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I've been thinking about pride lately. Like what it means to have it - be it - own it - live it. Like note just on a float in a parade -but what it means to really feel it. Emotional connection is such a key ingredient to a well-lived-life because it leads to emotional contagion - yet I believe we've been conditioned to live with these low levels of cortisol; that the norm is negativity and without awareness, we just don't even realize it. What can the new norm be, should we choose? Opportunity, not threat -- for ourselves first. Awareness. Self-love. Honest...

I've been sleeping on other beds since March 24 (keep your mind out of the gutter), as I've traveled the east coast to work on related projects: systems interventions using the SOcial-eMOtional model of change. I've also spent quality time with family, friends and dear colleagues -- sometimes they're all rolled into one -- and am coming back home to Cleveland today feeling refreshed and reenergized. While my bed is in Cleveland, I realized something on this past trip: that I have homes in other places, too. I know what they mean when they say: home is where the...

Mindful Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for - to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world - to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant - but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these - the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean's shine, the prayers that are made out of grass? ~ Mary Oliver ~ (Why I Wake Early)...

I'm feeling a whole slew of "threat" response surfacing lately -- fear, anxiety, scarcity. Even with all of this knowledge of positive psychology (that thoughts lead to feelings), I still find myself caught in this whirlwind of frustration. What are the beliefs underscoring (or overwhelming!) my feeling this way? Spending a week as a seminar participants in Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success program has been way eye-opening for me. I know I am not showing up to play full out. I feel myself on the fringes and I don't like it here. Why is it happening? There are many variables: I didn't necessarily...

I drove 400 miles to Cleveland, Ohio yesterday to continue a newer chapter of my life called "My Dreams are Coming True." I swear, people--this stuff works! It's happening in my life and it's because I'm learning to think differently. Trust me, please. I'm not just talkin' smack. But let me tell you, the past few weeks have been filled with mixed emotions. Lots of anxiety was coming up for me in New York. (I'm learning too that my fear shows up in strange, strange ways . . . almost hard to notice in real time, which is why hindsight is a beautiful thing.)...

[caption id="attachment_535" align="alignright" width="157" caption="Shot on my run one morning along the Bosphorus River."][/caption] I'm just returning from Turkey, where I spent just five days in Instanbul, an amazing place on so many levels--rich with history, faith (of all kinds), and beauty beyond imagination. I was invited to facilitate a SOMO Learning Lab for 30 pioneering change-agents (coaches, HR directors, business & media leaders, university professors) in a 2-day experience we called Engaging Leadership With Positive Psychology. The program was stamped by George Mason University's Institute for Leadership Excellence and its Director, Fran Nurthen and I co-facilitated. We used my SOMO Leadership Model as the...

-- temporarily. My belief is that everything is temporary -- and this changes my feeling about moving away from NYC. Makes me move closer to my true knowing which is: right now, Cleveland calls. Never before have I had such a holographic view of my life: I am teaching people to think about their own beliefs - and being more aware of my own than ever before. This must be what they mean by consciousness. It is built! And it is good. Gets us more of what we want: happiness, health, wealth. Dreams coming true, literally. Want some of it? Get in...

[caption id="attachment_2060" align="alignright" width="224"] RIP Todd Louis Alloro (1971-1991)[/caption] --twenty years ago today. I was weeks shy of my 13th birthday and Todd had just turned 20. I remember waking up that morning to voices in the kitchen below. "Too early to be nana's pinochle game," I thought (She was watching us because as my parents were away for the weekend). Half asleep, I walked downstairs to hear the tragic news that changed our lives forever . . . I remember parts of that day -- awful and heart wrenching -- especially seeing my parents return home & get out of their car,...

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