L E T T E R – Your Heart In Your Work
Dharma means purpose in Sanskrit, and it’s so frequently mistaken as ‘something spiritual as your work’. Especially in the modern […]
daily inspiration
L E T T E R – When Two Waves Collide
When you stand on a sandbank in the ocean, on certain tides, the waves wash in from the breakers and […]
L E T T E R – What Will You Choose?
The glass half empty mentality we all know, but do we actually live glass half full. Every moment. Is everything […]
L E T T E R & a G I F T – A Mothers Gift
I adore this piece by Kahlil Gibran On Children. For it’s so easy to get caught in the grit of […]
L E T T E R – Anxiety
I have one rule for our meditation students and that is that they never apologise for not meditating. Being […]
L E T T E R – Choices
When we were in Los Angeles we went to a small, lesser-known private art gallery, and the gentleman working there […]
L E T T E R – The Disturbing Truth
This took me a LONG time to get my head around when it came to spirituality and creativity. I enjoyed […]
L E T T E R – A Fractured Dance
When I was teaching meditation in Silverlake, we spoke collectively about the current frenzy and uptake of spiritual practices and […]
L E T T E R – An Exploration
I love this quote by Bruce Lee. He was profound, inspiring, motivated and disciplined. Today have a look into […]
L E T T E R – To Tread Lightly
I like to think of this not just as treading the earth lightly, but whilst treading, being ultra aware of […]
L E T T E R – Squeamish
When I am traveling, I really dislike airports. I wish I was more cool and Zen and what not, and […]
L E T T E R – Soul Search
Not often are we encouraged in the West to renew our spirit and our spiritual thinking. I’m writing this from […]
L E T T E R – The Power Of Water
Water, the incredibly dynamic and flexible qualities that can shift it from ice to fluid, to steam. Imagine if we […]
L E T T E R – Our Last Act
What if today was the very last day of our lives? If tomorrow we never woke up. I like entertaining this line […]
L E T T E R – Inside Out
It’s tempting to think that all the answers lie outside of us. It allows us to hold others responsible. To […]
L E T T E R – Empathy
We get mean when we feel scared. It’s pretty simple yet we forget this all the time. The difference in […]
L E T T E R – Just Now
Future Projecting is something I teach and talk about a lot, as it’s a huge rut we get stuck in. […]
L E T T E R – Present Moment Awareness
Have you ever been driving your car and thought to yourself, I can’t remember driving through the last 2 suburbs? […]
L E T T E R – F*#k The Fear
Rest is undervalued in today’s frenetic society. I know it for myself. I burnt the candles at both ends for […]
L E T T E R – A Cat On A Leash
I hear too often nonsense about ‘taming the mind’ and references to a monkey and wild horses. The mind isn’t […]
L E T T E R – What Is Happy?
If you’ve had an upbringing remotely similar to mine, you may have found yourself with an ingrained belief that you […]
L E T T E R – Perfecting The Fundamentals
Continuing on from yesterday’s letter, I wanted to talk further about commitment. I study karate and it’s mind-blowingly frustrating because […]
L E T T E R – What Is Compassion Actually
As I referenced the Dalai Lama yesterday, I thought it might be nice to kick off today’s letter with a […]
L E T T E R – Recovery Time
I had an experience years and years ago, where I went to see a friend of mine who is a […]
L E T T E R – Oh Ego
Chogyam Tungpa Rinpoche was asked by a student, “Why do you think that people are so protective of their egos? Why […]
L E T T E R – Impeccable Word
Last year, I repeated something that someone else said, and I knew I shouldn’t have.I immediately corrected myself and ask […]
L E T T E R – The Universe Whispers
Underneath all the noise; our intellect, thinking mind, egos, the exterior machinations of society, other peoples opinions, there is a […]
L E T T E R – Commitment
Have you ever found your self ‘sitting by the door’ in life, always having one eye on your nearest exit? […]
L E T T E R – Never Burn
In today’s society, which is riddled with muddled messaging, knowing how to hold oneself is becoming increasingly challenging. Sayings such […]
L E T T E R – Our 10,000 Teachers
Just for today, imagine that every single person in your life, is there to teach you something. Something small, something […]
The Human Condition
Most of us spend a large amount of time questioning our own actions, motives, worrying, fretting and stressing, about the […]
Wishing Won’t Work
Sometimes the intellect can be so defined, that we forget we must apply it. Like a tool that sits in […]
So Much Opportunity
Such a simple shift in mindset occurs when reading this. I like the word opportunity. It means gift, which sometimes […]
The Real Miracle
I honestly am not sure I can contribute any more to this beautiful quote, except to provide it as a […]
It Takes Two To Tango
I was terribly bullied as a little kid and again as a teenager. And now teaching meditation to lots of […]
All The Damn Thoughts
Have you ever listened to all the thoughts going on in your head? I sat in the most beautiful garden […]
A Recalibration
Oh, how this quote resonates with me. The accompanying vulnerability, the incapacity to hold it or when an emotion breaches […]
Fresh Eyes, Fresh Mind
Beginners Mind is a Buddhist concept that I love and try to implement as much as possible. It’s not about […]
Meeting Yourself
Rumi passed away 700 years ago and is still the best selling poet in America. His ecstasy filled complications of […]
Help Without Judgement
Years back I read the most fabulous book called The Art Of Asking By Amanda Palmer. Yes she did a […]
The Never Ending Jigsaw
We are so good most of the time at looking back, and admitting, sometimes admiringly, that everything was for the […]
And This
One of my all times favourites. We can look back at painful times and reflect on how important they were, how much […]
Down That Chute
I love Tina Fey, and I love this quote. Overthinking jams up the whole system. We just have to get […]
The Constant Reminder
What happens when a bigger ‘problem’ comes along? All the big problems before it are suddenly relegated to little problems […]
Book Club Launch
As avid readers and meditators here at The Broad Place, we know how transformational both these things are. We call it the […]
The First Time Should Be Enough
Recently I watched Oprah Winfrey being interviewed after her Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes. She said, “The […]
Where Are You Now?
We all seem to know this, that being present reaps the greatest rewards as a human,but very little do we […]
Fear
Hi everyone, This is Emily, I am a meditation teacher here at The Broad Place. I have been working with Jac […]
A Daily Commitment
What if it you made it this simple. What if you distilled all the self help and self development and […]
What Will You Think
There is so much talk of the power of positive thinking, so much science to back it up, yet I […]
When Things Go Wrong
This week, let’s actively make choices to either gently flow in the direction of what is going right, and if […]
The Heart
I often ponder why it’s so hard to follow our hearts and even harder sometimes to hear what they have […]
Staying Afloat
Makes sense doesn’t it? Why do we encourage our ego to engage with that which in our heart of hearts […]
Selective Feedback
This is such a huge topic that I might visit it a few times more!!To begin with, ensuring we only […]
Small Grievances
I heard Pema Chödrön, one of my favorite authors/speakers/teachers of all time recently speak of ‘small grievances’ and how we […]
Every Bit Counts
I really am so blown away by all the kind and encouraging messages I have been receiving to these little […]
What Other People Think
Dealing with the fear of ‘what other people think’ affects so many of our students, and myself. I hear about […]
The Danger of The Majority
When it comes to spiritual growth, self development and our actively evolving, it can get tricky at times. Sometimes what […]
Beginners Mind
Beginners Mind is a Buddhist and Zen concept of approaching everything as if it’s the first time. What would our […]
The Burn
Years back I had to really ask myself why were the unimportant things and people in my life getting so […]
The Connectedness of It All
The other day, I wrote about the concept of letting something go, in order to invite something in. To empty […]
Why Create A Morning Routine in 2018
Mornings for me are sacred. A time to contemplate, to be a human being. To stretch, meditate, exercise, be near […]
Resolutions vs Intention Setting
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas/Festivus/Whatever You Celebrate and time to nourish and renew. Emily spent the time settling […]
When Did It Get So Hard To Say Sorry
Yesterday Arran and Marley were arguing over something small, and I stepped in with an opinion and completely overrode what […]
Being Kind Under Pressure
This week I woke to the micro pressures of teaching meditation, a tonne of mentoring, many many meetings, workshops, talks […]
The Need To Disconnect To Connect
It’s the time of year when I am at my most engaged. We have all our meditation courses before the […]
The Medicine For Modern Living
Seth Godin popped into my inbox with “Are there places do you feel like you’re falling behind where there’s actually […]
A Remedy For Shame
When I first started writing these little letters to our students, I felt the deepest shame. Who the hell was […]
Hell Is Just Resistance To Life
On the weekend just been I had too much to juggle and responsibilities I didn’t want to fulfill and I […]
The Perfection Of It All
“Thus, this supremely perfect order of the Universe goes on all around us. But the structure is so vast, and […]
A Bumper Issue of Goodness
We have returned from India, the place of chaos and calm, inspired, refreshed and thrilled to be home. I can’t […]
All Those Thoughts – Which To Choose
In a sea of 80,000-90,000 thoughts a day it’s challenging to know which are helpful, real, genuine, creative and which are crap. […]
The Futility Of Plans – What Choice Will You Make?
We have been soaking in life in India with its every detail since we arrived. Literally soaking, as it hasn […]
Diwali Evening at The Broad Place
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” Martin Luther King, Jr. […]
Q. What Will The Future Look Like?
A. The Best Parts Of The Present I read this moving article over the weekend. My little brother is seriously disabled, and […]
The Little Moments
Yesterday Jeff arrived from LA, and we had a Group Meditation Meeting and spoke of how nature is at all […]
Our Daily Work
‘Living a Non Monastic Life (with emails and other dreaded tasks)’ Memories back to my recent time in the redwood […]
So Many Things
Hello my friend, I have only just 36 hours ago returned from the most incredible 6 weeks away. I can […]
It Might Be Easier…
Marley and I sat in a Parisian cafe this morning. We had orange juice, coffee (well for me), baguettes and […]
To Be Where We Are
Today I feel like having a little bit of a rant. And then suggesting something to follow that I hope […]
The Smaller Moments
We just landed yesterday from Los Angeles, and I’m only home for a few rich days before I head to […]
Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows
We know this to be true; where we place our attention, energy will flow. So awareness of where we place […]
Comfort Zones
Comfort zones would have to be one of the most boring places to hang out in for extended periods of […]
We Are What We Think
I love this quote. So many woes we all have, so many of them imagined. The mind is a pretty […]
Are You Ready? I Am VERY Ready…
Arran and I are right now in Tokyo, leaving this evening after our last minute, very fulfilling trip here. We […]
A List To Contribute To Creativity and Inspiration
I am a huge consumer these days. No longer of stuff, products and things, but of information, knowledge and experiences. […]
It’s All Spiritual Work
Travel is my spiritual work. I detest car travel and air travel. I find it pushes all my buttons. The […]
Some Mind Bait To Catch Bigger Fish
This week I am including some juicy bits and pieces to keep your mind trained on expanding, staying creative and […]
Is It A Frog Or An Eggplant?
There is a a Zen Buddhist fable I have heard a few times that goes along the line of this. […]
Indignation Or Creativity; What Will You Choose?
Oh my have I had my battles with indignation. It’s a tricky emotion. Essentially it’s a response of anger or […]
The Strange Cruelty To A Very Small Tree
Arran bought me a bonsai for Christmas. I love it so. We chose a tiny Japanese maple together, and the […]
What If You Only Had 2 Hours
I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast as he was listing the ‘Impossible 17 Questions That Changed My Life’ […]
What Lies In The Shadows
This year I was dedicated to refining the difference between judgement and discernment. They really are poles apart. It’s a […]
‘You Are Welcome Here’
Diving back into my Zen studies this year (a hilarious concept really as you can ‘study Zen’ you just need […]