The Awakened Life :: For Seekers and Creatives

This is The Shed Project, and you’re invited.

On September 14, I’m starting an 8 week adventure in letting go.

A Shedventure!

I will be letting go of all but 100 of my possessions, and 10 lbs off my body.

And I’d love you to join me…

…because when you travel light you have more freedom and flexibility. You can explore different paths and different choices.

…because when you let go of excess baggage you create beautiful, clear space. Space to breathe. Space to see your world and life afresh. Space for new energy and new ideas to flood in.

But letting go is rarely easy. Which is why we’re going to do this together.

The Shed Project is about coming together as an online community, to support each other in letting go of the excess baggage. To support you in letting go of whatever is weighing you down.

What’s weighing you down?

Stuff.

The stuff we accumulate in an attempt to feel safe, secure, happy, successful, and generally OK.
The stuff we use to fill every bit of space in our lives, so we don’t have to think or feel too much.
The stuff we consume to feed the vague yearning for more, so we can feel a little less empty for a while.

How’s that working for you?

Stuff is a tricky beast. You get more of it and then you need more space to store it, and then you need more money to maintain it. It’s an endless cycle that rarely satisfies your underlying need for love, safety and fulfillment.

Is the stuff helping you feel better, or you still feeling hungry, fearful and empty?

It’s time to shed it

Yeah, I know it’s scary, but we’re going to be right here with you. With the support of The Shed Project online community, we’ll do things we never thought possible before.

And you’re going choose whatever it is you need to let go on this journey.

Letting go of possessions is big. Who doesn’t have too much stuff in their home?

I’m letting go of all but 100 of my possessions.

You might want to let go of 1/3 of your possessions. Or empty that storage space that’s costing you money. Or finally sort through those boxes of keepsakes you haven’t looked at for 10 years.

You can let go of excess weight. I’m letting go of 10 lbs. You could let go of 1 lb (about 1/2 kg) per week for the 8 weeks. Or get rid of that comfort food that feels good in the moment and so horrible a couple of hours later. Or relinquish that other habit you’re using to numb out: smoking, drinking, or excessive TV / internet.

And, of course, we’ll be letting go of emotional baggage.

The awesome truth is this: whatever you choose, once you you start letting go, you will GAIN. You will gain unexpected and wonderful things that simply didn’t have the space to show up before.

So, what have you got to lose?

Join the Shedventure

As a member of The Shed Project, you’ll be part of an online community of people supporting each other in this 8 week adventure of letting go.

This is what you get as a Shedventure member:

**  You will have, available 24/7 through my website, The Shed Project Resource Kit. Inspiration and guidance. Books and websites.

**  You will have the support of our online community through a Flickr forum. We’ll share before and after photos, discuss the process and cheer each other on.

** You will be able to connect with other members of the online community and share blogging about their Shedventure,and links to your own Shedventure blog posts. (I’ll also be posting my own journey to 100 possessions, and to be 10 lbs lighter.)

** Access to video interviews with me.

** Live Ustream TV Q & A sessions with me.

I’ve gathered many guest writers who will be posting during the 8 weeks of the project about their own adventures in letting go.

These are people who have gone before us – losing weight, letting go of possessions, packing up, downsizing and lightening their load. Gathered from all over the globe, they will inspire you with their stories, ideas and flat-out bravery.

That’s what I know will be in The Shed Project right now, and I think it’s pretty exciting. But honestly, I’m even more excited to see what emerges over the 8 week journey.

When you get a bunch of vibrant, creative people together, truly amazing things will happen.
I know it’s going to be a thrilling and liberating ride!

I can’t wait. And I hope you’ll be there with me.

The Shed Project begins September 14.

Subscribers to my blog posts by email will recieve a special discount of 20% off The Shed Project member price, so become a subscriber today and receive the private pre-launch price.

General membership registration opens September 7th.

I have made this VERY affordable for everyone. Please help spread the word.

{ 8 comments }

In these last couple weeks of summer, do something summery and child-like.

Remember these days? This video takes me right back to my childhood summer home. My brothers and I each with a glass jar with holes punched into the lid by my father to catch fireflies.

And then the jar full on the bedside table flashing all night in the dark bedroom, and me in my Wonder Woman nightgown gazing at the neon green in a trance until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

{ 6 comments }

In the current cultural trance of Eat, Pray, Love Gag — I am thinking of the prophetic truth of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s book, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

And so in that spirit, I offer this brilliance from Arj Barker. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

{ 17 comments }

Ya know what’s painful?

When you see your ideas ripped off by people in their blog posts and interviews. You read something and its almost verbatim what you have said to them. It’s taken almost directly from the work you have sent them or told them about.

It’s so crummy.

The good thing is, these sorts of people are really not idea-generators, but are collagists. They are good at making things sexy and shiny. They are good at persona.

If you are someone who has gone through this, we can rest in the never-ending creative supply of years of formal training and the hard work of self-reflection.

I’m not going to make an elaborate policy page, I’m going to just let it go. Take what you want, but why not give credit? Why not follow the academic and spiritual tradition of acknowledging source?

I could spend time taking this sort of thing on, but instead, I’m going to follow the poets (as usual).

If this is a barb in your side also, I offer this to you.

And actually, this is just wonderful advice all-around.

“let it go–the

smashed word broken

open vow or

the oath cracked length

wise–let it go it

was sworn to go.

let them go–the

truthful liars and

the false fair friends

and the boths and

neithers–you must let them go they

were born

to go

let all go–the

big small middling

the biggest and all

things–let all go

dear

so come love”

– e.e. cummings

{ 17 comments }

1. Don’t sell snake oil or hot air.

2. Resist slick marketing that is really sleight-of-hand.

3. Become deeper.

4. Strip down instead of covering up.

5. Get off the self-improvement train– stop selling it, buying into it, and pedaling it to others.

6. Be genuine.

7. Surround yourself with a couple high-quality people who will tell you the truth about when you are bullshitting.

8. Understand emptiness.

9. Live simply.

10. Resist the addiction of confirmation.

11. Create a paradigm for making money where you aren’t striving, copying, or cut-throat competitive.

12. Take each weekend off from email, twitter, facebook, the cell phone, your calendar, and give candlelight a try or go to bed when it’s dark out.

13. Wander aimlessly regularly.

14. Let go easily.

15. Trust your intuition doubtlessly.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

LIFE COACHING :: My approach is common-sense Buddhism, which is to say, being present with what arises, making friends with what scares us and makes us uncomfortable, and accepting ourselves. Let’s create alchemy. Hire me.

CREATIVE COACHING & MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATION :: Whatever kind of project you’re working on, we work together to mine and polish the diamond of it… Of you. If you’re truly ready to shift, and just need some outside support and fresh energy, then you are ready to hire me.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER — LEARN MORE ABOUT MY COACHING

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

{ 22 comments }

“Love is not merely an emotion.

It is a meltdown that reestablishes a more unified space of brilliance, goodness, and sadness.

This is the function of love in spiritual tradition.

Issues of love bear on our opening to the basic nature of reality as compassion and on beginning to see that we are fundamentally not separate from others.”

-Lama Lodro Dorje

Photo of His Holiness The 17th Karmapa

{ 3 comments }

My good friend Charles died recently. Yesterday I went to his memorial service.

He was someone who participated fully in life and was always up to some hilarious mischief. He engaged with daily life with a wry smile on his face and loved to play. Being with him, was to be suspended from the worry and anxieties of my life. After one of our outings, I always felt refreshed, renewed, lighthearted.

I feel really sad and I also feel that nebulous anger that you can’t do a damn thing about someone being gone. It’s all so impermanent folks. Poof! In a moment, someone disappears forever.

And that’s why we really should try and lighten up and enjoy things a little more. And also, as Charles would say to everyone, “If that’s what you want to do, you really should do everything you can to make that happen.”

And so in the absence of a friend and amidst the fleetingness of my life, I am renewed to live more fully. To enjoy, to lighten up, to make the things that I long to do, happen.

“The nimble ovenbird.

The dignity of pears.

The simplicity of oars.

The imperishable engines

inside slim fir seeds.

All of these hint how much we long for the impermanent

to be permanent.

We want the hermit wren to keep her eggs

even during the storm.

And we want eternal oceans.

But we are perishable friends.

We are salty, impermanent kingdoms.”

-Robert Bly

{ 8 comments }

Would you like to be more present in your life?

I’d love for you to join me for my talk at this Thursday’s upcoming Tribal Truth gathering Reflection in the Now in NYC.

What holds us back from being more present in our lives right here right now?

Most of us aren’t even aware that we are confusing the present with the past and the future.

Come hear my talk and a Q and A session.

I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at this event, so please don’t be shy — come down and enjoy an inspiring evening and see what I have to say about being more present in our lives!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Giving Nature Centre
155 W. 19th St., 5th Floor

6:30 — 9:30PM

$25 at the door, or register online for just $20.
(Get in quickly — tickets will sell out fast!)

See you there!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

LIFE COACHING :: My approach is common-sense Buddhism, which is to say, being present with what arises, making friends with what scares us and makes us uncomfortable, and accepting ourselves. Let’s create alchemy. Hire me.

CREATIVE COACHING & MANUSCRIPT CONSULTATION :: Whatever kind of project you’re working on, we work together to mine and polish the diamond of it… Of you. If you’re truly ready to shift, and just need some outside support and fresh energy, then you are ready to hire me.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER — LEARN MORE ABOUT MY COACHING

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

{ 4 comments }