Thanks, everyone for the feedback and encouragement. It means the world. A couple of people asked for details of teachers I’ve been reading and listening to this past 
year… here’s a start!
My goal for this blog has been to gather and share information for living our best life, as I work towards doing just that! We are truly living in the golden age of self-improvement (for want of a better term!) There are so many amazing people writing books, making podcasts and teaching, and so much of it is freely available on the web and in libraries. We’re so lucky to have these guiding lights, the people who have come before us.
They say when the student is ready the teacher appears. After an awakening of sorts in my early 20s, I kinda went back to sleep. Then last year I received a Wake-Up call and it set me on my path again.
I’ve read all of Dr Wayne Dyer’s books but it wasn’t until I read Eckhart Tolle that it sunk in, even though they pretty much have the same message. We are blessed to have so much info at our fingertips; something for everyone!
Teachers can point us in the right direction but just like physical health, there are no shortcuts to personal and spiritual growth, but there are guides on the path. We still have to do the work.
One of the best things for me on this quest has been podcasts! I remember my lovely artist friend giving me a usb with loaded with her favourites. I didn’t listen to them (gah!) Flash forward a few years and a new work-mate mentioned she listened to podcasts. I was like “what?” She is now the best thing that came out of that job by far, but still, I didn’t listen! Then last year, one of my oldest friends put me onto Liz Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) in Conversation with Richard Fidler.
Okay, Okay!!!! So I listened…What a revelation! (Thank you Lea, Kate and Louisa!)
Now I’m the one saying “hey, you have to listen to this podcast!” So, here is a list of the ones I have found life-changing. Yes! Life changing!
There was a podcast from Untangled in yesterdays post on the Law of Attraction. This one is new to me, but a new fave nonetheless. I also love Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations. I love Oprah! But my favourite by far is another I mentioned yesterday, Inspire Nation. Michael Sandler is enthusiastic and loves a good woohoo or two, but don’t be fooled into thinking he’s a dumb-dumb! His interviews are insightful and heart-felt, humble and unselfconscious.
This is the post from yesterday and has so many gems. Mitch Horowitz is brilliant too. Google him.
I was listening to podcasts each day for a couple of hours in my commute. All different kinds of stuff like those about but also Stuff You Missed in History Class, Stuff You Should Know, Heavyweight, Love Your Work (for creatives), Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic (perfect for anyone who wants to do something with their creativity but something is holding them back) but it was Inpsire Nation that gave me the lifeline I needed. I’m a smart woman, but I just kept ending up in unhappy jobs! First world struggle, I know, but I had to come to grips with the fact that I was the common denominator! JUST LIKE THE REST OF US!
After my Wake-Up call (see above), I started journalling. Three pages, long-hand, stream of conscious every day! Julia Cameron calls this Morning Pages. I WISH I had kept doing these 20 years ago when I first read The Artist’s Way. Argh! I’ve written a 500 page novel in a year, so no, you don’t run out of things to write. Quite the opposite is true.
Then I stumbled on Gabby Bernstein’s take on A Course in Miracles May Cause Miracles. I was in a bad place emotionally, and it threw me another lifeline! It didn’t 100% resonate as it’s a guide to recovery from addiction, but I guess I had an addiction of sorts…to being unhappy! I found myself rejecting Gabby as a teacher due to her being gorgeous and young…mmm This was a good lesson.
Liz Gilbert’s Big Magic. Lauren Handel-Zander’s tough-love book Maybe it’s You… Then came Pam Grout’s book Thank and Grow Rich. Simple title but it certainly is NOT a get-rich quick book. Pam teaches that gratitude is the foundation for a happy life. I was on a roll. I had been reading Eckhart Tolle for a few months and the combination of everything I was doing was like a POW! between the eyes!
I kept writing, I put my foot down about things at work I didn’t like. I felt butterflies in my belly most days. Changing your life is hard! I kept journalling.
Here are some more that I have followed up on since hearing them on podcasts;
Dr Dan Seigel, Michael Singer (both life changing!!!!), Ken Wilbur (mind-blown), Paul Selig on Duncan Trussel Family Hour… far out! Mike Dooley – Notes from the Universe, Dr Will Bowen – Complaint-free life, Sherianna Boyle, Glennon Doyle, Matt Kahn, Brene Brown…there’s so many!
Tip- Don’t skip a podcast. There have been times when I thought “Oh this guy has a funny voice” or they’ve said something I found a bit off and I’m about to skip (Like when I first came across Matt Kahn!) and I said, No, it’s on here for a reason…and it was full of golden nuggets!
So! There’s a bit of a list. I’d love your lists too!! Drop them in the comments. We’re all in this together <3
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More on yesterday’s post… A continuing theme for the coming week…
The Law of Attraction is an incredible complex and powerful phenomenon, but viewed through the prism of post-modernist thinking (or industrial-rational for that matter) it seems to be about getting more stuff. Of course, it’s not…
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