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Mirrors help small spaces breathe.  Often used in restaurants and hotels, they help create the illusion that a room is larger than it really is.  It’s the oldest trick in the decorating book. Especially if for those who live and work in tight quarters. Visual manipulation is the easiest way to fool the human eye. From a hospitality and real estate standpoint, one or two large mirrors can go a…

Many of us have picked a career path where not knowing is the norm.  Every day we sit down to work, there is this countervailing force of grayish uncertainty that is constantly working against us. There is no way to know how or where or when the next customer, the next idea, the next investor or the next project is going to materialize. If at all.  But we show up anyway….

Brown writes in his inventive book about the rise of artificial intelligence that any man can stay sober in a desert, but only the loyal can sit in an oasis and refuse to part their lips.  This is the ultimate test of our level of commitment.  Can we live our cherished life purpose choices, even in the face of crushing temptation to do otherwise? Can we remain true to ourselves, even…

Joyce notoriously wrote that any object, intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods.  His theory was, holiness is location agnostic.  Indeed, it’s a beautiful and accessible scaffolding for our spiritual lives. It means our souls belong everywhere. And that wherever we go, divine love will find us.  And all the people shall say, amen.  But as long as we’re talking about…

Maisel writes in his book about humane helping that sometimes, what people need is a certain kind of silence and special holding of the moment.  The practice is that our heart is harmlessly open and receptive to whatever emerges emotionally and energetically from others.  This approach is useful in a therapeutic setting, but also applies to any interaction in which someone needs our help. The anxious friend, the baffled customer, the…

Nothing is so contagious as energy.  Each of us can start a mini epidemic everywhere we go. It all depends on what kind of vibes we choose to bring to the world.  The reason most people seem friendlier to me all the time is because they actually are. For the past twenty years, my playful and relaxed attitude, accentuated and personified through my nametag, rubs off on people. It…

All insight is already growing inside of us.  It is simply waiting for someone else to give it clarification and validation and permission; and waiting for us to convert it into motivational energy.  But when we have these experiences that so beautifully disrupt our habitual thought patterns, how we actually process those insights is what separates the saints from the aints.  Have you ever met the person who returned…

Have you ever had one of those sweaty, scary, claustrophobic moments when you stared into the void and become paralyzed by the view?  Has the world just pulled the rug out from under you, shattered your sense of reality and informed you that life was actually much more complex, mysterious, larger and beyond your understanding than you thought?  Congratulations. You have experienced what psychologists and philosophers call an existential…

When we are young, the problem is not only that we want everything, but that we assume it’s ours. For the asking, for the taking, and yes, for free.  This attitude locks us into the cycle of hurt. Our expectation leads to controlling behavior, which causes disappointment, which builds resentment, which restarts the process all over again.  And it persists until we are sharply awakened to a simple but scary…

It’s not hard to be right.  All we have to do is never ever back down, even when we are in the wrong, cling to our vain hopes in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, and then, when anyone even remotely challenges our position, double down and scare them away with our declarative verve.  Checkmate.  The problem with this approach is, you might be right, but then you will…