With so much of the country facing the stress of natural disasters, we see communities coming together and neighbors helping neighbors. However, in the face of tragedy there is also the other side of humanity. Stress brings out both the best and the worst in all of us. For years, health professionals have been telling …Read More
Category: TED talk
Elizabeth Gilbert – On Creativity
In a prior blog, I talked about flow states. One of the states where we feel like we are “in the flow” is when creativity “flows through us.” In her TED talk below, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the book Eat, Pray, Love) discusses the myths of creativity, and how changing our mindset can improve access to our …Read More
Jill Bolte Taylor – My Stroke of Insight
Seeking nirvana? enlightenment? Struggling to escape control of the mind chatter? Trapped in the baggage of the past? Stuck in the anxiety of the future? Disconnected from the world? Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, describes how a stroke and near-death experience turned off her LEFT BRAIN and gave her an insight into the RIGHT BRAIN …Read More
Brene Brown on Courage
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, …Read More
Brene Brown on Wholehearted Living
“Connection is why we are here. It gives meaning and purpose to our lives.” Brene Brown is a “researcher-storyteller” that studies human connection. She collects stories as her data. The goal of science is to understand, control, and predict the world. Science loves certainty. As a child, I loved the natural sciences. I loved exploring the …Read More
Life Purpose in 5 minutes?
A secret to happiness is … knowing your life purpose. What is your life purpose? Adam Leipzig says that we can figure it out in 5 minutes. (His questions are so simple and yet so profound that I’m re-posting this to my new blog to start off the new year.) Ask yourself these 5 questions. Who …Read More
The Power in Vocal Communities
Last summer, I spent a week with my friend Ysaye Barnwell in her annual workshop “Building a Vocal Community” at the Omega Institute. In this workshop singers and non-singers (like I used to be) learn to sing in the oral tradition. (No music to read. No words to read. We learn by listening and repeating.) …Read More
Full Voice – Five Elements of Vocal Presence
Are your unconscious vocal habits keeping you from your full potential? When I first started public speaking, my voice was hidden behind the podium and trapped in my throat. I had no volume and a singing cadence that would put you to sleep. Someone who is now a dear friend (through no fault of her …Read More