
Affectionately known as "America's #1 Success Coach," Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a leading authority in the areas of self-esteem, achievement motivation, and peak performance. [www.jackcanfield.com]

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]

Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]

Krishna Kaur is the founder of YOGA for Youth, a program that takes yoga, meditation, and stimulating discussions on the philosophy of yoga to urban youth. [www.yogaforyouth.org]

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]

Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and an environmental activist who uses her voice in the number one spectator sport in America as a catalyst for change. [www.leilanimunter.com]

By going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed modern slavery's penetration into the global economy. He co-founded Free the Slaves, which has helped to liberate thousands of slaves. [www.freetheslaves.net]

Sophie Chiche, lifebyme.com founder and curator, enjoys asking deep questions and living a life of meaning. Today she's launching Shape House, an urban sweat lodge, a place to melt away fears and fat. [www.shapehousela.com]

Entrepreneur and writer Mastin Kipp founded TheDailyLove.com, which merges pop culture with inspiration, and co-founded The Love Yourself Company, an apparel company that has started a global self-esteem movement. [www.TheDailyLove.com]

Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Chairman of The Elders, a group of world leaders who address some of the world's most pressing problems. He works energetically for human-rights and in his ministry. [www.tutu.org]

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. [www.womenforwomen.org]

Despite his physical challenges, Sean Stephenson has taken a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world. He's a professional speaker, psychotherapist, and author. [www.timetostand.com]

Kia Miller teaches Yoga at Yoga Works in Los Angeles, leads teacher trainings, and runs retreats and workshops on meditation, chakras, pranayam, and mantras, and other practices. [www.kiamiller.com]

Simon Mainwaring is an ex-Nike/Wieden creative, former Worldwide Creative Director at Motorola/Ogilvy, branding/advertising writer, author/speaker/blogger, Australian, idea geek. [www.simonmainwaring.com]

Shannon Bindler is a style editor, life coach, and the co-founder of Get Up Girl, an empowerment company that inspires women to shine. [www.getupgirl.com]

Grammy-nominated art director/designer/photographer Mathieu Bitton has designed over 450 CDs and movie posters. He's a renowned collector of and authority on black films and their soundtracks. [www.candytangerine.com]

Opus Reps founder and agent-producer Jorge Perez travels the world producing photo shoots with great photographers and celebrities. He's also very involved with Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles. www.opusreps.com
gaia

As a child, I was fascinated by pond life. I loved paddling in streams with my little fishing net, collecting tadpoles, water beetles, and stickleback fish. I’d take them back home and keep them in a bucket, but many would die. The breakthrough came when we dug a pond in our garden. Now my new friends had a home.
Learning how to keep a pond healthy was an education for me. I came to understand how different species acted together to keep the ecosystem of the pond in balance. More than a decade later, when I was a medical student in London, I came across this same principle applied on a vastly larger scale. Gaia Theory, a new idea from science, proposed that life on Earth, like life in a pond, could be seen to act together as a whole.
At that time, I’d become interested in the holistic approach to healthcare. Rather than focusing on individual cells or organs, “whole person” medicine involves recognizing how each element contributes to a larger whole that’s more than the sum of its parts. A heart is more than just a bunch of cells, a person more than just a collection of organs. My medical training had been teaching me a lot about cells and organs, but missed important aspects of dealing with people. The holistic approach filled in some of those gaps, particularly when it came to understanding how people can play a role in healing themselves.
If your skin gets bruised or cut, within a few weeks it’s likely to have repaired itself. If you get a cough or a cold, your body’s natural self-healing abilities act to bring you back to health. The ecosystem of a forest has a similar restorative capacity, bringing itself back from the brink after a fire, flood, or drought. Gaia Theory proposes that life as a whole acts with its environment to regulate itself. So does the living Earth have the ability to self-heal after trauma? If so, could that ability act through us, its parts?
The word Gaia tells a different story about who I am and what my purpose is. On one level I’m an individual with my own dramas and concerns. But on another, I’m rooted in something much larger than myself. There’s a bigger story going on, and I’m thrilled to be part of it.
– Chris Johnstone


Explore More Meaning
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life coach. health strategist. affirmationist.
Life Coach and speaker Danea Horn is an expert at helping people design and implement strategies for a fulfilling life when facing health challenges. She developed the website Creative Affirmations: Redefining Positive for Real Life. [www.DaneaHorn.com]
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glamour giver. secret sharer. slumber party hotshot.
Accomplished beauty expert and author, Elizabeth TenHouten has devoted her career to bringing out the best in women, naturally. Her book, Natural Beauty: Homemade Recipes for Radiant Skin & Hair features recipes for homemade topical treatments and skincare remedies. [www.elizabethtenhouten.com]
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