
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
fullness

Everything from my farm to my animals to my teaching to the clients I’m seeing have equal meaning for me in very specific and joyous ways.
Even as a 15-year-old, I had a vision of having a piece of earth where I’d grow things and dispense food and wisdom to people in some way. I’ve always known I’d work with people. I thought I’d be some kind of herb witch who gives concoctions to women. The way my land and animals and clients and students have all come together now – that’s come with my own growth and with adding more of who I am into it over the years.
The only time I don’t feel that I’m really connected to the meaningfulness of my life is when I do too much computer work. I haven’t had a TV in 12 years. I go out to the movies maybe twice a year and if I watch a DVD movie once or twice a month, that’s a lot. For me, that that kind of input disconnects me from what’s really important to me.
A turning point for me was a phone conversation I had once with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. That conversation turned out to be one of the most profound and meaningful events of my life. It happened during a time when I was grappling with feeling so different and out of the mainstream. I always felt so odd. But when I spoke with her, I saw how she had embraced her own oddness and shrewdness in a such a profound way. She was deep and wide and spunky. And completely unapologetic. I felt like I’d come home, like I knew who I was going to become, I knew what I’d be like as I aged and matured. It really made a huge difference in my life.
What’s made the biggest difference for me is understanding that everything I do can be spiritual and meaningful and an offering, even sweeping leaves and cleaning toilets. I’d love for people to understand that spirituality and God and meaning and joy don’t only happen when we sit down to formally meditate or when we read the right book at the right time. I can translate the incredible pleasure and satisfaction I draw from picking avocados, tending animals, and painting fences into a devotional offering. I can do mundane tasks with open-hearted devotion. That fills my life full of what I love.
– Michaela Boehm
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