Books - Improv - Creativity - Entrepreneurs - Yoga - Family 

I wish everyone could have the opportunity to experience a paid sabbatical as I have experienced over the past few months. Never before have I had the luxury to indulge so deeply in leisure and personal growth. 

Feeling energized, poised, and ready, I’ve started to search for a new, interesting and challenging career opportunity.  While I'm waiting for that to come to fruition, I think I'll share some of what I've enjoyed. 

Books:

Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life - This is for anyone who has moved past preparing (going to school, technical training, living with parents, etc) into adult life and is wanting to make the most of their life.  Based on Jungian principles, it is deep, but also enlightening. I've heard the author, James Hollis, Ph.D, speak several times. Each time I thought to myself that I should buy this book.  I finally did and I wish I had bought it sooner.

Into the Magic Shop - This is an easy and fun read packed with a surprising amount of practical life enhancing practises.  A neuroscientist, James R. Doty, MD, tells the story of how he started in an impoverished dysfunctional family and journeyed to become a renowned neurosurgeon.  Woven through his story are his love for magic and the teachings from a stranger met in a magic shop.  Teachings that carried him through all the adversities life brought to him. 

Finding Your Own North Star - This book is full of exercises developed by the author, Martha Beck, to assist those who feel that they are astray from their best life path.  Some of the case studies are expressed a bit irreverently, but the direct style probably makes the lessons being taught more clear and evident.  

The Shack - This is the book behind the recent movie of the same name.  It is a novel based on the real life experiences of the author, Wm. Paul Young.  It is a tender look at life and death and how we sometimes diminish our perceptions of God with our traditional and stereotyped mind set. As the parent of a deceased child, I found this book moving, touching, frightening and healing all at the same time. 

Beyond Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death - I'm intrigued by both science and religion.  The practical and the mystic.  The physical and the metaphysical.  This book does an outstanding job of bringing together what we can learn from science and how that does/doesn't align with notions about spirituality.  The book provides clear and understandable descriptions of quantum phenomenon.  If you want to "get it" at a new level, this is the book.  Author Robert Lanza, MD with Bob Berman. 

Light on Life - This book came to me as I studied to become a Certified Yoga Teacher. I love how various spiritual teachings tend to all align to the same root concepts.  This book details the philosophical teachings of Yoga.  If you want to understand Yoga at at deeper level than just physical stretching and balancing, I recommend this book.  Author B.K.S. Iyengar. 

Improv

A wise person suggested that I take improv classes to help me better understand and deal with fear.  I'm so very glad.  I took classes at Dallas Comedy House.  The teachers there are excellent.  The others in my class were a delight to get to know.  Everyone should give it a try. It isn't as scary as it sounds.  

Creativity:This adventure is only beginning.  I'm about to spend my next few weeks in a course call Creating with Heart at Studio Arts in Dallas.  The course is based on Julia Cameron's book, The Artist’s Way.  I've already read half the book.  It's full of exercises to connect - or reconnect - to your true creative self. Looking forward to starting classes.  



Entrepreneurs

In the course of contemplating starting my own business, I learned about SCORE. SCORE is a  non-profit organization that offers mentors and courses for anyone interested in becoming an entrepreneur.  The mentoring is free.  The courses are reasonably priced.  You can learn anything from how to start a non-profit, to how to start a consulting business, to how to use bookkeeping software, to numerous other things.  

Yoga

Yoga Teacher Training is certainly the thing to do if you want to teach yoga. Or, maybe, like me, you just want to know what the teachers know in order to deepen your own practice.  Either way, the hard work to complete the course is well worth the effort. Not all Yoga Teacher Training is equal.  I studied with Katherine and Shelly at Yoga Chikitsa in Richardson.  I've also studied some, before that, with the leaders of the Living Yoga Program in Austin. 

Family

Along the way Bev died.  Bev was the best big sister any child could ever imagine.  I wouldn't be who I am if Bev hadn't been there for me. Just a few of the things she taught me:

Only marry for love.  
But, remember:
it's just as easy to love a rich man
as it is to love a poor man. 

Horses lead with their heads.
Ladies let their feet take them where they want to go.
People only know you by what you show them.
So, show them your best.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust. 

Finally, with her death, as we gathered to celebrate her life, she taught me the importance of family.  Those of us who loved her now live in different cities and states.  Even so, when we came together after being long apart, we all knew we belonged.