
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
heart

Early on in my life I had a couple of realizations that have guided me through what I’ve done. One is that life is about continuous growth. The purpose and meaning of life is to improve, grow, change, adapt, and do something that advances me along the way. The second realization was that it also needs to be about service to others. Everything, even in nature, grows and changes and adapts and leaves something behind so those coming after can grow and change and adapt better. When giving back is run through the intelligence of the heart, it avoids being only ambition and becomes a deeper service to others.
When I was 21, I met Doc Childre, who went on to found the Institute of HeartMath. He introduced me to a new understanding of heart and we explored that intelligence we all have inside, that we’re born with but that gets drowned out by the roar of ambition and survival. It’s the place inside where we find the ability to do things we usually can’t. It’s intuitive and high-speed. It’s the source of our true self and how we connect to others, to what’s going on inside, and to something larger than ourselves.
The HeartMath system isn’t only about the science – the science just supports the rest of it. It’s about heartcentric techniques designed to help us make a quick turnaround within ourselves, from judging to self-acceptance.
My next frontier is to take what I’ve learned to the next octave in consciousness, to quicken my turnaround time. That gets into looking more deeply at my own vanities and the parts of myself I’ve started to work on but haven’t completed. Like, do I appreciate openly, even when it’s not convenient?
I use HeartMath techniques to allow myself to observe what’s going on so I see more deeply into it. Then I use them to go to a place in myself where I move from seeing myself as bad to accepting and having compassion for myself. If I do something I’m not happy with, how quickly I can process it and bounce back? What I use as my measuring stick for growth is not whether I get things right all the time – nobody does, but the length of that bounce-back time and making it quicker. For me, that’s what shows me whether I’m being the man I want to be.
The heart’s intelligence provides is a sense of self-security. And with that, I have no problem being vulnerable.
– Howard Martin
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