author. speaker. motivator.
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]
political powerhouse. media mogul. author.
Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]
author. speaker. linchpin.
Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]
yogi. philanthropist. dynamic teacher.
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]
producer. philanthropist. tv legend.
Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]
race car driver. activist. carbon free girl.
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]
Freedom Fighter. Philanthropist. Game Changer.
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]
mom. big dreamer. lady in red.
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]
Writer. Entrepreneur. Daily Lover.
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]
singer. musician. crier.
Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]
archbishop. author. peaceful leader.
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]
author. ceo. humanitarian.
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]
speaker. psychotherapist. life embracer.
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]
yogi. meditator. teacher.
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]
creator. writer. idea geek.
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]
Strategist. Writer. Life Coach.
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]
Designer. Art Director. Passionate Creator.
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]
Agent. Producer. Photography Enthusiast.
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
wilderness
Louis G. Herman
professor. big medicine seeker. mystery inviter.
Louis G. Herman is the author of Future Primal: How Our Wilderness Origins Show Us the Way Forward, as well as a professor of political science at the University of HawaiiWest Oahu. [www.futureprimalbook.com]
I try to balance my social and intellectual life with time alone in nature. From garden to mountain. From beach and bush to night sky view. The wilder the better. Wilderness is the “big medicine” healing, refreshing, guiding and inspiring. It reminds me of what our civilization has forgotten and repressed with catastrophic consequences: for nine tenths of the time we have been human we have lived with a profusion of charismatic wildlife in wilderness.
Growing up on the unspoiled coastline of South Africa I could walk alone on miles of empty bush lined beach, drive out to visit a herd of free living elephants in the veld, encounter baboons at sunset sitting by the roadside in the mountain passes. When I was 12 my family moved to England. For ten years I went to high school and university. I lived an indoor urban existence. That experience shocked me into awareness of how essential it was to have human-free wilderness zones as sacred places, places to reconnect with what was deepest and truest. Scientific knowing is limited; what empowers and energizes me is to feel my wilderness origins then feel my freedom and creativity emerging from the creative evolving universe we are part of.
The most powerful therapy for the pathologies of living in an ecocidal civilization is to experience the bigger picture of an evolving universe as a beautiful, ecstatic vision. I spent two years living on an Israeli agricultural commune—a Kibbutz—and serving in the infantry. Living out of doors in a desert wilderness exposed to the elements in all season helped break my own addictions and neuroses and opened me to the beauty of primal truths.
It is crucial for me to regularly get out of the city. I go down to the beach, look up at the night sky, and reflect on my place in the unfolding, evolving, miracle of existence. For example, when watching the setting sun I imagine that as it disappears below the horizon, it is not the sun that is “setting.” It is rather the earth “rolling back,” rotating on its axis as it orbits our nearest star, the sun, one of the two hundred billion such suns in our milky way galaxy. I use Einstein’s words as a mantra. “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of all true art and science.”
– Louis G. Herman
Your Turn
- Go to your favorite outdoor spot, calm yourself, and start to visualize the connection of that location to the Earth as a whole.
- Once you feel you have connected to the Earth, start to imagine the connection of where you are on earth to the Universe.
- Write down any thoughts or clarity this exercise has brought you.
Explore More Meaning
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Songwriter. Producer. Music Enthusiast.
Bio: Varda Kakon is a sound supervisor, producer and song writer. She has evolved in the world of music her whole life. She lives in France with husband Alain and son Ariel.
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counselor. spiritual director. do-gooder.
John Morton is a minister, author, counselor, coach, and the Spiritual Director of several non-profit organizations, including the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. [www.theblessings.org]
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self-leadership expert. seeker of meaningful quests. devoted mama.
Jac McNeil is a self-leadership expert for women entrepreneurs. Her work helps women unearth their own powerful truths and create thriving, integrity-based businesses. [www.jacmcneil.com]
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bloggers. meditators. partners.
Ed and Deb Shapiro are weekly bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/living and Care2.com, and are the authors of BE THE CHANGE: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World. [www.edanddebshapiro.com]
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transformational coach. writer. vision clarifier.
Jan Shepherd is a transformational coach and a featured blogger on The Huffington Post. [www.janshepherd.com]
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journalist. londoner. re-thinker.
Nick Johnstone has written for major periodicals and interviewed the likes of Keith Richards and Roman Polanski, as well as writing numerous books, including his personal memoir. [wwwnickjohnstone.blogspot.co.uk]
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redvolutionary. world-travelled scholar. mystic.
Author Sera Beak is a world-traveled, Harvard-trained scholar of comparative world religions and mysticism. She's a Redrevolutionary and the director of a film. [www.serabeak.com]
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waste combater. difference maker. minute exerciser.
Albe Zakes wanted to work for TerraCycle (a pioneer in innovative upcycling and recycling systems) so badly he took an unpaid internship. He's now TerraCycle's VP of Media Relations. [www.terracycle.com]
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