We live in the nuttiest culture! The kids, the job, the house, the yard, cleaning, groceries, laundry… the list goes on and on. How much of your day do you spend doing things like this? And what are you thinking about while you’re doing it all??

Ever notice how many people you interact with every day are just going from one thing to the next with their minds churning the whole time?? Here’s what you may be thinking – “Hey! Calm down for a minute. Wake up and notice yourself. …

Have you heard of Breathplay?? Do you use it, and if so, are you impressed by the results??

It’s a breathing method developed by Ian Jackson to improve the riding performance of cyclists. I listened to a short podcast about it and, being the expert meditative breather that I am, ahem, I thought it sounded plausible.

Essentialy, you do all the work on the outbreath and relax on the inbreath. Ok, not so astounding, but you do it to a certain rhythm, and the outbreath is always longer …

Ever feel like all the spiritual stuff out there comes with its own set of limitations? To illustrate, I bought a(nother) book on energy healing recently, and it started out with a bang. Lots of the lingo I like. But very quickly, like all the other books I’ve read on this topic, it soon deteriorated into a set of rules.

I just don’t like rules. Never have. And I don’t think spiritual rules are real. For instance, when the book says I have to light a candle, face a certain way, …

Full moon tomorrow, Uranus shifting position, and manifestations of fast-paced energy everywhere I look! In the last week, I’ve seen or heard about several car/bus accidents, people breaking arms and legs, equipment not working, snippy interactions, illnesses and deaths, and the list goes on. From a certain perspective, these shifts are fascinating! As the Earth transforms, everyone, on some level, is facing uncertainty. And that tends to trigger our need to control our lives.

But here’s the treasure!

There really is freedom in letting go – of control, of limits, barriers, …

This Independence Day, why not write your own Declaration of Independence?

What do you want to declare or break free from? I want to break free from holding back my power. I no longer want to live with only my low beams on. I want to shine so unequivocally that others decide to abandon their own shadow choices. I want to break away from the undermining thinking of the “realistic” world—and choose some independent thinking, some firecracker, celebrating, birth-giving thoughts. Here’s an excerpt from my DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Want to …

On this day of your life, dear friend I believe God wants you to know…

….that art begs you to notice it.

Why? Because art is God’s way of saying hello.
So pay attention to poetry. Pay attention
to music. Pay attention to paintings and sculptures and
photo exhibits and ballets and plays.
Don’t let all this go unnoticed.

Your world is shouting out to you, revealing
something intrinsically glorious about itself.
Listen carefully. Love art, the way art loves Life.

And the way Life Loves You!

Lots of people have asked me how I came up with the name Nine Tomatoes. It was really rather ordinary to me, but only because I always listen to my intuition. Sometimes it just takes me a while to tune in to what I’m getting.

I was working with a coach, Susan Reid, when I unleashed my inner artist. She had a lot to do with that, actually. If you’re trying to figure out what to …

Have you ever stared into the face of what appears to be certain disaster and felt absolutely liberated? All the asking and reading and listening and studying and visualizing… it eventually brings you face to face with all your stuff. The choice then, is to hang on for dear life to everything you think you know, or to completely let go and experience true freedom.

I never used to understand the concept of completely letting …

I’ve been thinking, after all the AIG news, about a better way to fix this whole financial crisis. I could get into the idealistic dreams I have about everyone suddenly realizing we’re ALL ONE, and that we might consider helping each other. I know a lot of people affected by this situation, and obviously giving the banks money doesn’t work. They don’t do what Obama tells them they should do with it. So let’s approach this another way. …

The following article by Liz Lerman is posted on the Community Arts Network Reading Room.

A Proposed Job Swap To Save American Capitalism
By Liz Lerman

Do Wall Street executives deserve big bonuses during hard times? Does increased arts funding have a place in an economic stimulus package? I’ll leave it to others to debate these controversies. Meanwhile I’d like to make a modest proposal to solve some of our economic problems: Let’s do a job swap. We’ll put the corporate executives to work as artists while the artists …