Brave Girls Club | Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. Good stuff from Kat McNally: August Moon 13 and The push and pull of grateful.

2. Japanese Photographer Takes Cutest Pictures of His 4-year-old Daughter on Bored Panda.

3. How to talk to someone who’s grieving on Salon.

4. Wisdom from a Facebook post written by Elizabeth Gilbert, “I’ll tell you one of the really good things about getting older: Slowly, you start to work out a comprehension of your own inherent madness.”

5. Enough is Enough by Diane Clement.

6. 15 Ways to Spread Kindness in Your World Today on The Positivity Blog.

7. Grief Intelligence: A Primer on Huffington Post.

8. Not Knowing What to Say on Gluten Free Girl.

9. Need a totally profesh-sounding bio? Like, right now? A Mad Libs-style template for anyone, ever. from Alexandra Franzen.

10. I Believe An Introduction Is In Order. on Blog con Queso. There is almost nothing cuter than a boy and his dog, (unless it’s a girl and her dog).

11. Insights at the Edge, Sounds True interview, Tara Brach: Radical Acceptance.

12. Wisdom from Kurt Vonnegut, shared by Elizabeth on the Squam blog,

The arts are not a way to make a living.
They are a very human way of making life more bearable.
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly,
is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.
Sing in the shower.
Dance to the radio. Tell stories.
Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.
Do it as well as you possibly can.
You will get an enormous reward.
You will have created something.

13. 20 Hilarious Cooking Fails That Will Make You Feel Like an Iron Chef on Bored Panda.

14. 21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You’re Depressed. I might have posted this before, but it is worth repeating.

15. C.O.G. – Official Trailer, this autobiographical comedy is the first-ever screen adaptation of the work of acclaimed writer David Sedaris and I can’t wait to see it.

16. How To Make Anyone (And Everyone) Want You on Mind Body Green.

17. The Most Honest And Heartbreaking Reason To Leave Your Front Door Unlocked I’ve Ever Heard on Upworthy.

18. She allowed ~ Bella on She is Three.

19. Colbert Takes On Out-Mayor Johnny Cummings.

20. Voice Notes: Laura Simms, an interview with one of my favorite women on The Voice Bureau. I hadn’t realized that both Laura and I are INFJ, (there aren’t that many of us, only about 1% of the population).

21. isolation never looked so good, from SF Girl by Bay. Dreamy.

22. Cleaning: A Creative Practice? on Scoutie Girl.

23. Shake the Dust.

24. 5 Keys to An Engaging Online Course on the Ruzuku blog.

25. 20 Historic Black and White Photos Colorized and The 50 Most Perfectly Timed Photos Ever from Twisted Sifter.

26. Recovering the Body, “Physical practices to foster recovery from addiction,” a new blog from Jennifer, the author of Guinevere Gets Sober, one of my favorite blogs, one of my favorite bloggers.

27. 17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand on BuzzFeed.

28. Outside’s Best Towns 2013, Editor’s Choice: Fort Collins, Colorado. It is pretty great here.

29. Kid President is celebrating World Humanitarian Day!

30. More wisdom from Elizabeth Gilbert on Facebook,

We need you here NOW, as you are, which is almost certainly GOOD ENOUGH. Speak now. Act now. Try now. Raise your voice now. Throw your ideas into the ring now. Show somebody your work now. Ask for the promotion now. Present your questions and doubts and suggestions now.

31. Fear Project, from artist Julie M. Elman, “I illustrate people’s fears. Working with their words, I just try to visualize what those fears could possibly look like. I work quickly and post my pieces no matter how I feel about them. It’s a good way to get over any fears I have about the creative process.” Thanks to Jeff Oaks for sharing the link.

32. Wisdom from Seth Godin, “The Dummies mindset, the get-rich-quick long sales letters, the mechanistic, industrial processes aren’t on offer because they’re the best we can handle. No, they sell because they promise to reduce our fear.”

33. From Brave Girls Club,

Every day the sun comes up and every day the sun goes down. Every day we have an entire day to do the best we can do, and then we get to go to bed and be done with it. When we wake up every morning, we have the chance to start over with a sparkling brand new day. No blemishes, no stains, nothing . . . a brand new beautiful perfect day to make into whatever we choose. If we stumble and have a less than desirable day, or if we make mistakes, if we do things we are not proud of . . .

. . . we get to start over the next day.

Let each day go and be done with it. TODAY is your day. TODAY is THE day, the very most important day of your life right now. Let yesterday go and start over fresh.

34. 32 Books That Will Actually Change Your Life, according to BuzzFeed.

35. 5 Ways to Wake Up on Elephant Journal.

36. Wisdom from Anne Lamott on Facebook.

37. Wisdom from Tama J. Kieves,

Sometimes we don’t act because our souls know it’s not the right time or right thing. It’s not that we’re lazy. It’s that we’re fiercely guided. Fear tries to push us. Love will wait until we’re ready — because only our readiness makes it the right time.

38. Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Biggest Self-Hater of All? on Elephant Journal. Miriam Hall is one of my favorite Elephant Journal contributors.

39. The Making of a 21st-Century Illuminated Manuscript: Inside Debbie Millman’s Creative Process on Brain Pickings.

40. From Susannah Conway’s Something for the Weekend list, Chickpea Pesto Sandwich Recipe from Thug Kitchen.

41. Quite possibly the best video ever, OWN Original Shorts: Dogs/Meditation. The only problem with this video is that it’s not long enough.

1. Wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi, “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”

2. 23 Pictures That Will Warm Your Cold, Dead Heart on Buzzfeed.

3. Feel Her from Julie Daley on Unabashedly Female.

4. Your dog isn’t being friendly. He’s an asshole. And so are you. from The Dog Snobs. Amen.

5. 10 Questions for Grace and Whit on A Design So Vast. This had me cracking up and crying. I hope Grace gets her dog.

6. Things to do after your dog has died from The Other End of The Leash. *sob*

7. Allison Mae Photography, Ansel & Tilda: July, in which Allison shares photos of her own dogs. She’s just so g o o d.

8. Here we are today {Just One Paragraph 8/30} from Christina Rosalie.

9. From Brave Girls Club,

Dear Beautiful Girl,

You are enough.

You have enough. You do enough. You think enough. You serve enough. You know enough.

So enough is enough, girlfriend. Pat yourself on the back, go take a hot bath, and let yourself chill for a while.

Sounds like you could use a little break from being so much of enough.

Just BE.

You are so wonderful, just the way you are. You are loved. xoxo

10. Wisdom from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”

11. Say I Love You Often, on Elephant Journal.

12. Wisdom from Seth Godin, in his post The opposite of anxiety,

I define non-clinical anxiety as, “experiencing failure in advance.” If you’re busy enacting a future that hasn’t happened yet, and amplifying the worst possible outcomes, it’s no wonder it’s difficult to ship that work.

13. 7 Simple Lessons From the Mat and My Life is too Complicated to Simplify from Be More With Less.

14. An Open Apology to All of My Weight Loss Clients from Iris Higgins.

15. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön,

It’s painful when you see how in spite of everything you continue in your neurosis; sometimes it has to wear itself out like an old shoe. However, refraining is very helpful as long as you don’t impose too authoritarian a voice on yourself. Refraining is not a New Year’s resolution, not a setup where you plan your next failure by saying, “I see what I do and I will never do it again,” and then you feel pretty bad when you do it again within the half hour.

Refraining comes about spontaneously when you see how your neurotic action works. You may say to yourself, “It would still feel good; it still looks like it would be fun,” but you refrain because you already know the chain reaction of misery that it sets off.

16. 6 Ways to Thwart an Off-Leash Dog Rushing You and Your Dog from Dogster.

17. More wisdom from Seth Godin, in his post Q&A: What works for websites today?

The only reason to build a website is to change someone. If you can’t tell me the change and you can’t tell me the someone, then you’re wasting your time.

18. More wisdom from Brave Girls Club,

Dear Beautiful Girl,

What are you willing to let go of today? Life is so much about knowing what to hold on to, and what to let go of…and having faith that it will all work out in the end.

Your heart and your gut know exactly what you need to let go of, even if your brain is giving you all sorts of reasons to clamp your fingers around it. There are seasons and times to have different things, relationships and situations in your life…and then the seasons change and it’s time to let go of many of those things. Change is hard….but change is absolutely necessary.

We’ve all got to let go of old habits, old situations, old behaviors and sometimes even old relationships to make room for what is meant for the next part of our lives. If we just get quiet, get brave, and listen very closely….our hearts will tell us what to let go of. This doesn’t mean it will be easy…it just means that it is what is meant for now.

You can do this. Listen to your heart. Be brave. You are loved. xoxo

19. An Inconvenient Hunger from Rachel Cole. (P.S. Registration for Rachel’s next session of Ease Hunting opens today!)