Living Consciously
LIVING CONSCIOUSLY: There are good reasons why people don’t live consciously. At least two good reasons. First, we never learned the skills required to live consciously—that’s what the Live Conscious community is about, learning and practicing those skills. Second, when we are awake we are more aware of the things that create existential anxiety: feeling alone, fearing death and facing uncertainty. One solution is to avoid these things by distracting ourselves. Another solution is to move beyond our fears by expanding our consciousness.
Learn To Work With Your 3 Emotional States
Would you like to live in alignment with yourself so that no matter what’s going on around you . . . you stay connected to yourself and honor yourself? If so, read on, because there is a way to live without all of the emotional ups and downs. These up and down cycles,...
9 Keys To Improve Your Communications
We—Hannah and Jake Eagle—have continuously discovered, developed, and practiced methods to enhance our partnership for the past thirty years. The result is that our relating has become easier and lighter, yet more profound, humorous, and loving. At this point,...
How To Reinvent Yourself
During the summer of 2021, Shawn Marshall put together a conference called Reinvent Yourself. He invited 21 speakers to participate. This is a recording of Shawn’s conversation with Jake Eagle, in which Jake introduces four models: How to design your life around your...
Joy
“Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything”. Henry David Thoreau. I was recently asked to share why I’m joyful most of the time. So, I’ve spent some time reflecting on that. I’m aware that some people may be...
Simple Solutions for Complex Personal Problems
I’ve always been interested in finding simple solutions to complex problems. I’ll use an example from politics to illustrate my point, and then I’ll come back and show you how you can apply this idea in your own life—making one change that can vastly improve...
Are You Being Too Hard on Yourself or Not Hard Enough?
The short answer is it depends— I recently went to a Qigong class, and the instructor assured the participants that there was no right or wrong way to make the moves. “Hey guys, you’re doing great; remember there is no right or wrong, just do what feels...
The One Truth
As far as I can tell there is only one truth. The one truth is that all meaning is made up. Religious ideas, political ideas, psychological models—all made up. Our brains are meaning making machines. Put an image in front of me and I’ll make meaning of it. I’ll...
Living in a state of presence
Can you imagine being completely present as you move through your most mundane, ordinary daily chores? Among the many tools we offer for conscious living, is the mindful practice of sensory awareness. For me, this is a most useful practice for actually living in...
Where You Place Your Attention Determines the Quality of Your Life
Welcome to 2021—may it be a year to celebrate! We’re going to offer you a simple suggestion to help make 2021 a year to celebrate. If you know who we are, you can skip this paragraph and go right to the good stuff. For the thousands of you who joined our mailing...
Part 2: Trying To Be Present Creates Anxiety—Creating Presence Reduces Anxiety
So, you want to learn to be present—to live in the moment? There are times and places when this may be helpful, but in Part 2 of this article I want to point out that trying to be present may be contributing to your anxiety. Why? Because when we think about being in...
Part 1: Trying To Be Present Creates Anxiety — Creating Presence Reduces Anxiety
Why are so many of us exploring mindfulness practices, meditation, and yoga? I believe this is because as the velocity of our lives increases, we seek to create balance by creating some spaciousness in our lives. This is certainly true for me—I want more spaciousness....
What’s the Gift Hidden in the Coronavirus?
I was recently tested for the Covid-19 virus and as I self-isolate in my apartment with my cat, I’ve had an abundance of time to consider how I want to respond to the events of the world and manage my anxiety regarding my test results. I was out of the country when...
A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution—that will last
Most New Year’s resolutions last a short time. According to a survey of thirty-one million people, most resolutions fail by January 12th. That’s discouraging. So, I want to offer you a new approach. I believe most resolutions don’t last very long for...
What does it take to live with an open heart?
Is it possible to live with an open heart—in heart consciousness—all the time? That depends on two things. For the past two or three years, we’ve been introducing the idea that there are different levels of consciousness. We’ve identified three levels:...
Meditating Without Meditation
Do you feel as though you are going too fast and living on autopilot too much of the time? Most people get to end of their lives and wonder “Where did my life go? It went by in a flash.” This is because we were barely paying attention. We can learn to slow down and...
Microdosing Mindfulness
Stretching time Imagine if you could s-t-r-e-t-c-h time. How would you feel if you had more time every day? Evidence suggests you’d be more present and patient, have more meaningful experiences, and spend more of your time volunteering to help other people. If...
The Answer To These Troubled Times
Do you believe in “channels”? I’m not talking about television stations, but the idea that spirits, voices, entities, can come through us and communicate information. I never have. But that didn’t stop me from channeling the following message...
How To Get Through The Tough Times
I was talking with a friend recently, and he was sharing with me some of the ways he was struggling, trying to figure out how to help his adult daughter who is going through some hard times. I related to his struggles because Hannah and I have been worried about our...
A New Kind of Saloon To Soothe Anxiety
I broke my heart a little when I read and helped edit Jake’s last blog post about this upcoming retreat in Playa Viva being the last Live Conscious Lab for the foreseeable future. I inspired myself to write this article, in which I use the word “saloon” as part of the...
How To Take Your Relationships Up A Notch Using Heart Consciousness
Have you ever noticed that some of the most profound things in life are simple? In this article, I will introduce you to a simple way to improve your relationships. It’s simple and profound. Ask for what you want If you want to connect with your partner, child,...
What are the keys to living a meaningful life and having healthy relationships?
Interested in having a meaningful life and healthier relationships? What can I say? I could talk about the importance of developing excellent communication skills and knowing how to express your emotions maturely. Or, I could listen to you talk about your problems,...
Wake Yourself Up — live on the wild side
“We use the word “wilderness,” but perhaps we mean wildness. Isn’t that why I’ve come here, to seek the wildness in myself and, in so doing, come on the wildness everywhere, because after all, I’m part of nature too.” Gretel Ehrlich Gretel was considering wildness...
The Experiment of a Lifetime
I’m in the midst of the most profound experiment I’ve ever done. I wrote about this idea in a previous article, and now I can unequivocally state that the results are not only mind opening but heart opening. For the first time in my life, I understand the famous T.S....
Quit Resisting Yourself
My whole life I have resisted owning my gifts, my beauty and the fullness of my heart. A wise man who knew this about me asked, “Why do you resist such great stuff?” My answer is that I resist what is unfamiliar and being happy, feeling full and exhilarated every...
Thrilled To Be Alive
Most of my life I have worked hard to figure out ways to make myself happier and to be a better person. Up until a year ago if you asked me, I would have told you I was pleased with my results . . . but even back then there was something niggling around in the back of...
A Reason For Hope
Even in these challenging and divisive times, there is a reason for hope. That reason is that we all have access to the greatest capability ever created. Individually, we can use this capability to shape our lives. And when leaders use the same capability they can...
The Most Powerful Form of Mindfulness
Given a choice, how will you live? There are two basic ways in which we can live our lives, maybe not when we are youngsters, but certainly by time we reach our thirties—we have a choice. Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, said the choice is to exist in a state...
Stop Thinking and Be Present
I’ll keep this short because I don’t want you to think too much about what I’m sharing with you. That’s the point of this short article, to suggest you think less. I’ve been a therapist for twenty-five years, worked with hundreds of people, and seriously thought about...
Living An Inspired Life
Are you living the life you want to be living—an inspired life? What’s it take to live an inspired life? We learned so much about this in the past year since we were inspired to sell our house in Santa Fe and move to Hawaii. It was pure inspiration. And we acted...
Is Your Compassion Conditional or Unconditional?
Are you a compassionate person? I suspect that most people will answer by saying things like, “most of the time,” or “generally, yes.” But I’m intentionally looking for a “yes” or a “no” answer. And although this may cause some people to squirm a little, there’s a...
What I Love Most Today
This page is a place for you to share what you love most today. The people we know who have been doing this tell us that this simple act is one of the most powerful and rewarding practices they have done. If when we wake in the morning, we set an intention to notice...
Embracing Change
Jake and I are embracing change in 2017—big change—as we have decided to move to the Big Island of Hawaii. We spent 2+ months on the island in 2016 and upon returning to our beloved New Mexico we realized we were different. Between us, we’ve lived in New Mexico for...
The Invitation
The Invitation—by Oriah It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for...
Presence Trumps Force
There are two ways to be powerful—one is to use force, the other is to embody presence. Force may get you want you want, but you’ll leave behind messy emotional footprints. Embodying presence will get you what you really want—if you want a life without suffering. In...
What Awaits You On The Other Side — Revisited
Imagine you are walking down a dusty road between two tall hedges and carrying a heavy load. There are many others on the road. This is the road of an ordinary life. You notice that some people get ahead of you and some fall behind. You have struggled at times...
Webinar Replay: Three Degrees of Consciousness
This one-hour webinar provides a basic overview of our new model: Three Degrees of Consciousness. Spending time listening to this will give you the basic understanding needed to access and navigate safety, heart, and spacious consciousness. Please let us know if you...
The Secret That Drives Us . . . Limits Us
For the first many years of my life I sought ways to make myself feel safe. I sought out people who were safe and avoided those who were scary. Even before I had words for “safe, safety” and “scary,” my instincts guided me. This is true for most of us. Abraham...
3 Degrees of Consciousness
Imagine a circle. There are 360 degrees. You are locked inside the circle. The circle is—let’s call it your ego, or identity. The truest “you” is on the outside of the circle. To get out of the circle you must fire your booster rockets and go through an opening that...
As Consciousness Rises Tension Decreases
Our consciousness can rise, like the sun rising in this stunning photograph taken in the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine. And it is my belief that as my consciousness rises, the tension in my life decreases. Inversely, when there is tension in my life, the tension...
What Is Reality?
“It is sometimes said that our image of reality is an illusion, but that is misleading. It may all be an appearance in the mind, but it is nonetheless real—the only reality we ever know. The illusion comes when we confuse the reality we experience with the physical...
Life Consists of Three Kinds of Moments
There is a different way to live—a better way—for those of us seeking to be lovers of life. What does that mean? It means to love life—your life—without resistance. When we learn to live this way we spend most of our time in the present moment of possibilities. These...
Live Wisely, Think Deeply, Love Generously
A meaningful life guaranteed If we live wisely, think deeply, and love generously we can guarantee ourselves a wonderfully meaningful life. Why wouldn’t we do this? Is it, as Pope Francis says, that we no longer hear the wisdom of the great sages of the past because...
What Awaits You On The Other Side?
Imagine you are walking down a dusty road between two tall hedges and carrying a heavy load. This is the road of an ordinary life. You notice that some people get ahead of you and some fall behind. You have struggled at times along this road to keep up, to get ahead,...
The Worst Thing I Almost Ever Did To Myself
If you consistently read our blogs you know that, recently, my mother passed away. The way I have processed her death has been very—I’m searching for the right word—nourishing, affirming, enlightening. These seem like strange words to use when talking about...
Make The Most of NOW
Do you want to be happy? Do you want to live with an open heart? Do you want to conduct yourself so that you feel good about yourself? All of this is possible—the key is learning to do two things. Not “learning two things,” but “learning TO DO two...
Preciousness of Life
Kyoto, Japan It is Tuesday evening in Kyoto, Japan. We have just finished conducting a Live Conscious Retreat. In our retreats, all participants use pseudonyms, no one uses their real name. For this retreat Hannah chose the name “Yuuki”, which is the...
Responsabilidade e Vitimismo
Responsabilidade advém do latim responso (respõsum) que significa responder por. Somos responsáveis quando respondemos por nossos atos, sentimentos ou por algo que nos foi confiado. Vítima vem a ser qualquer pessoa que sofre dano ou prejuízo – a quem o ato de...
Responsibility vs Victimhood
Responsibility comes from the Latin reponso (responsum), which means to answer for (respond for). We are responsible when we answer for our actions, feelings or for something that was entrusted to us. A victim is anyone who suffers harm or loss – to whom the act of...
Alone Together
We each embrace beliefs that shape our lives. Do you believe you are alone or do you believe that we are together? And what about your tribe—which might be your family, religion, or whatever community you identify with. Does your tribe stand alone or together with...
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is...
I Have A Dream
We ran a contest in which people could submit their poems that were written to celebrate Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. The following is the poem we selected, written by someone choosing to remain anonymous, but happy to accept the $500 credit to...
Travel That Changes You
Travel that changes you The retreats we offer are not just for recreation, but also re-creation. If you want to re-create yourself—find your purpose, re-boot a special relationship, or re-connect with yourself—those are great reasons to join one of our retreats. When...
How To Dream
I have a dream . . . I have a dream of a gentle world Spacious and soft A world where we each know what we value And we value our humanity and divinity alike I have a dream of a world where our differences Don’t divide us but define us As unique and irreplaceable Each...
How To Die Well
I’ll tell you a short story about a friend of mine who showed me how to die—and how to die well. Ken was a flawed person—like all of us. And he used his flaws to fuel his personal growth. This wasn’t natural to him. With a degree in engineering and an MBA...
