Well, you've arrived at the growthbooks blog. Fun, huh? This is the most personal corner of growthbooks, where I muse about everything from the meaning of life to changing nappies and running a bookstore! Honestly, though, I do love to write- and read - inspiring words. My sincere hope is that as I share my journey here, it will reflect something of your journey... And we may even have an opportunity to grow a little together.
I began my spiritual journey – consciously seeking to understand the nature of life, the universe and my own self – as a teenager. When I was in High School, I had a Sunday job, working in a little Indian import shop in my local main street. Continue reading ‘Why Growth Books?’
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by Helena Norberg-Hodge
Director, ISEC
Over the past two decades I have had continuous contact with Buddhist communities, in both traditional cultures and the industrialized West. These experiences have made me keenly aware that industrial development affects not only our way of living, but our world view as well. I have also learned that if we are to avoid a misinterpretation of Buddhist teachings, we need to look closely at the fundamental differences between societies that are part of the industrialized global economy and those that are dependent on more localized economies.
Continue reading ‘Buddhism in the Global Economy’
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by Helena Norberg-Hodge
Director, ISEC
Society today is faced with a choice between two diverging paths. The path endorsed by government and industry leads towards an ever more globalised economy, one in which the distance between producers and consumers will continue to grow. The other path is being built from the grassroots, and leads towards strong local economies in which producer-consumer links are shortened. I believe that moving in the latter direction may be one of the best ways of solving a whole range of serious social and environmental problems, from rising rates of crime and violence to the greenhouse effect. This may sound absurdly simplistic, but it is a conviction based on long-term observations in societies at very different levels of dependence on the global economy — including heavily-industrialised America, socialist Sweden, rural Spain, and most importantly, Ladakh, a traditional culture on the Tibetan Plateau.
Continue reading ‘Globalisation versus Community’
Popularity: 12% [?]
by Helena Norberg-Hodge
Director, ISEC
If you want to create a more sustainable society, a good place to start is by helping to rebuild your local food economy: food is something everyone, everywhere, needs every day, which means that even relatively small changes in the way it is produced and marketed can have immense effects. And since eating is a natural part of daily life, we all have frequent opportunities to make a difference.
Continue reading ‘The Case for Local Food’
Popularity: 9% [?]
by Mark Silver
I have a client who just broke through a haze of vagueness in her business. When she came to me, she had some extremely powerful skills, a sincere heart, but a floundering business.
What was she vague about? She wasn’t vague about the skills she brought. Nor was she vague about the value she held (although she had normal, human doubts). She was vague about who she was helping, and what problem they were facing.
Continue reading ‘How to clear deadly “heart blocks” in your business’
Popularity: 9% [?]
by Mark Silver
I’m not sure what it is these last few weeks, but a lot of people have been really hard on themselves. A lot of self-judgement, pressure to get more done, sooner, to accomplish. I mean, this is business, right? You are supposed to be getting ahead, right?
In trying to grow your business, most people miss one of the most important growth ingredients: Gentleness.
Gentleness? Continue reading ‘The Missing Business Growth Ingredient’
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by Mark Silver
Your business probably seems like many others. There are billyuns and billyuns of therapists, consultants, retailers, and healers. Yet, in order to make an impact and deeper connection with customers that is so necessary for a sustainable business, you need to distinguish yourself.
However, just ‘finding your voice’ and ‘developing your uniqueness’ aren’t often helpful strategies. Your voice may be unique, but who’s going to listen to it?
Continue reading ‘Cookie Grandma’s Secrets to a Unique and Powerful Business’
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What is it like for you to be pressing the edges of the conventional, entrenched wisdom of the medical/health care field?
I am on an amazing journey that is filled with exhilarating life experiences expressing both sweet and sour consequences. On the sweet side is the fact that I am having the most exciting time of my life!! My research revealed a revolutionary understanding of how life “worked” twenty years ago and this awareness is now beginning to be recognized by leading edge science. The beautiful part is that with a twenty year head start over my former colleagues, I have not only benefited by applying this empowering awareness in creating the joyous life I am experiencing, but I have been able to extend that knowledge to reveal how the world can thrive and evolve.
Continue reading ‘Biology of Belief: An Interview with Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.’
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by Annett Tate
There is a story of a Zen master who would sneak up behind his students and then whack them on the head. When he was asked how he could be so cruel, he replied he was teaching his pupils the most important lesson on how to be happy. The Zen master explained that the key to happiness is being fully present – Now! - and had his students not been pre-occupied with fretting over the past and worrying about the future, they would have noticed him approaching.
So, why is being fully in the present moment the first and most important – and often also the most difficult – step to achieving happiness?
Continue reading ‘The Shortest Way to Happiness’
Popularity: 7% [?]
by Robert Elias Najemy
You are sitting by a quietly flowing stream in the countryside. It is spring and life is green and moist? Sitting on a rock, the sights and sounds of the flowing water begin to work their mysterious way into your nervous system.
Continue reading ‘A Nature Meditation’
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July 24th, 2008
When we first took our new baby interstate to visit my father – now in his 70s – I asked him what we could call him now – Granpa? Grandad? Papa? Did he have a preference? “Oh no!” He replied, “I hate all those terms,” MORE…
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June 21st, 2008
It’s one of those conundrums that has been knocking around at the back of my mind for many months now (since the The Secret was released, and I read Ask and it is Given)… how do we remain positive and ‘raise the spiritual vibration’ our lives, without slipping into denial? MORE…
Popularity: unranked [?]