Archive for January, 2010
Brian’s Staff Pick
My favorite Beyond Words DVD is Everest: A Climb For Peace. It’s an incredible story of 9 “peace climbers” from differing faiths and cultures who put aside their differences to make a team to climb Mt. Everest. There is amazing interplay amongst the climbers as they discuss their beliefs and differences, and the footage of them climbing Everest is truly spectacular. The film is narrated by Orlando Bloom, and each time I watch it, I am left with the feeling that peace on earth may actually be possible.
From Masculine Win-Lose to Feminine Win-Win
Today I’d like to introduce a thoughtful piece by one of our favorite authors, the delightful Pierre Pradevand, author of The Gentle Art of Blessing.
For many millennia, especially since the creation of the first cities, societies which were dominated by men were run essentially on the basis of a win-lose (competitive, Darwinian, masculin) paradigm. As long as technologies were extremely primitive, population density very sparse, and communications almost inexistent, this model could seem to function – and in fact, it did function for those in power: the nobility, the military, the rich, the clergy of all creeds and men.
However, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, things changed dramatically. From around one billion in 1800, world population has reached close to seven billion today. (more…)
Response to PW review of Kathy LeMay’s The Generosity Plan: Sharing Your Time, Treasure, and Talent to Shape the World
Last November, Publisher’s Weekly did a review for Kathy LeMay’s marvelous new book, The Generosity Plan. Overall, a wonderful review as can be seen below.
Professional global activist LeMay (founder and head of Raising Change), sets out to accomplish a twofold task with her inspirational handbook. First, she ventures to redefine the word “philanthropist” as an egalitarian title that can apply to the masses as well as the rich. The second is to show readers, step-by-step, just how easy it is to be philanthropic, regardless of personality or personal budget. LeMay’s success on both counts emerges from her commitment to her causes, the disarming candor of her personal stories of triumph, and the thoughtful discussion points and charts she provides to structure the financial planning process for giving on any salary.
There are two points, however, that I would like to comment on:
#1. “Unfortunately, the book’s greatest strength is also its weakness—LeMay’s well-presented plan is not a quick solution, but requires time, thought, and preparation.”
I have to wonder when it became a weakness to take time, thought, and preparation to make good choices and create lifestyle changes. We usually put a lot of time, thought, and preparation into planning what college we go to, what career we choose, how we save for our children’s educations, purchasing our home, our retirement, even our deaths. Why wouldn’t we put similar attention into a generosity plan? (more…)
New Maya Yoga DVDs with Nicki Doane
Hey Yoga fans — check out our new DVDs by Maya Yoga teacher Nicki Doane. Although rooted in Ashtanga, Nicki’s teaching goes beyond the traditional. Her classes combine asana, pranayama, philosophy, and poetry. The emphasis is on awareness: creating integrity within each pose that can be carried beyond the mat into daily life. Nicki and her partner Eddie have created an amazing studio on their rustic property on the north shore of Maui where they offer yoga retreats and teacher trainings throughout the year.
Nicki is frequently featured in Yoga Journal, and our resident Shaman AND yoga teacher, Rachel, was very eager to work with Nicki on a Beyond Distribution project. Rachel’s dream came true, and here with have the Maya Yoga series! Personally, I really like that the DVDs offer a choice of a 20, 30, or 45-minute practice. To me, that is my week’s yoga practice; 20 minutes on Monday night, 30 minutes on Wednesday, and finally a 45 minute practice on the weekend. Okay — so it doesn’t always work out as perfectly timed as that, but therein lies my life…
And don’t forget — enter promo code ‘NewYear’ at checkout and get 20% off and free shipping!
Jessica Maxwell on Coast to Coast
It is always exciting when one of our authors is on George Noory’s radio show Coast to Coast, and just last week the delightful Jessica Maxwell took the audio-spotlight to talk about her memoir Roll Around Heaven.
Roll Around Heaven is an all-true accidental spiritual adventure that led one nonbeliever to lunch with Deepak Chopra, dance with Stephen Hawking, heal animals with Yogananda, sing Christmas carols with an enlightened rabbi, banish evil spirits with a Himalayan Rinpoche, talk all night with the daughters of Islam, find true love in a Presbyterian choir, share Celtic visions on the isle of Iona, and learn an abiding respect for all paths to God.
Jessica has received some terrific reviews for her book. More magazine wrote:
If you want laughs, you don’t usually turn to spiritual memoirs. But Jessica Maxwell’s Roll Around Heaven is so full of LOL moments, it fits the bill…. Maxwell is exuberant, grumpy, skewering, wise and so gosh-darn good-hearted in her quest to understand the universe, I couldn’t help wanting to tag along for the ride—er, roll.
To hear more from the author who the great Tom Robbins once described as “Empress Tizzie Izzie of adventure writing,” click here to listen to the Coast to Coast episode.
“Make Your Resolutions a Reality” Special Offer
This is the time of year where the resoluteness with which you made your New Year’s resolutions is perhaps waning. In fact, according to some research posted on Psychology Today’s blog, “Most people fail in adhering to their stated New Year’s resolutions. Specifically, 22% fail after one week, 40% after one month, 50% after three months, 60% after six months, and 81% after twenty-four months.”
Yikes! That is a rather high fail rate. The article does pinpoint three reasons why this failure rate is so high:
(1) Unclear and vague goals. It is better to state “I plan on losing 20 lbs by June 1st” rather than “I plan on being more healthy.”
Save and Savor: Reflections on Sy Safransky’s Notebook #1
From Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education and the author of Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life. Humane Education is more than just ethics and environmentalism. It’s about choosing the Most Good—MOGO—for every interaction you do. Here is Zoe’s most recent blog post from her Humane Connection website.
I was reading Sy Safransky’s Notebook in The Sun magazine this morning. I love this page of my favorite magazine, in which the editor, Sy Safransky, shares short thoughts through individual paragraphs about a range of ideas and experiences. Sy’s writing is always thought-provoking and often moving, and today’s page was so much so that three of his paragraphs will serve as the topics for this week’s blog posts. (more…)
