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Alaafia and blessed greetings to you, I pray you are well and feeling bright as you read this – I certainly am! I’m still in the ritual mourning period for my birth father, but I am remembering him with love and laughter and I have already dreamt of him, which is quite comforting. In the midst of my bereavement, I have received some exciting news that I know my father would be proud of: I’ve been offered admission to Harvard University’s PhD program in African and African America...

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

I came across this quote by Helen Keller today and it struck me – hard. I woke up not feeling 100% well physically, but I decided that I was going to push through and accomplish the things that I had set to accomplish for the day. Now, my little sore throat and headache was nothing in comparison to the physical hardships faced by Keller and others, but it was a small sampling of my own power and drive to ov...

Blessed greetings to all of you! I trust you’ve been staying busy in my absence – I pray you’ve been staying positive as well. I have been “on my grind” recently; I hope you’ve taken the time to catch up on all the posts you may have missed.

They say that anything that is worth having takes a good deal of work and I am certainly finding that to be true especially as I go through the process of applying to PhD programs. If any of you are thinking of applying, know that it i...

As mentioned in this article on stress management, laughter increases some “positive” hormones in our bodies, like endorphins, and decreases...

According to many sources, including one of my favorites, Dr. Oz, mos...

I discovered this little gem while at the Circle of Sisters Expo with my mother last weekend. I smelled their Mango Melon body butter and immediately fell in love! The scent was heavenly...

This mosaic is from the Art for Transit collection designed for the MTA, see more here

One thing that always strikes me i...

Let’s be honest: most of us gain some satisfaction out of talking about people once in a while. It may not be enlightened but it’s the truth. Every now and then, talking about the person we saw acting wild on the train, the “cat lady” that lives down the street or the “bad” child that made a scene in the store gives us some small bit of sadistic pleasure a...

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Fall is definitely here in full effect! I love to watch the trees change color and, while I’m definitely a summer baby I must admit that the crisp coolness of the fall air is quite refreshing. It’s funny that people who don’t know each other and don’t really have anything to say to each other usually fall back on talking about the weather. While most people dismiss this as meaningless “small talk,” I see something deeper. The weather is one of the few thi...

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Isn’t that the LAST thing you want to hear when things aren’t quite going your way? *laugh*

Much as we may not like to hear it sometimes, the reality is it’s always true! Even when we find ourselves in dark, undesirable situations some bit of light – no matter how small – manages to shine through and restore us. We have to be careful of focusing so much on the darkness that we miss that little bit of light in the distance.

Yesterday, I was standing on the train platform and a mot...

Anyone who...

“This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.”
- Anonymous

Did you know that in addition to being Grandparents Day (I hope you sent a card or made a call or both!), today is Positive Thinking Day? Positive Thinking Day was developed by Dr. Kirsten Harrell, her sister Traci and their company Popular Inspirations, LLC., founded in 2005. Popular Inspirations is responsible for www.ipopin.com, which hosts ipopins. What are ipopins? They’re “One minute attitude boosters that bring the power of positive thinking to people on the go.” You download ip...

I pray you’ve all had a fantastic, productive week -- I sure have! I'm moving into my second week of 2 new work projects and my last semester in grad school so, as you can imagine, I’m super busy and when you’re busy, stress is just waiting to rear its ugly head. Can’t let that happen! I’m introducing Ase Ire’s new series Pamper Yourself with… today. This series will always appear at the start of the weekend to give you some ideas on how to treat yourself to a little “somethi...

I don’t know how lucky it is, per se, but today – 09/09/09 – is a special day, do you know why? This is the last single repeating digit date that most of us will see in our lifetime as the next one won’t occur for almost 100 years (January 1, 2101 – 01/01/01).

The number 9 has many powerful associations and, seeing as it repeats 3 times today, that’s 3 times the power! If your life path number is 9, today should have been a particularly powerful day for you. The number 9 is associa...

Do you tend to assume the worst? When someone – particularly a boss or other authority figure – says “May I speak to you?” do you immediately think the conversation will be a negative one and spend time trying to figure out what you’ve done wrong?

We all experience these moments of negative thinking and self-doubt, it’s natural. But I’ve found that getting into these types of negative thought loops on a regular basis really stems from an underestimation of your skills and talent...

Happy Friday! Let me ask a question: Do you like getting things for free?

Of course you do! Today’s my birthday and it's a true blessing to see another year and to still feel like a vibrant young girl at 30 *smile* Over the past week I’ve been making use of several great free birthday giveaways from various companies that I patronize. Lots of companies give free things to their customers to celebrate their birthdays, and usually there’s no purchase necessary! That’s particularly satis...

Greetings again! I thought I’d take 2 steps on this first day, start the journey off right *smile*

Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the fact that I’m going to celebrate my 30^th birthday this Friday. I feel incredibly blessed to have lived 30 years because, the grim reality is, many people in the world don’t. I also feel blessed to have been afforded the opportunities to accomplish as much as I have in my short time on this physical plane.

Although I hav...

Greetings all! It’s my pleasure to welcome you to Ase Ire! It is my hope that this will be an online oasis for inspiration, interesting information and positive energy. Our theme is “Promoting the Power of Positivity” and I look forward to reinforcing positive power within myself as I write and within you as you read. Be sure to visit the What is Ase Ire? page for more on what Ase Ire is all about!

As I take the first step on this journey into the blogosphere, a few quotes come to mind:...