Have you heard of a neuroscientist named Richard Davidson?
He’s been doing research on the brain specifically related to mindfulness, meditation, and well- being for decades. And his research is fascinating!
One of his key findings is around the idea of well-being. Through extensive study, trials and research, he has identified what he calls 4 pillars of well-being.
The really exciting news is that these so-called pillars aren’t inherent qualities, or even simply acquired knowledge. They are qualities that each and every one of us can cultivate and apply every day of our lives! Wahoo!
Have you experienced the past few months as intense, chaotic, and full of uncertainty?
Yes?
You’re not alone.
Some days feel like a tough slog. Like we’re moving through dense resistance. Which is all the more reason to embrace your spiritual practice and deepen into it.
Many seers have spoken of this time we are in as an amplification, when everything is speeding up and gaining power. This is exactly why you have to choose your own sanity, clarity and peace.
Not only because the chaos is ever growing, but because the benefit of you doing your inner work is amplified during this time. In other words, you can use this time to fast track your liberation.
Recently, we explored the big idea in which I asked you what myth are you living. If you’re still ruminating on this, here’s another tool that might help you drill into it: archetypes.
The concept of archetype is something Carl Jung spent a tremendous amount of time exploring and is so rich! Caroline Myss has built on Jung’s work and expounded on how we can access and utilize archetypal energy to better understand ourselves and the world.
A powerful way to help understand where you are on your life path, is to recognize what story or stories are playing out in your life. This is a question/idea that comes from Carl Jung. He famously said:
I was driven to ask myself in all seriousness: “What is the myth you are living?”
I found no answer to this question, and had to admit that I was not living with a myth, or even in a myth, but rather in an uncertain cloud
of theoretical possibilities which I was beginning to regard with increasing distrust.
Happy New Year!
Are you ready for 2025?
It still feels pretty new, which is why it’s helpful to employ some anchoring exercises to support you as you get clear about how you want this year to be for you.
I always start my year by choosing a word or phrase, something to focus on, dive into, and act as a theme or inquiry for the upcoming 365 days.
Some of the ones I’ve chosen in past years include: receive, relax, joy, shine, communion… you get the idea. Once you hit on your word (or phrase), the invitation is to spend the next 12 months deepening into how you can experience it in your life.
Our life is an accumulation of decisions we've made to move toward something or shy away. And when we come to a crossroad in life, it’s important to ask: Am I running towards something or running away?
If you find yourself in a situation where you need to make a decision, these 3 questions can help you have clarity.
Now that January is back in swing and your life has returned to business as usual, it’s time to ask yourself, is this exactly what you want? Life as usual?
If you’re really ready to take your year and your life to the next level, it will require change.
As Einstein is often quoted as saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
For many of us, this was the first week back to work-school-life-as-usual after the holidays as well as the first week of the New Year. Happy New Year!
Maybe you’re like me, and want to eagerly jump back into life.
But before you leap back into the craziness and chaos of your wonderful life, do yourself a favor and stop.
When I was in high school, my freshman English teacher often wore a button depicting William Shakespeare that boldly stated, “Will Power.”
I was always amused at the pun for undoubtedly, William Shakespeare was a force to be reckoned with in the world of English literature but I also knew that my teacher wore the button as a plea to us students to work hard at our assignments.
Lately I’ve been thinking about will, not the man but the action.
I watched a video over the weekend that a college student posted on YouTube. As she explains, she did a little social experiment in which she called different young men and women ‘beautiful.’
Seeing their faces transform at her words, I was reminded of the same thing happening to me not so long ago.
From the time I can remember, I struggled with being overweight. My parents were always on my case about what I ate, how much I weighed and, being sensitive, even a drop of criticism was too much for me.
When you look at the words, risk taker, what do they evoke in you?
Typically, we think about risks in terms of physical ones- athletes at the X Games- rushing down a mountain and flying over a jump. Or we think of people who take monetary risks, like gamblers betting insane amounts of money at the casino.
Risk takers are often seen as thrill seekers or irresponsible. Yet most business people, especially entrepreneurs, are risk takers, too. If not for them, we wouldn’t have boutiques, microbreweries, smartphones and on and on...
There are healthy risks and unhealthy risks, so it’s about identifying how comfortable you are with risks – in any area in your life.
Of all 52 weeks in the year, this is the one when Americans reflect the most on gratitude.
It’s hard not to when you sit down at a beautifully decorated table, in front of a mouth watering feast that typically includes a succulent, roasted turkey, creamy mashed potatoes, candied yams, piping hot green bean casserole, chestnut stuffing, cranberry sauce… hungry?
If you’re ready to use Thanksgiving as a springboard to deepen your gratitude practice, here are 3 ways:
We all have dreams and goals.
The question is: How do you successfully achieve them?
Often, in order to attain your goals, you have to push yourself a little harder, a little bit more.
You have to move out of your comfort zone, and into a space of uncertainty, of unknowing.
When you come up to the edge of what you know, do or know how to do, it frequently feels scary, and kicks up insecurity, vulnerability or fear.
In spite of these scary feelings, how can you succeed anyway? How can you move into that next level of creativity, success, satisfaction or weight goal
Lately I’ve been doing inventory.
I’ve been reflecting on my life and examining it by asking this question: Did I make a significant decision according to a set of rules, some kind of pre-ordained/ family inspired plan or because it was truly and deeply something that I wanted to do for my own self growth?
Take a moment to look back at your life and ask yourself the same question.
Turns out that we make a lot of decisions based on: pleasing others, fulfilling expectations, because it’s the right thing to do or is what we’re “supposed” to do.
Ouch.
How much we allow ourselves to have in our lives is a function of what we think we deserve.
Have you ever been at a party or a club or walked down a block of a ritzy area of town and wished that it was your life, that you lived there or had those friends?
And over the summer I had an interesting realization.
I just got back from a 3-day business workshop that was designed to help women entrepreneurs break through success and money barriers. It was informative, emotional and healing but it was also a bit of a marathon, going from early in the morning until late into the night.
I enjoy these kinds of events especially because I’m committed to my personal development and self-growth. I love to immerse myself in new ways of thinking, bond with other women and meet fellow entrepreneurs. I find the experiences to be fulfilling and inspiring but then I have to come home.
I love being an American but one thing that’s been vexing me lately is how work and career have taken over our lives. It’s as if we are no longer human beings but human doers. The overriding message is that when I’m not “doing”, I’m nothing.
It’s easy, when we talk about spirituality and living a “more spiritual life” to forget about the body.
We use expressions like, “we are a spirit having a human experience.” Or, “focus on the essence not on the form.” The emphasis is always away from the corporeal body because it isn’t really who we are.
Many of us who have struggled with weight or body image issues, certainly know this to be true.
There were years when I saw my body as the enemy – it was fat and ugly. Why would I want to be in it? I wanted to dissociate from it entirely. It was definitely not me.
I was listening to a speaker recently explain why people don’t obtain results. And do you know what she said?
Think about one of the New Year’s resolutions you made ten months ago. Maybe, like many of us, you had ‘lose weight’ on your list. Let’s say fifteen pounds.
Those of us who are committed to a spiritual path can sometimes feel split in two. There’s the contemplative, ascetic side of our nature, the part that loves meditation, silence and oneness with God. Then there’s the other side of us that’s out there in the world earning a living, being a consumer, friend and partner.
How do we merge these two aspects of ourselves that seem disparate but in reality are one?
The exciting answer is, YES!
As Pema Chodron reminds us, “Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment.”
