Mindfulness + Leadership Coaching
I’m writing on Medium.com now. It’s a beautiful, graceful site and it is satisfying to release my words there. It feels good to see them in the company of other words and writers.
So far I’ve written about being alive, and also a first kiss. Each post takes about 2 minutes to read, which I know because Medium calculates read-time for each post. Continue reading “Not too big, not too small.”
Write what wants to be written. When the words are knocking at the door, let them in and write them down. There is a story that wants to be told, and it’s whispering to you, so you are the one to release it onto the page, to free it from its formlessness. You don’t have to show anyone if you don’t want to. The value is in writing the words. Moreover, the act of writing changes the writer, and it may be that impulse that is seeking you out. Continue reading “Life wants to live through you.”
Today I feel overwhelmed with desire, happiness, and a sense of yearning. I remember my yoga and meditation training, and I try to simply soften and open to it. I relax the muscles in my face and belly and feel my breath slow deepen. I try to feel everything: the sun on my neck, the weight and texture of my sweater, that spark and flutter and reach in my heart. Continue reading “Fieldnotes and clues.”
There is always room for more love songs. Keep loving. Keep writing. Keep singing. Even though love songs have been around for centuries. Even though we’re all singing about the same thing: the hope, sweetness, bliss, and ache of love. It doesn’t matter. We want to hear your version. We want to hear your words, your tune, your voice, your arrangement.
Tell us how it is. We want to know. We can never get enough.
Many months ago a friend told me about 6 Months to Live, a blog about living a meaningful and authentic life. I was smitten by the work. It felt like there were clues and encouragement embedded in it just for me. And it so happened that Jacqueline Boone, the writer and force behind the philosophy, lived here in San Francisco.
I decided to reach out. I wrote to her. . . and she wrote back! I was completely giddy, Continue reading “Reach Out.”
Over the years I’ve explored a number of mindfulness practices. Each one reveals some clue or treat or tool. I’ve noticed lately that my baseline emotion has moved towards a more happy and uplifted place — a kind of internal upgrade.
Which is not to say that I don’t also experience sadness, disappointment, frustration, or jealousy. I still feel everything. I am becoming more sensitive, so am feeling more of everything. And I’m aware of my feelings in a slightly different way. They are more fluid. They move through me more easily and get stuck less often. They’re more vibrant than before. Less blinding, yet more intense. Continue reading “Feel everything.”
Continuing my series on TEDxStanford, here are my notes from Joel Stein:
You are the sum of your experiences.
Identity is not discovered in a black box. Continue reading “Identity.”
I was stuck. Faced with a nagging problem that wouldn’t let me go, I went round and round asking myself: What should I do? Maybe you’ve been there, too. If you have, then you know how utterly exhausting it is to get sucked in to that endless loop of a question.
I spoke to a few close friends, I journalled, I read Hafiz and looked to some of my favorite blogs and other sources of inspiration. And finally, I realized that part of my problem was Continue reading “Ask useful questions.”
My dad is a great storyteller, and when I was little he often read to me. He also told me stories about growing up on a farm, and going to school in a one-room school house in Illinois. He told me about being a Peace Corps volunteer, and traveling around the world. From 1968 to 1972, his assignment took him to Tunisia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Continue reading “We are all time travelers.”
