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January 2, 2024

21 Days of Mindfulness & Loving Kindness

A New Year’s challenge for those seeking to experience the benefits of a regular meditation practice



Sometimes all we need is an excuse to start something new. For me, and perhaps you too, the start of a new year is the perfect occasion to get on top of the change we want to see happen in our lives. 

If meditation, or mindfulness in particular, is one of those things you’d like to pick up and become a regular practitioner of, well, this message is for you. 

Are you ready to give mindfulness a try? Then join my free 21 day challenge: 15 minutes a day, starting January 6th, 2024. 

Now if you wonder why I’ve made it a 21 day experience, here’s a story for you. 

ON FORMING NEW HABITS


A few years ago, I took a random meditation class. It was free, I didn’t even know what type of practice it was. I just went. 

And nothing transcendental happened over that half an hour of meditation. I just remember the pins and needles in my legs and that after we’d come to open our eyes, our instructor offered this thought:

‘Imagine how powerful it would be if someone were to do this everyday.’ 

And I heard my inner voice boom: 

‘CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!’

I walked out of the building without asking for further instructions. Instead, as I climbed up the hill to my hotel room (I was on holiday in Thailand), I debated internally about how long it would take me to install this practice — I mean after all, I’d accepted a challenge, but I didn’t know what it would take to make it happen. 

After all, so few of us ever hold on to our resolutions.

How could I make this stick?

I’d heard people say that three days is a streak, but that you need 21 days to install a new habit; but then I heard others say 40 days. I wasn’t particularly interested in fact-checking this to get the ‘science’ right, so my inner monologue drove me to conclude: 

‘I’ll just meditate everyday for six months. 

That should do it.’ 

And it did. The practice that turned me from non-meditator to meditator wasn’t mindfulness, or vedic meditation, or transcendental meditation, it was Loving Kindness, or Mettā, from Pali. 

Of course, over the following weeks, engaged as I was in my challenge, I started to explore a few other types of guided meditations. I got into Tara Brach’s podcast, and loved her dharma talks. With her, I got into mindfulness of the body, RAIN  (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) and compassion practices. 

I also dabbled in vedic mantra-based meditation, kundalini guided practices with an American coach, which got me in some interesting states. I peppered my weekends with these other methods, while keeping to my daily Loving Kindness practice. 

Without knowing it, I was tapping into what I later heard my teachers call ‘The Two Wings of Mindfulness.’

You see, going down the mindfulness or insights meditation route only isn’t enough. 

While these will help us engage with the present moment with more spacious awareness, help us become more responsive, rather than reactive, and open us up to a more direct, intimate relationship with our minds and bodies, these are solo, self-centred (literally) individual practices. 

And you may have noticed that we live in society. 

So the second wing, the one of compassion practices, invites us to connect to ourselves AND others. 

Known as ‘heart practices,’ these guided meditations are based on concentration and focus nonetheless and, like mindfulness, they help foster a sense of groundedness and centring. 

Loving Kindness, Compassion and Self-Compassion, far from being soft, are deeply powerful methods — the practice of which can help us to unleash the power of connection. 

Recent academic studies also offer some explanation to my own experience. You see, I wasn’t a special snowflake. Many others come out of a single Loving Kindness class and continue to meditate for up to fifteen months after a single session. 

Loving Kindness and compassion practices activate diverse parts of our brains including the prefrontal cortex, responsible for behaviour. Now the science is all well and good. I just love it because it puts into words what I experienced, and if you want to read a full list of the benefits, then head over here. 

ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE

Across the 21 days, we will explore many different forms of mindfulness and compassion meditations, so no two days will be alike. 

21 days of mindfulness and loving kindness is my way to offer you a taste of the practices that have made my life better. 

Also, it’s free!

And I won’t judge you if you miss a day. 

But I’d love for you to take on the challenge. Are you ready? 

Can you just imagine… how powerful would it be if someone were to do this everyday? 

What next? 

Sign up via the Out of the Clouds MeetUp Group.

What to expect: 

  • 15 minutes every morning, starting live at 8am CET. 
  • 1-2 minutes of introduction, 12 minutes of practice, ending with a quote or reflection before I send you off to start your day.
  • One-link click to get in (I’m not using Zoom but a new platform, called Riverside)
  • You won’t be recorded, no direct interactions on camera, but there will be a chat thread for prompts and more. 
  • All 21 practices will be recorded and made available as a paid course later on — so get in on it now for free. 

I hope you’ll join me! If you have any questions, just get in touch at hello@outoftheclouds.com.

Also, wishing you a wonderful start of the New Year. May it bring you everything you desire.

December 24, 2023

Looking for the Light

And exploring the ‘cave of the heart’



 “A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living.” – Virginia Woolf 

Dear friend, 

Perhaps you are ready, like I am, to take a few days on holiday and are looking forward to seeing off 2023 with friends and family. 

It’s impossible to ignore the vast difficulties happening all around. I stopped listening to the news a few days ago. I’m not in denial about things being hard, I consider it more like self-preservation. There is a light, for me, which is my calling to teach mindfulness and Loving Kindness. Call me crazy but at least I feel like when I do that work (though it’s evenings and weekends), I am contributing to making the world a little more calmer, more thoughtful, and kinder. 

In any case, the perspective of the year’s end generally sparks a flurry of activity for me. This year’s no different, but then again, I’m in the ‘business’ of meditation, a practice many aspiring practitioners try out in January either to soothe their aching nerves (family gatherings trigger anyone?) or get started on their New Year’s resolutions. 

I wanted to be ready with new offerings, starting with my first online meditation course, Loving Kindness 101. 

The course is available via the Insight Timer app. I designed seven days of short lessons and practices, culminating with a 30-minute guided meditation on day eight, where we pull it altogether. The goal is to offer fundamentals that set you up so you can meditate without me! 

If this doesn’t float your boat, fear not, I’ll shortly be releasing an email-based version of the eight-day course. 

If I could have my way, I’d have everyone in the world practising Loving Kindness daily, so you’ll hear from me on the topic again… #lovingkindnessdaily is the goal. 

Meanwhile, if deepening your meditation practice is something you wish to work towards, please consider joining one of the two new programs that I’ll be offering this coming January. 

21 days of Mindfulness

A free online program, I invite you to join me on Zoom daily to help you establish a regularity with your mindfulness practice, sign up via Meetup. 

The Two Wings of Mindfulness 

A series of hour-long workshops in Geneva, CH, at, #HerStreet. I will be teaching the basics of Loving Kindness alongside mindfulness in short modules, weekly on Monday evenings at 7pm for the month of January. Recordings will be made available via my website later in the Spring. Tickets are available via #HerStreet.com or through their app. If you wonder what the Two Wings of Mindfulness means, you can read my earlier post on the topic here.  

In completely unrelated news, I’m toiling away on a new website, logo, etc. It’s of course, as always, very delayed, so if you were to notice that I’m using a different logo on Eventbrite, IG or somewhere else, it’s my excitement taking the better of me. It will all make sense early in the new year. 

In the meantime, thanks so much for reading me, I really appreciate it. I hope that I’ll see you online or in person one day soon.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the year, and a glorious, joyful and happy start of 2024. 

With Mettā

 

October 19, 2023

The pitfalls and benefits of mindfulness and Loving Kindness

Knowing what to look out for to help you find the right meditation practice.



This past month I started working with a development editor on my book project that is part memoir, part meditation guide. 

Thanks to his process, I turned my attention away from the benefits, the ‘what works’ about mindfulness and Loving Kindness practices. Instead I concentrated on the ‘what could go wrong’ and ‘who it’s not for’ part of the topic, one that is so often overlooked. 

We all can get caught up, despite the best intentions, in a blind spot, focusing on what we know and forgetting the range of possible human experience beyond our own. 

Because I found it okay from the beginning to close my eyes and be with my own thoughts doesn’t mean that everyone’s like me. Quite the contrary. 

I was advised by my teachers about several possible negative outcomes to look out for in my practitioners’ feedback, including one that is commonly referred to as ‘backdraft.’ I saw firsthand strong reactions from some students who burst into tears after sending themselves Loving Kindness, who abruptly left the room since they felt so distressed at the experience of sending self-compassion inwards. 

As I was taught, ‘It is estimated that 70 percent of us have had a traumatic experience in our life, and that 20 percent of those go on to experience post-traumatic stress disorder — the different symptoms that circle around trauma. If we want to be able to help ourselves, each other, and our society, we need to understand the challenge of trauma.’ 

People who’ve suffered trauma or PTSD need to be guided differently than the rest. I’m grateful to be in a position to further my education in that regard and to lean on the tools given to me as a coach to navigate how to support my students thoughtfully. 

The practices I teach — mindfulness, compassion, Loving Kindness — may be great for many, but they are not for everyone. 

I like to think it’s like that with relationships, too. 

What matters most is not to find ‘the one’ but rather the right one for who you are right now. 

If you have doubts, questions, and need help to navigate your practice, feel free to get in touch. I’ll be happy to support or guide you to the relevant resources as best I can. 

In the blog this week, I write about the other side of the meditation coin — its benefits. A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure to ask renowned teacher Sharon Salzberg about the common benefits of Loving Kindness and mindfulness. Her answers, which I share, are pretty great. 

It’s perhaps timely to be evaluating both the potential pitfalls as a clear expression of the benefits, don’t you think? 


In other news, you’d like to join me live again. I’m back on Zoom every Sunday for forty-five minutes of Mettā practice. I’m trying out Luma, but you can still find the details on MeetUp here.

Thanks as always for reading me. 

July 25, 2023

Meeting our needs this July

Sharing my longtime favourite teachers with you



Recently I had a long conversation about how our needs can go unspoken and unmet, and how limiting that can be, in ways big and small. My feeling (and I may be wrong) is that this is something that is particularly prevalent in women. We are often taught as young girls to ‘be good’, to look after others, which is then layered with other expectations of external success, whether in looks, career or personal life. 

In hearing stories from friends about their own misunderstood (or forgotten) needs, this got me feeling very grateful for the tools of mindfulness, Loving Kindness, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and mediation in general. I’m a fellow traveller, a work in progress, but I have tools now, and a toolkit that serves me well, to support me in finding clarity, connection and sometimes even energy. 

Of course, who we find to guide us when we navigate rough waters is often what makes the journey. For some it will be a mentor, a coach, a therapist, or a teacher. Great teachers in particular are people who give us not just tools to lead a better life but they create a safe space for us to explore and develop.

If you’ve been thinking you want to do something new, or you are simply curious, I am delighted to be pointing you in the direction of the people who fill my cup, so to speak. 

Mindfulness meditation 

Jack Kornfield: There is much soul and poetry in that man, and the fact he is a teacher, and a teacher’s teacher, in Buddhist lineages and secular mindfulness, is quite the gift. He reads passages of his favourite books, and tells a lot of stories, parabolas, to illustrate his dharma talks (talks about the dharma, the Buddha’s teachings). Think of them as stories about a life well lived. Very soulful and accessible, I cannot recommend his work enough. Listen on SoundCloud, or discover more on his podcast and at Spirit Rock. 

Tara Brach: As I was developing my Loving Kindness practice, I regularly listened to her dharma talks and meditations. Tara has a very different style and tone than Jack, her former teacher and her co-lead of the Mindfulness Meditation Certification Program, and I find that they did the right thing in joining forces, as they are very complementary to each other. It’s Tara who introduced me to the tools of NVC (Nonviolent Communication), which I have found to be life changing (and that are still helping me connect to my feelings and needs). Try practising with both Jack and Tara and tell me what you think.

Hatha and vinyasa yoga

Annie Carpenter: Annie is such a light in my world. Her keen eye and experience as a teacher is complemented by multiple practices she has learned on top of dance and yoga over the years, like somatic movement. But it’s her capacity to ask questions rather than telling me what to do that has me enjoy myself so much on the mat with her. She’s taught me to pay more attention, to listen to myself more, whether I choose to push myself or on the contrary to be softer. You can find Annie online, whether you choose to practice in person, live on Zoom or via Glo.com on replay.

Kundalini meditation, breathwork and yoga nidra

Kia Miller: Kia is a wonderful kundalini teacher, whose breath work and meditations are particularly supportive when I feel out of sorts, and low on energy. I’ve never had the chance to practice ‘live’ with her although I am contemplating a future retreat. Check her out for yourself.

Yin Yoga and Barre 

Julie Granger: In a completely different vein, Julie is a fabulous fitness and yoga instructor. A former ballerina with the Boston Ballet, she is a true yoga, pilates and fitness geek. Her energy and enthusiasm for teaching is unique — which is good, because with her, you’ll often work very hard, but she only has the best intentions in mind for her students. And it is felt. So whether you want to do a bit of yin or a yoga sculpt class, or try her infamous Brooklyn Barre, I cannot recommend Julie enough. Listen to her on my podcast to get a taste of her energy.

Conscious Communication 

Oren Jay Sofer: This author and mindfulness teacher is dedicated to helping us learn to better listen to ourselves, attune to our feelings and needs and ground in presence so we can better communicate with others. His first book, “Say What You Mean”, is an effective tool that delves into mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication. Sofer learned directly from NVC Founder Marshall Rosenberg, and he has used the tools enough himself to help guide you to use them effectively in daily life. He has several online programs that I highly recommend, even if you cannot be live for the weekly calls. 

Compassion, dharma, and more 

Robert (Bob) Thurman: Yes, that’s Uma’s dad, who is a star in his own right, in the Buddhist and academia spaces that is. Thurman is a deeply accomplished scholar, close to the Dalaï Lama. He founded Tibet House in New York and, is an acclaimed author and translator of many Tibetan Buddhist texts, and most importantly, he is the most charismatic storyteller I have ever come across. For years, he was the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, before retiring in June 2019. Years of experience are certainly one reason for his powerful skillset, but further than that, like Julie above, I believe that it’s his passion and enthusiasm for the subject matter that make him the teacher he is. Bob also has a great podcast, many Ted Talks and offers multiple retreats and online programs you can sign up for. 

Ah, that brings me to my last point. What all of these teachers have in common is that they teach online, as well as IRL. 

In searching for great teachers myself, I followed my instinct and I was lucky that even before the pandemic, many of these seasoned instructors were offering online courses as an option. Which now leads us here: I am so happy to be the bridge so that perhaps you too discover their work, their teachings, their positive energy, no matter where in the world you are.

So with that said, I’d love to hear from you as we approach the summer holidays. What do you sense you need to continue (or re-start) your mindfulness or meditation journey? Do any of my favourite teachers resonate with you? Drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for reading me, wishing you a great rest of the month and until next time. 

Much love, 

Bidding adieu to a wonderful teacher

An homage to the late Sally Kempton



Dear friend, 

Somewhere among my Google docs, there is a draft of a letter I meant to send to someone I really wanted to interview for the podcast and get to know better: the master meditation teacher and writer Sally Kempton. As it happens, I waited too long to send it. The sad news came to me via Instagram a few days ago, announcing that Sally is no longer with us. 

I had another email for you, edited and ready to go. And its topic? My favourite teachers. I prepared a post, to honour the various instructors I’ve had the pleasure of following or studying with, and the practices they gave me, that became tools in my tool kit. These are amazing resources, ones that help me every day, and I wanted to pass them on to you. 

I hadn’t included Sally, for one reason only: her teachings were different. She wasn’t a mindfulness teacher, you see. 

A journalist for Esquire, the New York Times and the Village Voice, a radical feminist who was making a name for herself in New York in the 1960’s, she left it all after meeting Baba, aka Swami Muktananda, and followed her guru onto a monastic path to become a Vedic Swami. A master meditation and tantric philosophy teacher, she put away her robes in 2002 a few years after the death of her guru, and moved to Carmel, California. She had a sense that there was another teaching path ahead for her.  

I came to Sally serendipitously. You see, she was my teacher’s teacher. During my yoga teacher training, Suzanne Faith, our lead instructor, shared with our group how wonderful a meditation teacher Sally was. Suzanne had recently returned from a week-long retreat with Sally, and she recounted that death was a topic that had been evoked many times over those few days. She understood it to mean that Sally was preparing herself, and her students. The message I got was this: this is an amazing teacher and she may not be here for much longer. 

I looked her up right after the course ended, and something in me knew that I needed to study with her. And I was right! Sally’s teaching seamlessly integrated meditation, yoga philosophy, as well as psychology and neuroscience. Right in my wheelhouse.

The teachings we explored with her, ancient texts like the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra, may seem far from the secular mindfulness that I teach, and yet, they are not. There are threads between them and many of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism — traditions that, after all, were born close together. Like Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, with whom I studied mindfulness and compassion, Sally embodied benevolence, kindness and wisdom. Like them too, she was adept at linking spiritual teachings to daily life, making her insights practical, soothing, grounding even. 

In her workshops, she talked about non-duality, energy, goddesses, breath, the universe. Love. It was at once accessible and complex, subtle and connective. 

Very strangely, the day before the news, I thought of her. Sat on my balcony, I felt the need to be guided in meditation by her. I reached for my phone. A quick Spotify search showed me a number of podcasts episodes where she’d been a guest on, most of which I’d already listened to. A glance at the dates confirmed she hadn’t been on any new shows for a while, a year, or more. Premonition? Perhaps Suzanne’s words were still at the back of my mind. Sally certainly looked much younger on Zoom (where I saw her last) than her 80 years. 

I settled on a guided meditation that she offered to The Practice, a show developed by the Yoga Journal over the period of the pandemic. The 16 minute breath-based meditation practice ends with a visualisation, one where we are invited to imagine a fiery golden energy bubble of sorts. She advises us to make it a daily practice for a week or so, first to connect with the energy around us and then protect our own as we move through the world. 

A moment ago, as I was typing this email, my eyes caught a glimpse of a small, fluffy feather floating up into the morning’s light blue sky. 

An oddity, a sign? I take it as the latter.  Jai guru deva.

If you are curious to find out more about Sally, head over to her website, I encourage you to explore her books in particular. Beautifully written, her journalistic skills and literary talent shine as much as her passion for meditation.

In the below link is the original email and blog post about my favourite teachers, before I decided to rewrite my email and honour Sally. Look them up, give them a try, see if one of them can offer you, like they’ve offered me, precious resources, tools for your life’s tool kit. 

Thank you as always for reading me. Until next time. 

Warmly,

May 26, 2023

May’s Joyful Energy 🌹



Hi there, 

How have you been? I hope you’ve enjoyed a lovely spring so far. 

Personally, I’m happy to be back after a break during which I’ve been developing important personal and professional projects. More on this in a few weeks. 

Until then, I’ll keep things short and sweet for you. Right now, I’m working on my first premium meditations for Insight Timer, as well as an online course — out next month! The program is designed for curious minds who want to deepen their practise, exploring life via the lens of both wings of mindfulness, which means mindfulness AND compassion practises.

This is exciting for me, as I developed most of my practise, including my certification, thanks to online tools and podcasts. So it makes sense that that’s where I’d focus my attention. And yes, I want to design IRL programs as well but, unfortunately, I haven’t yet found ‘my’ place in Geneva to offer in-person classes. But I’m still looking. 

In other news, I’ve missed a couple of my favourite yoga teachers who were in Europe for training this month, boohoo! But I’m consoling myself since my friend, the legendary Diana Rilov, is hosting her yearly retreat in Tuscany from June 18th to 24th in a lovely remote agroturismo called Il Grande Prato. I’m so looking forward to joining her. 

And I wanted to let you know that there are four spots left for this unique retreat with this exceptional teacher, who only visits Europe once a year for this event. Click here to find out more or contact Diana (hello@dianarilov.com) if you have any questions. 

Thanks so much for reading me, I hope you enjoy the newness included in the links below. Until next month. 

Warmly, 

Anne 

Il Grande Prato, where Diana Rilov hosts her yearly Tuscan retreat
Yoga teacher Diana Rilov
February 5, 2023

The Food & Thought Program

Unlock the power of three: coaching, mindfulness & nutrition



I’m excited to be partnering with my friend, the fabulous marketer turned naturopathic nutritionist Neil Bridgeman, for what we dubbed the Food & Thought Program. 

After a few conversations, before and after I interviewed Neil for the podcast just over a year ago, we have come to realise that combining our talents to link coaching, mindfulness and nutrition could be the key to getting our clients from wishing they could succeed at getting better health and wellbeing, to actually making the shifts they need to make. 

If it sounds off-brand, because here I’m talking coaching and consulting, it kind of is — except that with my personal story including near burnout and an auto-immune diagnosis, the connection of mindfulness and nutrition is actually very close to my heart.

Get all the details in this link and drop me a line if you are interested or have any questions.

Nutritionist Neil Bridgeman, Anne’s partner in the Food & Thought Program

Pausing and my a-ha moment

Away from default mode and moving towards choice

Listen

A new year is like a new day, it feels like an opportunity to press reset and start afresh. But afresh sometimes doesn’t mean much, when we (me?) get caught pressurising ourselves to meet deadlines that don’t mind the length of our to-do list.

That’s how I often find myself late in getting new meditations out — and, occasionally, the interview podcast, too. 

This week, I’ve been pondering on something which came up when I woke up in the night, because Nandi, my 7-month old Cavapoo puppy, was making some needy noises at the foot of the bed. I picked him up for a cuddle and as I got back to snuggle under the duvet, a familiar problem came to mind. And as I considered it, perhaps due to the cocoon of the night shifting my perspective, I had what Oprah affectionately calls an a-ha moment. It came a little out of nowhere: in my mind’s eye, a familiar image appeared, one that had emerged during a coaching session. The best way to describe it is to say it’s an idealistic ‘future me’ kind of image.

That particular future is becoming dangerously close, you see. While I realised that, somehow, something unlocked in me.

‘If I want the dream and the reality to become one, I need to make some different choices,’ I thought to myself, almost asleep at that point. And suddenly: ‘I can do things differently, I have a choice.’ 

It felt radical. 

I am more than my conditioning (though it’s certainly a blind spot for all of us). I am more than my instinct, my reactions, my habits, and my default mode. 

If I can acknowledge what I want (and crucially remember it), I can choose to do things differently, I have it in me to create the change I want. 

And, duh, I can ask for help if I’m lacking the resources to do it myself.

Of course, it’s marvellous that we are able to do things on autopilot, like driving, cooking, tying shoe laces, etc. But from the moment we blink our eyes open in the morning until we try to find rest in the evening, we are faced with a barrage of decisions to make. 

I don’t know about you, but I get decision fatigue at the supermarket as much as when I open Netflix. So much time is wasted trying to figure out what is ‘right.’ But for me, often I’ll default to automatic mode, and only occasionally I’ll put the remote down and do something else altogether. 

So, shockingly, we forget we have a choice. From what we do, to how we think and how we behave, how we talk to ourselves and others. 

If we keep our goals right where we can see them (yes, even your New Year’s resolutions), and keep the openness of choice in mind, and pause before we act, we have a chance to connect to our intention. And that’s crucial when we make decisions, whether they are casual in nature, or more charged with expectations. 

By pausing and exploring the choices we have, the smallest actions we take can be the seeds of the change we want to see, whether they concern our energy, our health, relationships, occupation, or the wider state of our society.

Crucially, I recognise that we are not all equal when it comes to the choices we have in front of us. I live in a white, cisgender female body, in an economically privileged and stable economy. My choices are far greater than they are for many around the world, something that bears remembering. 

The other day, I wrote a post about a very different topic, but which led me to think about the importance, the potential impact, of the smallest actions. In it I quote Hannah Arendt, who believed that ‘the smallest act in the most limited circumstances bears the seed of… boundlessness, because one deed, and sometimes one word, suffices to change every constellation.’ Perhaps that’s what stayed with me. 

So we have a choice, and the smallest actions matter. 

That’s what I leave you with. 

You can read the post, ‘About the things we can’t unlearn’, here and if you enjoy it, feel free to subscribe to my long-form newsletter called The Mettā View, where I explore coaching, consulting and storytelling. 

Thanks as always for reading me,

December 3, 2022

MIND-FULL-NESS

How we can give ourselves the gift of mindfulness



How have you been? Around here, the last few weeks have been hard — practising my daily meditation was nearly impossible for days on end because of an epic chest infection that I am still getting over, four weeks on.  

Stillness feels like a dream of the past (oh, the dream). I sit upright on my meditation cushion, of course I don’t dare recline, lying down isn’t much of an option. My sternum rocks, my chest feeling contracted and tight from the coughing. I yearn to connect with my breath and I can, sort of, but I’m very aware of the unpleasant sensations linked to each in-breath and out-breath.  

I’m not alone, of course. It’s that time of the year, flu/cold season, especially if you are in the Northern hemisphere. And if you are in the USA, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with it a break (hopefully) and the beloved and dreaded family time.  

This reminds me to feel grateful for what is okay, or even what is good in this moment.  

The end of the year can bring as much joy as it can offer pain, frustration, exhaustion, and other assorted difficulties. It’s how we react or relate to what is happening, moment by moment, that shapes our lives.  

Creating a pause before acting or speaking is the gift of MIND-FUL-NESS.

We can cultivate a different state, a quality of being that is innate but that takes work to develop. And we can nurture this by gifting ourselves daily with a moment of gratefulness, a few intentional breaths, and perhaps five minutes (or fifteen) of quiet time to change the inner monologue, and create new possibilities in our lives.  

Throughout it all, the ups and downs, between the coughs and the sneezes, I feel grateful for my practice, the tools I have and the connection to myself that it fosters, the sense of being home.  

So here’s to being thankful for what works in our lives. To you reading me! and to our teachers! ✨🙏🏼 

Want to nurture your practice? Join the MeetUp community ‘Mindfulness Meditation Geneva’ and meditate live via Zoom three times per week or find me on Insight Timer. Or get in touch for one-on-one coaching.

Until next time, with mettā

October 17, 2022

A Picture Worth Taking



‘Risk being seen in all your glory.’ – Jim Carrey

I used to say that I didn’t like having my photograph taken.

That wasn’t quite the truth, though I never considered it until recently. What I dislike, as it turns out, is when the resulting picture isn’t to my liking— – meaning when it contradicts the image I have of myself— – which is basically 95% of pictures of me.

Come at me with your camera and you’ll see me wince or sneakily move away. It’s a thing. I’m not photogenic—some people are and, generally, they know it too.

For years, I’ve dodged group photos regardless of the occasion, with one rare exception made for photo booths; many of them gloss over our flaws by offering overexposed black and white shots. As a result, I deem them appropriate.

The other day, a good friend recorded me playing and singing at my piano. Despite her good intention, my reaction was a loud, though internal, shriek. Oh no! I had to continue my performance nonetheless, mildly creeped out. Suffice to say I never watched the video.

Not wanting to be in front of the lens is quite a lonely state nowadays because it seems that the world wants nothing more than for us to be photographed, everyday, at all times.

I’ve seen babies as early as a few months old posing for the camera. Believe me, that was surprising, but I couldn’t help but notice, as I was the one taking the picture. This obsession with seeing ourselves results in much entertainment: I laugh endlessly at seeing the silly accidents people get into by trying to get the right shot for Instagram.

My chocolate-coated kitten Lalah is like me, as she too tries to escape as soon as I point my device at her in my attempt to capture her cuteness.

What she’s either fearing or not liking is a mystery to me, after all she can’t tell me.

But this reminds me of hearing that Native Americans, when faced with the first cameras in the mid 1900’s, were also fearful. Their elders believed that the strange machines could capture their souls.

Considering this anew, I don’t think they were wrong.

When a picture is really good, the image feels like it holds the essence of a person, or a place, or a moment.

Perhaps that’s why I love taking photographs.

So, I guess my gripe with those pictures that don’t match my expectations is that they are lacking my essence—they weren’t capturing enough of my soul!

My resistance to the process probably doesn’t help though.

MOTIVATION AND A CHANGE OF HEART

Despite all of this, I was recently the subject of a photoshoot, one that I organised myself at home.

You see, I’ve been using the same black and white portrait since 2000 (I’m not kidding, but you’ll see that it doesn’t reveal much so it was pretty easy to get away with). In any case, there was one particular project I wanted to sign up for and the shots I already had of myself (that I deemed acceptable), weren’t meeting the site guidelines.

‘What am I going to do? I really want to do this,’ I thought to myself. I racked my brain. ‘Ugh. I hate having my picture taken.’

It so happens that our minds remember things via stories (not just those we hear, but those we also tell ourselves).

Whenever we are faced with a complex situation, our solution-finding system kicks into gear. The inner computer between our ears scans all of our memory files for the most relevant story, seeking the evidence from past experiences that match our beliefs or story.

‘This is it!’

A blast of dopamine hits us when we identify the ‘right’ one, matching our expectations, matching our past history in some way.

I could have gotten stuck right here, at ‘I hate having my picture taken.’ Because what I explored in the first paragraph is still true.

The difference between now and past scenarios, however, is that what I want is more powerful than what I fear.

Regardless of how I feel about getting in front of the camera, I realised I had to let that go. So, I bit the bullet and moved forward. It turns out that when I’m motivated, it’s not so hard to face my old fears.

First I thought I’d give self-portraiture a try, but I can’t say that I have much spare time on my hands—and time I would need in order to learn how to do this right. The first few trials were pitiful. Moving on.

What next? Let’s find a professional. That’s where it got interesting. Thank you Instagram, this is where your worth lies now: research. There is also a mix of control and freedom that comes with appointing a photographer, preparing a moodboard, discussing the shots and rejecting what doesn’t work. After all, I know what I don’t want, I expressed it and that is indeed liberating.

It turns out that I do possess the required skill set to get this done properly (as a subject and as a project manager). I always did. This evidence was simply hidden behind the old story.

My resistance was borderline ridiculous because I have always enjoyed taking pictures. I had a great example: My father was a wonderful photographer and I am grateful for the stunning photo albums at home, reminding me of times and people now passed. Thankfully, I didn’t start hiding from the camera until I hit puberty. Prior to that, or so the legend goes, I’d even grab the mike of his old Super 8 camera and sing songs about little fishes, out of tune and utterly unashamed.

My photography skills (partly thanks to the iPhone’s ever improving lens quality) also came in handy when I used to trail around fashion events, mostly backstage, during fashion weeks. I’d accompany designers and feed the snapshots through to the social media team.

Probably because I was so comfortable behind the scenes, like so many other PR’s I know, I chose to stay there for as long as possible. A nice and cosy spot where I wasn’t risking any over exposure.

As a new media consumer, whether we talk about videos, podcasts, or social let’s say, I came to realise that the more someone revealed about themselves, the more I could relate to them and the more I liked them.

There is value in showing ourselves to others. How else are people meant to get to know us?

If you want to make a mark, make a dent or build a community, you kind of have to show people who you are.

Being an introvert, albeit an enthusiastic one, who also identifies as shy, I can force myself to do things—in French we have an expression for this: ‘se faire violence’, to violate ourselves. Imagine that. It takes a lot of energy for me to put myself out there. It doesn’t come naturally.

So you can guess my surprise when I realised that leaning into the discomfort and embracing my project manager persona made everything go super smoothly. No more drama.

I’m still not likely to share selfies but I feel like I’ve unlocked something super precious. Because, the result is something I’m actually proud of. Thanks to the photographer of course, Caitlin Mackie.

One of my friends summed it up the other day when she said: ‘I love your new profile picture—and also it really looks like you.’ Another one said: ‘It’s perfect.’ I hadn’t asked for feedback, but I am pretty excited they feel the same way I do.

DO WE ALL NEED TO SHOW OURSELVES?

Of course not. Some people are all about preserving the mystery. It’s not a case of one size fits all. You could choose to be anonymous à la Elena Ferrante, the pseudonymous Italian novelist, or share your life brilliantly and relentlessly, like my friend Jennifer Fisher, jeweller and entrepreneur—also known as the Queen of Hoops.

But the thing is, we are wired for connection, and ‘our need to connect is as fundamental as our need for food and water’ according to scientist Matthew Lieberman.

That’s what we seek and need as human beings. Even consumers, as I read in this recent report by Luxury Society, want more than goods from brands. They too seek an emotional connection.

As my guest on the podcast, Cameron Silver, the vintage fashion impresario and owner of Decades – LA, offered in our interview earlier this year:

‘Vulnerability is super powerful. […]
And I always say, vulnerability is not about crying on cue but about telling me a little story.
Let me get to know you a little better.
Let me love you.
We all want to fall in love a little bit with a designer and we all want to be the one to discover it. To say this is my new best friend—look at this brand.
Celebrate that!”

My old boss, Christian Louboutin, was also more of an introvert than anyone would have ever expected. He has graced many covers and I consider him one of these very photogenic people, but to be fair, he learned to throw himself in front of the (right) camera since his early teens. Moreover, what he has—and which he shared with me—is a clarity of vision and a deep motivation to support his business.

One of my upcoming interviews with polymath and writer Salman Ansari reminded me of a post he wrote:

‘The longer we wait to share our work, the more disconnected we become from reality. We hide in our creative cave, sheltering our work from the very feedback it needs to improve.

We need to share in order to connect with others and realign with reality.’

We can all hide in our creative caves, especially when we are shy, scared to show ourselves, fearful of criticism and/or when our image of ourselves doesn’t align with the vision in our own heads.

Like Christian, I discovered that when we are clear about our vision, our goals, we become willing to share our work and do what it takes to support it—including showing ourselves. When we are in touch with our deepest motivation, it becomes possible to surmount the biggest hurdles. Even the invisible ones.

I almost let this fear of having my picture taken, of being seen, stop me from doing something important to me, almost disconnecting me from my purpose and the people I seek to serve.

Recently I shared that my favourite tune of all time (until now) is ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,’ by Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell. Its meaning resonates differently in light of the above. Cheers! Here’s to overcoming obstacles.

Want to make some moves yourself? Here are a few questions for you to noodle on—or if you fancy—even to journal on:

Are there any hurdles or stories keeping you stuck?

What are you telling yourself about what you can or cannot do about this?

Can you find a way to make it easier for yourself? Try to find at least 5 options, however far-fetched they may originally sound.

Can you delegate, transform the situation or adopt a new perspective?

Most importantly, can you connect to the reason why this matters to you?

And, once you understand this significance, what is possible?

June 26, 2022

June news – Find me on Insight Timer and more



How have you been?

Me, I love June. I didn’t love the crazy heatwave we’ve just experienced but I can’t get enough of the light blue sky in front of my eyes, as I type this email to you. 

I have some exciting announcements to share with you and, of course, new podcasts and guided meditations to go with that. 

Firstly, you can now find me on the Insight Timer app. The first few guided meditations have been uploaded and later in July I will start to host live practices via the platform. Look me up here or download the free app if you are new to it. Pre-recorded practices are free, all you need to do is sign up! An easy way to access meditations from me and many wonderful teachers from around the world at the touch of a button.

I’ve also had the pleasure to start offering guided meditations and talks on Klip Global in their trial run. Klip stands for Key Life Indicator Plan and it’s the brainchild of Dr Sri Kalidini, C.B.E, an award winning Leadership, Executive and Life Coach, Consultant Psychiatrist, National NHS Clinical Leader, Ex-Associate Medical Director, Board Chair, Entrepreneur, Wife and Mum of two. After a personal experience of near burnout, Dr Sri’s mission became that much more personal. 

I can relate. Having also fought near burnout (not that I was aware of it at the time) a few years ago, in my previous career, I see the crucial importance of prevention that Dr Sri is putting in place with her project.

Also, unlike many other apps (and perhaps as you’d expect from a psychiatrist), Klip bases their offer on an ecosystem of clinically validated techniques for feeling better, created by an internationally acclaimed team of clinical experts and advisors, providing support for everyone, regardless of what stage of their wellbeing journey they’re on. They aim to offer their services to companies as well as individuals, with a strong emphasis on supporting health professionals. More on this soon, and you can register for interest here. 

For those of you who are young parents, or if you’re considering becoming one, I am excited to tell you that my friend – and fellow graduate from Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s MMTCP (Mindfulness Meditation Training Certification Program) – Rachael Katz has just brought out her first book, “The Emotionally Intelligent Child,” co-written with Helen Shwe Hadani. While I haven’t put my hands on a copy just yet (it comes out in Europe July 28th, but is out in the US), here’s what our mentor Solawzi Johnson had to say about it: 

‘There is nice-to-know information, and then there is need-to-know information. The Emotionally Intelligent Child is a must-read book for parents and caregivers looking for need-to-know information and strategies as a guide to raise socially and emotionally intelligent children.’ 

Finally, no in-person or on-land retreats and workshops scheduled at the moment, further dates to be announced soon. Live meditations are still available on Zoom three times per week (camera optional) for those in the mood. Register here or join the Meetup Group for reminders here. 

Wishing you a lovely rest of the week and month, until next time!

With mettā,

Anne

April 29, 2022

How to install a meditation practice & upcoming workshops



It’s been a pleasure to get to know you in this new community, over the past few months, and I am really grateful to have had the chance to accompany a few dozen of you on your meditation and mindfulness journeys.

With sunny days and daylight savings upon us, it seems that only few people are keen on joining online evening sessions, so I have chosen to ‘sunset’ (a term I heard recently) a couple of these sessions until the end of the beginning of Autumn.

Having said that, I’m delighted to start offering a morning meditation on Thursdays, replacing the evening session. If the 8.30am CET start time suits many of you, I’ll start offering more sessions throughout the week. Feel free to drop me a line to let me know what works best for you!

In Land (aka IRL) workshops are returning this coming Saturday in Geneva. There will be more throughout the year, and some upcoming dates will be announced soon for Italy and England workshops over the summer. 

Finally, an on-demand online course will be ready hopefully by the summer, for those who, like me, enjoy practicing in their own time!

Want to connect with that feeling?

APRIL 30 2022 – Meditation and cultivating joy 

Would you like to feel more at peace and find a sense of joy and purpose? Although meditation can’t cure everything (or can it?!), it certainly can do a lot for us. I am delighted to invite you to discover:

How being in the present can help us access joy in our lives. 

Learn about the science behind why a scattered mind is an unhappy mind. 

Practice guided meditation to bring focus and awareness to your daily life. 

Learn to see the good and work with the negativity bias. 

Experience connection with a guided Mettā (or Loving Kindness) meditation practice. 

This 90min workshop is designed for anyone interested in deepening presence, compassion, and joy in their lives.

Part of the beauty of mindfulness and meditation: they are eminently portable. 

Dive into practical exercises after learning how our minds work under stress, and why teaching our minds to focus can bring freedom and joy to everyday tasks.

Ready to find some joy? Register here or email me for further details.

Grounding ourselves in a steady practice helps us gain clarity

MAY 7 2022 – How to install a meditation practice?

If you are anything like me, there are plenty of habits that you’d like to change, some you’d like to give up, and others, like meditation, that you would really enjoy developing. But it’s hard to fit it into our lives. And sometimes it’s hard to just do it!

With that in mind, I have designed this 90min workshop where I will invite you to find your inner motivation, solidify your experience for self practice, and plan how to bring these practices into your life. 

Reminder! It’s very difficult to make ourselves do things when we don’t understand their benefits. To install a new habit it’s best to start by getting context (in our case, teachings + science) and then actually ‘doing the thing.’

The goal for our time together? To demystify what meditation is all about and give you a taste of how it can both support and enhance our lives. When we are fully present with our minds, we gain stability and clarity, we find more resilience — doesn’t that sound good?

Join me on May 7th at 3.30pm CET –  Register here.

MAY 7 2022 – How to install a meditation practice?

If you are anything like me, there are plenty of habits that you’d like to change, some you’d like to give up, and others, like meditation, that you would really enjoy developing. But it’s hard to fit it into our lives. And sometimes it’s hard to just do it!

With that in mind, I have designed this 90min workshop where I will invite you to find your inner motivation, solidify your experience for self practice, and plan how to bring these practices into your life. 

Reminder! It’s very difficult to make ourselves do things when we don’t understand their benefits. To install a new habit it’s best to start by getting context (in our case, teachings + science) and then actually ‘doing the thing.’

The goal for our time together? To demystify what meditation is all about and give you a taste of how it can both support and enhance our lives. When we are fully present with our minds, we gain stability and clarity, we find more resilience — doesn’t that sound good?

Join me on May 7th at 3.30pm CET –  Register here or contact hello@outoftheclouds.com

FURTHER DETAILS AND FAQ’S FOR BOTH WORKSHOPS BELOW

APRIL 30 – Meditation and cultivating joy 

This event is a 90min workshop, based on Mindfulness and Meditation practices. It’s designed for anyone interested in deepening presence, compassion, and joy in their lives.

Part of the beauty of mindfulness and meditation: they are eminently portable. 

You get to take this away with you after class and apply it in your everyday life!

This workshop will include a presentation followed by guided practices, written reflection, and group discussion. 

Dive into practical exercises after learning how our minds work under stress, and why teaching our minds to focus can bring freedom and joy to everyday tasks.

This workshop is a stand alone atelier, suitable for beginners as well as seasoned meditators.

What to expect

  • Welcome & grounding meditation
  • The scattered mind & the stress factors
  • Mood & focus 
  • Mindfulness of breath practice
  • Being present and the is-ness 
  • Reflection 
  • Group debrief
  • Takeaways
  • Tea & discussion for those who have time to linger 

MAY 7 – How install a meditation practice

This event is a 90min workshop, based on Mindfulness and Meditation practices. It’s designed for anyone interested in deepening presence, focus, and spaciousness in their lives.

Part of the beauty of mindfulness and meditation: they are eminently portable.

You get to take this away with you after class and apply it in your everyday life!

This workshop will include a presentation followed by guided practices, written reflection, and group discussion.

Dive into practical exercises and learn how understanding your intention for practice is highly beneficial when you want to make room for something new.

This workshop is a stand alone atelier, suitable for beginners as well as seasoned meditators.

What to expect

  • Welcome & grounding meditation
  • Before the how, the why
  • A glance at the benefits of meditation
  • Mindfulness of body – guided meditation
  • Reflection
  • Strategies, the how
  • Group debrief
  • Takeaways
  • Tea & discussion for those who have time to linger

Benefits

  • Practice in a welcoming space, guided by a certified teacher
  • Discover both the teachings and the science behind them
  • Receive actionable advice you can apply immediately to your personal practice
  • Group discussion and Q&A: we learn best from each other, so this can really boost both your learning and your personal practice
  • Learn skillful, informal exercises to use at home or at work
  • Take home a mindfulness cheat sheet and guided meditation
  • Access the Out of the Clouds Community to follow up on teachings and to keep in touch

About the experience

Clean yoga mats will be provided for participants to sit on, as well as 2 chairs for those not at ease sitting on the floor. Comfortable cushions, yoga blocks and shawls will also be made available.

What to wear

We recommend wearing comfortable or loose clothing, in which you’ll be at ease seated on a mat or cushion.

Accessibility

Please note that the studio is located on the first floor of the building and only accessible via stairs. We apologise for any inconvenience. If you do require assistance or other access, please contact us for other dates and locations.

Language

The workshop will be conducted in English, but French translation is available.

Location

Fancy Yoga Geneva, door code 0105, 1st floor.

Have any questions? Drop me a line hello@outoftheclouds.com

March 18, 2022

A Bird Cannot Fly With One Wing



For a life well lived, we need both wings.

This week I decided to dig a little into what is often referred to as the two wings of mindfulness, which are wisdom (or insights) and compassion practices. 

After starting to study to gain a certification and teach mindfulness, these were one of the first things that our teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach taught us. I mean it was perhaps in the first hour, or the first day of class, and I remember it well because while attending the lecture I enjoyed drawing some wings (it was me playing with my iPad, and I find doodling helps open up my deep listening skills). 

The doodles from day one of my course (MMTCP)

The thinking is clear: 

The first wing, wisdom, is cultivated by practicing mindfulness (of body, feeling, mind, contents of the mind). From wisdom, come insights. We get intimate with ourselves. We get to know our experience, inside and out. 

But we can all understand that a bird cannot fly with one wing. Similarly, wisdom doesn’t serve us if we don’t know how to live. 

Therefore the second wing, the compassion practices, teach us how to be with ourselves and how to be with others. It teaches us to look inwards and outwards, and plant seeds that are fertilised by the soil that is a wise mind. 

But as time went on and I started to teach, outreaching to offer corporate workshops and online offerings to individuals, I leaned more heavily into mindfulness on its own. It felt … easier?

Forgetting compassion practices, I thought to myself: ‘How do I market these teachings to anyone?’ 

It was lightly hypocritical in more ways than one, though I didn’t mean it to be, and it took me some time to see that I was promoting mindfulness over the ‘two wings’. By discarding the importance of compassion practices, effectively I was giving in to what one of my teacher’s recently referred to as ‘McMindfulness.’ 

With mindfulness being more widely known, it’s easier to ‘catch’ people’s interest, to get them to start on its path. Google it and you’ll feel reassured; you’ll not be wasting your time if you give it a try, right? 

Even if most of us can’t quite define mindfulness, it sounds like something beneficial – it has a decent reputation, backed up with a lot of scientific studies, and is widely offered as a treatment in clinical settings (via MBSR – Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) to support people with chronic pain. 

Also, it helps that the word itself doesn’t sound too woo-woo. 

The other reason why focusing on mindfulness was silly (for me) is because the meditation practice that ‘unlocked me,’ so to speak – that turned me from a non-meditator to a daily meditator – is Mettā. 

Translated from Pali, the classical and liturgical language of the Theravāda Buddhist canon, it’s understood to mean benevolence, or friendliness, or (non-romantic) love, but is generally known under the moniker ‘Loving Kindness’ in English or ‘l’amour bienveillant’ in French. 

Let’s be honest, both are weird-sounding terms! 

As it happens, I had a couple of Italian natives join virtually during a recent Sunday practice I hosted on Zoom. 

Their presence reminded me that one of the ways that I find that Mettā best translated is the Italian expression ‘volere bene.’ In essence it means wanting someone well, as saying ‘ti voglio bene’ is a form of ‘I love you’ that doesn’t exist in the English language. 

The phrase doesn’t have a comparable translation in French, either. (Google says ‘je t’aime bien,’ but it doesn’t feel quite right. Feel free to get in touch and debate me on this). 

I later discovered that Italians translate Mettā as ‘amorevolezza’ (‘love-wanting’) which sounds like a better fit to me, but still awkward.   

The limitations of its translation aside, this intention of wanting someone well, in the classical Mettā order, starts with ourselves. 

But instead of staying fixed on ourselves, which most meditations have us do, with Mettā we also work with others. Directing the same phrases containing intentions of ‘wanting well’ we move from I to You, we move towards others: loved ones, difficult people, neutral people, and groups, etc. 

‘May you be well, may you be happy, may you feel peaceful, may you feel loved and connected.’

So we go inwards, and we go outward.I liken each phrase to planting a seed: every time we practice Mettā and put our mindful attention on ourselves and others, we are nurturing and watering the seeds. 

And I’m sure you’ve heard before that where attention goes, energy flows.

Over time, the power, the energy created by our attention and the intention contained in the phrases take root. 

We start looking at ourselves and at the world differently, we begin our journey of connection, we ‘want well’ for ourselves and for others. 

Recently I heard a couple of well-known teachers refer to it as ‘connection practice’, which may be far from the original Pali word, however the term actually reflects the true benefit of Mettā meditation. That feeling of connection brought up by Loving Kindness is said to be the starting point to reach the other three of what the Buddhists call the Four Heavenly Abodes, opening the door to compassion, joy and equanimity. 

Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Buddhist master and activist, didn’t shy away and referred to Mettā as Love meditation. In his book, ‘Teachings on Love,’ he firmly affirms: 

‘Love meditation is not wishful thinking. It is an authentic practice. Looking deeply, you radiate the energy of mindfulness onto the object of your meditation and illuminate it. True seeing always gives rise to true love.’ 

So we need to cultivate both mindfulness and Mettā, wisdom and compassion. For a life well lived, we need both wings. 

If you’d like to join me to practice either or both, or ask me questions and/or play with language and help me find a better word for these translations, here is my updated schedule. 

Sunday online practice is now at 6pm CET. Feel free to register for it in advance via Calendly, or join the Mindfulness Meditation MeetUp Group (and MeetUp will email you about all new classes and workshops). 

February 28, 2022

Find connection through Loving Kindness



Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of leading a guided meditation on Loving Kindness. Before starting to draw the outline of the talk and meditation, I thought to myself: if I could sum it up in a couple of words, what is the most important thing that I can convey about Loving Kindness?  

And the same word that regularly comes to me came up: connection.  

It’s a practice that powers up a sense of connection to ourselves and to the world around us.  

Bookworm that I am, I also looked for a story or book passage that could help illustrate this point to my class. I was delighted to find one in an early work by world-renowned teacher Sharon Salzberg called ‘The Force of Kindness’. In the last two pages, she comes to this same conclusion and explains it so:

‘The writer Wendell Berry says that “the smallest unit of health is a community.” Community is another way of saying “connection.” And connection is life itself. The practices of kindness inspire and deepen our connection to ourselves and to one another. They provide a path for health, for healing, for wholeness.[…] In doing these practices, in turn our lives toward the force of kindness, in nurturing the potential for love and compassion within, may we all find the ultimate healing truth of connection.’

I hope this will inspire you to try Loving Kindness if this meditation isn’t yet part of your personal practice and I am grateful that we are linked here, online, somehow connected. 

Talking about guided practices, I have uploaded a new recording from one of the recent classes I gave online.

Called ‘Relaxing with the sensations of the breath’, it has an introductory talk which is particularly well suited for beginners. 

I will leave you with a poem from Persian mystic Rumi: 

‘God’s joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box, from cell to cell. 

As rainwater, down into flowerbed.

As roses, up from ground.

Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish, now a cliff covered with vines,

Now a horse being saddled.It hides within these,

Til one day it cracks them open.’

December 18, 2021

Winter Refresh



It’s time to clear a few things. I don’t mean to clear things up, rather, in my case, I suffer from a light seasonal disorder that I like to call Winter Cleaning. Essentially, it is the cold weather equivalent of the Spring clean that most of you may be familiar with. 

It takes over, gently yet insistently, as I ready myself to hibernate or cocoon before the holidays. The prospect of spending more leisurely time indoors, especially since it started to snow where I live just a few days ago, fills me with a childish joy. 

As the end of the year approaches, There’s an opportunity to do some inner clearing before the end of the year. At least, that is the suggestion I got (and read) from several coaches that I follow. Perhaps given my Winter Clearing mood, I seem to agree with the sentiment. Taking stock of what worked and what didn’t, and especially what we want more of vs what we’d like to let go of, seems a healthy exercise before we step into a new year. 

Bearing in mind that 2021 was no picnic, we need all the help we can get for 2022. 

There are a few tips I can share to give those of you who feel, like me, the need to make space, both internally and externally, in a mindful way you may not have considered. It’s a simple four-step plan: 

Give

Donate 

Let go 

Forgive

Give 

When making external space in our lives, it’s good to review the things that ‘need to go’ from our wardrobes, cupboards, basements or attics. But the more things we sort through, the more we find ourselves wondering how to move forward. 

Do we give, sell, throw away? Often, I feel pulled to do the simplest thing first, which is to throw away the items. 

But my first tip is to practice generosity. Before we make a decision, we can ask ourselves: how could this item be of benefit to someone I know? 

There’s more than one way to answer this question, but we can start by calling our friends or creating a WhatsApp group (unless it’s safe to gather where you are) to show and share with them the  items we are parting with. I once put together a very rough PowerPoint presentation, having dragged and dropped photos of the things that I was ready to part with, to send to my friends. The equivalent of a Google Doc would also be easy for friends to put comments into and call dibs or ask questions.

You’d be surprised how some of the things we don’t want anymore can fill others with joy, and how much joy we can feel at giving this gift. 

Donate

It may feel like an extra effort to contact a charity and prepare our items for donation. But in these times, when many are experiencing difficulty, every little bit helps. If, after sharing with your friends, you have some leftover items that you can offer to a charity shop to help them raise funds, I encourage you to take that extra step. It is a wonderful way to honor the items you are letting go of. 

My tip: go hyper-local and/or see who can pick up from you if you have a lot to get rid of. 

Let go 

Unlike clearing our physical items, clearing the inner abode (our heart-mind) is a little trickier — at least, it may feel like it.

It’s a work in progress for me, but I have help! I follow the sage advice offered by Deepak Chopra, written in a little book of his I randomly got a long time ago in a German airport while I was waiting for my connection. It’s called ‘The Ultimate Happiness Prescription’ and you may be surprised to hear I have found it one of the best books I’ve bought, having had many a-ha moments when reading it. My battered copy, soiled from the times I dropped water on it, is covered in my scribbled notes. (I like to be active with my reading, pen in hand, particularly when I find myself energised or motivated by a specific book.) 

Chopra offers tons of great advice, one of which is writing down what we want to let go of. It can be a list, a letter to ourselves or a letter to the persons we want to free ourselves from. In any case, the pages we write are not meant to be shared but to be disposed of, either by tearing them into bits and throwing them out or safely burning them, as a way to signal that we are ready to move on to bright new beginnings in whatever areas we have decided to create clearing. 

Forgive

There are few things that we can do for ourselves that are as life-altering as letting go of blame and resentment. And when we do – at least in my experience – it opens up a new world of freedom, compassion and a path for connection. It is the ultimate kind of clearing.

Forgiveness is a powerful practice, which I was lucky to learn more about thanks to the wonderful teachers Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, back when I first followed their online program, The Power of Awareness.

Tara now offers a course geared specifically towards forgiveness (and if I hadn’t already studied the matter, I’d get myself enrolled right now).

For those of you who’d like to give the practice of forgiveness a try without signing on to a course, here are a couple of other options:

Try a Forgiveness guided meditation with Jack Kornfield

Try an ancient healing practice – see below 

The Hawaiian people have a wonderful prayer that is considered a practice of reconciliation and forgiveness with the charming name of Hoʻoponopono. 

Bring to mind a person you wish to forgive, follow the mantra below, and repeat it a few times. 

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”

If you, like me, feel a bit at odds about saying ‘Thank you, I love you’ to someone you feel has wronged you, I suggest you stay curious, respect the wisdom of the Hawaiian elders and do it anyway! 

There are abundant stories available about how strange yet powerful this reconciliation process is. Offering forgiveness within our own minds, if done energetically, can change things in ways we don’t need to understand. We only need to be present, and thankful, when we see the shifts that happen as a result. 

If you still need convincing, I’ll quote Albert Einstein, who said:

“You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.”

Happy clearing!

November 15, 2021

Why mindfulness?



‘We don’t meditate to get good at meditation, we meditate to get good at life.’ (source unknown)

Are there moments in your life you’d like to remember forever?

Are there conversations or relationships you want to feel more present for?

Have you ever felt disconnected from your body?

Are you stressed, anxious or fight circular thoughts that cloud your mind?

Do you want to feel more at home in yourself and more connected to others?

If you have answered yes to any of the above, mindfulness and meditation may just be the thing for you.

Let’s start with my ‘why’

For many years I said to myself, and to others, that meditation had found me by chance. I had practiced yoga for years and yet never got into this other form of practice I’d heard lauded by many of the teachers I’d come across.  Now that I think about it, unlike yoga, which was becoming a popular if holistic body practice, I didn’t have a single friend who meditated.

I fell into it, as if by magic, after a single group class while on holiday in Thailand. From one day to the next, I became someone who meditated every day. If you wonder what happened, why it happened and whether it could happen to you, you can read all about it here.

The practice which catapulted me into this new direction is called Loving Kindness, or Mettā (its original name in the Pali language). A few weeks or months into it (I didn’t record the exact timeline) I started to dabble with other types of focused meditation; Kundalini, Vedic mantra meditation, mindfulness of breath, mindfulness of body. All these served mein their own  unique ways, because I was indulging myself, following both my curiosity and my instinct.

I noticed that Mindfulness meditation felt like the best fit for me because simply it’s what I came back to most regularly. 

This single word, ‘mindfulness’, describes or encompasses several practices: mindfulness of body, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of mind and mindfulness of the movements of the mind or dhamma.

I coupled this with my daily Mettā meditation, complementing my practice of kindness and compassion with a practice of presence and focus, all coming from the same Buddhist source. 

What do they have in common? Well, they are all concentration practices, the point of anchor however changes. Focus shifts from breath or body to mind, or to phrases of loving kindness, self-compassion or equanimity. 

I followed my instinct, I was my own case study. The more regularly and consistent the practice, the more I felt grounded – more at home in myself, at ease. I gradually became less and less emotionally reactive, regardless of the situation, and instead more spacious. I could see possibilities where before I would have been closed off, blinders on so to speak. 

My inner critic (that voice that criticises and comments on all our actions from morning to night) became less annoying. Over time, it became supportive, present, wise even. Simply put, I became a better roommate for myself.

But why teach?

Firstly, the real life benefits I started to enjoy became visible to my friends. Upon seeing me grounded, clear-minded, living with integrity in myself despite navigating big changes in my life, they started asking for suggestions and resources: 

What could they read? 

What teacher could I recommend? 

What would be the best practice for them, or how could they integrate it into their lives?

Of course, I gladly passed on all of my favorite teachers, books (which are also available for you here (link)). Then I figured: ‘If I’m going to offer advice and resources about meditation, I may as well study it.’ Right? But with whom?

Then, I spotted an email from a teacher I greatly appreciated: Tara Brach. Actually, I deleted it with a swift finger swipe on my phone, then went: ‘What? Tara is offering a certification for mindfulness teachers online!?’  

I promptly fished it back out of my bin and indeed, there it was! An online course with a two year certification was open for registration. It felt like the answer to my prayers: to study with someone I already knew and admired, but on top of it all, without the necessity and cost of international travel.

And so I did it, and ta-dah, I became a teacher. That I graduated in the middle of a global pandemic was more of a surprise, and then again, I don’t believe in coincidences. 

To sum it up, my big why is that what I found in mindfulness I found so precious and transformational that I wanted to share with others, beyond that first group of curious friends. 

What’s with mindfulness?

Quoting from the book Awakening Joy by James Baraz and Soshanna Alexander:

As meditation teacher and psychologist Jack Kornfield likes to point out, the signs in Las Vegas casinos have it right: “You must be present to win.”

Right. Most people when they hear about meditation think it is an impossible exercise of stopping our thoughts. If you have ever tried that, you may have realised it’s simply impossible.

One of my teachers helpfully pointed out that minds create thoughts like mouths produce saliva. Point made.

Others think it is about transcending the body, having perhaps heard or read about practices done by ascetic monks, somewhere in a cave.

That’s not what I found in these teachings and I assure you, there is no need to become a monk or nun, in order to reap the benefits of mindfulness practice (though I have nothing against those who choose to be ordained, I should add).

Here is a definition from Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, which I like very much:

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and alive, body and mind united. Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to know what is going on in the present moment. I drink water and I know that I am drinking the water. Drinking the water is what is happening.           

Mindfulness brings concentration. When we drink water mindfully, we concentrate on drinking. If we are concentrated, life is deep, and we have more joy and stability. We can drive mindfully, we can cut carrots mindfully, we can shower mindfully. When we do things this way, concentration grows. When concentration grows, we gain insight into our lives. —Thich Nhat Hanh

As he offers, in cultivating mindfulness of body and breath, we learn to be in the body, in our experience, rather than in our heads. Whether we practice the shifting focus of a body scan meditation or we try mindfulness of breath, or sound, the starting point in anchoring ourselves into the present moment starts with our bodies – tapping into our senses.

I personally found it both relaxing and difficult to get to know, listen to and explore the body’s sensations, my experience, directed by the light of my attention. I hadn’t realised that there was an option to cultivate intimacy with this vessel through which we get to experience this human life.

One of the key tenets of mindfulness is non-judgement, and teacher Jack Kornfield likes to go a little further by upgrading it to a kind presence:

Traditionally called Sati-Sampajenna, or “mindfulness and clarity of purpose,” mindfulness has two aspects: receptive and active.

Mindfulness is first a spacious, kind, non-judging awareness of the present.

Second, as sampajenna, mindfulness includes an appropriate response to the present situation. —Jack Kornfield

I like that very much, though it takes a while to get there (first to non-judgement, then to a kind presence) for many of us

Over time, being mindful helped me to become aware of the constant narratives I was creating about my experience and my relationships. In practicing mindfulness of feelings and mindfulness of the mind, I learned to become acquainted with myself in a deeper way still. 

Was every day easy? Certainly not.

Did I discover things I had been unwilling to see or that made me a bit uncomfortable about the content of my own mind? Absolutely!

But perhaps because I had been cultivating loving kindness for many years, I also had developed a capacity to look deeply with kindness at myself, even at the parts I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge (you know, the things we keep locked away in a dungeon, about past mistakes, shame and guilt).

Thich Naht Hanh looking deeply is the path to understanding. He believes deep understanding is the path to love. He even goes as far as saying that without understanding, true love cannot exist.

The teachings and the daily practice offered me a path to explore intimacy and deep understanding with myself, body, mind and  heart, with an attitude of compassion and kindness. With that work came a feeling of being more at home in myself, something that Tara Brach refers to as ‘true refuge’: truth, love, and awareness.

The gifts of practice

So the first gift, or benefit of regular practice, became the gift of presence: really being in conversation with someone, rather than being in my head, being in my body as I move, breathe, work, play. Many experiences felt heightened, as did my memories of them sharpen, when I was really paying attention. 

In doing so, I found myself feeling more grounded, happier, more at home, and less reactive to negative internal or external stimuli. I was able to pause. My mind was lo longer on auto-pilot.

The precious value of this pause has best been encapsulated in this quote by Viktor Frankl:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”.

The second benefit was acceptance. Accepting to be with what is, in the moment, without pushing away any part of my experience. And being there in the moment, sans narrative, stories or judgement around it. 

Finally, I found understanding, or insights, in myself, the result of all this deep looking, and a sense of connection to others, certainly thanks to my LovingKindness practice. 

Later on, as I continued to explore the teachings, I found that cultivating mindful communication, mindful speech and deep listening positively affected my work, my communication style and was helping me with decision making. This remains a really important area of study for me, something I am also offering others in my daily life as a consultant and coach. 

I will leave you with a final quote:

“Let go of your mind and then be mindful.
Close your ears and listen!” – Rumi

October 21, 2021

My Favorite Mindfulness & Meditation Resources



I once had the opportunity to offer an introduction to mindfulness and meditation to a group of high profile women working in global healthcare.

I was mildly surprised to see that most of them had never meditated or practiced mindfulness. While I always offer extra resources with my group classes and for corporate client mindfulness programs, I took this as an opportunity to gather all my favorite resources, teachers and books, so that they could dip into any of them in case they wanted to follow up with a personal practice.

Being a a bit of a meditation nerd and a book enthusiast, I decided to offer these same resources for you as well, hoping this will serve you and support your discovery of meditation and mindfulness practices. Have fun!

Recent Articles I enjoyed

Recent article on mindfulness and self-care:
https://www.mindful.org/the-power-of-sustainable-self-care/

Why try Loving Kindness? Here are 18 Science Backed reasons for you:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-it/201409/18-science-backed-reasons-try-loving-kindness-meditation

Favorite Teachers

My favorite teachers – in no particular order – all offer a lot of wonderful talks and guided meditations. I learned so much from them, it feels only right to recommend them.

Jack Kornfield is a wonderful teacher, as wise as I think him funny. There are many talks and resources available on his website: JackKornfield.com

Tara Brach, who works closely with Jack and was taught by him, has a great podcast since 2011, via which you can access weekly talks illustrating how we can explore mindfulness in daily life, as well as guided practices.

Sharon Salzberg is another great mindfulness teacher and the most well-known for Loving Kindness. She has written several great books, including her most famous, ‘Loving Kindness: the Revolutionary Art of Happiness’ which I warmly recommend as well as her most recent ‘Real Change’.
I also recommend her 10 day Metta Meditation challenge on Youtube, which I discovered only recently, a wonderful way to explore Loving Kindness with a master teacher on the practice.

Thich Nhat Hanh is an incredible teacher, activist and writer. I’m not the only one who thinks so, as attested by the quotes on the back of his books, by his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King and Sogyal Rinpoche.
He has authored dozens of books, all in pursuit of helping us communicate better and find relief in our lives with the help of mindfulness.
I happily recommend several really short and accessible books from his How To series:

  • How to Love
  • How to Walk
  • How to Eat
  • How to See

I also enjoyed The Miracle of Mindfulness and this excellent one (which I keep on going back to) called The Art of Communicating – very fitted to our times.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. I discovered him as a guest lecturer in my mindfulness certification course (MMTCP) when he offered a class on positive neuroplasticity and the way in which this is linked with mindfulness and compassion practices. He has a great podcast co-hosted by his son Forrest, called Being Well, where he uses a mindful lens to discuss the science of positive brain change.

Dan Harris is an ABC news anchor and a meditation enthusiast who launched a podcast and an app with the same name, Ten Percent Happier. I haven’t used the app but I hear good things, and he interviews all the greatest meditation teachers on his show, including most of the teachers I mention above. There are plenty of short guided practices you can tap into as well from the same platform.

Other wonderful teachers to discover, from other practices, include:

Sally Kempton – teaches meditation as a process of inner exploration, in which we learn to integrate heart, mind and body in order to experience our natural state of wisdom and love. Widely considered a teacher’s teacher, her books are a great way into this different lineage: Meditation for the Love of It and Awakening Shakti.

Dr Kristin Neff – is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a leader with Chris Germer on Self-Compassion. She is the author of two seminal books, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself and more recently Fierce Self-Compassion written specifically to support empower women.

‘With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend.’

November 7, 2020

My Shoulders and I, a Conversation



November. As I started writing this post, wearing just a T-shirt on my balcony, the sun was playing hide and seek behind the clouds and yet the air was warm still, not usual for Switzerland on a November day. These times are strange indeed, the weather going from gloomy with full fog two days ago for Halloween, to warm enough to consider going for a swim in Lake Geneva.

I don’t know about you, but I have noticed my energy levels dipping over the past month. It could be the time change, the lack of sunlight, the rainy days, and probably also not going outside as often as I should (even in this pandemic). I’ve been dutifully taking immune boosting natural supplements, such as turmeric and echinacea, yet I’ve felt a bit run down for days, despite my carefully orchestrated routine.

On that note (don’t laugh!), I had a conversation with my shoulders the other day. I really suffered from tightness and tension, right there, for a four or five day period and no amount of stretching, yoga or hot baths would make much of a difference. 

So, during a study coaching session with teacher Tara Mohr (she was coaching someone else but I pretended that she was coaching me), I closed my eyes and asked my upper back why it was still so tight.

To my surprise, the answer was clear, direct and to the point:

“Being this tight is how we (shoulders) are holding you up. We are scared that if we soften, you will collapse.”

Wow. That was maybe too direct. Thanks, shoulders! 

Suddenly, I realised that the hidden weight of these months of pandemic were being crystallised in my back body.

“Is there anything else you want me to know?”, I asked, “While we are at it?” And I should add, this was a silent, internal dialogue. 

The answer was: “We love everything you are doing, it’s great and everything, but we need to go outside more often.”

I think by “outside” my shoulders weren’t telling me to roam the streets of the city I live in so much as asking me to get out into nature.

After a couple of days with a mixture of both, or at least what I can manage to get in an urban environment, they seem happier and more relaxed.

It’s been four days now since this conversation, and three walks later, my shoulders, neck and body in general seem more at ease. 

On a Zoom call the other day, I noticed that my client counterpart, all the way in Los Angeles, was tense in her neck and massaging her trapezius, trying to find some space, some ease herself. 

I didn’t feel like I could tell her about my conversation with my upper back. Maybe I should have shared.

Every morning when I sit for meditation practice, now I start with noticing my breath. And eyes closed, I gently ask my body how it is doing. A daily check-in if you wish. 

Some days I forget, but the more often I do it, the easier it gets to connect. Outside of the occasional shoulder conversation, having that communication with my body-mind feels helpful. In times of tension and anxiety especially.

After all, how can I serve my body-mind if I have no awareness of what is going on in that realm?

Of late, I have incorporated this tactic into a short body scan meditation. Scanning for sensations, from tingling to temperature, you can stop whenever you feel an area of tension, pain or tightness and inquire gently, while sending breath into the area in question.

And remember, you can always go inwards and ask a question. You too may be surprised by the answers you get. 

If you give it a try, let me know what comes up for you.

June 14, 2020

Balancing acts



I am pretty tired this morning. Can I say morning? It’s 12.09pm already, and I slept a good ten hours. Normally I wake up at around 7ish, but today I slept until 10.30am. I’m not sure why, but getting back on the treadmill (at the gym, not a metaphor) is impacting my body more than I expected.

I used to do this three or four times a week, so I am puzzled. I didn’t stop exercising per se during the period of recommended self-isolation. I don’t like to say locked down or quarantined. Indeed, I was voluntarily self-isolating.

Anyway, this feels a bit strange, but if there is one thing I have learned, or rather that I need to keep on learning daily, is that I need to listen to my body.

Example: last week, I had a sore throat for a few days, which I knew was a sign of being rundown. My Chinese doctor called it before I could even feel it. She asked whether I felt tired and I said no, I feel fine, my energy levels are okay. And boom, the next day I felt the familiar gulp in my throat.

There is ambiguity here. Truly, my body was starting to show signs of weariness but my soul’s energy levels are very high, sky-high. I am so full of desires, ambitions, for my life, my writing, my being in general. And then I am also dutiful, and boy, there are so many things I have to do for my work, my new company, my upcoming house move. Not even taking this website, writing, teaching or podcast into consideration.

I pride myself on my self-care. Meditation, yoga, movement, freshly home-cooked food, time off. I learned to make room for the right things in my life.

Yet, I might still be pushing things a bit too hard. After all, that is my old pattern, the one I developed in my earlier corporate career. That’s why I almost burned out. I read somewhere that it’s not the people who don’t care about the work that burn out. That makes so much sense. One of my core qualities is my enthusiasm, my passion. Indeed, my default mode is to throw myself into what I care about.

There is a struggle, daily, to find balance in life. That is true about me, and I think true for all of us.

When I think of this notion in a physical setting, in yoga asanas in particular,and I reflect on what it’s like to balance on one leg whether in tree pause of warrior three, here is what comes up for me:

My balance is not the same every day.

My mood affects my balance.

My capacity to be present affects my balance.

My focus, or drishti, affects my balance.

Muscle tensions affect how well I balance.

My core, or how strong my core is, might be the greatest support for my balance.

When I do feel strong in balancing pause, rooted, it feels amazing, almost like I am flying.

Patience and understanding, kindness: these are the qualities I call into myself today. I will have a nice yoga practice this afternoon and I’ll bring to the mat whatever energy levels I will have. And I’ll stop if I get too tired.

Trying to find the balance indeed between offering myself movement and the space to stop.

Let’s see if I can bring the same qualities to the rest of my day.

On Getting The Gold



Ta dah! I recently launched my first podcast, Out of the Clouds, thanks to Seth Godin and Alex Di Palma, as I just completed TPF5 (now called The Podcasting Workshop).

For context, I should say I was always going to do it; host a podcast, that is. However, I ended up developing it in the middle of a pandemic, on my own, for over ten weeks, alone with my cat: that was not part of the plan.

As a result, even though I worked hard – on my day job, on the podcast, on my studies (to become a certified mindfulness and meditation teacher), it wasn’t as linear a process, and I wasn’t as quick and ready-to-ship as I have been in previous workshops.

For starters, I published Episode #01 before publishing the trailer. I then decided not to promote it or tell anyone about it because, in summer 2020, there were many other attention-drawing world events. Although the Black Lives Matter movement might feel far away from my rural Switzerland, it just felt totally inappropriate to celebrate, let alone launch, despite the fact it was an important personal milestone. So, I simply put it out there, into the world, without a fuss.

Being non-linear and doing a soft launch are both tactics in and of themselves, and they have their advantages too.

When I wrote the show trailer a few weeks back, I was seeking to introduce myself and my background to give context for those listeners who aren’t my friends or extended network. I wanted people to get to know me, and I was hoping this would engage them and encourage them to listen. Makes sense, right?

Meanwhile, there was a refrain knocking around in my head, going ‘who do you think you are to be putting out a podcast??’

Thankfully, as I was writing, I remembered the words of my close friend and mentor, yoga teacher Diana Rilov – who also happened to be the first guest of the podcast.

She used this expression that her own teacher, Dona Holleman, had taught her:

“Be a pirate, Diana! Get the gold and run!” she was told.

In other words, Holleman was telling her to learn as much as she could from her, or any teacher for that matter, integrate it, make it her own and move on (to the next teacher I’d imagine).

This very much stayed with me. It felt like it could explain the show’s fabric and my motivation for interviewing people. I too was going to get so much from each and every conversation. ‘I am too going to emulate this idea,’ I thought to myself, ‘let me be a pirate, get the gold and run’. 

Right after writing my daily morning pages, only days later, I picked up Steven Pressfield’s book The Artist’s Journey. And this passage below stirred something else in me:

“Resistance is the dragon that guards the gold – the gold of our authentic self – our true voice, our artistic and personal destiny.”

This quote felt nothing short of a revelation, a big ‘A-ha’ so to speak. Pressfield offered an explanation for the resistance I felt before hitting the publish button on the podcast that first time (and pretty much every single time since). Because every time I put a piece of work ‘out there,’ scarily, I am putting out my voice, a part of myself that would otherwise remain hidden – or perhaps only visible to those close to me.

‘Who am I to do this,’ the voice of fear, is also the voice of the gold, the part of me who actually really wants to express itself and is seeking this bigger platform to offer something to the world.

I’ve gotten the gold from so many, who have inspired me, from Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, more recently, Brené Brown, Dan Harris and Rick Hanson and many more.

I’m so grateful for all the artists, writers, bloggers, podcasters, directors and photographers who’ve inspired me. I’ve “gotten the gold” from so many: from Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, and, more recently, Brené Brown, Dan Harris, and Rick Hanson and many more. I’ve benefited from the risks they’ve taken — they too had to start somewhere, and I’m guessing many if not all were damn scared of pressing the ‘publish’ button. But they did, and by doing so they gave me so much.

So that’s what I am seeking in the conversations on my show. I am seeking to get the gold! And I guess it’s also what I dig for in my writing. In the podcast. In my relationships.

Somehow, to access and uncover ‘the gold,’ the underlying flame or truth of who we are.

That which connects us to each other.

Ta dah!