Hello everyone and welcome back to our Weekly Uplifting Stories!
I don't know about you, but reading these tales every week always makes me feel a little lighter and brighter. I notice that so many of these people just started with a simple desire to help others. They see an opportunity to jump in, make the effort or just step in to make someone's life a little easier.
In the movies and TV, we're told stories about giant, sweeping, heroic examples of saving people's lives and displaying huge feats of valor.
But in reality, real heroes don't wait to save the world in one fell swoop. They just start by helping everyday people just like them.
Not only is he one of the best soccer players to ever come from the West African country, Sadio Mané also makes regular donations to improve it. From the £500,000 donation he made to build a hospital in his home village of Bambali, to the £250,000 donation he gave to fund a secondary school.
Many of us have seen a picture of the soccer star walking through an airport with a cracked iPhone in his hand. Why would such a big star not have the latest, up-to-date model, you may ask? Sadio Mané has an incredibly humble philosophy:
"Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people," Mané said in an interview with a Ghanian newspaper.
This inspirational young man has his feet firmly planted on the ground - and is setting an incredible example.
Shizuo Mori, the 80-year-old owner of Japanese coffee shop Heckeln, is becoming more famous for his skills than his delicious caramel sauce pudding.
His signature move, known as the 'pudding fling' has become quite the feature on social media. Now people come from all around the world to watch his unique method of getting the pudding out of its metal bowl and onto the plate.
Mori says the circular move that is now his signature is simply because it's easier on his wrists than the traditional snapping motion.
He only makes about 50 puddings a day - and now he finds he is pained when he sells out when there are so many people flocking to the small coffee shop.
You can watch his sweet moves in this YouTube video.
81-year-old best friends Sandy Hazelip and Ellie Hamby decided to travel the world in 80 days at the age of 80...until Covid got in the way. But they didn't let that stop them from planning their dream journey. The delightful ladies just changed their plans to '80 Days Around the World at 81.'
From Finland to Japan, Antarctica, Nepal, the pair have traveled to all 7 continents and 18 countries, documenting their travels on their ever more popular TikTok channel. They have a very simple message for everyone watching them:
"Get up out of that easy chair. Step out of your comfort zone, make some plans and live," says Ellie
Asked in an interview if they ever get sick of each other with all that traveling, they were both quick to say no, not at all!
"The only thing I always joke about is Ellie has longer legs than me and I can't keep up with her," said Sandy.
You can watch Sandy and Ellie's inspirational journey on this YouTube video.
Chef Stephanie Bonnin started her project, La TropiKitchen to share her Latin culture with a whole new group of people.
On Sundays, she turns her Brooklyn apartment into a pop-up restaurant that seats 16. She shows off her culinary skills and tries to recreate what it was like to eat dinner at her Grandmother's house. She wants every bite to transport you to Colombia, to Peru, to your grandmother's table.
“This project is about me being proud to be a Colombian woman, it’s about my passion for food, it’s about gathering people and it’s about raising awareness. I want to introduce my culinary traditions to New Yorkers and make them understand that there is other Colombian food other than beans and rice." - Stephanie Bonnin, from original interview
Initially, Stephanie came to cooking to help her through chronic depression, but it has become a much larger dream for her. She wants to keep the connections between generations alive and well, by passing on the culinary traditions of years past.
Her goal is to open her own shop one day, and continue to bring her community together, sharing her culture through delicious food.
A vast, 6 month study of 61 organizations in the United Kingdom has lead to some pretty hopeful results when it comes to proving the 4 day work week can actually improve business and the lives and mental health of employees.
Lead by a team of social scientists from Cambridge University, the study followed organizations from all over the map. Industries such as financial service providers to recruiting agencies, IT, marketing and even a fish and chips shop got involved. About 2,900 employees dropped a day of work from their week.
What did they find?
And get this - efficiency actually increased.
“Many employees were very keen to find efficiency gains themselves. Long meetings with too many people were cut short or ditched completely. Workers were much less inclined to kill time, and actively sought out technologies that improved their productivity.” - Prof Brendan Burchell, sociologist who lead Cambridge side of research
This study was done with support from academics at Boston College and research organization Autonomy. With results like these, who knows how soon we could see this set up becoming more common?
More Weekly Uplifting Stories are right here! Weekly Uplifting Stories - Week of March 6th, 2023
And there you have it!
Don't forget - we are always looking for more Uplifting Stories! If you have a tale to tell, or want to submit one for a future article, connect with us in the comments below, or through our Instagram page. We'd love to hear from you.
Have a great week everyone!
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