Living Consciously

LIVING CONSCIOUSLY: There are good reasons why people don’t live consciously. At least two good reasons. First, we never learned the skills required to live consciously—that’s what the Live Conscious community is about, learning and practicing those skills. Second, when we are awake we are more aware of the things that create existential anxiety: feeling alone, fearing death and facing uncertainty. One solution is to avoid these things by distracting ourselves. Another solution is to move beyond our fears by expanding our consciousness.

Learn To Work With Your 3 Emotional States

Learn To Work With Your 3 Emotional States

Would you like to live in alignment with yourself so that no matter what’s going on around you . . . you stay connected to yourself and honor yourself? If so, read on, because there is a way to live without all of the emotional ups and downs. These up and down cycles,...

read more
How To Reinvent Yourself

How To Reinvent Yourself

During the summer of 2021, Shawn Marshall put together a conference called Reinvent Yourself. He invited 21 speakers to participate. This is a recording of Shawn’s conversation with Jake Eagle, in which Jake introduces four models: How to design your life around your...

read more
Joy

Joy

“Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything”.  Henry David Thoreau. I was recently asked to share why I’m joyful most of the time. So, I’ve spent some time reflecting on that. I’m aware that some people may be...

read more
The One Truth

The One Truth

As far as I can tell there is only one truth. The one truth is that all meaning is made up. Religious ideas, political ideas, psychological models—all made up. Our brains are meaning making machines. Put an image in front of me and I’ll make meaning of it. I’ll...

read more
Microdosing Mindfulness

Microdosing Mindfulness

Stretching time Imagine if you could s-t-r-e-t-c-h time. How would you feel if you had more time every day? Evidence suggests you’d be more present and patient, have more meaningful experiences, and spend more of your time volunteering to help other people. If...

read more
The Answer To These Troubled Times

The Answer To These Troubled Times

Do you believe in “channels”? I’m not talking about television stations, but the idea that spirits, voices, entities, can come through us and communicate information. I never have. But that didn’t stop me from channeling the following message...

read more
How To Get Through The Tough Times

How To Get Through The Tough Times

I was talking with a friend recently, and he was sharing with me some of the ways he was struggling, trying to figure out how to help his adult daughter who is going through some hard times. I related to his struggles because Hannah and I have been worried about our...

read more
Wake Yourself Up — live on the wild side

Wake Yourself Up — live on the wild side

“We use the word “wilderness,” but perhaps we mean wildness. Isn’t that why I’ve come here, to seek the wildness in myself and, in so doing, come on the wildness everywhere, because after all, I’m part of nature too.”   Gretel Ehrlich Gretel was considering wildness...

read more
The Experiment of a Lifetime

The Experiment of a Lifetime

I’m in the midst of the most profound experiment I’ve ever done. I wrote about this idea in a previous article, and now I can unequivocally state that the results are not only mind opening but heart opening. For the first time in my life, I understand the famous T.S....

read more
Quit Resisting Yourself

Quit Resisting Yourself

My whole life I have resisted owning my gifts, my beauty and the fullness of my heart. A wise man who knew this about me asked, “Why do you resist such great stuff?” My answer is that I resist what is unfamiliar and being happy, feeling full and exhilarated every...

read more
Thrilled To Be Alive

Thrilled To Be Alive

Most of my life I have worked hard to figure out ways to make myself happier and to be a better person. Up until a year ago if you asked me, I would have told you I was pleased with my results . . . but even back then there was something niggling around in the back of...

read more
A Reason For Hope

A Reason For Hope

Even in these challenging and divisive times, there is a reason for hope. That reason is that we all have access to the greatest capability ever created. Individually, we can use this capability to shape our lives. And when leaders use the same capability they can...

read more
The Most Powerful Form of Mindfulness

The Most Powerful Form of Mindfulness

Given a choice, how will you live? There are two basic ways in which we can live our lives, maybe not when we are youngsters, but certainly by time we reach our thirties—we have a choice. Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, said the choice is to exist in a state...

read more
Stop Thinking and Be Present

Stop Thinking and Be Present

I’ll keep this short because I don’t want you to think too much about what I’m sharing with you. That’s the point of this short article, to suggest you think less. I’ve been a therapist for twenty-five years, worked with hundreds of people, and seriously thought about...

read more
Living An Inspired Life

Living An Inspired Life

Are you living the life you want to be living—an inspired life? What’s it take to live an inspired life? We learned so much about this in the past year since we were inspired to sell our house in Santa Fe and move to Hawaii. It was pure inspiration. And we acted...

read more
What I Love Most Today

What I Love Most Today

This page is a place for you to share what you love most today. The people we know who have been doing this tell us that this simple act is one of the most powerful and rewarding practices they have done. If when we wake in the morning, we set an intention to notice...

read more
Embracing Change

Embracing Change

Jake and I are embracing change in 2017—big change—as we have decided to move to the Big Island of Hawaii. We spent 2+ months on the island in 2016 and upon returning to our beloved New Mexico we realized we were different. Between us, we’ve lived in New Mexico for...

read more
The Invitation

The Invitation

The Invitation—by Oriah It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for...

read more
Presence Trumps Force

Presence Trumps Force

There are two ways to be powerful—one is to use force, the other is to embody presence. Force may get you want you want, but you’ll leave behind messy emotional footprints. Embodying presence will get you what you really want—if you want a life without suffering. In...

read more
The Secret That Drives Us . . . Limits Us

The Secret That Drives Us . . . Limits Us

For the first many years of my life I sought ways to make myself feel safe. I sought out people who were safe and avoided those who were scary. Even before I had words for “safe, safety” and “scary,” my instincts guided me. This is true for most of us. Abraham...

read more
3 Degrees of Consciousness

3 Degrees of Consciousness

Imagine a circle. There are 360 degrees. You are locked inside the circle. The circle is—let’s call it your ego, or identity. The truest “you” is on the outside of the circle. To get out of the circle you must fire your booster rockets and go through an opening that...

read more
As Consciousness Rises Tension Decreases

As Consciousness Rises Tension Decreases

Our consciousness can rise, like the sun rising in this stunning photograph taken in the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine. And it is my belief that as my consciousness rises, the tension in my life decreases. Inversely, when there is tension in my life, the tension...

read more
What Is Reality?

What Is Reality?

“It is sometimes said that our image of reality is an illusion, but that is misleading. It may all be an appearance in the mind, but it is nonetheless real—the only reality we ever know. The illusion comes when we confuse the reality we experience with the physical...

read more
Life Consists of Three Kinds of Moments

Life Consists of Three Kinds of Moments

There is a different way to live—a better way—for those of us seeking to be lovers of life. What does that mean? It means to love life—your life—without resistance. When we learn to live this way we spend most of our time in the present moment of possibilities. These...

read more
Live Wisely, Think Deeply, Love Generously

Live Wisely, Think Deeply, Love Generously

A meaningful life guaranteed If we live wisely, think deeply, and love generously we can guarantee ourselves a wonderfully meaningful life. Why wouldn’t we do this? Is it, as Pope Francis says, that we no longer hear the wisdom of the great sages of the past because...

read more
What Awaits You On The Other Side?

What Awaits You On The Other Side?

Imagine you are walking down a dusty road between two tall hedges and carrying a heavy load. This is the road of an ordinary life. You notice that some people get ahead of you and some fall behind.  You have struggled at times along this road to keep up, to get ahead,...

read more
Make The Most of NOW

Make The Most of NOW

Do you want to be happy? Do you want to live with an open heart? Do you want to conduct yourself so that you feel good about yourself? All of this is possible—the key is learning to do two things. Not “learning two things,” but “learning TO DO two...

read more
Preciousness of Life

Preciousness of Life

Kyoto, Japan It is Tuesday evening in Kyoto, Japan. We have just finished conducting a Live Conscious Retreat. In our retreats, all participants use pseudonyms, no one uses their real name. For this retreat Hannah chose the name “Yuuki”, which is the...

read more
Responsabilidade e Vitimismo

Responsabilidade e Vitimismo

Responsabilidade advém do latim responso (respõsum) que significa responder por.  Somos responsáveis quando respondemos por nossos atos, sentimentos ou por algo que nos foi  confiado.  Vítima vem a ser qualquer pessoa que sofre dano ou prejuízo – a quem o ato de...

read more
Responsibility vs Victimhood

Responsibility vs Victimhood

Responsibility comes from the Latin reponso (responsum), which means to answer for (respond for). We are responsible when we answer for our actions, feelings or for something that was entrusted to us. A victim is anyone who suffers harm or loss – to whom the act of...

read more
Alone Together

Alone Together

We each embrace beliefs that shape our lives. Do you believe you are alone or do you believe that we are together? And what about your tribe—which might be your family, religion, or whatever community you identify with. Does your tribe stand alone or together with...

read more
Invictus

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,      Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be       For my unconquerable soul.   In the fell clutch of circumstance       I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance       My head is...

read more
I Have A Dream

I Have A Dream

We ran a contest in which people could submit their poems that were written to celebrate Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. The following is the poem we selected, written by someone choosing to remain anonymous, but happy to accept the $500 credit to...

read more
Travel That Changes You

Travel That Changes You

Travel that changes you The retreats we offer are not just for recreation, but also re-creation. If you want to re-create yourself—find your purpose, re-boot a special relationship, or re-connect with yourself—those are great reasons to join one of our retreats. When...

read more
How To Dream

How To Dream

I have a dream . . . I have a dream of a gentle world Spacious and soft A world where we each know what we value And we value our humanity and divinity alike I have a dream of a world where our differences Don’t divide us but define us As unique and irreplaceable Each...

read more
How To Die Well

How To Die Well

I’ll tell you a short story about a friend of mine who showed me how to die—and how to die well. Ken was a flawed person—like all of us. And he used his flaws to fuel his personal growth. This wasn’t natural to him. With a degree in engineering and an MBA...

read more