Be. Play. Love.

Take criticism, they say…it will be good for you, they say. Our culture has led us to believe that criticism is the price we pay for genius and that it's the only way to learn what we need in order to be great.   There's one problem though: no one learns and improves when they're in fight mode. We can't access flow or genius when we're frozen up - it's impossible to get better when we're getting b...

Connection is the ultimate antidote to loneliness and addiction, but in our world, it eludes so many. The rift between our inner landscapes and how we describe them to each other makes it hard for us to tune into one another, and so we're stuck in small talk, restrictive words, and nothing that truly nourishes.   We want to get our true feelings across, but the words we use regularly don't describ...

When it comes to wealth, it seems like there are two camps our society tends to put people in: those who make an impact doing what they love, but don't make a lot of money, or, those who make a lot of money, but don't make an impact and hate what they do.   It's easy to get caught up in the paradigm that if you're trying to earn money and work in your zone of genius, you're asking for too much, th...

Photography can be used in many ways, but in its most magical form, it can formulate a different lens through which we can see ourselves. This lens can access our realness and beautifully reflect it back to us.   When we look in a mirror, we might start to criticize ourselves, but when we look at a photo that truly reflects our essence, we can't help but celebrate ourselves and see all the amazing...

In the journey towards our most expansive, genius self, one thing likes to trip us up - our upper limit. You'll see it in every culture, no one goes unscathed. If you've ever noticed how your big mess ups happen after something good happens - you might have an upper limit problem.   Anytime we grow, a loud alarm goes off in our subconscious. Our job is to integrate our "more-ness" so we can truly...

When the world is shaking and there seems to be suffering everywhere we look, it's really easy to sink, to think "what's the use" and shut ourselves off from joy and beauty.   Experiencing our aliveness is the act of balancing the awful with the awesome, and learning to let different feelings flow through us.   Our emotions come from one faucet, we can't just turn off one without turning off all o...

Ever noticed how our bodies are these incredible, self-sufficient chemists? Adrenaline, our homemade super drug, rushes in when urgent demands and life's drama unfold. It's a potent surge, but it's a fleeting high that leaves us wanting more, every single time.   But here's the real kicker – there's another player in town, often overshadowed by adrenaline's allure. It's what we call actual life en...

When we're squarely in our Zone of Genius, work doesn't feel like work. It feels like play, flow, ease; we're plugged directly into Source. Unfortunately, today's world of work isn't about play. It's all process and productivity, "we're doing serious, important work here, there's no room for fun." If it feels too easy, we must not be doing anything worthwhile.   That's how we end up slipping out o...

Being a hero is celebrated and even coveted in our culture, but if we dig into it, it's actually not a positive thing.   Humans have this magnificent impulse to share and give - the art of generosity. But this incredible ability can easily run up against the need to be the hero. Heroes swoop in and save the day, but it doesn't actually come from a good place.   Sometimes when we give in this way,...

An idea - whether it's a business, a book, or a brand isn't just an object. It's a living dynamic organism that has come to us, and us alone, for a reason. This beautiful thing chose us to flow through and co-create with us, and that's a vision that needs no one's approval to bloom.   It's a completely different way of doing business, yes, but it is a more sustainable approach.   Resonance is two...

The transition from one year to the next always stirs up all sorts of questions and the obligatory subject of resolutions.   The problem is that we often go about it the wrong way. For starters, we don't bring completion to the last year, so we carry old energy forward. Then we think about creating what we want in a way that feels more like punishment.   As humans, our body wisdom can tell us a lo...

Our inner voices can be the most loving, comforting and compassionate parts of ourselves. Unfortunately for many of us, they are the most critical, prickly, and unkind speakers. It's like our worst insecurities and fears are being played on loudspeaker over and over again.   It actually goes all the way back to the womb. Sound is the first sensation we experience - that's why it's so hard to shift...

Presence…it's a word most of us employ as a noun, but that strips it of its power and purpose. Presencing may not be a word dictionaries and search engines recognize, but it is how our essence is actually expressed.   Presence in its truest sense isn't a static state - it's active, always expanding and shifting. It's how we fill our reservoir of aliveness, how we fully experience the daily dance o...

Creativity is the ability to let your beautiful internal hologram radiate out into the world, but it's not easy. We're taking the most innocent, precious part of ourselves and airing it out at the risk of opinions, judgment and rejection.    There's power in taking radical responsibility for our experiences. There's significance in flipping every "no, but" into a "yes, and" and constantly choosing...

Going from an average pickleball player to a champion should be a moment of celebration, but sometimes winning unleashes questions, doubts and stories we didn't even know were there.  "Am I a threat now that I'm doing well?" "Do people hate me now?" "Maybe I should have lost to make things easier." Competition often activates parts of ourselves that aren't nice, because it's not how we should rela...

When we look at babies, no one's thinking about how competent or productive they are. We find them lovable, valuable, and deserving of curious, nourishing attention, just as they are.    Then we get older and a switch flips. We move away from being, and we start manufacturing our value through work, being highly competent, and producing something worthwhile. We learn that if we're not doing someth...

Faster cars, faster internet, faster technology and faster results…do you ever feel like you're running on a clock going at 100X speed, or like you're on a treadmill running on the fastest setting?  That's the culture we're living in…it's more acceleration, less appreciation. More pushing than presence.    Here's the problem: when we focus on speeding up, any sense of connection and presence disap...

Magic is all around us, and we can tap into it when our intentions are truly aligned. Imagine getting the chance to hang out with giraffes (your favorite animal), but being told "no" because of a time limit… then suddenly a kind stranger shows up and offers to take you to the giraffes. These goosebumpy moments are bigger than chance - they are directly tied to the energy we radiate out to the worl...

Feelings are a treasure trove of human essence. They tell us so much about our inner landscape and how we're responding to what's going on around us.   Sadly, we've been trained not to feel our feelings so we shove them away, hoping they don't surface again.   How many times have we heard people say "you're too sensitive" and "suck it up" when someone is visibly distressed or "I'm fine" when they...

Our world is starved of people showing up as their true selves - with our awkwardness, playfulness and realness front and center. The fear of being too much, too loud and too messy drives a lot of people to shrink themselves, and walk around with an injured essence.   A powerful catalyst for realness is being in the presence of people who welcome all aspects of themselves, and live who they are ou...

One thing that sets human beings apart from other living things is our ability to make up stories. It's a gift, but when applied to our relationships, it can often be a curse.   When we have a disruption with a loved one or colleague, the stories we tell ourselves about that interaction create disconnection. In the absence of information, stories are how we fill in the blanks - unfortunately, thos...

"What do you do?" "Look what's happening with the weather." "How are the kids?"   Canned and over-rehearsed small talk is what so many of us default to conversationally, but that's where all connection and play go to die. What would happen if we allowed ourselves to drop into something deeper and just let the best nuggets emerge?   If we let it, a lot of meaning can come through the conversations...

A new season is a transition we're all aware of. Time for warmer clothes, fall colors and pumpkin spice lattes. That's not the only way change comes our way, though. There are transitions everywhere in our lives - from waking up everyday to moving from room to room.   When we go from place to place without being present, we risk leaving some of ourselves behind. We become a lot more like human pin...

When we come on this planet, we all get these bodies to inhabit. Living in these bodies comes with its own baggage and that makes it hard for us to love ourselves and experience aliveness.   Our bodies, how we sustain them, and how we dress them can be a reflection of how we see ourselves, or the distorted image of what other people see and say. We can either be, play and love within our bodies or...

Hurri-quakes, falling over, water spills on our outfits and other unexpected happenings. Why can't things just go the way we want? Dealing with the unexpected is sort of like finding your legs during an earthquake. When what you think is solid starts moving, what you trust becomes unstable.  Our patterned response is to fight, control, anticipate and react. If we learn to go with what's happening,...