There’s a Circle Around You

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I want to tell you a little story that I hope will give you hope and comfort.

At a time when everything in my life was falling apart—my body, my finances, my family—I got onto a plane and sat down in a window seat. The shades were down to keep the Arizona heat out of the plane.

Sitting there with nothing to do, overwhelmed by panic and sorrow, I rummaged in my travel backpack for gum and found a little meditation book someone had given me on a previous trip.

I opened the book to a random page and found instructions for a visualization to use in hard […]

There’s a Circle Around You

No Comments

I want to tell you a little story that I hope will give you hope and comfort.

Sitting there with nothing to do, overwhelmed by panic and sorrow, I rummaged in my travel backpack for gum and found a little meditation book someone had given me on a previous trip.

I opened the book to a random page and found instructions for [...]

Early Spring with the Notorious Badger (or, Why I’ve Made a Podcast)

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A bit of searching online will tell you that “Spring in the Northern Hemisphere will begin on Thursday, March 19.” You can repeat this to others in a confident voice, and everyone will believe you.

Meanwhile, the trees and flowers in the woods around my house are calmly celebrating Spring on their own damn schedule. Bright-green crocus and daffodil shoots are pushing leaf litter aside. The exposed spot on a dogwood tree, where woodpeckers have revealed the cambium, has also turned green, flooding chlorophyll upward to every little leaf bud on every little twig.

I love the stubbornness of nature. I [...]

Finding Silence in a Storm

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“Hey, everyone,” I said to my family. “Listen.”

We all stopped talking, and quiet wrapped around us like a warm blanket. A light breeze rustled the oak leaves above us. Bees and hummingbird murmured in a patch of wildflowers.

“Do you hear that?” I said. “Wherever we end up going, I need that.”

We were enjoying a cool summer sunset on the porch of our little house at the edge of a national forest in California, planning where to go next. For six years we’d been saturated with the awesome beauty of nature. Now we hankered to be near the awesome beauty [...]

How to Live a Wayfinder’s Life

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This time of year, I sometimes wake up to the sound of people arguing loudly in a hot air balloon just above my house.

Not really.

After a few minutes, I figure what I’m actually hearing: a flock of Canada geese. My house is right on their migratory route, and hundreds of flocks fly past us, honking and yawping at each other to stay in touch. They fly thousands of miles every year. We should all be so good at navigating the world.

In a way, we can be. But only by tuning in very, very closely to what we Wayfinder coaches [...]

Giving Thanks

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I want to begin by thanking you for reading this post. In a world blitzed with information, you’re giving your precious time and attention to my words, and I am deeply, genuinely grateful.

Lest you think I’m having a selfless moment, let me confess that I wrote the previous paragraph to see if it would make me feel good. I’ve just been reading studies that say expressing gratitude is one of the quickest, most powerful ways to increase feelings of well-being.

It’s totally working, y’all.

By stopping to give thanks, I redirected my attention from my small, drudging self to you, wherever [...]

Be ‘Home’ for the Holidays

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When I was a child, I loved the holidays for the stuff—candy, cookies, advent calendars, and, of course, presents. As a young adult, I wanted perfect situations: everyone feeling good, looking good, doing good deeds. This got so stressful that by midlife, I decided that I’d just focus on finding peace. I called it going Home for the holidays—not home as in a geographic location, but my real Home: a state of calm, relaxed being.

I didn’t expect much from this new practice of Homing, just a little stress relief. But it turned out I’d stumbled into some real holiday magic. [...]

How to Make Big Decisions

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I want to tell you a secret about that really big decision you’re trying to make. You know the one. Ready? Here it is: You have already made that decision.

Say what?

Your brain may not have told you yet, but it’s true: You don’t have to decide. You just have to access the part of your mind in which the decision is made.

I’ve coached thousands of people through big decisions, so I’ve seen how it works. If you can get that brilliant, busy brain of yours to calm down, you’ll find your answer waiting peacefully inside you. It’s been there [...]

Martha’s blog

There’s a Circle Around You

There’s a Circle Around You

Early Spring with the Notorious Badger (or, Why I’ve Made a Podcast)

Finding Silence in a Storm

How to Live a Wayfinder’s Life

Giving Thanks

Be ‘Home’ for the Holidays

How to Make Big Decisions

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