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9 Keys to a Liberated Life
Today is the big day — the Liberated Life Project’s second blog-a-versary (word?) as well as my own birthday. I started this site two years ago, on my 49th birthday. This is what I wrote when I first launched the LLP:
The Liberated Life Project is a vehicle for my passions and my deepest intentions. It is a way for me to share what I love with a bigger circle of people, and to be fully supported by the universe for doing so.
Today I want to give something special to everybody. 9 Keys to a Liberated Life is my gift to you, a short e-book packed full of guidance to help you live a life free of fear and full of possibility. It has been lovingly designed by Anoki Casey, a very creative soul who also designed this whole site.
You can download the book here:
9 Keys to a Liberated Life
After today the book will live on this page: http://liberatedlifeproject.com/9-keys-to-liberation/
I am so grateful to all of you for being part of my life. The vision of the LLP could not exist without you, for it is entirely based in the alchemy of relationship. “Freedom” is a pretty big concept to explore, but we’ve done that wholeheartedly together over the past two years and I look forward to many more!
If you would like to help me celebrate this birthday, these are the very best gifts you can give me:
1) Share this e-book! Post it on your Facebook page, Tweet it, Google plus it, or even old-fashioned email it.
2) Share the LLP with a friend. Encourage them to join Team Liberation.
3) Leave a tip in the tip jar. The LLP has been a labor of love for these past two years. If you’d like to show some love back in the form of a donation, I would be deeply grateful.
The Great Giveaway, Continued
Many indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest had (and still have) a ritual called the potlatch — a gift-giving festival that also serves as the foundation for their economic system. The word potlatch comes from the Chinook language and means “to give away.”
In that spirit, I’m continuing the blog birthday celebration with another giveaway here (see this past Tuesday’s post for a fantastic book giveaway). There’s something for everyone, from e-courses on creativity and presence, to support for entrepreneurs, to beautiful watercolor cards.
I’ve contributed some of my own offerings and invited several friends to donate to this giveaway as well. I am delighted to feature their good work here and encourage you to learn more about all of them.
DEC 2 UPDATE: This Giveaway is now closed and the winners have been chosen… thanks for your interest! We’ll do it again next year : )
PRIZES
E-course: Fall in Love with Your Work (the self-study version)
Win a spot in my popular e-course! This 30-day course is designed to support you to take the first steps toward creating a sustainable livelihood with meaning and purpose. This is the self-study version of the course, which means you can start it at any time and have access to recorded teleconferences. Click here for more info.
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E-course: Awareness Arts (from Lisa Wilson of LifeUnity)
Win a spot in the premiere version of the Awareness Arts course, coming out in early 2013. The Awareness Art series guides participants through a creative practice of mindful engagement with life – dirty laundry and all.
Begin where you are, return to who you’ve always been. It all begins with awareness.
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E-course: The Gift of Presence (from Joy Holland of Facets of Joy)
This affirmations e-course is for you if:
- You wish to experience inner peace in the midst of any type of external circumstances.
- You wish to honor your talents and skills as you create and connect.
- You have a “heart whisper” (a dream) and wish to live it, right now, as you are.
- You fully understand the concept of presence and would like to use it to enhance/enliven a specific area of your life, or the feel of your life in general.
Click here for more info.
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Fully Engaged Toolkit (from Five Directions Consulting)
This is another one of my creations. Designed for small nonprofits but useful to anyone who has a small business, this virtual toolkit is a do-it-yourself system that give you the knowledge and tools to effectively market your cause or products quickly and at minimal cost.
Click here for more info.
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Book: Soul Power to Your Message (by Michelle Barry-Franco)
Soul Power to Your Message is a step-by-step guide for crafting and delivering your life-changing message to a room full of people. It is filled with inspiration and examples to help you apply the process to a variety of circumstances, from keynote speaking to workshops to retreats, to non-profit community outreach. This brand new book is coming out in early December and will be sent to you after its publication.
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30-minute “Guidance and Encouragement” call with me
I started doing these calls as part of the “Fall in Love with Your Work” course and am happy to offer it for other areas of your life as well. If you are interested in exploring how a spiritual practice might benefit you and want some guidance on how to structure that into your life, this session may be helpful to you.
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45-minute Coaching Call with Ursula Jorch
Light a fire under your business with a 45 minute 1:1 coaching call with Work Alchemy’s Ursula Jorch. In her 16 years as an entrepreneur, she’s coached people to transform themselves into who they came here to be as entrepreneurs and as people. With a combination of left- and right-brain approaches, Ursula teaches you to allow your soul to guide you, and your brain to serve you.
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Watercolor wildlife postcards (created by Michele Theberge)
A set of nine beautifully printed bird postcards, includes three each of: Nashville Warbler, Black Phoebe, Fox Sparrow. This is a series Michele painted of birds that live in her region, borne of lots of watching and observing. These are reproductions of original watercolor paintings and have all the richness and nuance of the originals. Also take a look at Michele’s wonderful work here: http://www.micheletheberge.com/
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Enjoyed this article? Want to get posts from the Liberated Life Project delivered to your in-box? Become a member of “Team Liberation” and you’ll also get a free e-book: “31 Quotes for Living a Liberated Life.”
10 Best Freedom Books
Photo by Delphine via Flickr Creative Commons (devosdelphin)
As part of my birthday celebration, I’m delighted to share this list of my 10 favorite books that have supported me on the path of liberation. It’s been a joy to take a walk down my own literary memory lane and remember the books that have had a huge impact on my life.
The list is in alphabetical order because there is no way I could rank them in any other way… they are all quite different from one another, and all precious gems.
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Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing
By Carolyn Myss
Dr. Caroline Myss is a medical intuitive. In this book, she weaves together the Hindu chakra system with the seven Christian sacraments and the Kabbalah (Tree of Life) from Judaism. In the process, Myss maps out a pathway to reclaiming our personal power and finding a deep level of healing from our past traumas and stories. Reading this book and working with the wisdom offered here proved to be a turning point in my life many years ago.
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The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment
By Maria Nemeth
I discovered this book about 12 years ago when I was faced with more than $30,000 of credit card debt and realized that I needed to straighten out my relationship with money. The Energy of Money stood out from the crowd of books on this topic because it approaches money from a spiritual and energetic point of view, not simply from an accounting perspective. I’m sure that I could not have paid off that debt if I had not deeply studied the lessons in this book and allowed it to fundamentally change how I view this thing we call “money.”
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Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience
By Sharon Salzberg
This beautiful book is explores a quality that is too often associated with religious fanaticism – faith. This heartfelt book, in which Sharon shares openly about her own very challenging childhood, helps us to reclaim the original definition of faith and learn how to bring its healing power into our lives. She also makes an important distinction between fear-based hope and true faith. A wonderful book to read during dark times.
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Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row
By Jarvis Jay Masters
Jarvis Masters, the author of this book, inspired the tagline of the LLP: Freedom is an Inside Job. If you’re feeling trapped by the conditions of your life, I’d encourage you to find out more about this remarkable man (and check out this LLP post). Jarvis has spent more than 30 years in San Quentin, one of California’s highest security prisons. Jarvis began studying Buddhism while incarcerated and took vows in 1989 from Tibetan teacher Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. He also began to write, and this book was published in 1997. Incredibly inspiring.
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The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to
Creating Success on Your Own Terms
By Danielle LaPorte
This book is organized into three parts: Mojo, Moxie, and Results. There are powerful questions and worksheets throughout this book – you can’t read the Fire Starter Sessions without having a lot of fun and getting fully engaged. This is a magic book, or at least it was for me. The first night I started to read it, I made it through the first 37 pages then put it down by my bedside and fell asleep. I had vivid dreams throughout the night, weaving in some of the most beloved people in my life. When I awoke, one phrase from my dream was crystal clear: The world needs you to radiate. Read this book and remember your own capacity to radiate.
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The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom
By Joan Halifax
A mysterious and beautiful book from the woman who was my first Buddhist teacher, and with whom I still collaborate. The Fruitful Darkness is Roshi Joan’s memoir, in a sense, one in which she takes us through the emotional, spiritual, and geographical landscapes of her heart. She shares stories of being with indigenous people in Chiapas, Tibet, and Mali (Africa), as well as stories from her lifelong practice of Buddhism and friendships with people such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Francisco Varela. I also love this book for all the amazing quotes it features, from sources as diverse as Edward Abbey to Rumi to Susan Griffin.
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Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
By Parker Palmer
I discovered this book years ago while staying at Seasons, the retreat center of the Fetzer Institute in Michigan. The book was left on our pillows, kind of a spiritual version of the bedtime mint. It has become one of my all-time favorite books, and one I turn to when I’m questioning the direction of my life, particularly around livelihood. This beautiful book is written from a Quaker perspective… that is, the author deeply values silence and the act of listening as a path of self-awareness.
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Mindfulness in Plain English: Revised and Expanded Edition
By Bhante Gunaratana
This is the first book I’d recommend to anyone who wants to start or deepen a meditation practice. It’s thorough, well written, touched with warmth and humor, and yet doesn’t over-simplify the subject. And it includes my favorite passages ever on the topic of meditation:
Somewhere in this process, you will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy. Your mind is a shrieking, gibbering madhouse on wheels barreling pell-mell down the hill, utterly out of control and helpless. No problem.
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Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
By Tara Brach
Tara Brach is a meditation teacher based in Washington, DC. Perhaps more than any other book, this one helped me to understand how to make friends with myself, just as I am. Tara describes the “trances” that we go under when old “not good enough” scripts are triggered, and how meditation and other practices can help us release these and come to complete self-acceptance. Full of very helpful guided meditations and exercises.
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Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
By Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
This is a Zen book, but it is not just a Zen book. It means a lot to me because Suzuki Roshi is the founder of the Buddhist lineage that I practice in. The quiet yet profound wisdom in this book will echo in your mind and heart long after you read it. Suzuki Roshi offers practical advice on posture and breathing for meditation, but also helps us to understand how the spirit of our meditation practice can be embodied throughout every act of our life.
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