Mindful Monday: Exploring Spring Celebrations, Traditions, and Personal Updates 032425

• The gentle transition into spring signals not just warmer weather, but a beautiful tapestry of celebrations across different cultures and traditions. From the final days of Ramadan leading to festive Eid gatherings, to the familiar excitement of baseball season beginning on March 27th, this episode explores how seasonal shifts create space for both reflection and celebration.
• What makes this time of year special for you? I'm genuinely curious about your spring break traditions. Do you venture out on family trips, stay home to recharge, or perhaps have special rituals that mark this season? My own modest plans include indulging in some karaoke (singing and dancing being my personal passions) and possibly whale watching – nothing extravagant, but meaningful nonetheless.
• The episode takes unexpected turns through personal anecdotes, including my transformation from "yard duty teacher" with my utilitarian parka (perfect for storing student fidgets and snacks) to a more business-casual look that surprised my colleagues. These seemingly small seasonal shifts mirror broader changes happening around us.
• Special appreciation goes to loyal subscribers Lisa Roberts Curbelo, Mike Kaufman, and Dr. Kyle Phew (author of "Commitment to Love" and "Love is a Verb") found on Amazon. Local businesses also get deserved recognition, from Persimmon Dental's exceptional patient care to Dr. Cedric Stewart's life-changing chiropractic work at The Function. 
• Don't miss the beautiful handcrafted items from Kara Love My Artist http://lovemyartist.etsy.com and Tom Miner's Pick Studios on Etsy – https://minerspickstudios.etsy.comperfect for unique gifts as celebration season approaches.
• Share your spring traditions, Eid celebrations, or baseball season excitement with me on Instagram @ElkevatePodcast or across any major podcast platform. Your stories and connections are what truly elevate our lives!

Chapters

• 0:00 Mindful Monday Introduction
• 2:25 Learning About Ramadan & Eid
• 5:10 Spring Break Traditions & Questions
• 6:40 Baseball Season Approaching
• 9:50 Shoutouts to Loyal Subscribers
• 13:30 Sponsor Highlights & Business Recommendations
• 19:10 Closing Thoughts & Social Media Info

Transcript

Elke Poness: 0:00

Bow, chicka, wow, wow, hello, welcome everyone to Elkevate your Life. I am your hostess with, as in the letter L and key, as in the key to your heart. Well, it is Mindful Monday, as I take a drink of water. Sorry about that, folks. It's Mindful Monday and I'm wondering how is everyone's Monday going? What do you have going on? We have we're in the last week of Ramadan and then this weekend is Eid, and so I would love to hear what everyone is doing for Eid. I'm learning a lot about the culture and the celebrations, and spring break is coming up, thank you, Jesus. And yeah, holidays right around the corner Easter, spring break, lots of good things coming up.

Elke Poness: 1:25

So what does everyone think about this beautiful weather? By the way, what a refreshing change. I have to tell you, although I am not beach body ready, hot girl summer yet, I'm working on it, it's in the making, it's in the making, it's in the works, and I was thinking about what I was going to talk about today. Besides the usuals, as most of you know, I have my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, specialist number five for mystery mouth condition. Hopefully I get some relief, some answers, some remedies, because, quite frankly, I'm tired of living this way, but I was noticing baseball season right around the corner. Any baseball fans out there Just curious? And so what do we think about this amazing weather change that's happening? I am doing my best to embrace it. Funny story I went to work today in not my usual attire.

Elke Poness: 2:47

I wore the matching jean jean jacket outfit. I actually dressed as if I were going to a job, and what I mean by that is, I guess you could say, business casual. Normally I look like, as my daughter would say, a yard duty teacher with my big parka, because my long parka has deep pockets and I keep all my fidgets and my snacks for all my kids. And so today was a very different day and everyone was telling me well, you look so cute and fashionable and stylish. I'm like, yeah, I guess I don't look like a yard duty teacher today. Thank you, I think so. I am embracing today and tomorrow's weather.

Elke Poness: 3:35

Today for this Mindful Monday, I am interested to find out what are everyone's traditions. I'm learning, as I said, about Ramadan and what that holiday celebrates, and I have to say I'm very impressed with the loyalty that the Muslims practice as far as praying and fasting from sunup to sundown, and it's very commendable to have such a commitment to the religion. And then I know I actually don't know too much about Eid other than gifts, celebrating with gifts, food and usually not coming to school the Monday following the Saturday-Sunday celebration. But I'm curious to find out any spring break traditions out there and, if so, what are they? I would love to know. I'm actually trying to get some ideas on the whole spring break thing. I know I want to karaoke. For those of you that do or don't know me, singing, dancing, that's my jam, those are my hobbies, and so I'm looking forward to having a karaoke night on the Thursday during spring break.

Elke Poness: 5:07

But aside from that, am I going to be traveling anywhere or doing anything? I don't know. Whale watching is on the list for the near future and yes, so I would love to hear from everyone what are your spring break traditions? Do you have any? Do you travel somewhere? Do you stay at home? Do you spend it with family? Do you have a traditional thing that you do like? Go to Tahoe or wherever it is you live? Do you go on some sort of mini vacation with the family? Or do you just stay home and relax and catch up on your shows? And I don't know, just thinking out loud.

Elke Poness: 5:59

I was talking about baseball season. It's approaching, which kind of makes sense, right? Any baseball fans out there? And if so, what's your favorite baseball team? Do you have a favorite baseball team? All things I'm interested to delve into. I'm trying to be Mama Elkie, the knower of all things, and what I was going to say about baseball season, spring training, kind of aligns with that right, of aligns with that right. Anyway, it's opening day, Thursday, march 27th. I'm sure a lot of us are excited.

Elke Poness: 6:59

I have to say I haven't been to a baseball game in years and I grew up uh, well, I grew up in the Bay Area, oakland area, so my teams and don't hate listeners, but I grew up watching Oakland Raiders and because we lived in Oakland and Oakland A's and obviously that has changed. But I have to say I am a diehard Raiders fan, even if I couldn't tell you a player's name or anything. I have to stick with my teams. I never liked when people would just jump on the bandwagon like, oh, this team's not doing well, so I'm going to go over here. Yes, I will help support my husband in his journey for loving da bears and the cubs, but I really don't know too much about the teams other than what he's shared with me and watching, yeah.

Elke Poness: 8:02

I kind of just wanted to jump on here and ask what are some traditions that you do for Eid, for spring break, family traditions, traveling traditions? Yes, and would love to hear some feedback. And you know, I am on all the platforms and it gives you the option to send a text where you can send in your thoughts, your ideas, your questions, your wanting to know advice from Mama Elke. Perhaps you have, yeah, perhaps you want to share your tradition where you go. You to take advantage of that, because it gives me insight and these are things that I can share with my listeners.

Elke Poness: 9:11

On that note, I do want to make sure that I give a shout out to my loyal subscribers. Lisa Roberts Curbelo, thank you so much for being a loyal listener and supporter. Lisa Roberts Curbelo, thank you so much for being a loyal listener and supporter. I do hope that you and the family are well and you are navigating through the challenges that we spoke about. When I bumped into you on St Patrick's Day, jeff Parra, I was going to be talking about Parrapalooza, but apparently it's been postponed for a minute, so stay tuned for further details on that note. Mike Kaufman, thank you for your loyal subscription. Mike Kaufman, my husband, slash water salesman, salesman and, of course, the infamous professor and doctor of love, Kyle Phew. Commitment to Love. Love is a Verb, an amazing book that I have been recommending to everybody. It's available on Audible via Amazon and to my hopeful subscribers, listeners, sponsors.

Elke Poness: 10:47

I am really looking to expand on a much wider scale and I am looking for people out there to help me to progress to that level, and I want to get to the point where you don't just listen to me, but you see me talk. I have guests on the show. We talk about various different topics, with the exception of religion and politics, because those are the two things that well Kyle says it best religion and politics divide us and love unites us. So I firmly believe in that statement. I firmly believe in that statement, I firmly believe in that theory, and that is why I don't like to discuss those topics, because, at the end of the day, I respect who and what you're doing and what you choose. That is your choice. I just don't feel that it's something that we need to talk about, because we should just say we can agree to disagree and discuss other more intriguing, interesting topics. So, sponsors, first of all.

Elke Poness: 12:01

Let me go back to subscribers. Ladies and gentlemen, you can literally and I use this analogy a lot because I feel it's so relative, but I can use a different analogy. But I say you can literally subscribe for as little as a cup of coffee, and I use that analogy because there are a lot of coffee and or tea drinkers out there. But if you want me to use another analogy, you can subscribe for as little as a breakfast, sandwich, a meal deal, lunch, I mean I could use a million different analogies. The point is it's as little as $3. It's at most 10. And by doing so in return, I talk about you, your business, your hobbies, your interests. I do something in return to show my gratitude and give you a little bit of more exposure, I guess, on what it is that you are doing or promoting.

Elke Poness: 13:13

I don't really talk about Lisa, because she hasn't really shared anything that she wants me to share. So I just tell her thank you and hope you're well and family's well. Let's see sponsors. So, yes, I am actively seeking sponsorship. So I am hoping to get to a point where I am recognized and people out there want to sponsor me Speaking of okay. Speaking of sponsorship, so I do want to let you know I go to Persimmon Dental.

Elke Poness: 13:49

I've been going there for years. Teresa, Dr. Lam, all the the entire staff treats you like family. You walk in, you are greeted with a smile, they offer you a bottle of water, you sit in their comfortable lounge area. My doctor is never going to perform anything as far as dental needs, unless it's a need. He will tell me this is a want, this is cosmetic, this is a need, that sort of thing. I really respect that about him and his staff, and so shout out to Persimmon Dental in Dublin, in Persimmon Plaza.

Elke Poness: 14:33

But I also want to give a special shout out to Dr Cedric Stewart. Shout out to Dr Cedric Stewart. He is a wonderful chiropractor. He has a practice, The Function in Hayward area, and I met him when I worked for Hayward Chamber of Commerce. I was membership director and my literally the day I went to see him he changed my life. I love when I can go see a doctor or a specialist.

Elke Poness: 15:09

In this case, where they go, your posture is off. This is wrong, okay, and after one adjustment, okay. So how long have you been walking, hiking and exercising on this bad knee and that is why your hip is like this? There's just something to say about people that know your body just from laying on their table and getting an adjustment, and it's very impressive. And he loves what he does, and you can see that he loves what he does. And you can see that he loves what he does and he has an exciting product coming out that I'm very excited to talk about pertaining to wellness and weight loss. So it's right up my alley, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very excited to talk about it. Share it with you. Speak on it more. Share the statistics. So shout out to Dr Cedric Stewart at The Function. If you live in the Hayward area or anywhere around there, I highly recommend you look him up. So tonight, that's pretty much it. I don't have a long podcast for you. I will tell you I probably won't be here on Wednesday because of my doctor's appointment being in Santa Clara. I'll be getting off work early and I'll be getting home late, so you probably won't hear from me on Wisdom Wellness Wednesday. So until then, thank you all for listening, joining, accompanying me.

Elke Poness: 16:42

Oh, shout out to Kara and Love my Artistetsycom, and I can't help but boast about her and Tom's business. But she has a lot of beautiful things songs, clothing, ornaments that she creates for wedding favors, video, custom song lyrics with videos for a tribute, for a birthday or what have you. Yeah, just really cool stuff. So keep that in mind. Keep that in mind, lovemyartistetsycom. And then we have Tom, her other half, who has his own business, and the stuff that he makes is more rustic. The stuff that he makes is more rustic.

Elke Poness: 18:05

I can never remember his by heart. Forgive me, tom, it's like minerspickstudiosetsycom, is that it? Am I remembering it, tom? Please forgive me, I don't know why it doesn't stick with me, but I feel like that's minerspickstudiosetsycom. I was right. Woohoo, I memorized it. Okay.

Elke Poness: 18:32

So a lot of, like I said, rustic type artwork. He has this beautiful rustic decor. It has aspen trees, a lighted wall hanging piece of artwork. It's very cool. It looks 3D dimensional. And then he makes a lot of laser engraved wall hangers, beautiful dream catchers. They're both super talented, in just different ways. So I highly recommend that you check them out. Well, I think that's it. I'm going to wrap it up. Sorry, it's a short but sweet. Well, I think that's it. I'm going to wrap it up. Sorry, it's a short but sweet. I am going to look forward to your text in to me about what Eid means to you and how you celebrate and what do you do for spring break. I would love to hear your thoughts. I can be found on Facebook, Instagram Facebook, youtube, amazon Music, spotify, apple Podcast. Most of them are Elkevate your Life, Instagram is Elkevate Podcast. I'm also on TikTok, I look forward to hearing from you. Ciao, for now.