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Breath is the simplest vehicle of transcendence.  It literally ends the trance, as the word indicates, because conscious breathing stops our racing mind and alerts our body to the fact that we want to be calmer.  Especially when we practice inhaling and exhaling through our nose. This process elongates and slows down our respiration. It helps us take fuller, deeper breaths that oxygenate our lungs to their full capacity. …

Boundaries are, at their very core, an elevated expression of love.  To self and other. When we express obedience to our letter of inner law, putting every choice its proper place in the economy of our version of a fulfilling life, then we are living from heart center.  But when we don’t set boundaries, we are only enabling people. Ourselves included.  We are stepping away from our highest good…

Entrepreneurs, those of us who undertake the risky pursuit of opportunity beyond our controlled resources, exist on something known as the experimentation execution continuum.  We achieve our success by seamlessly moving from one project to another, creating of a unique portfolio of trials, errors, iterations and successes, ideally with little or no loss of enthusiasm along the way.  This continuum can be profoundly scary and lonely and disorienting. It…

Eskelinen is an artist who builds kinetic and mechanical sculptures.  He describes his work as experimental, wooden, moving, contemporary art.  One of his most notable pieces is a wonderfully complicated hugging machine. It literally squeezes you right back when it is embraced. Simply stand on a platform, grasp the handles, and lean into the hug. The mechanism causes a pair of wooden articulated arms to return the favor.  And the best part…

Campbell claimed the hero is simply the one who comes to know. The individual who undergoes a series of transfigurations, through which the only mystery he seeks to understand is himself.  To gain a store of proper perspective, however, we must first gain a sense of personal trajectory. We must treat our life like the journey it is. Taking a little dramatic license, owning our role as the hero of…

We assume that having more time will set our creativity free.  That once we are gifted with an infinite clock, then we will finally be able to tackle the project we have been putting off for so long.  But what if our need for more time was just another convenient excuse we used to take ourselves off the hook from executing?  Look around, nobody has enough time to do…

How can we create abundance where there appears to be scarcity?  By telling ourselves a story. By believing that story. And by rearranging the arc of that story so we are nearly always safely on the best possible side.  Here are a few from my greatest hits catalogue.  Temporal abundance is the story that we are the source of time, that we can make as much of it as…

The time to bet more heavily on ourselves is when we have the benefit of house money.  When we are in the black and feeling good and can afford more risk. This is precisely the time to try new things and maybe even fail in good cause. We are in position of strength, and we have to take advantage of it while we can.  Thaler conducted the pioneering study on gambling…

How do people transform even the smallest events or situations into breakthroughs in thinking and action?  By doing everything and nothing at the same time.  In the spirit of doing everything, we engineer a continuous flow of breakthroughs by allowing for the creation of a portfolio of experiments. We just keep trying stuff. Every damn day. Exponentially increasing our activity level, trusting that discovery will be the consequence of…

Racehorses wear blinders.  Their trainers believe these small squares of firm leather and plastic attached to the bridle on the horse’s head channel their vision. Blinders cut down the scope of their sight, they say, keeping horses focused on what is in front of them.  That way, they’re not distracted or spooked by the crowds, bushes, poles, competing horses or jockeys around them.  Eyes on the prize, my little…