert to avoid accidents.
However, when feelings of intense fear and distress become too overwhelming and they prevent us from doing everyday activities, an anxiety disorder may be the cause.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health concern in the United States. Over 40 million adults in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder, and about 7% of children aged 3-17 experience issues with anxiety each year. Most people develop anxiety symptoms before the age of 21. In this article you will learn about anxiety symptoms, types of anxiety, causes of anxiety, diagnosis and treatments for anxiety.
This article discusses the clinical needs for youth and the families of youth in crisis. The clinical needs of children and youth are different than that of adults, much care needs to be taken in establishing health services that can help the needs of children and their families in crisis.
After reading the article titled “The Center for Native and Pacific Health Disparities Research Walks Beside, Not In Front of, Diverse Hawaiian Communities to Control Diabetes,” it made me think about the good point that Dr. Marjorie Mau, a lead principal investigator of the Center for Native and Pacific Health Disparities Research, addressed on how they walk beside the community rather than in front of them. When trying to help the community, I think that it is best to make them feel like family; to feel comfortable and at ease with you. With the information we get about health issues in our communities, it definitely makes us want to address it and help those who may need some guidance. With this, we have to also remember that we can not just try to budge into their lives and take over, even if it is for good intentions.
The article mentioned how the Partnership for Improving Lifestyle Interventions (PILI) project addressed obesity by adapting an existing weight loss education program. They used local languages and examples that were relevant to those in the community. There was also a program added to help participants with the support of family members and the community; this program was culturally adapted based on its community. Personally, I have never thought about letting myself be apart of a research. The whole concept of trying to improve health by researching is amazing but when I think about allowing research programs work on my body, it just doesn’t sound too pleasing, depending on what it is. So after reading this article, I realized that maybe it isn’t too bad. Also, I loved how the research program approached the topic of research and what they were focusing on. Without a doubt, I think that their approach/idea on research and community can be applied to other things.
Dr. Mau and the Center for Native and Pacific Health Disparities Research definitely has good intentions to help the communities, mainly focused in Hawaii. The overall thought of walking besides them/the community and helping with issues they/the community care about can definitely help with the factor of gaining trust and opening up for help/guidance. Since our goal for the concept of Bicultural Healthy Living is to help support people in living healthily within cultures people adapt to, applying these ideas and strategies will greatly benefit the community and our goal.
Remember to lend out a helping hand but also remember to think about who those you help are as a person. Diversity is all around us but sometimes we forget that we live in a world where every culture is different but it is normal. Every community may be different so it is important to help with things that matter to them while making them feel like family.
Asian Media Access is celebrating the many health benefits of outdoor parks and recreation activities in honor of July’s National Park and Recreation Month. National Park and Recreation Month highlights the important role local parks and recreation activities play in keeping our community(ies) strong and healthy. During the month of July we encourage people of all ages to get active outdoors!
Children with access to safe parks are more likely to be physically active — and active kids perform better in school. For people of all ages, physical activity can reduce the chances of becoming obese. Plus, spending time outdoors can improve mental health. Visit Discover the Forest, https://www.discovertheforest.org/?m=1, to search for a forest or park near you!
Keep up with our Facebook page, Bicultural Active Living Lifestyle, to stay updated on some of the latest events in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Community. Also check out our Bicultural Active Living Lifestyle (BALL) webpage, http://ballequity.amamedia.org/, for more events and coverage. Together we can get our community(ies) to all the great programs that our public parks and recreational facilities offer.
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For more information on our events or just more about us,
email us at amamedia@amamedia.org
or call us at (612)376-7715
Having a couple of days off and building up the adventures to the awesome fireworks on the 4th has been amazing. Spending my weekend in Duluth, MN, I saw and realized a lot of things. People everywhere were in a very good mood and everyone was just so happy. This feeling that I was getting reminded me of how proud I am to be an American. There have been many things happening that has been hurting how I felt, about who I am and as an American. Being Asian American, a person of color, there were times when I felt like I did not belong, even though I was born in this country. I have many hopes for my country because I know it’s an amazing place. Times are hard but on the 4th of July, looking around and enjoying everyones’ smile and laughter, it made me feel at peace and very thankful.
Happy and thankful, I remember why people love this place. The freedom and opportunities we can get here, it gives people hope. Despite all that has been happening, everyone still got together to celebrate Independence Day in America. The multiple fairs across the country just shows how much we all do love this place.
