Mindfulness

Chip: We’re going off-script today with a Q&A with one of the most fascinating documentary filmmakers in the world. Yes, he’s written books but the visual feast of his films is what we’re going to discuss today.

Krista Tippett’s podcast “On Being” is one of my top three listening pleasures when I shuffle down our three-mile beach here in El Pescadero with my AirPods on and Jamie frolicking in the waves beside me.

By now most of us have heard the term mindfulness and how it has been proven to help reduce stress, anxiety, depression and chronic pain. But what is “mindfulness” and how can we utilize it in our daily lives and still be productive in our fast paced culture?

In a recent post, I mentioned that I now schedule time in my calendar to “spy on the divine.” This isn’t easy to do while in quarantine, but one day I chose to just study an indoor plant for fifteen minutes. I used four of my five senses (didn’t taste it) to build a relationship with this plant whose name I didn’t even know.

Smart people know how to use their brains. Wise people also know how to use their brains, but they aren’t trapped between their ears. Wise people know how to integrate their brain and body with their gut, heart, and soul. Fortunately, the last three escape solitary confinement starting in midlife.

“How can I be bored when I’m so busy?” A friend of mine asked this provocative question last week. Here we are experiencing a different kind of GDP (Great-Delicious-Pause), and he was lamenting how full his calendar is and how he’s becoming a “Zoombie,” with all the never-ending video calls.

Welcome to Act 2 of 2020 as we’re now one-third of the way through the year. Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey suggests that the process of transformation has three phases which mirror the rites of passage in indigenous societies: departure from the past, the dramatic initiation phase, and the return to society but in a new role.

This is the fifth and last video in my Monday series of leadership lessons in a downturn. It may turn you upside down in terms of how you look at your life and the world. Hopefully, you’ll get a little chuckle from the short video including the surprise flying guest at the end.

“I don’t know.” Just uttering those words brings back a sense of shame from childhood. Feeling dumb. As a Boy Scout, I was taught to “Be Prepared.” Not knowing suggests you weren’t properly prepared.

let me be your animal concealed in moonlight’s silver beams nude and chilled in errant spring