23 Feb

Posted at 17:08h in Emotional Life

Devers Branden is one of the happiest people on the planet. Her joy is radiant, her compassion is remarkable, and her contentment in life is unshakable. Devers has achieved the most successful emotional life imaginable.

With no formal education in psychology, Devers forged an entirely new path in the world of psychotherapy. Alongside her former husband, Nathaniel Branden, Devers worked in clinics all over the world, helping thousands of individuals find new roads to happiness. She is also the co-author of books “Achieving High Self Esteem,” “What Love Asks of Us,” and many more publications. For several years, Devers also taught seminars through The Branden Institute. The most recent and compelling seminar is based on the discipline of happiness. After studying the subject for many years, her approach is simple, comprehensive, and profoundly wise.

The concept of happiness is often vague, subjective, and too overwhelming for most to approach. However, Devers defines happiness as two fold. Happiness is the existence of an inner-peace - the creation of a quiet internal environment that allows people to hear themselves. Happiness is also the experience of striving for achievement, the realization of personal goals.

23 Feb

Posted at 10:26h in Lifebook Members
There is a line in James Cameron’s movie, “Avatar” which really strikes a chord with me in how I arrived at this place in my life – having an absolute blast while traveling around the country with my friends in The Second City touring company making people laugh. That line is, “sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane act.”

22 Feb

Posted at 01:21h in Emotional Life, Lifebook Members
By:  Lifebook Member John Vieceli Emotions are an incredibly interesting subject. They have a certain duality that reminds me of a concept in Zen philosophy. The concept of: 'You as center' and 'You as periphery'
  • 'You as center' refers to you as the center of your world - inside yourself - and what occurs internally.
  • 'You as periphery- refers to the meeting point between you (internal) and the outside world (external).
When it comes to my emotions I use a philosophy similar to this concept. I look at my emotions as internal (how I feel and what occurs inside) and external (how I express myself to the world around me). Each emotion has two different focal points – one facing inward and one facing outward.

14 Feb

Posted at 02:44h in Uncategorized
What have been the "defining moments" of your life? What are the most important situations and events you've experienced that have shaped you as a human being? Have you ever experienced an event that was so deeply intense, or powerful, or scary or or moving that it changed you to the core? I think it's difficult to get through life without having at least a few experiences like that... And if you live the way Missy and I do, you'll probably encounter a few more than average. We spend the winters in a different part of the world every year with our children. Last year we lived on the beautiful island of Bali for 5 months, the year before we had an epic South East Asian Adventure... And this year we decided to live in the Middle East; the Arab Emirates, Oman, Lebanon and Egypt. Travel is one of our greatest passions. We've enjoyed over 20 years of intense, focused, adventure travel together. We've shared MANY life-changing experiences, which have made us smarter, shaped our lives, our parenting philosophy and our relationship. But nothing could have prepared us for what we would experience in Cairo in the winter of 2011…

04 Feb

Posted at 16:53h in Health & Fitness
Find out who won Lifebook’s December VIP Challenge below! Remember - the challenge was simple… To identify, outmaneuver and neutralize the “enemies” before the holiday damage is done! In order to participate members had to:
  1. Declare their commitment by posting an initial comment on the Lifebook VIP Challenge blog post.
  2. Report progress regularly throughout the month of December by commenting on the Lifebook VIP Challenge blog post no LESS than once a week
  3. Send in a final results report (essay)

And the winners are... *drum roll*