Buddha Chick™ ~ Update!

Today I am happy to announce the names of the 5 women who will be special guests in the upcoming Buddha Chick™10 week course.

If you missed the announcement for the course which begins September 27 and goes through Dec. 5, click here to read all about it. 

Each one has a very special message for us about living as our most calm, clear, and wise self. Each will have her own podcast during the course. Drum-roll please!


Daphne Rose Kingma ...
is an undisputed expert on matters of the heart. She is the author of 12 books related to love and relationships, including: The Future of Love: The Power of Soul in Intimate Relationships; Finding True Love; and the classic on the  journey of ending a relationship, Coming Apart. Her newest book is The 10 Things to Do When Your Life Falls Apart: An Emotional and Spiritual Handbook. Daphne has been a six-time guest on "Oprah." She lives in Santa Barbara, CA.

Her topic? What to do when your life falls apart, including the importance of paying attention ("Listen up!"), the use of spiritual practices, having a relationship with beauty, living simply, and gratitude.

Sue Patton Thoele ...

is a psychotherapist and the author of 12 books, including The Courage to Be Yourself, The Woman’s Book of Soul. Her newest books are The Mindful Woman: Gentle Practices for Restoring Calm, Finding Balance and Opening Your Heart and Excellent as You Are. Sue's motto and life work is based on the principle: "Live gently with yourself and others." She lives in Colorado. With her trademark humor, Sue has already nicknamed herself our Buddha Chick™ Crone. I love it!

Her topic? Living mindfully, with humor, when you are prone to overcommitment, obsessive worrying, resentment, or trying to solve the woes of the world.

Caroline Hobbs ...

has taught thousands of people to say "yes!" to life as it is, using the same three-step process she brings in Joy No Matter What, her first book. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has taught at Naropa and Spirit Rock. She is also a Body-Centered Therapist; Psycho-Spiritual Therapist; Meditation Student for 30 years. She lives in Durango, CO.

Her topic? 
Working with strong emotions—including loneliness, grief, anger, fear, depression or shame—through her trademark three-step process—to access more joy.

Mari Gayatri Stein ...

is a meditation and yoga teacher, author, and whimsical artist whose work has delighted tens of thousands of readers in The Buddha Smiles and Unleashing Your Inner Dog: Your Best Friend's Guide to Life. She is the illustrator of Buddy's Candle by Bernie Siegel, MD. Her words and drawings give us permission to be happy without conditions or judgment. They help us to be present, and take joy in the real world—here and now. She lives in Oregon. Mari is the official artist for Buddha Chick™.


Her Topic? Living with spaciousness and equanimity. Welcoming everything. Working with pain. Opening the heart.

Diana Lang ...
Diana Lang is a spiritual teacher and counselor who has been teaching meditation and yoga since 1980 and conducts seminars in the United States and internationally on meditation, body awareness, stress reduction, and relationship development. She is the author of Opening to Meditation: A Gentle Guided Approach. She lives in Los Angeles, CA. 

Her topic? 
Living with "One Heart," living our love in the world. 

Isn't this an amazing line up of the chickiest, wisest women ever?

Stay tuned to this site and your e-mail (if you are a member of my preferred mailing list) for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, Thursday, Sept. 9:

Another drum-roll please! 

The price and registration dates for Buddha Chick™.

I think you are going to be very happy!

Are You Honoring Yourself?

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.

~Gloria Steinhem

When I read this quote, I fell in love with it immediately. I loved it because it gave me permission to let go of what no longer serves my truest self—and the permission to do what does.

I've spent years unlearning old patterns of behavior. How about you? These are patterns that keep us

~small and insecure, or

~voiceless and afraid, or

~exhausted and overwhelmed, or

~carrying around a lot of shoulds, or

~self-sacrificing and martyring, or

~being a "responsibility sponge" (as my friend & mentor, Sue Patton Thoele says)

Sigh ... sometimes it seems there are so many! Each of these is a pattern we learned from any number of sources—parents, elders, teachers, church, culture, media—mostly when we were very young and didn't know any better.

But now we do. We are women on the path to awakening. We have the ability to consciously choose new thoughts, new feelings, new ways of being in the world. Yes, we can choose!

So today, what are you unlearning? What are you choosing to do to honor yourself?

If you are tired, are you resting?

If you are overburdened, can you say "No, thank you"?

If you are being treated unkindly, can you walk away?

If you are overworked, are you playing? 

If you are shouldering "shoulds," can you do only what feels right for you in this moment? 

Today I am choosing to not take on the responsibilities that a dear loved one could be taking on for herself. I am letting go. I am setting a healthy new boundary for myself.

Wow! Does that feel good.

So,  how are you honoring yourself today? 

And if not, what might a new, healthy, self-honoring choice be instead? 

I'm eager to hear ... 



(This post was inspired by the book, The Courage to Be Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Emotional Strength and Self-Esteem by Sue Patton Thoele. It's a classic that every woman should have in her home library.

Image of "Women Dancing with Torah" by salomedesigns.com)

I Cultivate Compassion for Myself

The Fifth Transformational Truth: 

I Cultivate Compassion for Myself

I am committed to a vow I took many years ago. It’s a self-made promise to live more gently with myself; to be as kind to myself as I try to be to others; to befriend myself.

In her wonderfully supportive book, The Courage to Be Yourself, my dear friend and mentor, Sue Patton Thoele, writes of “befriending” in this way. “I believe it is essential,” she says, “that you become a loving and tolerant friend to yourself. Do you act as a sheltering tree in your own life? Take a moment to think about how you treat your friends. Do you express the same kindness and consideration toward yourself? Many of us hold a deep-rooted belief that we don’t deserve to be loved. “They” deserve friendship, but for some unfathomable reason, we don’t. This is a false belief. We are worthy of love. We do deserve our own support and friendship.”

(Sue, by the way is the "Holy Woman" who represents this Truth in my book,  Your Truest Self.)

I admit, for most of my adult life I have been generally unkind to myself. I’ve pushed myself beyond healthful limits to be the perfect wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, employee, volunteer, community leader, and more. All roles I thought I should play in life to be a “good person,” to be liked and accepted by others, especially by my family, peers, and coworkers; to be perceived as successful, of service to others, and a contributor to the greater good of humanity. It appears that the majority of women get trapped in this pattern of behavior, too.

We can begin to be more kind to ourselves by making a decision to start befriending ourselves. Let’s make a vow, together, to be more gentle with ourselves. Let’s commit to treat ourselves as lovingly as we would our own best friend.

I’ve created a “Be Kind to Yourself” list of practices that can be hung on your refrigerator, the bathroom mirror, or your computer screen to remind you to treat yourself more lovingly, more gently, every single day. They’re practices that can nurture and balance you.

Honor your inner rhythm: Work when you feel like it, play or rest when you don’t.

Get out in nature: Allow its beauty and naturally calming effect to soothe you.

Nurture your body: Pamper it with massage, leisurely baths, aromatherapy, loving touch.

Eat healthfully: Consume as low on the food chain as possibly, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.

Move: Stretch, walk, exercise, dance, hike, do anything that rids your body of tension.

Soothe your mind: Turn off the TV, meditate, read inspirational literature, listen to music, engage in a hobby.

Laugh: Mingle with friends who inspire, relax, or rejuvenate you.

Breathe: Take time alone spent in quiet, breathe deeply and regularly, allowing your body’s inner reservoirs to be filled with calm.

Rest: A nap can be a sacred time, nourishing body, mind, and spirit simultaneously.

Connect: Plug in to the Divine as you understand it through meaningful spiritual practices of your own creation.

I hope that you’ll join me in renewed commitment to acts of personal lovingkindness. When we do, we’ll undoubtedly find ourselves being kinder to others, for self-compassion naturally breeds compassion for others. Self-love spawns love for our fellow human beings. Being kind to ourselves may just be the most loving thing we can do for everyone ...

Right now, in fact, I am headed off to a hot steaming tub for a good soak. I'll read for a bit, perhaps even take a nap. I've been "on the road" for a few days and will be heading out again soon, so I am renewing my vow by being extra kind to myself this weekend.  How about you? 

What can you do today, tomorrow, this weekend to renew YOUR vow to be kinder to yourself?

I'd love to hear ...

Leave your vow here as a comment on this post and you' ll be entered into the next drawing for a copy of Your Truest Self. It's still her birthday!

And Congratulations to Nadia, Happy Lotus, for being the winner of last weekend's book giveaway! Hooray!


(Images courtesy of http://www.telegraafhotel.com and http://itztours.com)