Zen Up, calm down

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Cynthia G.

You know that tight feeling in your gut at the end of the day that begs for release? Or that tension that kicks in right after you wake up, when something big is up and you don’t feel quite ready? Or maybe there are bigger questions looming and you don’t have a handle on how to handle them. As one bright person said to me once, “your best thinking has gotten you this far. Maybe you should try something else.” Yeah, this just might be it. My friend, Becca Pronchick, has published a handbook for meditation called: No Matter the Question, MEDITATION is the Answer. It’s a book for beginners, full of great guided meditations. It’s also a go-to for people who have been meditating a while and need some new tricks to still the mind. Either way, this smart, pretty little book has the potential to calm your heart and mind. In case, you know, it matters.

BUY THE BOOK::CALM YOUR MIND

sweet sister shoutout

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Cynthia G.

Happy International Women’s Day! Show the amazing women you know, including yourself, a little well-earned appreciation!

“She had the perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very, dangerous to live even one day.” Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

back to zero

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Cynthia G.

I recently started journaling. Again. I have always been a faithful journalista. In fact, I’ve filled literally dozens of journals, and every once in a while I actually go back and review them. I’ve even created some of my best work by throwing words at my journal. Somewhere along the way, journaling morphed into my writing process. I created the structure of my short stories through my journal. Strange, right?

I once had a mentor who said: “Just write. Don’t expect it to make sense consciously. Your subconscious knows what it’s doing.” Though I didn’t fully understand what she was saying, she was my mentor, so I did what she advised. And guess what? It worked and I created some amazing fiction as a faithful journalista.

Then I stopped journaling. I know! I took a hiatus, a rest, a break from the ritual of creation. I gave myself permission to not write, and guess what? The world didn’t come to an end. I did however, stop creating amazing stories. It was okay for a while, but now I’m back to journaling. Not everyday, mind you, but often. It’s like going back to yoga. I’m getting more agile, more flexy. I can feel a story starting to form, and it’s the most delicious feeling a writer can have.

So, I’m back to zero, which is exactly the right place to be.

ask more::fear less

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Cynthia G.

Have you ever noticed that when you actually do that thing you don’t want to do and push through and do it anyway you arrive at a whole new place beyond what you expected? It’s like an scoop of sprinkles from the cosmos just for screwing up courage and pushing beyond limits. Not stopping at go. Not opting for the easy exit strategy. Yeah, I love it when that happens. READ MORE HERE.

you’re getting warmer

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Cynthia G.

It isn’t so much that we fear rejection so much as that we fear the fear of rejection. As it turns out, rejection itself is not so bad. In 99.999% of the time it is not a judgment, it is not recrimination. We don’t need some “other” to do that to us, we do that to ourselves. When denied what we want we begin to stew, to internalize, berate ourselves for all of our imagined shortcomings. What if we changed the way we deal with NO? What if, instead of fearing it, we leaned in and actually embraced it? Read more here.

hey, coach!

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Cynthia G.

In this brand-spanking-new millennium, coaching appears to have replaced mentoring. There are life coaches, team coaches, success coaches, executive coaches. Name your profession, there’s a coach. Fundraising even has it’s fair share of mentors for hire. And when it comes to raising money for a good cause, maybe this is the model for change-management that we’ve all been looking for. Read about our fundraising coach right here.

hello::2015

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Cynthia G.

You know what time is it, right? Time for the burning bowl. Time to let go of what needs loosening, what’s used up, what’s outlasted its usefullness. Time to embrace the new, be aspirational, make a date with the Divine Wow. If you need some help getting started, maybe you can begin with this vid. So long 2014, it was an amazing year!

the storm that ate my drought

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Cynthia G.

I love California. Quirky, lovable, yoga-centric California has been very good to me. Still, just six years ago after a bad breakup, I left the state for what I thought was for good. I move to Portland and immediately experienced a “once-a-decade” blizzard that shut the city down and gave me near-pneumonia. Then, two years ago, I got recruited back. Not just to the general California Bay Area population, but to the super-special wine country, home of some of the most valuable vintages on the planet. Yay! It is delicious in about a million ways and I try not to let it go to my head. Sometimes I have to literally pinch myself when, in the rarefied company of people whose names I dare not drop, I find myself . . .

Read more here.

practice, practice::repeat

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Cynthia G.

This advice seems a simple truth. . .and it is. Reading is not just doing nothing!

Author Ian McEwan talks about the writing life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ZEE9_iZRk

art meets ocean

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Cynthia G.

Sometimes we just want to watch a good movie. And a short movie is better than no movie at all. PS: No models were actually harmed in the making of this film. Cheers.