Jamie WhealI recently conducted this wonderful podcast with Jamie Wheal about an amazing project that he and Steven Kotler the co-author of Abundance are working on.  I was first introduced to Jamie by Steven Kotler. Subsequent to my interview with Steven we started a wonderful dialogue and it lead to him informing me about “The Flow Genome Project“.  I was so enthralled with what they were working on that I invited Jamie his partner to do this podcast to inform my listeners about their mission.

I am certain that many of you are aware of the term “Flow” made aware to the world by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the author of the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“.  He developed the term “flow states” to describe the state of peak experience which some will seek to recreate at any cost because it’s so enjoyable.   Flow is defined as the state of being where time slows, self vanishes, action and awareness merge into one–often referred to as peak experience, runner’s high, being in the zone or dropping in the pocket.

Jamie and Steven are on a mission to study flow states in what they refer to as “The Flow Dojo“.  They want to hack the flow state, and determine what physically, mentally and emotionally is occurring to the body when someone has these peak experiences.  In other words they want to map the genome of Flow, which if they can do this would be an amazing feat.

The information and data received as a result of studying people who attain this states of consciousness would be extremely valuable because flow states are known to optimize performance, enhance creativity, drive innovation, accelerate learning, amplify memory and underpin happiness itself.   If they could recreate these “flow states” and know what is required to do so, imagine what could happen in our business world.  This data and process would become an extreme advantage to any employer that was involved helping their employees achieve and sustain the “state of flow.”

Jamie and Steven have created a website dedicated to this project, and you can access it by clicking here to learn more about “The Flow Genome Project“.  At the website you will find articles, videos and you can read more about the “Flow Dojo”.

In my estimation this project takes human performance and mastery to a whole new level.  If Steven and Jamie can quantify their research and hack the state of flow, this would be an amazing breakthrough.

 

If you are interested in getting involved, please sign up at their website and you will be contacted with more information.  I hope you enjoy this great interview with Jamie Wheal about the “Flow Genome Project”.

Barbara Marx HubbardI recently had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Barbara Marx Hubbard about her new book entitled ” Birth 2012“.  I have interviewed Barbara before, and it is always an honor to speak with her about her passions.  Her new book “Birth 2012“is truly remarkable and a book that anyone interested in learning more about the dawning of the new era should read and actively  becoming involved in this amazing movement.

Barbara spoke with me in our interview together about how humanity’s evolution has accelerated to a point that the changes have become visible to all, and she has a passion to bring to millions of people a far greater awareness of the potential of our Planetary Birth and our emergence as a universal species.

As she writes in the Letter of Invitation at the beginning of the book–” Our current condition of over-growth in our finite Earth system is simply  not sustainable. We will either evolve toward a more sustainable , compassionate, and creative global system, or we face the real possibility of devolution’s and distraction of our life support system and of much of life on Earth–within our our own or or children’s lifetime.  This dangerous reality is motivating us to enter into what I call the first age of conscious evolution–that is, evolution by choice and not by chance.  It means that we need to be causal in the actions and directions we take in this lifetime. What is being required of us to learn to co-evolve with nature and cocreate with Spirit.

These are very important questions that we all face and are important for us all to participate in the outcome.  As Barbara stated we have a choice, and as this planet and our species evolves we need to consciously participate in transforming our world into a place where sustainability of all of our systems can be achieved.  We are all experiencing a breakdown of our existing systems, but we will shortly see a breakthrough where new and better system will evolve that will support our species in what Barbara refers to as a “Universal Humanity”.

The urgency of our problems is causing people to wake up all over the planet.  It’s dawning on us that something creative—something new–is pressing within us to emerge. What is now being born is transforming the old situation with the prospect of new solutions; and, at the same time, it is helping to create a new world–a world that we have in some respect always held in our hearts.

I encourage you to listen to the words of wisdom from a wonderfully intelligent and compassionate woman who can help to unite and transform the consciousness of our society into a place where survival and sustainability are the mantra of all.

 

If you would like more information about Barbara Marx Hubbard please click here, if you are interested in learning more about the “Birth 2012″ book please click here.

Annie BurnsideI recently interview author Annie Burnside about her new book entitled “Soul to Soul Parenting“.  My wife is a fifth grade school teacher, daily tells me about the crazy stories and  challenges she faces as a teacher,  teaching children who are disrespectful, disobedient and  have no attention span.

I know about the children that are ADD or ADHD, but these children have not been diagnosed with either. In my estimation what is missing are the  proper role models (their parents) to guide them and reinforce proper behavior.

I am so pleased that Annie Burnside wrote this wonderful book “Soul to Soul Parenting“, which is primarily about raising a spiritually conscious family which is so extremely important in our world today.  In addressing the aspect of raising a spiritually conscious family she espouses what she refers to as Parenting Vehicles, which are practical, tangible things families can do to get in touch with their spiritual nature.

Through a combination of stories about her personal journey, ideas borrowed from the teaching of other spiritual leaders, and old-fashioned common sense, Annie brings to the reader the rituals and spiritual signs along with Soul to Soul Parenting Spiritual Themes that she has used personally with her family to bring the values and spiritual nature that plays such an important role in raising her family and reinforcing the spirituality.

Soul to Soul Parenting encourages and inspires all parent to become the spiritual experts to their own families and lead their children to expand their conscious awareness to include a universal interconnectedness with all of life.

Annie Burnside’s  book is a must read if you have children and are interested in bringing a greater awareness of the important elements of instilling spiritual values and beliefs.  If you would like more information about Annie Burnside please click here to be directed to her website or you can click here to access her Facebook page.

 

Enjoy my wonderful interview with author Annie Burnside.

Chip ConleyI recently attended a conference in San Diego where author Chip Conley was one of the keynote speakers.  I was throughly taken by Chip’s personal story, and his new book entitled ” Emotional Equations-Simple Truths for Creating Happiness and Success .

I have been interviewing authors for over 5 years and have been immersed in the personal growth field for over 30 years.  Chip Conley’s new book  “Emotional Equations” is the real deal.  It is easy to understand, and I love how Chip has taken what sometimes can be difficult ideas to convey, and created equations out of them.  His formulas help the reader  take universal truths and turn it into a visual lexicon for mastering your life challenges.

I dont’ know how many of my listeners have read the classic book by Victor Frankl entitled ” Man’s Search for Meaning“.  If you are not familiar with the story it is about Frankl’s agony in the Nazi concentration camp.  The essence of this book is that the Nazi’s were attempting to break down the prisoners mentally, and  in Frankl’s words“everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  Chip has distilled the essence of “Man’s Search for Meaning” book into this wonderful equation: Dispair=Suffering-Meaning.  How simple!!

Some of Chips’ other equations are: Disappointment = Expectations-Reality or Joy=Love-Fear.  No matter what emotion, Chip has a formula.

Chip states that their are parallels between math and life.  He states that when he was at is lowest point in his life that the “Meaning Equation” (above)  gave him the knowledge and conviction that if he placed his attention more on the meaning of his disparate collection of painful events, as apposed to the suffering, that he would likely have less dispair in his life.  He states that during his more troubled weeks, the equation felt as if it was his instructions manual for deactivating his emotional explosives.

If you are currently dealing with pain or suffering in your life, then I would highly recommend that you read Chips’ new book “Emotional Equations“.  I personally love how he has distilled our emotions into equations,almost as  if the equations diffuse our personal connection to the painful emotions, and  allow us to see the situation so much more clearly.

In all my years of working in the personal growth, mastery and human potential movement I have never come across a book like “Emotional Equations”.  It is a must read for anyone seeing to better understand their emotions!

 

If you would like more information about Chip Conley then just click here to be directed to his website.  You can also click here to be directed to his Facebook page.  Enjoy this wonderful interview with a great inspirational author Chip Conley.

Elisha GoldsteinThis is my second interview with author Elisha Goldstein, about his new book entitled ” The Now Effect“.  Is a wonderful book for anyone wanting to calm their anxious mind and take control of the incessant stress that so many of us are under.

If you are like me the anxious mind is something that is always there, I just need to learn better techniques to calm it and gain more focus.   When you learn the techniques taught by Elisha, you will certainly be able to approach your difficulties with more grace and less stress.

Elisha states that “The Now Effect” will literally change the way you think before you think and break free from subconscious beliefs and old programming that don’t serve you.   You will have more choice points in your life, bringing back a felling of aliveness and opening the doors to greater potential, opportunities and possibilities.  You will also learn how to increase your emotional intelligence and be able to relax more effectively in moment of distress.

The Now Effect” loaded with wonderful stories as well as at the end of each chapter Elisha provides what he refers to as “Now Moments”.  These are located at the end of each chapter and designed to have you reflect or do an exercise that will reduce your stress and increase your awareness.

One of the important lessons that Elisha teaches is about something called the “Triangle of Awareness”.  Elisha states that in in given moment, no matter what you’re doing three basic things are happening to make up your immediate experience: thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. He states that in the past we thought that these elements we independent from one another, but nothing could be further from the truth.  A thought can trigger and emotion and the emotion can trigger a physical sensations.  The key is awareness, understanding what we are doing to ourselves to create this chain reaction.  If you can become more aware of what the subconscious mind does while on auto pilot, then these thoughts, feelings, emotions and physical sensations are easier to control.

Elisha new book is filled with wonderful examples, stories and exercises that guide the reader to a heighten level of awareness.  He has also included QR barcodes in the book which take the reader to short video pieces to help you understand the practice the techniques that he is teaching.  This is a wonderful book for anyone who is looking to take control of the stress, anxiety and lead a more peaceful lifestyle.

If you would like more information on Elisha Goldstein please click here to be directed to his website, ore click here to be directed to the book website.

 

Enjoy this wonderful podcast and interview with Elisha Goldstein the author of ” The Now Effect”.

Dov SeidmanI love books like the one that author Dov Seidman wrote entitled ” HOW, Why How We Do Anything Means Everything“.  This book not only gets you thinking about the compelling and exciting times we are living in, but provides the reader an opportunity to reflect on this extremely important issue–just “HOW” we are doing everything we do mean everything.

Author Dov Seidman argues that we need a new approach to how we live our lives and pursue our endeavors.  Dov states that we are in a new “Era of Behavior” both as individuals and organizations. He states that as our world has become increasingly hyper-connected and hyper-transparent, we need to rethink our behavior in it.  Since everyone can instantly see not only what we do but how we do it, the value of principled behavior has been raised from a nicety to a necessity.  Our connectedness has rendered us interdependent, even morally so , and as such we can not longer win at the expense of others but instead rise or fall together.  We are more tightly bound to each other as never before and therefore we are judged by who is better at forging deep connections with other through shared values and shared responsibilities.

Throughout Dov’s book he cites examples and studies of just how important this new behavior has become.  Everything from the Middle East where popular uprising this year have been freeing people from despotic governments, to the donut vendor who boosted his sales by trusting customers to make their own change.  Through surprising anecdotes like these, cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields, and revealing interviews with a divers group of business leaders, experts, and everyday people on the front lines, HOW will inspire readers to reconsider how we think, how we behave, how we lead, and how we govern ourselves to uncover the values-driven “hows” that we need to adapt to our new “Era of Behavior.”

If you are interested in reading a book that will get you thinking about your own self-governance, and how your self-governance can mean so much to the way to do business to how you treat your family and lead your life then you will want to read ” HOW, Why How We Do Anything Means Everything.”

If you are interested in learning more about author Dov Seidman and his organization LRN please click here to be directed to his website.  If you would like to find out more about the book please click here to be directed to an amazingly well done book website.   They also have Facebook page for the book, and you can access it by clicking here.

 

Enjoy this wonderful interview with author Dov Seidman.

Theresa BenedictI recently had the pleasure of interviewing author  and clairvoyant Therese Benedict.  Her new book entitled “Days Go By, Not Love” has been written as she states from the words of God, and it is now time for his words to reach all of his children; to bring this world together.

Theresa herself as a  clairvoyant has helped many of her clients make connections with the angels around them who are there guiding and protecting them as they move through their daily lives.  Therese states that when you give your life to God knowing your angels will help you complete your change in life—you will be successful in your hearts desires. You will learn how they speak to you, and how to make it through this life of positive change.  It is important to trust what you are doing. To know you are making the right choices to better who you are as a person.

Therese says that anyone can learn how to speak with and intuit the angels.  You need to pay attention to your spiritual intuition as well as your surroundings, and the messages that the angels are relaying to you will become clear. Practice everything you learn and use it with your heart.  Give yourself to the angles; you will see miracles when this is in place.  Trust God, believe in the angels and believe in yourself.

I know at times we all can get depressed and down because things don’t seem to be going our way.  It is times like this is when we need to reach within and believe in a higher power, God, angels whatever provides you with the inspiration to uplift your spirit and touch your soul.  It is our soul that longs to make the deep inner connection with God, and if we learn to nurture our soul we certainly will look at the difficult and challenging times with a new perspective, and sometimes that’s all it takes.

If you are in need of an uplift and some inspiration then you ought to read “Days Go By, Not Love”. Therese new book has been designed to provide the reader to dig deep,  reflect and write through journaling pages as the end of each chapter .  I don’t know about you,  but journaling is very cathartic for me–and Therese’s book provides ample opportunity to read, reflect and write.

If you want more information about Therese  Benedict and her new book please click here to be directed to her website, or click here directed to her Facebook page.

 

Enjoy this great interview with a wonderfully authentic author–Therese Benedict.

Steven KotlerIf you haven’t been paying much attention, “Abundance-The Future is Better Than You Think” has been on the NY Times best seller list for weeks.

In my interview with co-author Steven Kotler we explore the many topics covered in the book that are wonderfully articulated to guide the reader in understanding that we are living in unprecedented times.  Yes–we have our share to world problems, but on the flip side of the coin technology and science are moving at breakneck speeds and are solving many of these problems–and guess what?  Our standard of living is better than ever.

Steven points out that the focus of the book is to help change people mindsets. As fundamental as this sounds, it is a core problem in our society today.  Our brains are designed to be pessimistic  when it comes to getting our heads around global problems we are challenged, but we do much better and are more optimistic when it comes to issues that are in our reach.

Fueling this pessimism is our news media, as Steven states ” if it bleeds it leads” referring to how our media loves to report the doom and gloom and infrequently reports what is good about the world. Abundance certainly takes the bold contrarian and optimistic viewpoint for today’s cynical times, but the authors give proof that we are not living in such dire times.

Steven cites that poverty has decreased more in the last 50 years than in the previous 500. At a global level, the gap between wealthy nations and poorer nations continue to close.  Despite plenty of hardship we are living longer, wealthier, healthier lives.

The authors state that three (3) current forces are leading our world toward abundance.  1) A Do-It-Yourself revolution of backyard thinkers, which now extends far beyond homebrew computers and custom cars it is outdoing governments with high-impact innovationsin neuroscience, biology, genetics, nanotechnology and robotics. 2) A new source of techno-philanthropists who are dedicating their fortunes to solving grand, abundance-related challenges. 3) The poorest of the poor, the so-called “bottom-billion” have been plugged into the global economy by the internet, micro-fiance, and wireless communications.   By the end of 2013 , over 70 percent of the world’s population will have access to low-cost communications.

This perfect convergence of technology, science and communications is forging an opportunity for  abundance and equanimity worldwide.  I certainly agree with the authors viewpoint, and have seen massive changes “for the good” in our society.  If you want to get the facts, and learn more about what amazing technological and scientific advancement will change our world, then you need to read and study “Abundance“.  You will be glad that you did.

 

If you want more information the author have an amazing website, and you can click here to be directed to it.  You can also visit the Facebook page by clicking here, or watch some great YouTube videos about the book.  I hope you enjoy this great interview with a “thought leader” in the field of science, technology and spirituality–Steven Kotler.

Tobin BlakeI recently had the pleasure of conducting an interview with author Tobin Blake.  His new book entitled “Everyday Meditation-100 Daily Meditations” is a wonderful book providing the reader with great techniques to “drop in” to a meditative state.

One of the issue we discussed during our interview, and is probably on the mind of many of my listeners is the concept of “the waterfall of thoughts”  I know that personally when I go to meditate that “the waterfall of thoughts” are frequently there.  You know the to-dos, and why am I taking this time to meditate, I have more important things to attend to. Tobin’s advice is really simple, and one that most meditation teacher recommend, let the thoughts flow–just be with them they are a natural part of who we are. Once we let them go they finally evaporate, and we can quickly find ourselves in a blissful state of connection with the Universal Energy-Aha!!!!

Tobin states in his book “Everyday Meditation” that meditation is a conscious act of turning around and facing inward.  I personally love this analogy about meditation, it certainly is a method to help us turn within, be with our breath and take a deep journey into a relaxed state leading to calm, radiance and love.

Tobin refers to taking this journey as making the connection to our core self. He says that our core self does not ask for much, in fact it requires only one ting, which is absolutely essential.  It asks that you love it and want to experience it above anything else–at least for one perfect instant.  Your own sincere desire, in your command alone, is the only force that can rejoin your awareness with your core, because desire is the active agent of the single most powerful thing in the physical univers–your will.

Tobin’s new book “Everyday Meditation” has lots of food for thought, and exercises to improve our meditation practice.  You can open his book up almost anywhere and receive the wisdom you need for the day.  It has 100 insightful meditations for your health, stress relief and everyday joy.

 

I hope you enjoy my interview with author Tobin Blake and if you want more information about Tobin please click here to be directed to his website.