Saturday April 30, 2016

You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn't worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens. May you be blessed with a change of habit. Yes, destructive self-criticism is a habit and you can break it. Next time you feel the disapproval coming on, grab on to some of that grace and compassion you share so willingly to others. Be good to yourself, you DO deserve it.

Years ago, Bono invited a Christian writer to meet him, and the writer turned him down. Eugene Peterson, whose translation of the Bible into contemporary language, “The Message,” has proven enormously popular, was hard at work on adapting the Old Testament. A flabbergasted interviewer heard that Peterson had said no to the lead singer of U2. “It’s Bono, for crying out loud,” journalist Dean Nelson said. And Peterson responded coolly, “Dean, it was Isaiah.” WATCH NOW

The band Cloud Cult is hard to categorize — both musically and lyrically — though it's been called an "orchestral indie rock collective." Less in question is the profound and life-giving force of its music. Cloud Cult's trajectory was altered the day its co-founder and singer-songwriter, Craig Minowa, and his wife woke up to find that their two-year-old son had mysteriously died in his sleep. Live from their studios in Loring Park, Christa Tippett "On Being" explores the art that has emerged ever since — spanning the human experience from the rawest grief to the fiercest hope. LISTEN NOW

There’s nothing worse for most people than walking into a new place where they don’t know anyone. They don’t know what to say to a perfect stranger and it stresses them out. Fear of social embarrassment is the #1 fear in America, as y’all know. Even as an extrovert, I understand that fear. Luckily for me, as a professional trainer, I get exposed to tons of nifty conversation starters. Yep, there’s actually training for this kind of thing. A wonderful Dale Carnegie trainer visited our firm and taught my sweet, introverted team about the Conversation Stack. This is a handy tool that any of you can learn and it’s predicated on the old adage: To be interesting, you must be interested...READ MORE