Welcome to your ✨Monday Moment✨

Take a deep breath in. Hold it. Exhale.

Pick a colour 🔴 🟠 🟡 🟢 🔵 🟣

Find the moment below with that same colour, then go to the closing moment at the end.

🔴 Take a moment to look around the room you are in. Can you see anything made of bamboo? Think of the last thing you saw that was made of bamboo. Did you know the tension strength of bamboo is said to be comparable to that of steel?

🟠 Take a moment to learn about the beautiful Indonesian musical instrument known as the anklung. Made by master craftsmen from pieces of bamboo secured to a frame. The anklung is considered an idiophone – an instrument that is played by striking, scraping or shaking. The single notes of anklung are produced by shaking it rapidly from side to side. In 2010 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) added the anklung to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Click 👉 here to hear and see anklungs being played and learn a little more about them in this informative 1975 film from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

🟡 Take a moment to watch (and listen to)👉 a panda eating bamboo like it were sticks of celery. If you love ASMR, you will love this moment.

🟢 Take a moment to ponder the fact that despite not actually being a tree (it is in fact a type of grass) bamboo is considered to be one of the most sustainable and renewable alternatives to wood in the world. A bamboo ‘forest’ is said to produce 35% more oxygen than a tree forest of the same size.

🔵 Take a moment to guess which one of these items is not currently being made out of bamboo somewhere in the world: construction materials, food, medicine, musical instruments, clothing, paper pulp, fencing, basketry, utensils or bicycles? Go to the bottom of the page under the photo for the answer.

🟣 Take a moment to try the Qigong technique known as ‘Bamboo in the Wind’ to help you find some calm, focus and balance. Stand and put your feet together and feel yourself root into the ground. Place your hands on your stomach. Close your eyes and breathe naturally. Allow yourself to rock and sway as if a gentle breeze were surrounding you. Continue for a few moments, take a deep breath in and then open your eyes. Step forward and exhale. Repeat any time you need some inner strength and calm.

Take another deep breath. Hold it. Exhale, smile and sit tall like bamboo. As you head into your week and challenges arise, take the lessons of the bamboo with you. Give yourself time to grow, be flexible and resilient. As the Japanese proverb goes, “the bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists” 💚🎍

🎍The answer is none of them as they are all currently being made of bamboo! 😁 Put in the comments below what you think they might or should make next.

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