30 May 35 Quotes to Move You From Fear to Freedom

Written by Jessi Kohlhagen Fear. It can stop us from doing great things, and it can keep us holding tight to the things that are hurting us. Most people operate in unconscious avoidance of fear, enabling it to color their thoughts, feelings and patterns. This causes them to procrastinate, lash out at others, react unconsciously, shrink in insecurity, hold themselves back from connecting with people in a meaningful way, and continually poison their dreams with doubt. Trust me, I get it. I’ve spent the better part of two years diving headfirst into my fears, exploring the terrain of my inner wilderness, and recovering the pieces of my soul that lie hidden deep within. It is no easy task. As Carl Jung said, “There is no birth of consciousness without pain.” But if I’ve learned anything through it all, it’s this… Every single decision we make in life is motivated by one of two things: fear or faith. In each and every moment, we have the power to choose. The key is to become aware of what motivates our choices, and to slowly, gently ease ourselves more and more in the direction of courage, trust and freedom. Because here’s what most people don’t realize… The lack of acknowledgment and exploration of our fears is exactly what gives them power. You can squirm over, under and around your fear. But you will never overcome it, or discover the treasure it contains, until you walk straight through it.

Here are 36 Quotes to Move You From Fear to Freedom:

11 Apr 5 Ways to Sharpen Your Mind

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...

21 Mar The Art of Aging Gratefully

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

20 Mar How to Achieve Your Health & Fitness Goals This Year

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.

28 Feb 40 Quotes to Help You Love and Embrace Your Body, Just The Way It Is

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…

28 Jan The Power of YES: How Agreeing Can Change Your Life

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!

27 Jan Believing in Your Vision is Enough to Make it Reality…

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:

23 Jan Change your mind, change your life…

Written by Sandra Garest Lifebook helped sparked a breakthrough for me on the connection between My Intellectual Life, and how it relates to my overall life vision...

18 Oct 7 Habits That Will Change Your Life

Habits have the power of shape our lives, for better or worse. If we wish to live a truly extraordinary life, we must pay especially close attention to the habits, rituals and behaviors that add up to who we are and how we live. Below, members share...

04 Oct How to Raise Kids Who Love Their Bodies

By Jessi Kohlhagen “To love yourself as you are is a miracle, and to see yourself is to have found yourself, for now. And now is all we have… and love is who we are.” - Anne Lamott As parents, it’s up to us to teach our children to love their bodies. We get the sacred task of showing them how to respect and enjoy their beautiful form, even when the world gives them so many reasons to do the opposite. To remind them that they get only one, that it is sacred and miraculous, and to cherish every moving moment. To instill confidence and self-love in them, by demonstrating what it looks like, how it feels, how it moves. To teach them that their bodies are magical in what they can perform, that they are constantly changing, and worth loving no matter what. Here are 20 ways we can raise our kids to love and respect all bodies -- most of all, their own.