1. The Daily Dharma Gathering from the Open Heart Project. Susan says, “Together with Buddhist teacher and awesome guy Lodro Rinzler, I’m pleased to announce a new program: three months of live meditation sessions Tuesdays – Sundays with some of the most accomplished and wise dharma teachers in the world.”
2. A Beautiful (and Budget-Friendly!) Laundry Room Makeover. As a person who keeps myself too busy, and an introvert who doesn’t have many people over to my house, most of my spaces look more like the before picture. What I like so much about this though is that it makes it so clear that if you put forth just a little effort, you can have a beautiful space. I’d like to be better about that.
3. The Struggle Is Real from Baby Weigel. I’m not a mom, but I love what Aubrey has to say here about the difficult choices we have to make sometimes about the things we love and what we do, how we spend our time. May she have an easy transition back.
4. Elizabeth Gilbert Has a New Book (and We’ve Got the First Look at the Cover!) on the Etsy blog.
8. cArtographies – Crystal Pite, a beautiful, inspiring video which led me to a similarly beautiful and inspiring project, “BC filmmaker and visual artist Brian Johnson profiles 19 BC-based artists, from a variety of disciplines, who are both inspired and challenged by their geographic surroundings.” Too bad the full video can only be watched if you are in Canada — lucky Canadians. You’ve got all the good stuff.
9. The Radiance Sutras, a beautiful text I found by way of this post on Kintsugi Dance.
10. How To Get Your Writing Mojo On from Laurie Wagner.
11. Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour – Episode 05 – The Eightfold Path.
12. The Splendid Table’s Refried Beans with Cinnamon and Clove, a recipe I found by way of Kirsten’s In the kitchen post. Another good thing from Kirsten this week was her post, Yoga and men.
13. A Yoga Teacher Training Certificate is Just the First Step on Elephant Journal.
14. Here’s Tina Fey And Amy Poehler’s Opening Monologue From The 2015 Golden Globes.
15. Good stuff on Slate: Children Photographed With Their Most Prized Possessions and This Guy Took a Photo Every Time He Saw Someone Reading a Book on the Subway.
16. 25 Ways to Stop Feeling Overworked and Overwhelmed from Marc and Angel Hack Life.
17. unexpected california eclectic on SF Girl by Bay.
18. Wisdom from Rachael Maddox, “Magic is the natural and spontaneous aligned activity that happens on the other side of presence and compassion.”
19. Some things that made me really angry this week: Charlize Theron Negotiates $10M Raise After Sony Hack Reveals Male Costar Was To Be Paid Millions More, and 100 serial rapists identified after rape kits from Detroit Crime Lab are finally processed, and The brutal secrets behind ‘The Biggest Loser.’
20. Self-Taught Chinese Street Photographer Takes China By Storm With His Perfectly Timed Photos on Bored Panda.
21. My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward.
22. Trapped In His Body For 12 Years, A Man Breaks Free on NPR.
24. Quitting Sugar Is Not The Answer.
25. On Stuff by Meghan Genge.
26. Wisdom from Chögyam Trungpa, on how meditation leads to wisdom,
Out of that precision and refinement comes gentleness. You are not just paying attention, but you are also aware of your own pain and pleasure, and you develop sympathy and friendship for yourself. From that you are able to understand, or at least see, the pain and suffering of others, and you begin to develop a tremendous sense of sympathy for others. At the same time, such sympathy helps the mindfulness-awareness process develop further. Basically, you become a gentle person. You begin to realize that you are good: totally good and totally wholesome. You have a sense of trust in yourself and in the world. There is something to grip on to, and the quality of path or journey emerges out of that. You feel you want to do something for others and something for yourself. There is a sense of universal kindness, goodness, and genuineness.
27. 23andMe is a DNA analysis service providing information and tools for individuals to learn about and explore their DNA, ancestry-related genetic reports. I kinda wanna do it.
28. How to set goals & commitments that you’ll actually keep from Alexandra Franzen.
29. Good stuff from Be More with Less: Defeat the Clutter that Defeats Your Purpose and Women Can Be Minimalists Too.
30. Please Don’t Start Meditating (Unless You’re Willing to Change) from Lodro Rinzler. Also from Lodro, A Meditation for Morning Intention.
31. My Accidental Book Deal from Laura Simms. I love this part,
The editor had already reached out to another coach about being the author, but she already had a book in the works and couldn’t take another one on. She recommended me.
That’s it.
Someone recommended me. I’m not close to this person, we’ve never met in person. We’ve exchanged some complimentary words on Twitter. That’s the extent of our relationship. She just thought I’d be a good fit for the book.
And I had almost four years of writing samples on my blog to speak for me. And had released two ebooks on my own. And built a decent social media presence. Of course, there’s that. Let’s not discount all of that work. If luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, then I had done my side of the equation.
So that’s my accidental book deal. The book that showed up when I was just minding my own business, doing the work, and being visible.
32. Good stuff from MindBodyGreen: Benefits of Massage (Infographic) and 10 Signs You’re In A Codependent Relationship.
33. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: Buddha’s Daughters: An Interview with Insight Teacher Gina Sharpe and George Takei’s six best Buddhist posts.
34. Truthbomb #711 from Danielle LaPorte: “Make choices that liberate you.”
35. The 17 Naughtiest Dogs Of 2014.
36. Trust the Timing of Your Life, wisdom from Elizabeth Gilbert on Facebook.
37. Blink Now. “The BlinkNow Foundation’s mission is to provide an education and a loving, caring home for orphaned, impoverished and at-risk children.” This organization was founded by a single teenager, who is now Mom to 50+ children she’s adopted. Kinda makes you want to get off your ass, doesn’t it?
38. Sukha on the Squam blog.
39. Authentic Success in the New Year ~ with a little help from Liz Gilbert.
40. Your Turn Challenge, starts today. Read more of the backstory in Seth Godin’s blog post, Getting unstuck (a one week challenge).
41. Photo Battle: Katja Blichfeld vs. Ellen Van Dusen. So fun.
42. Neil Gaiman Shares The Easiest Way To Become A Successful Writer on BuzzFeed.
43. The unofficial comfort foods of every state in America. I wholeheartedly agree with the choices for Colorado and Oregon.
44. Syrup sandwiches and stolen toilet paper: Reddit users describe growing up poor.
45. A Note from the Universe, “All deliberate change, Jill, first comes from denying the logic that most gives you comfort.”
46. The Most Important Question of Your Life from Mark Manson. It’s not what you think.
47. Changing the World, One Word at a Time! | The Queen Latifah Show.
48. This Video Encouraging Women To Be More Active Has Gone Viral on BuzzFeed.
49. The Reason You Make Unhealthy Choices. Spoiler alert: “Self-compassion — accepting yourself without judgment when times get tough — is linked to better health behaviors.”
50. Rowdy Kitten’s Happy Links: From The Good Life to Gratitude. Tammy was one of the contributors to the Self-Compassion Saturday eBook and shared the link on her list this week.
51. The myth of perfection from Susannah Conway.
52. The things we’d rescue from the fire from Judy Clement Wall. The New York Times piece Judy links to is also worth reading, What Would You Grab in a Fire?
53. 19 Badass Instagrammers Who Prove Yoga Bodies Come In All Shapes And Sizes on BuzzFeed. Just one of the reasons Instagram is awesome.
54. When Their Cat Found Baby Ducks, They Never Expected This To Happen. So much cute.
55. Letter from the Birmingham Jail from Seth Godin.
Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray) 