WHAT IS SHIELDING? Earlier this year we went over grounding and centering as basic meditation and energy management practices. This month we added shielding to our tool belt. What is shielding? It’s something I believe we all learn to do instinctively when we are young. There are many ways to Read more…
[For my Dreamers & Schemers]
A lot of people ask me how I get my meditation and yoga practice “off the mat.” Today provided a really good occasion for me to break down exactly how I do this multiple times throughout my day, and for that I’m truly grateful. This story really begins late last night, when I went to bed already concerned about whether or not I would attend both my morning aerial hammock conditioning and my afternoon flying trapeze class. (more…)
You can jump right into this exercise or walk yourself through any other steps you like to take when you “turn inward” (centering, grounding, releasing, etc.). Imagine a gold sun about a foot above your head. Imagine that it’s magnetic and it’s calling back your energy from all corners of Read more…
Last month an old client emailed out of the blue to talk to me about facilitating another professional development workshop. Instead of responding right away to accept the gig (because chances were I had the time), I let it sit. And there I sat as my initial indifference started to Read more…
It’s been forever and a day since I’ve written here, and I can’t give a pat answer for why I haven’t been moved to blog even though I’ve been processing a ton of learning and sharing it elsewhere. Today I drafted an email to my Dreamers & Schemers and thought Read more…
My most faithful reader has been emailing me about my last post on bringing love consciously into our work, and raises the following questions:
I actually anticipated these two questions, because they have also been weighing on my mind. Let me take on the second question first: Can you have a single definition of love for everyone in your life?
I speak only for myself, of course, but, YES, I have arrived at a single definition of love for absolutely everyone in my life, and for me it’s both a matter of principle and a pragmatic way of figuring out where I’m falling short and what I need to do to keep growing. (more…)
What youth program these days does not claim to be in the business of youth empowerment? But if you pay attention to what’s actually baked into the DNA of a program, you will get a firmer grasp of an organization’s particular definition of youth empowerment, and you’ll come to understand Read more…
[This is for Hank Norman.] One of my favorite tweeters recently sent out a provocative little about knowing the difference between harmful suffering and that which is part of the growth process. What’s his secret? I don’t know. He’s being awfully tight-lipped about it </joke>, but I have my own answer! I have so Read more…
I’m choosing to write this rather personal post on this public blog because so much of the work I do in the world is fed both directly and indirectly by the work I do internally. This year has brought a steady stream of learning opportunities, and while they did not Read more…
In this same workshop we also revisited the topic of brain development. We reviewed the difference between the prefrontal cortex or “White House of the brain,” which has the ability to plan for the future, and the amygdala or “reptile brain” that reacts instinctively in fight/flight/freeze fashion. This helped to introduce Read more…