Welcome to another episode of Lurie Breaks It Down, a podcast where we dig deeply to connect the dots on the issues that shape our world.

I'm Lurie Daniel Favors, author, activist, attorney, and the host of the Lurie Daniel Favors show on Sirius XM's Urban View, Channel 126. If you like what you're about to hear, go ahead and give us five stars and then tell everybody that you know. And if you don't like it, just, child, keep it to yourself and pray our strength. Okay? Thank you so much.

Also, don't forget to check out my YouTube page, Lurie Daniel Favor's Media, where you should subscribe, like, and share because then you'll get notified when I post videos from my show, which I do just about every single day and when I go live with my YouTube audience. We got a lot to get to today. And of course, before we get to any of it, we have a ritual on this show.

Newcomers, you should just know that, frankly, sitting in the space of Black Talkland is not the easiest of things to do. It's kind of hard. Kind of heavy, actually. And so we have a ritual that allows us to pick ourselves up emotionally to really think about our power and the fact that we're not just hearing about what other, you know, people are doing, what bad actors are doing we're also having to think about our power and the fact that we're not just hearing about what other, you know,

people are doing, what bad actors are doing.

We're also having to think about our power and our ability to organize and to act within

our own best interest, to take some agency.

And so we have a ritual on this show called A Moment of Gratitude that allows us to,

as opposed to getting trapped by fear, loneliness, and depression,

which are often emotions that arise when you spend too much time looking at the news.

We, in STEM, take an approach that allows us to be rooted in joy, gratitude, and appreciation.

And we know that when you are rooted in joy, gratitude, and appreciation,

you cannot also be trapped by fear, loneliness, and depression.

So the ritual we have, as I said, it's called a moment of gratitude, and it goes a little something like of the yes. Hit it! In just a minute, you're going to hear music. That music's going to be an invitation to you to join the rest of us, because we will, upon hearing said music, collectively begin taking the slowest, the deepest, the most lung capacity expanding, joyful heart invigorating,

troubled mind cleansing, and weary soul-uplifting, the most amazingly juicy breath that you've

ever taken with a couple million people at once as we kick off our most important segment of

every single day. It is time for our moment of gratitude.

Thank you. time for our moment of gratitude. Every day, guys, every day, we have to do it. We really do.

It makes such a difference in your life when you take just a few moments to root yourself energetically in some point of inspiration. And again, as I used to say in the first years, when this show was first on the air, you know, I don't care if you need to go into your prayer closet and call out to Jehovah Jaha'i, Jehovah Nisi or Jehovah Shiloh, pick a Jehovah. It don't matter to me. I don't care if you need to sit on your yoga mat and just downward dog yourself into bliss. I don't care if you need to sit in front of yoga Hunson and nom your whole ringache your self on into nirvana. I don't care if you need to go to the mosque and get on that prayer mat 50 times a day instead of five. It don't matter to me. If you got to go outside because don't none of that do it for you,

you just need to breathe deep, fresh outdoor air and hug a tree and gain the wisdom from the ancients of nature.

Whatever it is, have a process, have a ritual,

have a sacred space, a sacred moment for you that allows you to tap into your greatest source of power,

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