Good Clean Reads

“In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else.” ~Alison Rose Levy, “An Ancient Cure for Modern Life”

The Buddhists celebrate the great fortune of being born into a human body. It is a divine experience actually to have five senses awake in world that has a magically huge range of sights, smells, tastes,...

“For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” -Lily Tomlin

I know that I am headed in the right corporate direction when our sales manager leaves on Friday with a smile and urges me to “be more and do less.” What a nice idea. Learning to slow down, do one thing at a time, and listen to my body get quiet, these are the lessons that I want to master.

The pain in the neck that I have been nursing is a...

“When you suffer an attack of nerves you’re being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?” -Russel Hoban

Meditation is to your nervous system as dark green vegetables is to your digestive system. I am lucky that a lot of people I know and work with in exercise and meditation classes speak with great reverence about our nervous system. Usually before I say...

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”  -Abraham Lincoln

Knowing the history of Abraham Lincoln’s career makes the above comment meaningful: Lincoln failed in business at age 31. Defeated for the legislature at 32. Again failed in business at 34. Sweetheart died at 35. Had a nervous breakdownat 36. Defeated in election at 38. Defeated for...

“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.”   — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today, the winds shifted and opportunities for new beginnings were everywhere. After many days of trying and failing to get a job posting public, it finally went live and the response was resounding....

“He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”  -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

There are some 25 million people in transit as I write this; on their way home to someone. It is one of the busiest travel days of the year: millions of people spending millions of dollars to be close to others that they love, that have shaped their lives, that taught them something about...

“We work on ourselves, in order to help others, but we also help others, in order to work on ourselves.”  -Pema Chodron

One of my favorite books of all time is Pema Chodron’s work “When things fall apart- Heart advice for difficult times.” It is the first place I go when things come apart. I am soothed to remember that life is a just a series of circles that build upon each other. The spiral in...

“I think all great innovations are built on rejections.” -Louis Ferdinand-Celine

I was so excited to have a preliminary interview on the Oprah radio network for my trip to Chicago. This chance to share my new book in a place where so many people could learn about it seemed too good to be true. It turned out that it was too good to be true. They rejected me- and I remembered again just how much...

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

Living in the present moment is a relief. The world makes sense just as it is, there is no trying to fashion it to fit your ideas of what it should look like or how things will turn out. There is...