Blog
Where I write about writing.
For more of my writing on consciousness, nature and living deliberately, please visit my other blog, Living the Mess.
For professional writing samples, please see my Writing page.
Why I Stopped Searching for Enlightenment
In the summer of 2013, when I was in the midst of two years of financial hardship, someone asked me: “If you could ask for one wish, and know it would come true, what would it be?”
What Does it Mean to Wake Up?
[Please note: This post is from 2015] Until May 30, Sounds True is offering 30 streaming interviews with spiritual teachers on the subject of awakening. I'm listening to many of them and just basking in the wisdom. I've had multiple moments of recognition, of a-has...
Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts
If you’ve never had an intrusive thought, it’s hard to imagine. These are thoughts that appear, unbidden and undesired, and that (in my experience) are immune to the techniques I usually use to stop
We All Think We’re Right
This is a topic I’ve been percolating for a long time, and it comes from a teaching by Tara Brach in which she says, “The world is divided into people who think they’re right.”
Finding Calm Through Fierce Presence
When I was really having a hard time financially—when I didn’t have money for soap–I realized that, in order to stop the mind from freaking out (and therefore making me feel terrible), I had to be fiercely present.
Getting from Resistance to Acceptance
Resistance, the opposite of acceptance, is a blockage of energy. Think about how we experience tension, anger and worry on a physical level: the stomach feels like it’s in knots; our throats clench; there’s a heaviness in the chest. All of those are blocked energy.
Often, we don’t even realize we’re resisting. Our egos believe
It’s All About Acceptance
If I could have a superpower, I would choose acceptance.
Whether you call it surrender, alignment, The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle), “loving what is” (Byron Katie), Radical Acceptance (Tara Brach), non-resistance or getting in the Vortex (Abraham-Hicks), all the teachings I’ve encountered point to the same bedrock principle: Accept what is in this moment, exactly as it is.
The Importance of Acknowledging Anger
I’ve been working on several posts for this site, many of which have been drafted for a couple of years, but I kept getting stuck. I just couldn’t get them right, structurally. Something was blocking me.
Then, the other night, I had a dream in which I clearly heard a strong (but kind) voice ask, “How long are you going to keep pretending you’re not angry?”
Whoa.
Becoming Present Through Sensations
My mind, when left to its own devices, tends to cause me more pain than joy. It’s a great tool, effective for analyzing data or strategizing, but it has the capacity to bully me, too. The creativity that’s so useful professionally can also create wild stories and vivid dramas that have no root in
Four Breaths Meditation
This is one of the best techniques I’ve found to bring me into the moment (or help me fall asleep).
Here it is: Count your
Time Doesn’t Exist
"Imagine the Earth devoid of human life, inhabited only by plants and animals. Would it still have a past and a future? Could we still speak of time in any meaningful way? The question "What time is it?" or "What's the date today?" - if anybody were there to ask it -...
Lessons from the Weather
The Pacific Northwest is known for being rainy and grey in the winter. In Vancouver and Seattle, clouds can settle in among skyscrapers, creating the sensation of a neverending (and very damp) night.
Unplugging Media
I worked in entertainment from the time I was 22 until I was 39, and then again for six months or so, a few years later. I was a theatrical stage manager, an entertainment columnist before “blogging” was a word; I was a film critic and TV producer, a stand-up comic and a comedy writer. I was Miss Pop Culture.
The Intuitive Editor
An editing client once dubbed me a “book intuitive” because I was able to see beyond her writing challenges to the personal issues underneath. In addition to stark contrasts in the quality of her writing (depending on whether she was writing about her experience or...
Saying ‘Thank You’
The other day, I was walking, and the idea came into my head to say "thank you" for that very moment. For the trees, the ocean breeze, the sun, the bench where I sit and meditate and write. Then I decided to keep going, to say "thank you" in as many moments as I...
Appreciation
When I went off meds, appreciation was one of the first techniques I used to rewire my brain towards inner peace. For decades, my identity had been rooted in looking for the negative and focusing – intensely – on what was wrong. I needed every tool, every technique, I could find.
What Does it Mean to Live Deliberately?
Thoreau had his definition, but this is the 21st century, and I’m not chopping wood for a cabin in the woods (though that actually sounds lovely…). Here’s what living deliberately means to me:
It means prioritizing inner peace, and building that priority time into my day or week, so that the action I do take comes from a place of calmness.
The Rapture of Being Alive
In 2010, after I’d gone off meds, I had a profound awakening that radically altered my experience of living in this world. Every time I’ve tried to put it into words, it sounds diminished, less powerful than the actual experience. Basically, I woke up one morning and knew that the fabric of the universe is love. I am love. You are love. Music is love. Trees are love. Everything that ever has been and ever will be is perfect, even though
My Backstory (or, Why I Work in Transformation)
Mine was not a transient depression or anxiety disorder. Over the course of 22 years, my brain was given more than a dozen labels, including soft bipolar, borderline and PTSD – my last psychiatrist finally summed it up as a “rip-roaring mood disorder.” I was “hard-wired” for depression and anxiety because
See the Human
One thing that being a writer teaches you: Everyone has a backstory. Everyone is on their own Hero’s Journey. You are the protagonist of your story, but you’re a supporting-to-background character in others’. Understand, as Buddhists say, that everyone you meet is struggling with something you’ll never know about, and everyone is doing the very best they can in a given moment.
The Law of Increasing Flow
Yes, there is something to the “butt in chair, hands on keyboard” approach to writing. Inspiration often flows after half an hour of clunking around. But knowing when to put your butt in the chair, getting centered before you sit down, significantly increases your chances of using your writing time effectively.
Cinematic Writing
One of the benefits of having worked in so many mediums – print, television, stage, online, stand-alone interactive and film – is that I’ve learned a variety of storytelling techniques that are transferable among platforms. There’s something in the combination of...
Verbal Microexpressions
If you’ve studied psychology (or ever watched Lie to Me), you’ll know that microexpressions are split-second facial expressions that we're not aware of making, but which reveal our true feelings about a given conversation. Although most people can’t consciously...
Brand Time Travel: Vision Stories
What if you could get people as excited about reading your business or development plan as they are about the novel they’ve just ordered from Amazon? We're all familiar with vision statements - the brief, well-intentioned paragraph that describes a company's essential...
Ditch the Jargon
A friend sent me a job posting from a well-known technology company the other day. The first sentence included the phrase “creates top-of-the-funnel content to drive form completes, engagement and establish thought leadership status.” I nearly broke out in hives. My aversion to corporate jargon is exactly that strong. The position objective was to make the brand more “human, accessible and relatable.” Free advice, superstar tech company: You want to sound human? Be human. Relate to your audience. Ditch the jargon.