“Find your happy place and go there often,” she always says. What about finding your happy place where you are? I led a site survey trip to northern Thailand last week - making connections and exploring options for a future project. Mostly I had been to the locations we visited before, yet we met and sat with many new people along the way who were inspiring and doing amazing things in amazing places. Throughout the trip, Irene’s statement kept coming back to me, prodding

It’s truly challenging at times, mindfully starting a mindful startup. For me, it began well and with a certain level of awareness that the process would be difficult. After all, I was launching a startup while trying to maintain a good life balance. Imagine it. You are doing fulfilling work you love and you have full control of the timing of your day. You can wake up when you want, work when you want, do other things when you want. Think about it. What would you do? W

I watched it mindlessly as it waved gently in the breeze of the coming storm. I was sitting in the tuk-tuk on the way to the train station. There was traffic at the stop sign so there we sat, my mind racing, full of many things, my eyes fixed on the leaf, unseeing. And then a shift, as if my consciousness finally caught up with my senses. Look at that leaf! I love big leaves like that. I focused on the depth of its color, the pattern of its veins, and the quality of its

After last week’s blog, I kept thinking about this example of having the presence of mind in frightening situations to put what we’ve learned into practice. This story comes from Upworthy and StoryCorps and details the experience and reaction of social worker Julio Diaz when he was held up at knife point - and it brings many questions to my mind: How can we train ourselves to be aware and mindful to see beyond the immediate, outwardly displayed behavior into what’s actually

Part of reflective practice involves mindfulness. I have already asked the question of how to grab hold of those fleeting moments that randomly pop up and give us pause throughout the day. One of the many ways I have found to do this is through poetry. While I used to write poetry when I was younger, I wrote my first haiku only recently. In fact, I had completely stopped writing poetry far too many years ago. I suppose my rational, adult brain decided I had grown out of t

You know those moments when you are going full tilt, rushed and preoccupied, and then you see something? Or hear something? Or smell something? And it stops you in your tracks. Just for a moment? Lately I have been working on turning these moments into mindful moments - taking those brief seconds to lean into the moment and notice the details. To mark the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings. Sometimes to snap a photo or start a haiku. To breathe and remember that