Feel Good Guru

I’m struttin’ solo down the boardwalk in vintage cowboy boots and ragtag tassles, past the vendors of t-shirts, toerings and tattoos, off to see some crazies singin’ songs and recitin’ poetry over a plastic cup of chilled California Chardonnay. Howdy! It’s several blocks of rolling incoming Pacific tide headin’ north, so I smile, and say to the guy glidin’ by on his purple air-brushed beach cruiser blastin’ reggae for children Eensey Weensey Spider, “Hey dude! Double me to Seven Dudley?” Dude smiles and blows me a kiss through his headphones, “Hey girlfriend! Lookin’ good girlfriend! Bonjour Paris!” (more…)

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On January 4, I’m a little late getting to my New Year’s resolutions. I landed in Venice a couple weeks ago and it’s been non-stop party-going, funeral-attending, Christmas TweetUplifting and New Year Day party-hosting.

My new year officially begins tomorrow, Monday, the 5th, when I’ll be back into yet another “Feel Good Fast” program for 21 days - to help the guinea pig get back on track as well as to de-tox my own body after two weeks of wine and martinis, coffee, chocolate, sugar, restaurant food and late nights. You probably feel the need to clean up a little too, no? Yes? Then follow along for “Feel Good Fast ~ the 3rd edition”! (more…)

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On Christmas day here in Venice, my partner @ronproulx and I will be hosting a meet-up for L.A. social media users with a heart. If you’re like most of us, around 2pm on Christmas day you’ll be stuffed full of great food, you’ll have plenty of presents opened and piled neatly, and you’ll be wanting to take a well-deserved snooze while the kids play with their new toys. Why not take a walk to the beach instead?

The thought occurred to me that I could forfeit that nap and spend an hour on the boardwalk giving away leftovers to hungry people. (more…)

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Have you ever been hit over the head by life?

What exactly does it mean when someone says “He/she won’t change/learn until he/she gets hit over the head.”?

Have you ever fallen asleep at the wheel, even for a tenth of a second, only to awaken to the blare of a horn from an oncoming vehicle? Have you ever been riding a bicycle peacefully down an urban bike lane when, out of the blue, a car driver’s door opened in your path? Do you ever stop to wonder if there’s a hidden meaning or a message behind these moments where we come so close to having our lives forever altered? Do these experiences offer up some kind of a cosmic lesson?  (more…)

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…Gracefully.

Have you ever said “yes” to something you really wanted to say “no” to? Have you ever said “yes”, then changed your mind and been too afraid to say “no”? Have you ever said “yes” and not really meant it, hoping the other person would get from your tone or read between the lines that your real answer was actually “no”? Don’t you sometimes wish you had the courage to “just say no” to every request coming down the pipeline? How do we do that gracefully, without losing friends, losing business, being called lazy or a deadbeat or a snob? (more…)

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Have you ever felt one solitary word cut your heart like a knife? Perhaps someone said something to you without thinking and a word slipped past their lips with the intent to hurt, or maybe the hurt was unintended.

Have you ever stopped to think about the power of the words you choose? How you can harm or disarm someone in an instant with a single word?

How about the opposite? Have you ever felt one word soothe or calm or bring you intense pleasure? (more…)

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It’s an awesome time to be alive! For the first time in the history of the world, peace feels attainable.

If Americans (and the rest of the world) answer Obama’s call to greatness, we will have the most exciting 8 years the planet has ever seen.

I loved watching the newscasters trying to contain their enthusiasm. This kind of enthusiasm is uncontainable. A tsunami of change washed over the world last night, leaving everything in its wake shimmering with newness and hope. (more…)

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Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I got my hands into some dough. I used to bake bread from scratch every single morning at my restaurant in Banff, and whether they realized it or not, it was one of the things that kept my regulars coming back day after day for lunch. Baking is not magic, but there’s magic in baking.

For a while, I used a large mixer to knead the dough to save time, but I found that not only did the machine alter the alchemy, never getting it quite right, I actually needed the exercise of kneading. I would lock myself in, tune out the world, tune into the process, and discover the secrets of the universe in 4 daily loaves. (more…)

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Has all the bad news of late got you in a bad mood? Or is it the bad weather? Is it just me, or are we all having to fight a little harder for our happiness these days?

Couples everywhere are breaking up, people more than ever are being diagnosed with cancer, America is in the kind of trouble it won’t see its way out of for generations, 1% of the global tropical rain forests are disappearing per year (a conservative estimate) and animals are going extinct at a rate that alarms even the most cynical of scientists. (more…)

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Come down to the southwest, he said, where epic summer thunderstorms roll in over the mesas with no warning, darken the sky, shake the earth and drench the sun-parched land in biblical twenty-minute downpours, with great flashes of lightning and booming thunder, then dissolve away into sweet, gentle sunshine, nearly all moisture evaporating instantly.

We’ve got pretty good soy lattes down here, he said. Only pretty good because at this altitude (7000 ft) water steams at a lower temperature. Doesn’t affect the tequila, though. (more…)

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