Welcome to the Lifebook Podcast! In this episode, host Jordan River explores 5 cutting-edge ways to sharpen your mind. We all know that exercising and eating right are great ways to improve mental focus...

Written By Jessi Kohlhagen It’s amazing how every memory -- every experience we’ve ever had -- is sewn into the very fabric of who we are. Marks and moles, wrinkles and dimples, stiffness and softness, pounds gained and elasticity lost… Every part of our physical being carries a unique memory on our timeline of moments gone by. We are living legends, and our bodies are our autobiographies. When you really stop and think about it, aging is an extraordinary process; one that has been honored and celebrated throughout human history. Nearly every indigenous culture in the world reveres and celebrates the process of aging. Old age has long been identified with wisdom and a closeness to God, and Native communities view the journey into elderhood as a sacred time when an individual has the most to offer their community, and the world. Not surprisingly, these are the same communities that honor their intrinsic connection with the Earth, and seek to move in flow with the inevitable and beautiful cycles of Nature -- of Life, Death and everything in between. Different cultures have different attitudes and practices surrounding aging and death, and these collective perspectives have an enormous impact on our experience of getting older. The truth is, aging isn’t just a biological process -- it’s also a cultural one. “While many cultures celebrate the aging process and venerate their elders, in Western cultures — where youth is fetishized and the elderly are commonly removed from the community and relegated to hospitals and nursing homes – aging can become a shameful experience. Physical signs of human aging tend to be regarded with distaste, and aging is often depicted in a negative light in popular culture, if it is even depicted at all.” - The Huffington Post

Written by Paige Johnson Each year, many people make resolutions to lose weight, get fit, or become healthier. Unfortunately, a staggering 80% of people end up breaking those resolutions and never reaching their goals. Having a vision in mind for your health and fitness goals is important. Here’s how you can jump right into your health and fitness vision and come up with tangible steps to reach your goal.

One of the most essential elements that goes into loving, or being loved, is the experience of being seen. Not seeing something as it once was, or as it “should be.” But seeing it as it truly is, right now, in this irreplaceable miracle of a moment. This unwavering act of presence and understanding is the most powerful gift we could ever give to someone… and, perhaps even more importantly, it is the most magnificent, life-affirming gift we could ever give to ourselves. As Lifebook Member Dr. Joel Wade puts it in his moving post on love and visibility, “Love is fundamentally about seeing, hearing, and knowing another human being deeply. We cannot do that from within our own idealistic fantasy.” This goes for loving ourselves as well. To truly see, hear and know ourselves deeply, we must come out from behind our veil of forgetfulness, and look into our own true eyes. We must stand in simple understanding of ourselves, right here, right now. We must see ourselves, not with our eyes, but with our hearts… with our entire being. We must create a benevolent cycle of visibility and trust within ourselves. That’s when we get to feel that great resonance; that sublime emotion of being touched by the power of self-love and embracement, letting it fill us up from the inside out. And, ironically, this is what constitutes true, radiant beauty. In honor of this month’s Health and Fitness theme, and our personal quests to realize the power and potential of the glorious human form, here are 40 quotes to help you love and embrace your body, just the way it is…

Saying YES can be intimidating. It’s as if we’re changing our entire lives with one little word. And indeed, each time we commit to something new and uncomfortable, we shine a light into our shadow side and move into our resistances, making us more dynamic, more balanced and ultimately, more at home within ourselves and the world. So this year, we have an invitation for you… Stop hiding behind the word “No” and say “Yes” as much as you possibly can. No longer let fear or ego be the primary guiding forces of your life. Surrender yourself, moment to moment, with the belief that each and everything you meet is a key to your awakening, if only you would say YES. When we agree to participate in (and make room for) the things that are trying to make their way into our world -- whether enjoyable or unenjoyable, easy or challenging -- we create vast spaciousness within ourselves and our lives. We begin releasing our constricting grip on life, and learn how to move in flow, as if we are being led from one abundant moment to the next. Synchronicities start to occur, and before we know it, we experience ourselves living a magical existence where everything we need just appears and the next step is obvious. Of course, we can’t say yes to everything. We have real responsibilities to attend to, and only 24 hours in a day. The idea is to start saying YES to the things you would normally shy away from out of fear, nervousness, stress, discomfort, busyness or any other experience of limitation and resistance. Challenge yourself to change your patterns this year -- change how you meet the world -- and see what happens.
Here are some things to start saying YES to!

After talking with Jon and Missy about our top three goals at our Lifebook Ultimate weekend, we determined one of them was Home Environment. Jon recently encouraged us to start thinking about our Family Room and to start designing it based on how we want to spend our time as a family. We have done a lot of thinking and planning in these areas, which has been awesome, but it has also spurred on some additional transformation in the last week or two – in our game cupboard, music closet and home office (which also is a chiropractic room), craft closet, linen closet and toss-all room. I wanted to record my experience this morning because it was so powerful. I have been getting up early and working on getting rid of anything in these rooms that does not move me toward my life vision. I ask myself, “Does this bring joy to my life? Do I love it? Do I need it? Do I use it?”

Written by Lifebook Member Stacy Woodward When I first went through Lifebook in January of 2010, I was in a place in my life where I wasn't happy, I wasn't moving forward, and I was in a relationship that needed to end. I was in a rut, and I couldn't see where I was going. I kept thinking, "there has to be more to life than this." Looking back now, my big problem was self-confidence. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time worrying about what others thought about how I was living my life. I had spent my life with no idea of what I wanted to do with myself. I didn't know what I wanted to be. In fact, I wondered how Lifebook was going to help me if I didn't even know which direction to go. I went anyway. After going through the process, I started to realize that I did kind of know what I wanted to do, but I never really thought I could do it... and therefore, I never really thought it through enough to get the complete picture. When I left my Lifebook Session I was excited, but also wary about whether I was really ever going to do anything with it. My big goals that I left with were as follows:

"He wrapped himself in quotations, as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors." -Rudyard Kipling There’s no denying the power and potency of quotations. Humans have used them as inspiration and guidance for thousands of years, like road signs from all the wise men who walked...