There is a lot of emphasis on being productive right now. It's a buzzword that litters our news outlets, and is heard frequently in connection with the economy.
Personal productivity is also a hot topic right now, with the business world abuzz with Stephen Covey, David Allen's Getting Things ... Views: 711
Last year I was given the book, Eat, Pray, Love by one of my girl friends. I placed the book on my coffee table, and there it sat for well over a year. Recently, just by a lark, I decided to give it a read. I couldn’t put the book down. In it was a section where the author meets an old ... Views: 711
Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another and little Radha did just that. Yes Radha, the one who cannot walk, the one with brittle bones disease, the one who dreams of being a dancer danced with her heart, and I know that even the Heavens stopped to watch ... Views: 711
I believe – and I think this is a relatively non-controversial view – that the current recession/crisis has been and will be worse/deeper as a result of fear seeping deep into the American psyche. Even though I disagree with many of the actions and in-actions of the Bush administration/team, I ... Views: 711
Question:
You often speak about the "All Is One" concept, and I am re-reading "Anatomy of Spirit" while working with my root chakra to deal with all my tribal issues, and Caroline Myss is also writing of "All Is One." But as often happens when I contemplate that "sacred truth", I would like to ... Views: 711
Most of us feel a little crazy from time to time. Periods of high stress can make us feel like we’re losing it, as can being surrounded by people whose values are very different from our own. Losing a significant relationship and moving into a new life situation are other events that can cause ... Views: 711
There is no greater way to escape the troubles of daily life than to ascend into the welcoming embrace of a tree house. Like a bird in its nest, we feel held and safe in the branches, cloaked within a curtain of green leaves. Here we can breathe more freely and think more clearly, our hearts and ... Views: 711
Your unforgiving alarm rings for all it’s worth. It’s 7AM. You crash out of bed, slamming your toe on your bedside table. You fumble for your zafu in the dark. “It’s over here somewhere,” you mumble. Hearing you awaken from the dead, your cat runs screeching. You are about to plant your ... Views: 710
A good friend and fellow single mother was telling me about her plans to attend her daughter’s “Father’s Day Breakfast” at school today.
A little awkward, perhaps, but what the heck.
As a single mother raising sons, Father’s Day has always been a bit of a delicate proposition for me. When ... Views: 710
Perhaps the biggest misconception about living green is that it requires for us to sacrifice our pleasures for a more meager, less fun existence. After all, for all the research that has been done on the environmentally damaging effects of plastic water bottles, eating beef, and driving our ... Views: 710
Meaning is an association of what is now with what once was...
Take a look at any object in your immediate environment: say, you are looking at a "so-called" (I'll explain the "so-called" parenthetical in a few moments) cup. Say, I picked it up from your desk and asked: "What is this?" You'd ... Views: 710
Spring has sprung, and many of us are slowly moving out of hibernation and feeling ready to get outside. This luring translates to relationships as well. With the bad news of the recession pounding, we need to surround ourselves with positive, upbeat people to help us shift gears, focus on the ... Views: 709
Center Yourself
Take in a deep breath. Let it out. Now, breathe in brilliance. Exhale out the burden. Do this three times so you feel more centered.
Ask For It
Ask for the Greatest Good. As Mayor, take a moment and claim your office, and ask that your solutions be for the ... Views: 709
Most people are familiar with brain waves, but not as many people are familiar with heart waves. Researchers have found that our heart emits waves, much as our brain does. When we are in a state of stress, anxiety, worry, or depletion, these waves form a jagged and rough pattern. On the other ... Views: 709
Getting cleaned up can be a dirty job.
Modern hygiene requires that you spend some quality time with your showerhead. The average person showers for about 10 minutes. In an old-school shower (made before 1992), that means you're using about 100 gallons of water. The government has since ... Views: 709
So many of us think about creativity in the context of being an artist or musician. However I prefer the definition that resiliency expert Frederic Flach uses. Creativity is “a response to a situation that calls for a novel but adaptive solution, one that serves to accomplish a goal.” That’s ... Views: 709
MonkInTheCity spoke to Zen Master Genpo Roshi about money.
The Monk:
It’s bonus time in the City, and I’m a Zen monk. No one wants to believe they are greedy. But to be honest, I’ve thought about it a lot. It pays the bills, the mortgage, and allows me to give some to family, friends and ... Views: 709
Eliminate the Unhealthy
Your body needs adequate water to form blood, lymph fluid, and bodily secretions, to name a few. Water also helps prevent inflammation—research now shows that inflammation is a precursor to many chronic illnesses. Water helps substances flow in and out of cells by ... Views: 708
I want to make Earth Day more than just another celebration. I am taking a vow to reduce and where possible eliminate any chemical cleaning products that are not earth friendly. I hope you join me!
Making Earth Friendly Products
Here are the ingredients and how they will be used. You will save ... Views: 708
In the context of my work with FLOW and my collaboration with FLOW co-founder Michael Strong (author of Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems), for the past three years I have been deeply engaged in advancing the idea of Peace Through ... Views: 708
For the last few weeks, I have been on a radio tour for the release of the paperback edition of Why Good People Do Bad Things. In my interviews, I keep hearing the same questions. Why did you write this as your sixth book? Why is this important to understand? Why do we do bad things? Why do we ... Views: 708
More than 100 years ago, it was an annual tradition in some Native American tribes to capture a large bear, tie him to a stake, and then begin dancing around him. There was also a bonfire and drumming.
Then, one by one, members of the tribe approached the bear and confessed their sins. After ... Views: 707
In case some of you didn't know, happiness is this week's theme on Intent.com. It also happens to be the unofficial theme of this week's edition of Best of the INTENTernet!
First things first, here's a compelling new video from TED on the science of happiness by cognitive researcher Nancy ... Views: 707
Of course you have multiple things to do. That's a good thing. In fact, if you didn't have multiple things to do you might be coming near the end of an active life. Even if you've lost your job, and I know what that one's like, you still have multiple things to do.
More accurately stated, you ... Views: 707
As you know, I have been up in Northern California visiting family for the 4th of July. I have been up in the mountains, north of Sacramento, on some property that my family has owned for generations. As a child, my brother and I would spend every single summer up there, fishing, catching ... Views: 707
The paradox of selflessness never ceases to amaze me, yet somehow I continually forget that the receiving is in the giving. I was reminded yet again on Memorial Day when I joined Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) as they kicked-off their third year of anonymous, kind-hearted shenanigans.
The ... Views: 707
I'm always struck by how opposites attract. I'm also struck by how attraction turns into frustration over time. It's a fascinating phenomenon that we are drawn to people with different characteristics and strengths than we have. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to change them so that ... Views: 707
An out –of –work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90 year old Ohio woman shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years. A record 500,000 homeowners have entered the ... Views: 706
When I was in my twenties, my gaze was always focused on the big things—finding the “perfect” partner, the “to-die-for” job, the “huge” book deal, or getting into the “best” graduate school. Little things didn’t matter much; they were unnecessary distractions that I treated as rounding errors. ... Views: 706
I’m pretty uncomfortable about it at this point, and I know too that I’m doing the right thing.
As you know, I function as a Chief Spiritual Officer for several businesses. It’s hard to explain what a CSO does. The basic job is to look at business scenarios of all kinds and listen for guidance ... Views: 705
How resilient are you?
We all experience stressors everyday - they are unavoidable. The key is how we respond to life's challenges. With the help of some good coping skills, you can learn to bounce back from difficult life experiences and become more resilient. Take this quiz to see how ... Views: 704
In celebration of this week's call for content for making the best of our mornings, here is a list of ten action steps to make your mornings a little more eco-friendly. And what better way to love Mother Earth than to acknowledge her gifts at the very start of the day?
1. When you wake up, ... Views: 704
I’ve read a lot of advice about how to spark creativity. Everyone’s creativity takes a different form, however, so the advice that works varies a lot from person to person.
For example, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be efficient and productive. One of my struggles is to allow myself to ... Views: 704
While most people agree that sugar and artificial sweeteners are bad for you, a recent study showed that a so-called “natural sweetener” can actually increase insulin resistance and belly fat in overweight people.
The sweetener, fructose, has long been touted as a natural sweetener because ... Views: 704
When friends asked if I would write a poem for their wedding, I responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!" What an honor! I let the poem incubate in my mind for awhile, then woke up at 2:30 AM last week and wrote the following. The bridal couple LOVES it; and in the absence of the grooms mother at ... Views: 704
Where is home? That’s a good beginning for all of us. In fact that is the beginning, when we first realize that there’s something missing, something lacking. We don’t know what it is. It’s a mystery. Yet we have this sense, there’s a kind of awakening to what we could call spirituality, or ... Views: 704
This afternoon I received a call from Peter Gould, the CEO of my company: ‘Lilou, I have bad news.’ He paused for a few seconds.
It seemed an eternity. I had felt the tension in the company, and sensed something bad was about to happen, but nothing could have prepared me for his words: ‘Your ... Views: 703
Do you find self-promotion offensive? I often do. But what if it’s rooted not in hubris, but dedication to a cause? What if it’s more akin to “shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good”, the phrase coined by late philanthropist and actor Paul Newman, referring to his food company, ... Views: 703
Suddenly, nothing much matters and nothing matters much. The circus of life seems to have come to a decisive halt.
I am here now. Right in this moment. Not living in the future nor reminiscing the past. Not making plans or breaking down the sand castles I once built. I am here. Just as I am. ... Views: 703
Debunking the “Prioritization Failure” Myth in the Economic Stimulus
The new perceived “crisis” in the stimulus initiative is the claim that there is no way to prioritize projects to get the greatest value from taxpayer dollars.
It’s true that not every “shovel ready” project merits ... Views: 702
My daughter, Tara, is in first grade and is in Brownies, the precursor to Girl Scouts. I have to admit I was very wary of her joining what I thought was a conservative, all American, clan of secret codes and rules. Really not my thing. That said, its part of the tradition at her school and so ... Views: 702
As you go through the intuitive healing process you need to know: each of us has our own special power. We carry it within; it waits to be awakened. Call it your inner self, your spirit, or light--however conceived, you must meet and come to know your core-essence. The source of all intuition, ... Views: 702
Ordinarily, we don’t see from a non-dual perspective. That’s what’s eluding us, and that’s what we’re yearning for. We’re yearning to be closer to truth, closer to reality, to God, to nature, to our true nature, to our self, to others. It’s as if we’ve frozen our self into a solid chunk of ... Views: 702
Yesterday I had my car towed. It was my own silly fault. A sign that was obscured by the branches of a tree told me that every fourth Thursday the street would be swept, and I thought it was Wednesday (the Memorial Day holiday threw me off stride).
A very cheery gent on the end of the phone ... Views: 702
While most of us might not pause today on April 3, it is a date that should resonate with every American. It is the anniversary of the death of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. Secretary Brown and 34 other people, including more than a dozen dedicated public servants, lost their lives 13 ... Views: 701
In the past, when I’ve talked about “The Cancer Card,” I’ve done so jokingly, as in “pulling the Cancer Card” when you’re pulled over for a traffic infraction.
“Oh, Officer, I’m sorry, I didn’t notice that stop sign! I have [sniff] cancer.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” coos the officer, “You just go on ... Views: 701
In this blog I’ve discussed public issues and also personal ones. Today’s blog is a personal one. I have touched on this topic before, but I am finding I need to discuss it again as I’m curious about other people’s experience with it. Here goes…
I have been thinking a lot lately about callings, ... Views: 701
A particular theme has come up time and again over the last few weeks, which is a sign it’s not to be dismissed.
At the manifesting seminar last month, Koelle talked about how bizarre it is to horses (and animals in general) when we humans try to manhandle our feelings by pretending not to ... Views: 700
Just a few short days ago the vernal equinox reared its well-organized head and instead of being made to feel like a compulsive neat freak, I was able to spring-clean with societal approval and encouragement.
I particularly look forward to going through my wardrobe at this time of year. I use ... Views: 700
Upon waking, many people consider the coming day with trepidation. Because of the natural human tendency to focus on what we fear or dislike, it is easy to unwittingly send a message of unease into the future that negatively impacts the quality of your day. However, while our lives are busy and ... Views: 699