So, when I proposed to my lovely Goddess, Alexandra, after our 10-day silent vipassana meditation retreat I didn't have a ring.

Yesterday I re-proposed and re-committed at the peak of our favorite hike here in Topanga, Ca with this bling!




Just looking at it here and on her finger makes me smile from ear to ear and with all my heart. It's soooooo her.

Pink, fun, dazzling, regal and sexy.

(She likes to call it her "raspberry bliss bling." hehe :)

Too fun.

To love, smiles and bling,

-bri

I decided yesterday it was time for me to turn the dial up on my life, starting with my energy, strength and vitality.

I've played around with raw a few times in the past (aside from some seafood on our 5 week trip last year, I've been vegan for about 3 years) but never seriously committed. Until now.

So, quick post to put my commitment out there so there's no turning back. :)

Spent the day with Alexandra and her/our friend Tim Van Orden--check him out at RunningRaw.com--who's gonna be one of my coaches on this little journey. (Just spending a few hours together today already TOTALLY transformed my relationship to nutrition and I'm giddy to rock it with him over the next 100 days.) I'll also be tapping into the wisdom of my buddy Brendan Brazier--the vegan (pretty close to raw) professional Ironman triathlete and author of Thrive.

On the strength/fitness side, I'm gonna be tapping into the wisdom of two friends: Jon Hinds and Shawn Phillips (check out his new book Strength for Life). I prefer to train outside so I'm excited to embrace Jon's "MonkeyBar' training combined with Shawn's Focused Intensity Training and HIIT stuff (more on all of that stuff in blogs to come). Fun.

10+ lbs of lean muscle will be added to my currently (really) lean 6'0+/152 or so frame. :)

Alright. Time for bed. The commitment is out there. No turning back now. :)

-bri

P.S.  btw: when I did my 10 day vipassana retreat one of the big reasons I didn't walk out during the hardest first 2-3 days was b/c I had put in my Gaia Brian is "..." thing: "in 10 days of silent meditation." I *had* to do it once I put that out there. hehe.

So, Brian is "going raw and rockin' it for 100 days!!"

There. It's out there. Done.

I already posted this, but setting up the videos in the free inspiration section to PhilosophersNotes.com and just watched this again. Stunning.




And, this one.




And all of the inspiring videos!!!


Have an awesome day,

-bri

My friend Shawn Phillips just posted this:

Knowledge Informs; Wisdom Transforms

In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon gave words to the belief that “knowledge is power” and for the last four decades man has sought knowledge, often in the service of power.

Can knowledge deliver? Few have thought to question these words.

I contend that today knowledge is both overvalued and overserved—and that it’s not actually knowledge we are after but something much more…something richer and more transformative.

--> More...

His new book "Strength for Life" comes out later this month. if you'd like a sneak peak at my PhilosophersNotes on it, send me an email at brian [at] philosophersnotes [dot] com

Fun!

-bri

Just posted my first review on Amazon for my friend, Brent Kessel's new book, "It's Not About the Money."

Here's what I said:

"Don't get me wrong. I am by no means saying that you can't be both wealthy and happy. But whether you have a seven-figure trust fund or a pile of unpaid bills on your kitchen table, the path to freedom requires that you focus more on your inner life than on your outer financial circumstances." ~ Brent Kessel from "It's Not About the Money"

If you, like me, have struggled with integrating your spirituality with your economics, your self-awareness with your bank balance, and all the rest of the challenges that go with showing up consciously around money in our often frenetic lives, Brent Kessel, "financial planner by day, yogi by dawn," is your friend. And, his book, "It's Not About the Money," is a must-read.

"It's Not About the Money" is all about pointing us to the spiritual path within our relationship to money--helping us master this part of our life to help us live in integrity with our highest ideals. As Brent wrote the book, he traveled around the world, interviewing such spiritual and investment luminaries as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Harold Kushner, David Whyte, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Harry Markowitz, Vanguard Funds founder John Bogle, Ram Dass, and Joseph Goldstein.

It's a remarkably transformative book--the 50+ exercises Brent shares brought me to tears several times--as I re-lived traumatic episodes around money from my childhood and witnessed how these experiences have affected me throughout my adult life. AND how I can now use this awareness to better understand my financial archetypes and create a more conscious life around money. VERY powerful stuff.

You're going to want to get this book to dive deeply into Brent's brilliant process of discovering your Core Story that's running your show and which of his eight archetypes show up in your life--from "The Guardian," "The Pleasure Seeker," "The Idealist," and "The Saver" to "The Star," "The Innocent," "The Caretaker," and "The Empire Builder."

It's quite remarkable to see which of these archetypes shows up when and how. And, as I said, what you can do about it. So, I think you'll really enjoy Brent's many Big Ideas and what the yogi/financial planner has to say about achieving spiritual and financial abundance!

--

You can get a free PhilosophersNote on It's Not About the Money at my new site (just launched yesterday!!): PhilosophersNotes.com.

To our growth!!!

-bri

From Dan Millman's recent newsletter:

Hopkins Medicine: The Alfredo Story.

As Dan said, " If Alfredo Quiñones could accomplish what he did, what excuses do the rest of us have?"

Just got back from a showing of "Fields of Fuel"--a brilliant film by Alexandra's friend Josh Tickell. It won the Audience Award at Sundance and will be coming to theatres this summer.

Learn more at fieldsoffuel.com

some of my favorite parts:

"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal.

     "These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

     "Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.

     "For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

     "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.

     "Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."

from here.

Had a fantastic lunch last week with my friend Theo Koffler and her business partner, John Kern to chat about her non-profit, "Between Four Eyes."

I think you'll dig it. And, they're recruiting "Teacher-Ambassadors."

More from Theo and John:

...

Teacher-Ambassador Program Seeking Applicants Interested in Bringing Mindful Awareness-based Education 

to Conflict and Post-Conflict Communities in East Africa and the Middle East

www.betweenfoureyes.org

Btwn4Eyes, a project of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, is now accepting applications for our Teacher-Ambassador (TA) program.

TAs will travel internationally to teach mindful awareness-based education to adults and children in the Middle East and East Africa.

We seek individuals with drive, enthusiasm and dedication, as well as a background in teaching and mindfulness.

A description of this program is available at: www.betweenfoureyes.org/teacherRecruitment.htm

The TA application is at: www.betweenfoureyes.org/teacherRecruitmentForm.htm

 

For More Information Contact:

John Kern, Director of Teacher Ambassador Program johnk@btwn4eyes.org