12-12-12 and Moving into the Consciousness of Gratitude and Giving

mayan calendar

My flight for Newark, NJ, took off almost an hour and 45 minutes late. Or maybe it was on time. The exact moment of flight was 12:12 p.m. EST on 12/12/12. The world did not end. In fact, in that moment I felt everything was beginning anew. And a huge wave of gratitude swept over [...]

Are You Ready to Give the Creative Fruit of Your Tree?

big redwood

I took some time today to go out and look at and appreciate a few trees in my yard. I have a lot of trees because I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. Some of them are very old and tower over our house. Others are small and struggling to stay alive [...]

What’s the Real Purpose Behind What You Do?

seagull sunset

I spend so much of my time doing things to try and get noticed. Promote, promote, promote. With my new book coming out soon, I feel the pressure to make myself seen and heard all the more intensely. Yet, truth be told, most days I feel quite alone. I make the effort to reach out [...]

4-Steps for Manifesting Your Dreams this Year

I do a lot of things to help make my dreams come true in the physical world. I take a lot of action steps. I do the things I should do. I do the things I’m inspired to do. I seek answers and solutions and I work at achieving my goals many hours a day. [...]

When and How do You Experience Joy?

When recently have you experienced pure joy?  I had to ask myself this very question as I watched a recent episode of Oprah Winfrey’s new Lifeclass. Leave it to Oprah to get me thinking. In this Lifeclass she showed several episodes of the Oprah Show when people experienced “joy rising,” including one I wrote about [...]

Hillel’s 3 Lessons on How to Live Life

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” ~Rabbi Hillel I went to sleep last night thinking about a friend, not much older than myself, who is facing the last days of his life. I [...]

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers (Part 2)

As I wrote in yesterday’s post, we must give as well as receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. We also become “like God,” since God is the Giver and we are the receivers. We, therefore, move closer to God, reducing the separation we tend to feel [...]

God is the Giver, We are the Receivers (Part 1)

One of the major premises in my work, both my writing and teaching, revolves around the need to give as well as to receive. The two are integrally connected. Indeed, when we give, we open ourselves to receiving. Yet, we don’t want to give in order to receive. When we give, we make room to [...]

An Exercise to Help Give Soulful Gifts

During the season of gift giving, it’s easy to get caught up in the commercialism of the holidays. However, you can make the season meaning-full and spirit-full by giving gifts that come from your heart as well as from your soul. Most people find it easy to give heart-centered gifts. By simply thinking about the [...]

Focus on Hope, Faith, Giving, and Miracles

The winter holiday season offers us a wonderful time to focus on hope, faith and miracles. Chanukah revolves around the idea of miracles—a small band of Jews fought against a large army while trying to preserve their religious freedom and won. They had hope and faith and a miracle occurred. Plus, during the rededication of [...]