Research is confirming what mystics and contemplatives have known forever: presence isn’t just a spiritual nicety. It’s fundamental to happiness, to health, to feeling truly alive.
And curiosity — that wide-open, wondering attention we had as children before it was quietly educated out of us — turns out to be one of the things that actually keeps us alive, in every sense of the word.
The Fallen Branch Bridge All trees have stories. They stand as perfect symbols of life’s continuous cycle—from seed to sapling to towering presence, breathing life into our planet and then returning to earth to nurture new beginnings. But this particular maple’s story taught me something profound about transformation and the power of small steps. The [...]
In the 1970s, my family and I lived on Park Place in Venice Beach, California, in an old two-story house that had been converted into four apartments. When we first moved in, I was pregnant with my second child, and we rented one of the small downstairs apartments. But it was a little bigger than [...]
I know habits and preconceived perceptions can make us blind to the obvious. However, I thought that I usually have a good grip on paying attention. I enjoy exploring ways to be more effective and finding easier ways to do things that need to be done. So it both surprised and dismayed me that I [...]
Have you spoken to a tree lately? If not, perhaps take a moment and have a chat with one. It doesn’t matter the size or shape. Just find a tree and have a talk. If you hear nothing. Imagine that you do. It opens the door to your inner ear and it will have spoken [...]
One morning, while writing my next book, I looked up and saw a man jogging down our road. Years of teaching dance kicked in, and I said to him—in my thoughts only—”Lead with your pelvis, not your head.” Laughing at myself for still having that habit of correcting movement, I thought back to when I [...]
When I was in elementary school, I saw the woman who would one day become my dance teacher perform the Red Slippers. At that moment, I fell in love and knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a dancer. But one of my friends told me she taught ballet – she didn’t [...]
After I pulled out the peas I had diligently planted and tended because their season was over, a lone sunflower remained. I smiled at it, wondering how it got there. Perhaps a bird or a squirrel or even the wind left a single seed to grow sheltered and nourished by the peas. It smiled back [...]
Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. Your imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. —Albert Einstein Now that you have the basic tools, are you ready to get started? Each week has a different focus, but the imagination exercises each day will remain mostly the same. [...]
The answer is yes; you’re probably doing everything backwards. Which makes life much harder than it needs to be. It’s time to stop working against ourselves. The way to do that is to be flexible before strong. I mean this both literally and figuratively. I’m serious. Being a business and life coach for almost thirty [...]
Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. Imagination should be used, not to escape reality, but to create it. —Colin Wilson Shall we begin? Let’s create a new reality together. But first, let’s talk about a few of the essential tools that you will be using in this course. There are [...]
Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. The man who has no imagination has no wings. —Muhammad Ali Here is the question you might, and probably should be, asking yourself. Why bother with learning how to be an Imagination Master? What practical use could being a master of imagination be in [...]
Once upon a time, a coach I was working with told me I could be another Tony Robbins. I said, no. I had no desire to be the person who I would have to become to do that. He didn’t understand, and not long after that told me he couldn’t work with me anymore. Well, [...]
While walking one morning, I had a magical experience. As I turned the corner onto the next street, the world went silent. Not nature. The world. I made no sound. My feet were silent. My breath was silent. It was if the person I call me wasn’t there. I was a camera moving through the [...]
A Metaphysical, visionary, fantasy, adventure: “I saw that woman again today,” Wren said. She didn’t need to tell Roar and Ruth who she meant. They had been taking turns watching her. The newcomer had arrived in Woald a week before. No one knew where she had come from, but they suspected that it was not [...]
A Metaphysical, visionary, fantasy, adventure: At the first sign of dawn, the problem Meg experienced at night slipped away, and she felt safe enough to leave the building in search of food and information. The Market was Meg’s first stop each morning. As soon as the faintest beam of light streaked through the sky from [...]
Discouragement is something everyone faces from time to time. In my last post, I talked about the need to shift, or pivot, or change our minds. But something that often gets in the way of doing that is the feeling of discouragement. So, as promised, here are some ways that have helped me, and my [...]
Mother’s Day is a day every one of us can celebrate, because everyone has had a mother. But it could be so much more than flowers, brunch, and cards.
Sometimes I have no idea what to do with myself. Usually it is because there is so much to do. When it gets to be too much, I don’t want to do anything. Or I have so much on my mind, I don’t know what is the most important, so I don’t feel like thinking [...]
I didn’t always have bird restaurants at my house. In fact, living in the city, spending twelve hours a day in my thirty sixth-floor office, I rarely saw them. Until one day, a bird ate my peanut and then something shifted, and I became a bird watcher. I had gone away for a week by [...]
Have you ever stood in an empty football stadium? It is an awe-inspiring experience to stand in that huge open space. A space just waiting to be filled, a space with a complete understanding of its purpose, a space perfectly designed to fulfill that purpose. I had this experience during my high school reunion when [...]
If you are thinking that going to Squirrel School might be a wise life-move, it is a sure sign that you are a part of community that knows a good thing when you see it. Perhaps you are debating whether going to Squirrel School is a worthwhile endeavor. I don’t blame you; after all, some [...]
BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
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