Tag Archives: stillness

Sep 29 2016
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Awareness, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership, Let The Music Play

Episode 37: The Unexpected Gifts of The Contemplative with Chris Heuertz

Chris Heuertz has spent his life bearing witness to the possibility of hope among a world that has legitimate reasons to question God’s goodness.

Named one of Outreach magazine’s “30 Emerging Influencers Reshaping Leadership,” Chris is a curator of unlikely friendships, an instigator for good, a champion of collaboration, and a witness to hope, Chris fights for a renewal of contemplative activism.

In this episode, Chris illuminates three gifts of contemplative spirituality: an awakened sense of our true identity, an acceptance that everything belongs, and an ability to root ourselves in the gifts of community.

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Find out more about Chris and his work by visiting GravityCenter.com.

You can also stream or download this episode and all other episodes in iTunes or at AshtonGustafson.com.

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Sep 09 2016
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art, Awareness, Change The World, Creativity, Focus, Imagination, Leadership

Podcast 35: Love Warrior with Glennon Doyle Melton

Glennon Doyle Melton is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Carry On, Warrior and her latest memoir, Love Warrior, which released September 6th. Glennon is also the founder of Momastery, an online community reaching millions of people each week. She is the creator and president of Together Rising—a non-profit organization that has raised over four million dollars for families around the world through its Love Flash Mobs, which have revolutionized online giving.

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Glennon is a sought-after public speaker and her work has been featured on the TODAY Show, The Talk, OWN, and NPR and in The New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Glamour, Family Circle, Parents Magazine, Newsweek, Woman’s Day, and in other television and print outlets.

Glennon currently lives in Florida with her family and it was such a joy for her to join us in this episode of Let The Music Play Podcast as we discuss coming to know crisis as an invitation to beauty and how we can confront the pain in our lives to claim the love and the whimsy of our days.

Oh and don’t forget…Glennon joins Oprah this weekend on SuperSoul Sunday! Don’t miss this new episode of SuperSoul Sunday on Sunday, September 11, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET/PT.

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Lastly, please remember to share this episode with those you love and those you lead. You can find this episode and all others in iTunes or at AshtonGustafson.com.

Godspeed in your music making…

Ashton

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Aug 26 2016
1 Comment
Awareness, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership

Sifting

Glennon Doyle Melton writes in her new book that is set to release September 6th that when crisis arrives in life, we are invited to sift through the details of our story that is being written and eventually we are left with only that which truly matters.

We actually get the word crisis from the latin word cribum which means to sift or to separate.

My journey through this soul sifting started four years ago to the day.

There’s a lot that sifted out, but it is with brutal joy that I can share what I was left holding after the sift.

Faces.

An appetite for stillness.

Rediscovery of my true self.

Wonder & Awe.

A radar, thermometer, and tuning fork for the soul.

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A quest for beauty.

A crisis isn’t necessary for all of us, but two consistent questions most definitely are.

What needs to stay?

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What needs to go?

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Jun 20 2016
1 Comment
Awareness, Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership

Gladdening the Mind > Losing the Mind

Mondays are typically anything but soulful. Between a myriad of missed calls, stacked to-do’s from the weekend, and an inbox full of Black Cats, we tend to begin our weeks in a state of heaviness in-lieu of one of openness and lightness.

Try this…gladden your mind.

On paper, write something small and human that brings you immense joy and that you can hold on to today. Or in your heart space, hold the people and ideas that light up your life for thirty seconds. Quickly, this will cause the Monday mind frown to turn upside down.

Once the mind is gladdened it’s a lot harder to lose it.

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Jun 13 2016
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Awareness, Business, Change The World, Creativity, Discipline, Focus, Imagination, Leadership

Little Acts and Big Shifts

Cooking a meal — There’s fast food and there’s slow food. One satisfies a craving and the other satisfies the soul. As long as your phone isn’t nearby, you just might find some peace chopping vegetables and you may even enter a rhythm of being that’s quite serene and wonderfully human.

Smiling at strangers — Try this out for size. We’re not so strange after a gratuitous acknowledgment of the other’s presence.

Writing, stamping, and mailing a handwritten note — Over 3,000 times today  you were sold something. How many times today were you told something in handwritten ink on paper? I rest my case.

Look and SEE — There’s looking and then there’s seeing. I don’t think we see if we’re not looking. Try out a game of ‘I Spy’ in your life, relationships, and business.

Be Silent and Still for two to ten minutes — Try out Headspace for 10 days. When you learn to see and hear the noise you’ll find how to navigate around it and through it. When’s the last time you simply sat still? This will shift things for you.

 

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