Let’s start with the sexxxy stuff…

SACRED SEXUALITY

David Deida. It takes some cosmic class to weave concepts of God and fucking and transcendence and fear together in one contemporary breath without shock affect. David Deida’s got it. Deida’s free audios and his vintage videos are a great place to begin (put your earphones on if you’re listening to this in your cubicle or with kids around), as is one of his earlier books, Intimate Communion.

I Heart My Vagina: Vaginoplasty and the Spiritual Circumcision of Women, by Chela Davison is one of the most deeply thoughtful pieces on beauty I’ve ever read:

“I write this as and for the women to pluck and preen and poke and slice and ache and choke and starve and inject. I write this as and for the women who spend more time trying to improve their bodies than their minds and who feel it’s more important to have a great rack than an open heart, or flawless skin over deep wisdom.”

Chela Davison is my Integral Life Coach, and I get her transcendence on a regular basis (and maybe you should as well), and damn, she can write.

SACRED WORDS

The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have. Mark Nepo is our generation’s Rumi. What a blessing that his beautiful book of deep thinking was given to Oprah as a gift…and the rest is history. I bought ten copies for friends.

SACRED LEARNING
I’m plugging two of my favourite people-trainers and soul midwives here:

My personal book proposal whisperer, Linda Sivertsen is offering a book proposal retreat this month in Carmel, and there are a few spots left. She helped me craft the proposal for the print edition of The Fire Starter Sessions that landed me a quarter million dollar deal with Random House. Uh huh. And she’s a radiant woman. Check out Winning Book Proposals with Linda Sivertsen here.

My speaking coach, Gail Larsen is offering her Transformational Speaking workshop in Vancouver this May. I’ve done two workshops with Gail and the work was soul-affirming and game-changing for me. This will affect your creativity, your writing, all presentations — how you show up in the world. I suspect this workshop will fill quickly, so if you’re sparked, click here to get on it asap. (And if you’re inclined, check out Gail’s 5 day intensive that she offers in Santa Fe – ahhh-mazing stuff, I just took it in January, still glowing.)

SACRED TUNES
Adele’s new album, entitled 21, just dropped this week and it sumptuous. One and Only is a precious love call.

I’m also currently obsessed with Amos Lee’s latest CD: Mission Bell. “My heart is a flower, that blooms every hour and I believe in the power of love…” Amos finds the sweet spot in the blues.

SACRED JEWELERY

I was given some Mala Beads from Tiny Devotions and I’ve decided they’re going to be my new favourite present for sisters and holistic misters. They’re seeped with intention, Canadian- and women-made, and you can feel the love vibing off them. Om shanti.

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SACRED ANNOUNCEMENT Y’ALL!

THIS THURSDAY the one and only Marie Forleo and I are launching registration for our May 12 event in NYC. It’s going to be all kinds of elegant, practical, and hot. Soon!

relating

Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion
Campbell’s theories on romantic love (it is potentially “superior” to familial love because it is intentionally chosen,) and the ego (it will get necessarily crucified on the way to true communion and intimacy,) bolster my faith and courage.

Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Required reading for Goddesses of all ages.

Initiation, by Elisabeth Haich
An autobiography that connects the European life of beloved yoga teacher Elisabeth Haich and her lucid memories of initiation in mystical teachings of the priesthood in ancient Egypt. A wild ride.

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country’s Foremost Relationship Expert, by John Gottman
Based on Gottman’s “Love Lab” research, this book analyzes the break downs in communication that kill love. Read it before you fall in love.

Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber, by Ken Wilber
A love story.

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All of my most-recommended books on consciousness, business, and lifestyle can be found in my fancy Amazon store.

creating & entrepreneuring

Beauty: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity, and Hope, by John O’Donohue
“The awakening of individuality is a continual unfolding of our presence. Individuality is not a thing or a position, not the act to a fixed or stolid identity. Individuality is the creative voyage of aloneness in which the fits and limitations of real presence merge.” I adore this man, a rogue priest turned poet.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins
There are about four game-changing practices that I took away from Good to Great. I write about my favourite of them here: my dominatrix of decisions rides a hedgehog

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Tim Ferris
I’m not down with the potential detached autotron-ness of 4HWW, howevah, Ferris’ reasoning and tactics for freedom-driven living inspired me to grow my lil’ empire in some more effective ways.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Never did I take my good fortune and earned success for granted. And thanks to Ehrenreich’s great journalism, I never will.

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick), by Seth Godin
“Smart people quit sooner.”

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, by Margaret Wheatley
“In this new world, you and I make it up as we go along, not because we lack expertise or planning skills, but because that is the nature of reality. Reality changes shape and meaning because of our activity. And it is constantly new. We are required to be there, as active participants. It can’t happen without us and nobody can do it for us.”

Let Your Life Speak: Listening To The Voice of Vocation, by Parker Palmer
Parker, a legendary educator, shares his journey of deep depression toward the unfolding of his truer calling. “I lead by word and deed simply because I am here doing what I do. If you are also here, doing what you do, then you also exercise leadership of some sort.”

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott
The Shitty First Draft… The white cards… Page by page and bird by bird. Warm touchstones for anyone who writes.

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, by Edward Tufte
Designers and scientists and engineers and the aesthetically-obsessed alike should be worshiping at the altar of Tufte.

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NEW: one of my favourite recent interviews, with activist and yogini, Marianne Elliot

This is part 1 in a 3 part series.
Upcoming this week: books for creating + entrepreneuring, and books for relating.

living

Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti, by Jaluddin Krishnamurti
“Discipline is a tool that numbs the mind.” When I read this, I felt like there was a ray of light cracking through my living room. This singular thought changed the way I approached my entire life.

Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, by A.H. Almaas
“We want to learn how we can be here in as real a way as possible: How can I be completely here and completely myself, or as completely as possible? How can my atoms, which are scattered, vibrating, and oscillating in some kind of frenzy, slow down, collect, and settle here as what I am?”

Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living, by Pema Chodron
“Whether it’s connecting with the genuine heart of sadness and the messy are of our lives, or connecting with vision and expansion and openness, what’s real is all included in in well-being; it’s all included in joy. Joy is not about pleasure as opposed to pain or cheerfulness as opposed to sadness. Joy includes everything.” I given away ta least twenty copies of this book.

The Wisdom of No Escape And The Path of Loving-Kindness, by Pema Chodron
“Our life’s work is to use what we’ve been given to wake up.”

The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling, by James Hillman
“To change how we see things takes falling in love. Then the same becomes altogether different. Like love, a shift of sight can be redemptive–not in the religious sense of saving the soul from heaven, but in a more pragmatic sense. As at a redemption center, you get something back for what you had misperceived as merely worthless. The noisome symptoms of every day can be revalued and their usefulness reclaimed.”

A Brief History of Everything, by Ken Wilber. I after I read the theory of Holons, I was so aroused that I was determined to marry Ken.

“A holon is a system (or phenomenon) which is an evolving self-organizing dissipative structure, composed of other holons, whose structures exist at a balance point between chaos and order. It is maintained by the throughput of matter-energy and information-entropy connected to other holons and is simultaneously a whole in and itself at the same time being nested within another holon and so is a part of something much larger than itself. … On a non-physical level, words, ideas, sounds, emotions—everything that can be identified—is simultaneously part of something, and can be viewed as having parts of its own.”

That’s a fancy way of saying we are each part of the whole.

Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, by Geneen Roth
“Freedom from obsession is not about something you do; it’s about knowing who you are. It’s about recognizing what sustains you and what exhausts you.” BTW, you don’t need to be a woman, or have food issues, or believe in God to be illuminated by this book.

Soul Without Shame: A Guide To Liberating Yourself From The Judge Within, by Byron Brown
“What is needed is to stop the self-attacks and simply be with the emptiness, allowing it to become the spaciousness of the soul’s true nature and the openness in which all needed essential qualities can arise.” Liberating yourself from the inner critic, based on A.H. Almaas’ Diamond Approach.

Ask and It Is Given: Learning To Manifest Your Desires, by Abraham-Hicks
The Emotional Guidance Scale is my favourite kind of new agey brilliance. Cosmic logic.

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All of my most-recommended books on consciousness, business, and lifestyle can be found in my fancy Amazon store.

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VANCOUVER!

Dr. Christiane Northrup will be in Vancouver this November 3rd at The Queen Elizabeth. “Flourishing in the Female Body” I’ll be there, listening raptly.
I’ve been a big fan of Christiane’s since her now-classic Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (and I have an article that appears in the new edition!) But she really won me over when I heard her on Oprah talking about how women need to get to know their own clitorises more. Uh huh.

BUY your Dr. Christiane Northrup Tickets here.
Perks…When you purchase tix through Ticket Master save 10% by entering this discount code: Wisdom

The world needs more hand-written love and gratitude. E-cards suck and everyone knows it. Order plenty for yourself, and as sets to gift-wrap and give. Birthdays, hostess gifts, thank-you prezzies, love treats. Spread the bold love.

The Unconventional Guide to the Social Web, by Chris Guillebeau + Gwen Bell
When you begin to use an active social media strategy to bring your message to people who care, everything changes. Traffic goes up. Sales go up. Whatever-you’re-doing goes up. And that’s what this project is all about. You, your message, and the rest of the world. From “basic” to rock star”packages, $58 to $129.

The rockstar package includes an audio interview with Gwen Bell + me, waxing philosophical about authentic branding and social media.

Click here to view more details

Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself: Creating Personal Freedom through a Very Small Business

Great for social media newbies, a 60-page report and multiple audio sessions to help you escape the tyranny of a conventional working life. There is a $58 “Just Getting Started” version and a $78 upgraded “Escape Artist” edition.

Click here for content details, extras, a video intro from Chris, and to purchase.

Unconventional Guide to Art and Money, written with Zoë Westhof

Why do so many artists fail in their quest to support themselves through their work? The answer has everything to do with learning to think differently about new media. Features case studies of eight successful artists from the U.S., Canada, Wales, and Australia. There is a $38 “Starving Artist” version, or a $58 upgraded “Picasso” edition.

Click here for content details, extras, a video intro from Chris, and to purchase.

Frequent Master Flyer: How to earn up to 200,000 frequent flyer miles a year and travel for free
Rad’ value: a detailed report, audio session, an extra PDF on Surviving Travel in North America, detailed Q&A, + complimentary updates for at least six months. Zoom.

Click here to view more details

“Style Statement…redefines the concept of style [and] argues that style is at the intersection of spirit and expression, that place between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming.”
- Body + Soul Magazine, by Terri Trespicio

I’ve collected my favourite mind-sharpening and heart-expanding books and films into a private Amazon store. From philosophy and inspired poetry, to business and creativity classics. Browse and be enlightened.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY AMAZON STORE OF LOVED BOOKS + FILMS.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DEDICATED STYLE STATEMENT PAGE.

inspiration + spirituality

• coaching + project guidance: Dyana Valentine is a brilliant force of nature who has kicked my creative butt into shape. She’s gifted.

• life coaching: Lianne Raymond is a clear-thinking, strong-hearted, Martha Beck-certified coach. Only works with women.

• astrology: Nancy ‘Scooter’ McMoneagle, is part scientist, part seer. First class sage. Blows me away every time.

• astrology: Heidi Rose Robbins, is a divinely strong coach-meets-astrologer.

• spiritual adviser: Navjit Kandola‘s work defies simple description but if you want to refine your consciousness and bust up some old psyche patterning, Navjit’s sessions are powerful stuff.

• voice coach: Awilda Verdejo will help you get your true, strong speaking (or singing) voice flowing. She works over the phone and is the real Diva (as in, sang with Pavarotti.)

for more links and peeps:

LINKS

• TED – idea manna!
• Abraham Hicks – my favourite daily woo woo
• Art of Nonconformity … Chris Guillebeau’s first class call to action
• Illuminated Mind … Jonathan Mead’s no shit brand of self liberation
• Integral Naked - Ken Wilber’s hot stuff
• Enlighten Next – magazine for evolutionaries
• Rebecca Walker – high-minded women unite
• The Happiness Project – happy how-to’s
• Iconoclasts, Sundance channel - inspirational duets

business + wealth

• writing, branding, marketing: Colleen Wainwright, aka the Communicatrix, is a very smart cookie, insightful and straight up, who knows how to get to the heart of someone’s best stuff and articulate it. She also knows how to ROCK social media.

• writing, branding, marketing: Emma Gibson. Creative. Whip-smart. Killer funny. And quick on the draw and delivery. Does higher level branding work and web design as well.

• writing: Pema Teeter. High-minded. Warm hearted. Master creative writer. Also does manuscript and play reviewing.

• writing: Kelly Diels. So smarty smart smart, she’s made an art of searing copy writing.

• site design: two thirty / Paul Jarvis Master of simplicity and functionality. I’ve built a number of sites with him – each one was a great experience. He’s no shit straight shooter and Word Press master.

• site design: S. Joy Studios / Sarah Bray Great service. Great sense of humor. She’s about to unveil a cool template program that I know will have many a client salivating.

• site design: Raised Eyebrow /Lauren Bacon & Emira Mears. Legendary. Authors of The Boss of You. Focus on progressive business and non-profs. And they have a truly useful blog to boot.

• site design: Reese Spykerman. Reese has designed some uber popular sites and their companion guides and e-books. I haven’t worked with her directly yet but not only does her work speak for itself, her clients rave about her. RAVE.

• book proposal consulting: Linda Siversten has a great guideline document on how to create book proposals – hit’s all the essentials {scroll to the bottom of her page to get the PDF.} She’s been invaluable in terms of her one-on-one work with me on my own books.

LINKS

• Seth Godin … Seth. Integrous, marketing maven.
• mediabistro - community for media pros
• springwise – ideas galore

creativity + art + design

LINKS

• Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
• Daily Poetics - virtual curations of stunning beauty
• Unclutterer – smart ‘n tidy
• Write to Done – great working writer’s resource
• Fashion-ation – fashion as high art
• Charlie Rose – smarty pants
• Utne Reader – truly progressive