Here is what it is not:  Bigger is not the lumbering, bloated, behemoth collection of firms we see around us in the world of mergers without meaning. It is not about a company that is so huge it practically suffocates with committees and unconnected strategies, with too many people who never see each other, don’t know each other, and feel adrift at the core.  

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For 20 years, I’ve gone away on a personal retreat to The Center for Spiritual Renewal in Montecito. The four-hour drive created a vacuum in which I could eventually still my busy mind. The last hour brought sweeping vistas of the Ventura coastline, following by densely wooded streets until I stopped at the base of a mountain and the front door of a magnificent home built in the 1930s. By habit, my first meal would be in a small Italian restaurant and then home to the great house with Italian tiles, intricate teak ceilings, big beds, and a kitchen accessible 24-7. There I would write, meditate, and hike to the ridgeline some four miles above the town.

You can read the rest of the post at LinkedIn.

 

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What is blossoming for you right now? A thought to ponder. Remember, resilience is cultivated. Like any plant, it takes time to grow and—sometimes- must be transplanted into a new “situation” to begin again.

Just like any plant, you must till the soil, seed, feed, and weed. Where are you in the cultivating process? Where is your soil hard-packed, root-bound—not letting any new idea or behavior surface? What seeds would you like to plant? How will you feed that seed? And, altho always a pain to do— there are times we must weed out emotions such as anger and fear. Forgiveness is a great fertilizer. Who deserves your forgiveness? Better still, even i they don’t “deserve it”, perhaps you do!  

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Comfort zones are like warm milk, a cozy blanket, and a lullaby. When life appears hard, scary, or challenging, such zones offer safety and familiarity.  But comfort zones also can hold us back from moving into the next stage of life, of learning, of relationships.  

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Feeling compassion may go a long way to improving well-being, reducing stress and achieving better academic results, according to a study recently released by University of Redlands researchers. With over a decade of research, the study was released by Religious Studies Professor Fran Grace, Psychology Professor Celine Ko and Biology Professor Lisa Olson. 

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Mayshad Magazine is an advocacy platform for empowerment which mainly focuses on empowering women, raising awareness and exploring a contemporary lifestyle.  Their tagline is "Be Who You Want To Be" and their content is both educating and uplifting.  I was delighted when I was approached for an interview and I'm excited to share it with you.

The questions I was asked included “As a motivational speaker, how do you keep yourself daily motivated to transmit your positivity to other individuals? Where does your passion come from?”, “In what ways does the relationship between a speaker and an audience sustain you, and in what ways does it not?”, “If you had to choose one empowering speech you could share with our Mayshad readers right now, what would it be?” and more. You can read the entire interview at https://bit.ly/2UHmHKW.

 

 

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Cajas National Park is a high-altitude area west of Cuenca, Ecuador. It’s known for trails through evergreen cloud forests and hundreds of lakes. It’s also home to a rich variety of wildlife including Andean condors, giant hummingbirds and raccoon-like coatis—none of which we saw in our last hike before returning to California. 

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Ten years ago, my husband and I joined Dr. Jeff Salz, a cultural anthropologist, to explore the northwest quadrant of the Indian Himalayas.Our venerable guide and instructor was Ankit Sood.Ankit, founder of Sunshine Himalaya Expeditions, is a man whose business is to bring environmental and cultural awareness of the people and the ecology of that region.It was eye-opening, invigorating, and full of serendipity—including finding the Dalai Lama in a remote monastery.  

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Dateline: Octovalo, Ecuador  

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Years ago, cultural anthropologist, Dr. Jeff Salz, led us through an amazing adventure as we hiked the northwest quadrant of the Indian Himalayas. From traveling the highest “navigable” road in the world (you’ve got to be kidding), to encountering the Dalai Lama in the remote monastery of Naiko, to making it across three white water rivers on foot, to discovering an India that few see, we loved it all. Hence, we never hesitated when Jeff proposed a new adventure/inventure: “Come experience the cultures of Ecuador. 

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