Hey, people :: do you want to forgive everyone who’s wronged you, quit snarking + whinging like a boozy hipster, and literally exhale compassion with every breath?

FUCK yes.

Hey, ‘preneurs :: do you want to wake up to a Zen-like inbox, magnetize your magic-perfect clients, and awaken a genius-like inner business adviser, who never steers you astray?

UH, totally.

Hey, lovers :: do you want to cultivate the capacity to tell someone “I love you,” NOT hear it reciprocated, AND still feel gorgeous, worthy of devotion, and saturated with charisma?

That sounds horrendous, but SURE!

Enlightenment may be a just-for-Buddha-n-Jesus kinda thing (who can say?). But it IS possible to turbo-charge your growth, if you’re willing to devote yourself fully to the ecstatic lunacy of psycho-fast evolution.

You up for the challenge? You want some compass points?

Here are my personal lodestars, for your evolutionary odyssey.

3…2…1…EVOLVE!

People …

Remember Thumper, the adorable baby bunny from the movie Bambi? His infamous one-liner left an indelible impression on my 5-year old mind: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

As a grown-up with a slightly more wordly view on evil + corruption, I’ll amend Thumper’s axiom ever-so-slightly: “If you don’t have anything TRUE, USEFUL + COMPASSIONATE to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Raise your hand if you…

…fill empty spaces in conversations with minutia-babble, rather than sit in the silence.
…indulge in snarking + snipping with “cool” friends, because it makes you feel witty and superior.
…give a vapid “OK” or “fine” when asked “so, how are you doing?”
…flagrantly mock “those bean-counters” in Accounting, or “those idiots” who fill your inbox with genuine customer service needs.

What if, even for a single day, we collectively raised our sensitivity about falsity + cruelty,
and cultivated a heightened aura of awareness around how many times we fluff, fill, evade & sink into superciliousness?

We’d stop harshing our universal mellow, seriously fast.

My top training manual, for your quest towards truthful, useful, compassionate thought-flows & language?

Invest your time in :: Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön, Tonglen meditation master & nun-in-residence at Gampo Abbey, the first Tibetan monastery for Westerners. A 5-word summary of Start Where You Are? Breathe in suffering. Exhale compassion.

‘Preneurs …

If your inbox feels like a moshpit of demands…if every deadline feels like an albatross around your neck…if you’ve forgotten why you set sail on the S.S. Self-Employed in the first place (freedom, baby, freedom)…I’ve got one call-to-action for you:

Get exuberantly clear about BOUNDARIES. And I’m not (just) talking about “not answering client emails on Sundays” (though that’s a good start). I’m talking about energetic boundaries – the invisible forcefields around your physical body and inner kingdom that send subliminal signals into the ‘verse. Like: I’m available! Or: I’m on lock-down. Take advantage of me! Or: respect my creative sovereignty.

Equally important (especially for service-oriented ‘preneurs + professionals) is learning how to SHAKE OFF + CLEAR OUT other people’s energy, once you’re done working with ‘em. Create a closure ritual for the day. Don’t carry around other people’s karma.

Playing with energy is advanced-level alchemy, and often requires a skilled mentor to pull the woo-woo wildness down into the world of tangible, measurable results.

Invest your energy in :: Become Your Own Business Adviser, Hiro Boga’s signature 12-week program for evolutionary entrepreneurs, which reboots on September 26. I had the privilege of supporting Hiro during the spring cycle of her transformative program, and let’s just say…the final teleclass ended in an impromptu song (and grateful tears) that I won’t soon forget. Register by Sept 7th for an early-songbird pricetag…and give yourself (and your business) the supreme gift of this mentoring experience.

Lovers …

What percentage of your self-worth and joy is dependent upon whether or not your object of affection thinks you’re gorgeous, fascinating, irresistible & charming? 10%? 50%? 200%?

What if it could be…0%.

What if you could dip into a well of universal LOVE, and fill yourself up? So that you’re a love-flooded cupcake of confidence, and external romantic love is just icing?

I recently told someone I loved them, and they…didn’t reciprocate. The wounded animal agony & terror I felt was the forceful shove I needed to (finally) cement a self-love practice, and start filling my own cup. Now, I chant a specific mantra 10 – 20 times each morning (silently, in my head — working on gettin’ it out loud) before I crawl outta bed. And I made it into a desktop design for my laptop, to flicker the words in front of my eyes, all day long. (You can download it for yourself, right here.)

But I didn’t kick-start a mantra-marathon training regime on my own. I had two extraordinary coaches.

Invest your heart in :: a Pathfinder session with Pace Smith, and / or (recommend: “and”) a Soul Caller session with Amy Oscar. Pace is a masterful communicator, rich listener & fetal-position-breakthrough-inducer. Amy is straight-up clairvoyant, with a sacred crone energy that makes you feel at once very small, and very heroic. Limitless praise, for both ladies.

Here’s to off-the-charts evolution — the kind that’ll baffle genetic scientists, sociologists + theologians, one thousand years from today.

Let’s talk about PHILANTHROPY, in all its incarnations. I’ll start.

Do I give? Sure I give. And I’ll tell you precisely to whom.

:: I make monthly contributions to the American Civil Liberties Union, and quarterly contributions to GEMS Girls (I’ve committed to giving GEMS 5% of my income, in 2011).

:: I make occasional contributions to heart-piercing kickstart campaigns — like Dark Girls: the movie.

:: I give cash to ladies & gents who ask for it on the street, because desperation makes me nauseas.

:: I donate my time to silent auctions for provocative non-profits, like the Gadfly Theater.

:: I overtip. Almost always. And while that’s not ‘philanthropy,’ it makes my heart unclench the same way.

I wasn’t always in a position to make auto-recurring cash donations.

In fact, it’s a fairly recent phenomenon.

In my younger, care-free, cash-light years, I found free-spirited ways to pour my knowledge, energy, and romantic creativity into the world. (That’s what happens when you spend two years chillin’ with the Dunedin-New Zealand branch of the International Socialist Organization, my friends.)

And I found that the very act of expanding my philanthropic horizons unearthed qualities and talents I never recognized as GIFTS. Till I gave ‘em away. And marveled at the effects.

In the spirit of giving — like a seasoned disco monk — I hereby give to you ::

Wild-Child Philanthropy :: 17 ways to be a patron of the world, without spending a dime.

Philanthropy :: for cash-poor hippies

1. Tuck fresh daffodils into people’s bicycle baskets, and under windshield wipers on parked cars.

2. Leave love notes + affirmations scribbled on note cards, in between pages of books at the library.

3. Lead a no-cost class or discussion group on anything that stimulates the electrical currents in your body. Composting. Unicycle maintenance. Jorge Luis Borges. Finger-painting.

4. Score free tickets to a concert. Give them away.

5. Score free…uh, anything. Give it away.

 

Philanthropy :: for sensual exhibitionists

Please note :: there’s a fine line between good-natured strumpetry and personal endangerment. Common sense applies. As always.

6. Volunteer at a home for elderly folk. Wear red lipstick. Smile.

7. Offer to pose for an aspiring artist, shutterbug, or group illustration class.

8. Dance with the damsel or dude in the corner. The one with glasses. And a nervous twitch. And an encyclopedic knowledge of Frodo’s Fallohide ancestry.

9. For expert exhibitionists only :: Put on a va-va-voom outfit, and trot your gams in front of folks who look like they could use some good news. Wink inappropriately. Nod knowingly. Brighten the drab city streets, with your devilish wiles. (Try a sensual philanthropy group flashmob. There’s safety in numbers.)

 

Philanthropy :: for all-purpose occasions

10. Dish out compliments, readily, exquisitely & with great insistence.

11. Donate used books to the Women’s Prison Book Project. Bookshelves all bare? Organize a book-raiser drive in your ‘hood.

12. Give an hour of your raw brilliance to a struggling company or comrade.

13. Assign a Creative Commons attribution license to selected pieces of your music or visual art. (Structured) sharing is caring.

14. Commit to shaving your head on your 50th birthday, if your fans + supporters pool together $50,000 for your favorite charity, in 50 days. (Note: this might only work if you’re Colleen Wainwright, aka The Communicatrix. But it’s worth a shot.)

 

Philanthropy :: for chronic over-givers

15. Offer alternate forms of support that preserve your energetic reserves. They want an original 10,000-word article, unpaid, of course? Offer a dusty jewel from your archives, instead.

16. Give a constructive + illustrative NO to pushy, last-minute-y people. “I’m honored to be invited to speak at the summit, but the tight turnaround time & heavy promotion schedule you described won’t allow me to meet my current client commitments, gracefully. I’ll have to say no.” (Honesty can be philanthropy, too.)

17. Do one pro-bono bonanza per year, and open your doors, inbox and heart to whoever needs your help. For 24 hours, only. And then boot out the stragglers with a pair of steel-reinforced Doc Martens.

 

Let’s close up shop with a question ::

What’s the most avant-garde way you could give your time / electricity / skills / renewable creative resources away? Go buck-wild, child.