FEATURED AUTHOR: JISUN SUNNY FISHER

ABOUT THE BOOK



For thousands of years, the greatest minds have all sought to understand the purpose of life. Bodhi(sattva) means one who seeks enlightenment, and if you’re here, love and freedom call your name. The Bodhi Blueprint is here to take the heart-wrenching years of guesswork off your shoulders and guide you powerfully on your path to a courageous life worth living.
 
In The Bodhi Blueprint, you will find answers to questions like:
•           What would make me feel truly happy and fulfilled?
•           How do I live with intention, so I have zero regrets?
•           How can I break free of my limiting thoughts and self-defeating patterns?
•           How do I find the confidence to live authentically?
 
Derived from a series of cosmic downloads, the information in this book will:
•           Point you in the direction of your true north.
•           Guide you to profound peace.
•           Help you feel more alive.
•           Show you how to go from living a reactionary life to one where you’re in control.
•           Open portals for you to manifest your best life.
 
Imagine living life on your terms, on purpose. How do you feel? What have you transformed? This is my invitation to you: are you ready to follow the cosmic breadcrumbs and experience your most epic, authentic and meaningful life?

 

Book Details


Title: The Bodhi Blueprint: Ultimate Freedom! Master Your Fears and Live Life on Purpose


Author: Jisun Sunny Fisher, PhD    


Genre: nonfiction, self-help, spirituality

Publisher: Jisun Sunny Fisher, Ph.D. (June 26, 2022)


Print length: 354 pages

 

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH JISUN SUNNY FISHER

A few of your favorite things: hiking with the pups, my toes in the sands of Hawai’i, reading tarot, Haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream, dancing to music, playing the piano, reading a mind-shifting book.

Things you need to throw out: jeans from high school, poinsettia plant from December of last year (I don’t like clutter – when anything goes missing in the house, everyone comes to me first because I like to throw things out – very liberally, I might add).

Things you need in order to write: peace and quiet on some days, soothing solfeggio music on other days, while on most days I need invigorating cinematic music.

Things that hamper your writing: clutter, unfinished task list, a loud environment.

Easiest thing about being a writer: I channel my writing, so just opening up to be a vessel comes easily.

Hardest thing about being a writer: I’m also very type-A with perfectionistic tendencies – this leaves me needing control over some areas of my life on most days; if I have a deadline but don’t feel a divine resonance, I’m SOL.

Things you love about where you live: peaceful, serene, lots of green and birds.

Things that make you want to move: it’s not Hawai’i.

Words that describe you: magnetic, bold, fearless, inspirational.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: stubborn, impulsive, jack-of-all-trades.

Favorite foods: ice-cream with warm brownie, drunken grandma’s sicilian pie/pizza, egg-fried rice and kimchi.

Things that make you want to throw up: licorice.

Favorite smell: patchouli.

Something that makes you hold your nose: gasoline.

Something you wish you could do: choreograph hip-hop dancing.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: saying, “I think” when I know.

Favorite places you’ve been: Maui, Kaui, Switzerland.

Places you never want to go to again: NJ beaches.

Favorite things to do: creating deep connections and intimacy (in-to-me-see).

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: making small talk.

Things that make you happy: reggae music, remembering my grandmother, playing with my pups.

Things that drive you crazy: people who complain.

Proudest moment: presenting my dissertation.

Most embarrassing moment: walking out of the bathroom after clogging the toilet at my mother in law’s house.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jisun Sunny Fisher, PhD, MA, CHt, CAPP, is a licensed psychologist and purpose coach who helps courageous leaders remember their true north and re-discover what makes them fall in love with life again. Through her gentle but powerful guidance, clients learn to master their narratives, break old patterns, and turn their weaknesses into superpowers. They learn to embody absolute clarity, unshakeable confidence, and ultimate conviction.
 
Dr. J received her graduate degrees from Columbia University and the University of Connecticut. She is also certified in Positive Psychology, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and Hypnosis. Dr. J’s thought leadership has been featured in Yahoo!Life, Thrive Global, Bustle, Goalcast, and more.
 
Dr. J loves hiking with her pups, dabbling on the piano, reading tarot for growth and healing, and making annual trips to her beloved land of Hawai’i. If you catch her in the kitchen cooking, run the other way!
 
Her forthcoming book, The Bodhi Blueprint, Ultimate Freedom! Master Your Fears and Live Life on Purpose, is due out in June 2022.

Connect with Dr. J:

Website  |  Instagram




Buy the book:

Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: BOB RICH

ABOUT THE BOOK

From Depression to Contentment: A Self-Therapy Guide is a course of therapy in your pocket. You can be your own therapist, changing the way you see yourself and your world. Not only does this save lots of money, it also is 100% confidential. The book starts with first aid, provides an understanding of the nature and causes of suffering, instructs you in research-based techniques for dealing with your problems and, finally, teaches you an actual cure for depression.

•    Every tool in this book is based on research, but presented in an easy to understand, easy to apply manner.
•    With homework assignments, you will find your inner strengths, uncover the true source of happiness and develop great resilience.
•    Learn how to put the philosophies of all great religions to practical use, even if you are an atheist.
•    This program can help you start a new life - one of meaning, positivity and purpose.
•    Unlike instructional books, this book is not only useful but also enjoyable.

"If you're depressed and need someone who 'gets' you, who has been there and who can walk you through the journey toward a life worth living, then From Depression to Contentment will be your new best friend. Bob meets you where you are and can lead you home to yourself."
-- Petrea King, CEO and founder of Quest for Life Foundation

Book Details

Title: From Depression to Contentment: A self-therapy guide
Author: Bob Rich, Ph.D.
Genre: psychology self-help
Publisher: Loving Healing Press 2019
Print length: 155 pages


INTERVIEW WITH BOB RICH

How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I became a writer because in 1980 a bunch of teenagers kidnapped me. They were playing a boys vs. girls soccer game, and needed one more male, so told me I had to help out. I was making mudbricks (adobe) at the time, and went with them, muddy boots and all.
Not surprisingly, I slipped and tore the cartilage in my knee. Let me tell you, that’s not a good idea.|
In hospital, I was bored out of my mind, so borrowed the office typewriter, (remember those?) and wrote a how-to article for Earth Garden magazine and became their owner-building expert, with a byline column for 40 years. This led to my first book, The Earth Garden Building Book: Design and build your own house. That went through 4 editions and sold hundreds of thousands of copies between 1986 and 2018.
|Later, I decided to train as a nurse, and this meant 5 nights a week in a nurses’ home where gorgeous 18-year-olds surrounded me. I had to choose between making a fool of myself or doing something creative, so I wrote short stories. The first I entered won a prize—and I was hooked. You can read this story here.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was born with the ability to heal with words. It is a karmic thing. Even in school, all the kids with problems cried on my shoulders. Trouble was, I had too much empathy, and often worried more about other people’s problems than they did.
Nursing toughened me up (the first lesson in nursing is: “It’s not your pain. You are not there to share it, but to relieve it.” In therapy, it’s even further: you are there to empower your client to relieve it.)
So, in the late 1980s I did an additional course, and I then had a psychotherapy practice until 2013.
It may shock and surprise you, but relieving suffering gives me great joy. I am odd that way. Since about 1999, I have been answering cries of desperation posted on various websites, and now people track me down thanks to many of my q&a posts in the public domain.
In fact, one of my earlier books is 50 such single-session email therapy exchanges .
I may have grown old, but I am still silly enough to be idealistic, and to make a difference. My book From Depression to Contentment: A self-therapy guide is a tool for transforming your life. I want it to work for as many people as I can.

How long did it take you to write this book?

Fiction is far more fun to write than nonfiction. I knew I needed a book to help with depression 15 years ago, and sort of started it, but it gathered dust inside my computer, with me occasionally adding to it. Then once I decided to, I whipped it into shape in 3 months, and sent it off to my publisher.
It was 95,000 words long, and he told me (well, emailed me) that people won’t read self-help books above 50,000 words. So, he forced me to amputate much of it. I managed this in two ways: in the book I set homework tasks (you change your life by DOING, not by KNOWING), much of which includes additional reading, and I used the excised parts as the start of a companion volume, Lifting the Gloom: Antidepressant writings.

What do you hope readers will get from this book?

It is a course of therapy in your pocket. If you faithfully and conscientiously do the program, you will grow spiritually (which is the purpose of life), gain immense inner strength and resilience, and survive anything, even Bob Rich’s humor.

How did you come up with the title of your book?

I am a fan of Carolyn Howard-Johnson and her how-to books on writing. I have edited most of them, which is a very frugal way of reading. Her advice on titles for a nonfiction book is to have it brief and pithy saying exactly what the book is about, then have a long subtitle that includes the keywords your target audience is likely to use in searches.

How did you come up with your cover art?

It’s actually designed by my publisher’s cover-art expert, but the concept is mine.
Birds are among my favorite people on this planet, and the wedgetail eagle is the favorite of favorites. You can read a guided imagery script about her here.
So, that’s what I wanted on the cover. But the only print-quality pic we could find was of a foreigner: an American bald eagle. (Actually, I am far more bald than they are.)

Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I participate in a monthly round robin organized by a wonderful lady who teaches writing at a university, Rhobin Courtright. One of my essays is exactly on this topic.

Name one thing you couldn’t live without.

Oxygen.

Where do you call home?

I am a citizen of the Universe. All sentient beings are my family. Right now in this life I live on a tiny rock planet in orbit around a below-average yellow dwarf star in a fairly typical galaxy.
This planet is mostly water, and there are magnificent, intelligent aquatic creatures, but no, I am not one of them, but a land crawler. Most of the land on this mudball is currently in its northern hemisphere, though the blobs of land do move around. However, the best part is in the south, called Australia, which means Southern Land in some language.
There is a place called Melbourne, which has a population of about four and a half million land crawlers (as distinct from the cetacean owners of the planet). This is an outlying settlement of Healesville, which is 50 miles to its east. That gives me magnificent sunsets, thanks to the air pollution so many people cause.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

Only one? That’s harsh. Being constitutionally unable to follow instructions, I give you a selection from the people I admire the most:
Dalai Lama: “My religion is kindness. The aim of enlightenment is to be of service.”
Mother Teresa: “Help one person at a time, and start with the one nearest to you.”
Greta Thunberg about the Glasgow climate talkfest: “Blah blah blah.”

For what would you like to be remembered?

Only two things matter in life: what you take with you when you die, and what you leave behind in the hearts of others. Everything else is Monopoly money.
What can you take with you: Lessons learnt, gained wisdom--or the opposite: hate, bitterness, blame and the like. So, you either advance in spiritual development, or go backward, or of course a bit of each. Look after the heart, the Love, and you can let go of everything else.

What scares you the most?

We are NOW in the 6th extinction event of Earth. When we have unraveled the web of life, we also fall though the hole. This is why I have been an environmental activist since 1972.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Whatever organization I join, I soon become the convener of the Antisocial Committee, which refuses to meet, as a matter of principle.
For some lucky people, conversation is lubrication. Then there is my kind. For us, it is information. Tell me to have a chat with Amy and I’ll sit beside you like a dummy, unless you ask the right questions.
I am the genuine, patented party-pooper.
In answer to your question, I give you three guesses.

What is the most daring thing you've done?

Being born. In a past-life recall, I’ve learned that in this life, either I am doomed to witness the extinction of humanity, or be part of the team saving us. This is set out in my fictionalized autobiography, Sleeper, Awake.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done?

See previous answer.

What are you working on now?

Much of my work is environmental, humanitarian and political activism. I am here to change the world, and am doing my best. So, I am very active in the political party The Australian Greens. Australia’s voting laws are different, and voting for a small party does not prevent you from still choosing among the two dinosaurs. One are conservatives, mis-labeled “Liberal,” the others are Labor, whose policies are Liberal Lite.
Part of this is a fundraising activity for the Greens candidate in my local electorate. I currently run weekly online sessions in positive psychology, training participants to use the tools within From Depression to Contentment and Lifting the Gloom.

Oh, you mean WRITING projects?
I am well into a book on grief, working title If You Have Lost a Loved One: How to cope with grief.
I have posted snippets on my blog already. Sadly, it is greatly needed.
Four short stories, and one partly finished, are ready for a new anthology, REAL Human Nature, focusing on all that’s good about people.
My publisher has a series of “101 tips about...” and wants me to write one on depression, so that’s on the way.
There is the start of a book focusing on positive psychology, Above Normal, and several unfinished short stories that don’t fit the specs of the anthology-in-waiting.
But my major project is a 5-volume science fiction series, "The Doom Healer.” I am currently pestering agents and publishers with the first volume. All I want to say about it here is that my hero, Bill Sutcliffe, will one day be beside Harry Potter.

Finally, from Bob:

I will make sure to answer any comments, and one week after publication date of this interview, will randomly select one commenter to receive a free electronic copy of a book. Again, you have three guesses regarding title.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bob Rich, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in psychology in 1972. He worked as an academic, researcher, and applied scientist until “retiring” the first time at 36 years of age. Later, he returned to psychology and qualified as a Counseling Psychologist, running a private practice for over 20 years. During this time, he was on the national executive of the College of Counselling Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), then spent three years as a Director of the APS. He was the therapist referrers sent their most difficult cases to.

Bob retired in 2013, but still does pro bono counseling over the internet. This has given him hundreds of “children” and “grandchildren” he has never met, because many of these people stay in touch for years. His major joy in life is to be of benefit to others, which is why he wrote a book that’s in effect a course of therapy.

You can get to know him well at his blog, Bobbing Around.

Connect with Bob:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |   Barnes & Noble  |  More

FEATURED AUTHOR: MARK JOHNSON

ABOUT THE BOOK

Life As Play chronicles author Mark Johnson's 50-year spiritual odyssey with some of the most fascinating spiritual teachers of the last half-century. His travels take him from the mountains of Pennsylvania to exotic temples in China and Tibet and eventually to the wild and dangerous hills of Malibu, California.
 
Mark chronicles his ten years training in an Advaita Vedanta center in Florida, then a year of visiting Suzuki Roshi in California. Then the Play began, with an intense 28-year apprenticeship to the powerful Daoist wizard he meets in Taiwan and convinces to come to the US.
 
Mark learned many valuable self-healing techniques in their Malibu clinic: how to heal oneself with high-frequency energies available to everyone; how to utilize deep breathing techniques for clearing and integrating our subconscious; the power of love, compassion, spontaneity, intuition, and inner stillness; how to recognize an Avatar if you are lucky enough to meet one; and how to activate your acupuncture meridians and auric energies. There are chapters on Feng Shui, Daoist sexual practices, the nine secrets to a life of Play, and much more.
 
The central message is that if an ordinary boy from central Pennsylvania can learn to live in an abiding state of Play, then surely you can too.

Book Details

Title: Life As Play: Live compassionately, intuitively, spontaneously, and miracles will happen!
Author: Mark Johnson

Genre: self-help; spirituality

Published: Dao Publishing (December 2020)
Print length: 236 pages

STUPID QUESTIONS WITH MARK JOHNSON

A few of your favorite things: when I am not on call, I sit quietly and let my intuition and spontaneity flow through me.
Things you need to throw out: I give things away or I try to integrate them with the rest of the stuff I have.


Things you need in order to write: quiet time.
Things that hamper your writing: noise, unexpected interruptions.

Things you love about writing: the fact I let it flow through me effortlessly.
Things you hate about writing:  I don’t hate anything about writing.


Things you love about where you live: I love the 50-mile view from my lofty penthouse.
Things that make you want to move: nothing.


Words that describe you: funny, compassionate, spontaneous etc. ad nauseam!
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t: impatient when asked to answer stupid questions.

Favorite foods: anything I can create in 3 to 5 minutes at most.
Things that make you want to throw up:  answering stupid questions.

Favorite song: “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.
Music that makes your ears bleed: almost everything I hear these days.

Something you like to do: whatever the divine wants me to do.
Something you wish you’d never done: I learn through experiences so I try to learn from everything I do.


Things you’d walk a mile for: getting the exercise that my body needs at the moment.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: when the room is on fire.

Things you always put in your books: guidance for everyone to realize their innate divinity.

Things you never put in your books: trivia—unless it is humorous.

Favorite places you’ve been: I have been damn near everywhere on this planet.
Places you never want to go to again: They all were interesting in their own way.

Favorite things to do: help people realize their innate divinity.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: answering stupid questions.

Most embarrassing moment: I can’t remember people’s names after a nasty plane crash 10 years ago.
Proudest moment: when I remember their names.

Best thing you’ve ever done: at age 16 I made a clay dinosaur movie that involved  30,000 still shots that involved a fight between 2 T Rexes then a fly in Pterodactyl. Then a T Rex sinks into a tar pit and dies.
Biggest mistake: I misplaced the dinosaur DVD and have never found it. 

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: I flew with a new flying buddy who turned out to be an idiot and smashed us into a warehouse at 120 mph and smashed my frontal lobe off -hence no people’s names.
Something you chickened out from doing: getting married again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Mark Johnson is a semi-retired Tai Ji and Chi Gung instructor and healer. He continues to judge Tai Ji tournaments regularly, serves on the Advisory Council to the National Qigong Association, and leads Daoist retreats to China and Tibet yearly. He sells his Tai Chi for Seniors video and other instructional DVDs through his online company. Mark has studied and practiced Eastern Philosophy for over forty-five years and has apprenticed with some of the most prominent Vedanta, Zen and Daoist teachers in the world. He has been a member and research subject at the Institute of Noetic Sciences for nearly fifteen years.

Connect with Mark:
Website  |  Facebook 


Buy the book:

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FEATURED AUTHOR: DR. ROBERT KILTZ

ABOUT THE BOOK


Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow will provide the resources necessary to help create the ideal you by focusing not only on the body but on the mind and the soul as well. Dr. Kiltz applies a holistic approach to medicine, working collaboratively on his patients’ physical being as well as their emotional and spiritual selves. In his book, Dr. Kiltz provides guidance on various self-help techniques such as the power of mediation, eliminating stress, the benefits of yoga, and listening to your inner voice.

Book Details


Title: Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow


Author: Dr. Robert Kiltz

Genre: nonfiction, health and wellness, mental health, motivation, self-help, holistic lifestyle, nutrition, diet


Publisher: Waterside Productions (April 21, 2021)


Print length: 252 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH DR. ROBERT KILTZ

A few of your favorite things: my guitar, my potter’s wheel, but also my partner, my relationship, and my dedication to the work I love to do as a physician, artist, and father.

Things you need to throw out: somedays I think I need to throw out most everything in my closet for sure, but old clothes and stuff in drawers and on my desk that I haven’t touched or seen in way too long.

Things you need in order to write: a quiet space, but mostly inspiration—thoughts and ideas that I learn from reading, listening to, and watching others. Then I can conceive of ideas that might be a little different or I can just twist and turn them around a little bit. 

Things that hamper your writing: distractions and being tired. When I’m tired, I’m a little distracted also. I just need to lay down, take a nap and rest and relax. Quite often even then I need to listen, watch or read something else to re-inspire me.

Things you love about writing: freeing my thoughts and ideas and expressing them help me to better understand myself and life in general. It’s like any other piece of art—my pottery and my painting—it’s an expression, but it lets those feelings flow and gives creativity to my life. 

Things you hate about writing: writer’s block and the fear and worry that my thoughts and ideas have little value and maybe won’t be liked. But I’m working on getting over that one.

Easiest thing about being a writer: nothing. Being a writer isn’t easy because there are all of those fears and worries we carry. But it’s not really a difficult job. It’s not digging a ditch or fighting in a war zone. 

Hardest thing about being a writer: the hardest thing may be conveying the real thoughts and feelings and finding the right words and ideas, but learning through practice and patience, those skills come too.

Things you love about where you live: I live on a lake in Upstate New York in Skaneateles. It’s the lake and nature that draw me. I think it’s the quiet nature of the area. Growing up in Los Angeles, there were (and still are) a lot more crowds, traffic, smog, and concrete. Although I did spend time at the ocean. I grew up in Newport Beach and in LA. I guess you take all of the good and the bad and learn from it. The beauty is all there in everything. But what I really love about Upstate New York is the greenery, the lakes, and the land.  

Things that make you want to move: not much, because I really love where I live. At times the winters can be a little cold and long, leaving me aspiring for a little sunlight and warmth, which is why I go down to Florida for a little bit in the winter too. So we can solve those problems quite easily.

Things you never want to run out of: life and enthusiasm, but I think we never really run out of any of that stuff. It’s always there.

Things you wish you’d never bought: that’s a hard one. I’m not sure I know of anything I wish I never bought. I typically don’t have any regrets of anything I’ve done or bought or experienced.

Words that describe you: energetic, enthusiastic, joyful, hardworking, and focused.

Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: selfish and egocentric. But really that part of me is always focused on finding thoughts and ideas to help others, so that’s the conundrum.

Favorite foods: rib-eye steak. Pittsburgh blue sliced. The fattiest one you can find. Ice cream. Kiltz’s Ice Cream. Cream, egg, vanilla, a little bit of sugar. It’s the very best. But fresh is best.

Things that make you want to throw up: a merry-go-round. Spinning motion. I’m not good at that. And maybe a little goulash. Maybe it’s the word. I’ve never actually had it.

Favorite music: I love jazz, flamenco, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. I love most music, but I really love most music without words. I love the repetition of the guitar, piano, trumpet, and the wind sounds. Mostly when it’s positive and uplifting. Occasionally the sorrow and sadness of a song or music can get to your heart and help you dig deep into the feelings and bring about the understanding of our human-ness, our faithfulness, and our connection to the vibrations and energy of the universe.

Music that makes your ears bleed: I don’t particularly like heavy metal, but maybe it’s just the loudness and it’s just not my vibration.

Favorite beverage: coffee has been my favorite beverage for a long time, but I’ve been off coffee for a few weeks now trying to detoxify, so sparkling water or plain water.

Something that gives you a pickle face: pickle juice and tart lemonade.

Favorite smell: jasmine. The night-blooming jasmine that sat right outside our front door at our house in Los Angeles in Silver Lake. My mother loved that plant. I loved the smell. From time to time it comes to my mind and brings back fond memories of growing up in LA.

Something that makes you hold your nose: I don’t hold my nose for much because I have to get into some dirty stuff as a physician, but rotten eggs is a good answer.

Something you’re really good at: pottery, flying, and being a fertility physician. Those are the things I’m good at, but I always say I need more practice and learning. There’s nothing we are perfect at. We need to keep working to be better at the thing and that takes practice, practice, practice.
Something you’re really bad at: in-the-line drawings. That means staying in lines. Most of my painting and pottery is kind of throwing mud or paint, not in the lines. Any time I try to draw something exactly how it looks, I go very abstract.

Something you wish you could do: singing better and reading music. I just need to decide to put my time and energy to it. Anything you really want to do, just do it. 
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: drink alcohol is about the only one.

Something you like to do: sit at the potter’s wheel making pottery and also in front of a canvas making paintings or free-writing in my journal, listening, reading, and being inspired by others. The thing that gives me the most meditative joy is sitting at the potter’s wheel making pottery.

Something you wish you’d never done: complained about anyone or anything. I’d like to get rid of the complaints I’ve lived in life.

Last best thing you ate: steak, lobster with butter and salt, and some really crispy French fries (fried in duck grease) and dipped in mayonnaise.
Last thing you regret eating: I don’t typically eat things I’m going to regret, but I guess it might have been the salad and vegetables I ate at the restaurant Tia and I went to over Easter. It was one of those six-course meals, and they had all of these fancy vegetables. I promised Tia I would eat everything on my plate, and I did. But it caused me a little ogida the next day. It’s all good. I survived and thrived.

Things you’d walk a mile for: to spend time with my partner, Tia, and my daughter, Pilar.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: too much loud noise and distractions.

Things you always put in your books: stories of success.

Things you never put in your books: stories of failure, but only because I look at stories of failure absolutely as stories of success. The more you do, the more you learn and get creative, you find those stumbling blocks are really stepping stones.

Favorite places you’ve been: Cabo San Lucas with Tia or traveling through Paris, Rome, and London with all of the amazing life, art, people, and creativity in all of these inspiring places.
Places you never want to go to again: I don’t really have many places like that. There are great people in the Dominican Republic, but we just had an experience in an all-inclusive resort that wasn’t the greatest. I typically don’t think about things that way though.

Favorite things to do: fly my plane or jet, sit at the potter’s wheel, paint a canvas, and spend some time with Tia or Pilar.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: maybe making the bed?

Things that make you happy: seeing others happy, seeing others succeed, seeing those patients suffering from infertility conceive and deliver that beautiful baby, and building families.
Things that drive you crazy: not spending time with my daughter or Tia.

Proudest moment: becoming a doctor and seeing my parents’ pride in that and, of course, becoming a father.
Most embarrassing moment: when I didn’t match for my residency in OB/GYN in my fourth year of medical school, that was an embarrassing moment, but I think I took it in stride and ultimately it was one of the best things that happened to me. It gave me the gift of something different that I learned from and grew from. It created even more for me. So, I don’t look at it as truly embarrassing because the more I’m embarrassed, the more I grow and learn and let it go.

Biggest lie you’ve ever told: ultimately, I am less or I am imperfect or I am a failure. And I realized that lie was always perpetuating what I thought about. But it was part of the energy that brought me to the truth that I am everything, God is everything, and we all are here doing our best every day.
A lie you wish you’d told: maybe it’s the part that God is all of us. But in fact, I recognize that it’s not really the lie, it’s the truth. But our brain still has a fighting nature with all of that. And so all things essentially in the lies I told are all perfect in the way they were told, but you’ve got to understand the truth when it comes for whatever reason.

Best thing you’ve ever done: become a father.
Biggest mistake: I make mistakes every day, but none of them are ultimately the “big one.” They are all small in the nature of the universe. We make them “big” or we make them “small” in our thinking.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: learning to fly an airplane and a jet.
Something you chickened out from doing: dedicating my life to doing a better job when I was younger. And understanding the power of God. Had I begun to listen and learn when I was much younger, then maybe I would have learned new and different things at a younger age. But maybe my big “chicken out” thing today was to get in a helicopter and jump off onto a skill hill [heloskiing]. I’m staying away from that one!

OTHER BOOKS BY DR. ROBERT KILTZ

Daily Inspirations

The Fertile Feast

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Robert Kiltz is a board-certified OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist, and Founder and Director of CNY Fertility, one of the largest and most dynamic fertility centers in the country, featured in the Wall Street Journal, Today Show, and CNBC for helping shape the future of fertility medicine. Dr. Kiltz has earned recognition outside of the fertility world for pioneering the holistic health movement and the keto lifestyle. He is the author of several books including The Fertile Feast and Daily Inspirations, and his latest, Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow which released April 2021. In addition to his own media outlets, Dr. Kiltz appears regularly on numerous popular blogs and has shared his views as a TEDx speaker.



Connect with Dr. Kiltz:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Youtube  |  Goodreads 


Buy the book:
Amazon

FEATURED AUTHOR: DR. ROBERT KILTZ

 

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow will provide the resources necessary to help create the ideal you by focusing not only on the body but on the mind and the soul as well. Dr. Kiltz applies a holistic approach to medicine, working collaboratively on his patients’ physical being as well as their emotional and spiritual selves. In his book, Dr. Kiltz provides guidance on various self-help techniques such as the power of mediation, eliminating stress, the benefits of yoga, and listening to your inner voice. 

Book Details:
Title: Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow
Author: Dr. Robert Kiltz
Genre: self-help
Publisher: Waterside Productions (April 20, 2021)
Print length: 227 pages

DR. ROBERT KILTZ, M.D. SHARES 6 WAYS to BRING MINDFULNESS to MEALTIME

 
Slow Down
Take the time to chew and enjoy your meal. Sit down with it and allow your senses to take over. How does the meal smell, taste, and feel? Make mealtime a tactile experience and don’t rush to eat. Stay in the moment with your meal. If you find your thoughts drifting away from your meal or bouncing into the future with what you are going to do next, gently bring your focus back to the meal. Notice the smells; savor the taste and texture in your mouth as you are eating. Bringing the focus to the present moment while you eat will help you slow down and enjoy your food. This connection also helps you appreciate your food and creates a positive vibrational frequency, which results in happier mealtimes.
 
Say Thank You
You don’t have to be religious to say grace before a meal. Simply saying thank you for this abundant meal and respecting the source from which it came is an empowering way for you to connect to your food. Thank the farmers who grew your vegetables or raised your cattle. Think about everything that your food has gone through before arriving on your plate, and take a moment to appreciate and respect that process. Saying thank you will fill you with abundant joy and love and will make you feel a greater connection to the universe and your food.
 
Avoid Multitasking at Mealtimes
Put down your mobile phone, switch off the television, and close your laptop when you are eating. When you are distracted, you cannot consciously eat your meal and enjoy it the same way you can when you are solely focused on it. Avoid engaging in activities that are distracting or noisy while you are eating, and seek some solitude with your food. If you are eating with your family or loved ones, focus on sharing the experience of the meal with them. Talk about the taste, texture, and smell.
 
Find the Joy in Your Food
We focus so much on what we shouldn’t eat that often we get stressed or anxious at mealtimes because we have created a negative association with our food. This negative association ends up being the reason that we do not enjoy our meals because instead of focusing on the experience of the food, we are focused only on what we are not allowed to consume. We think about all of the things we cannot eat or shouldn’t eat and then reach for something healthier, not because we choose that food, but because we are acting on conflicting motivations. Learn to seek out the joy in your food. If you are at the stage where you don’t feel good about eating healthy because you feel deprived, try branching out and experiencing varying types of healthy options until you find something that you really enjoy. Enjoying food is as much about taste as it is about the way it makes you feel. Unhealthy food may make you feel happy while you are eating it, but shortly afterward, we often feel tired, sick, or sluggish. This is not the case with healthy food from the earth. Our energy is boundless and carries us throughout an entire day. Fresh food makes us feel alive and creates an inner vibration of wellness.

Don’t focus on what you can’t or shouldn’t eat. That is not the way to look at it. Instead, think about the world of options that are available to you and how those things resonate with your being. Experience the joy in the food that you eat and experiment with different types of vegetables and ingredients until you find something that makes your body, mind, and spirit feel harmonious. When experimenting with food, notice all of the flavors and textures—truly allow yourself to stay in the moment with your meal. Don’t be afraid to try new things, even when they are outside of your comfort zone. Experience the joy in your food by eating the things that make you feel happy and connected to your spirit.
 
Trust Your Intuition
When it comes to your diet, trust in your intuition. Your higher self knows what is best for you, and you will have a sense when you eat something if your body likes it or not. A lot of it will be common sense, but sometimes you may have to listen to the cues that your body is providing you. Don’t keep trying to eat something because it is good for you. Sometimes you will simply not like a certain food, and that is okay. Move on to something else. Healthy eating provides us with a world of opportunity; it’s not just about salads and nuts. There are many great websites that can help you find easy and delicious recipes using the ingredients that you like most. Listen to the inner wisdom of your body to guide you with your eating. If you feel bad about eating something or that you shouldn’t, it may be that your body is trying to tell you to reach for a healthier alternative.

When we look after our homes and our cars, we spend a lot of time finding out what the problem is, asking questions, and getting to the core of the matter. Why would we not do the same with the most important asset of all, our bodies? We take our bodies for granted and spend our lives treating symptoms that would disappear if we were to eat and nourish them the way they really need to be nourished. Our hospitals and waiting rooms are packed with people seeking help for physical symptoms related to poor eating choices. Type 2 Diabetes is a man-made disease that is a direct result of a poor diet. It has been said that our bodies contain everything they need to repair and heal themselves, so long as they are properly nourished.

Follow your intuition and lead your body to a place of higher vibration by eating food from the earth that is plant-based and high in nutrition. Just listen to how your body responds when you allow yourself the luxury of eating this way.
 
Food and Sharing
Have you ever noticed the way you feel when you are sitting around a dinner table with good friends or family sharing an incredible home-cooked meal? Sharing in the experience of a meal is a great way to connect with your food and enhance the experience by enjoying it with others. Our hearts expand and our spirits soar when we share and give to others, and there is no greater gift you can bestow on someone than the gift of a home-cooked meal prepared with love and attention. When you go to a fast-food restaurant, the experience of sharing a burger and fries with your family is not the same as having a picnic with them in a park with things that you have prepared in the home. The energy that you bring to the food when you prepare it, cooked or not, is paramount to the experience of sharing a meal. Your intention when you cook for others is to make them happy and fulfilled. That intention carries such a positive vibration that it permeates through the food and into the people who ingest it. This is why the experience of sitting down to a meal with family is very different than going out to a fast-food restaurant. Have you ever noticed that you can taste the passion of a chef at a really great restaurant? The food tastes brilliant because they love what they do and they love to share that passion with diners.

Consider all of the ways in which you interact with food. What is your relationship like currently? How can you improve the experience of eating and enjoying your meals? We all eat on a daily basis and go through our days getting hungry, eating, and drinking. Conscious eating can completely change the way we interact and feel about our meals and bring us to a place of light and love. Food is a spiritual experience, and so your relationship to food should be one of respect, appreciation, and enjoyment. Healthy eating isn’t meant to be miserable and make you feel unhappy. In fact, it is meant to be the opposite. Healthy eating should make you feel amazing and uplifted; it gives you the energy and vitality you need to be more and do more. Your higher self only wants the best for you in this human life, and eating a diet that is loaded with fat, carbohydrates, sugar, and sodium only takes away from your quality of life here on earth. Your higher self knows this, and your body knows this and repeatedly attempts to communicate this to you when you mistreat it.

We are getting better as a society and have been placing a greater emphasis on locally grown produce, gardening, and clean food. Our collective consciousness has been rising, and so too have our standards for what we are willing to accept in our lives. We know that the way we have been doing things is not sustainable and does not help the planet or each other. Every time we visit our grocery stores, we have a choice to make. We can buy locally grown organic produce, or we can buy vegetables that have been shipped from thousands of miles away and have been sitting on trucks for days. Similarly, we can buy meat that is born from unhealthy conditions and negative karma, or we can buy meat from ethical conditions where the animals actually get to enjoy their lives and feel good. When you head out to the store to buy your groceries, think about every item that you put into your cart. If you are unsure about something, find out. Know what you are putting into your body. It is your right and your responsibility to know this, and it is perhaps one of the best things you can do to honor and love yourself, ensuring a long and healthy life.

 

Excerpt from Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect Your Way to a Better Flow by Dr. Robert Kiltz Copyright © 2021 by Dr. Robert Kiltz. Reproduced with permission from Dr. Robert Kiltz. All rights reserved.


 

ABOUT DR. ROBERT KILTZ

Dr. Robert Kiltz is a board-certified OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist who has earned recognition outside of the fertility world for pioneering the holistic health movement and the keto lifestyle. In his latest book Living Your Best Life: How to Think, Eat, and Connect your Way to a Better Flow, Dr. Kiltz provides guidance to help you to live your best life and bring your mind, body, and smile into balance.

Connect with Dr. Kiltz:
Website  |  Facebook  |    Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube

Buy the book:
 Amazon
 
 

FEATURED AUTHOR: TODD STOTTLEMYRE

ABOUT THE BOOK

Many people know Todd Stottlemyre as an American former professional baseball player, most notably as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. However, Todd Stottlemyre is also an author with a highly personal, transformative story to tell through his new book. The Observer, far from being a fiction novel, is the fable of Todd Stottlemyre’s life. He rose to superstardom winning two World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays but had yet to reach his true “peak” until the journey that began afterward.

Kat has it all (money, success, recognition, influence) except the one thing she desires desperately: a fulfilled life. A business entrepreneur in the high-end sportswear industry, Kat is driven in relentless pursuit of ever-greater success. The two anchors in Kat's frenzied life have been her father; a famous baseball pitcher turned team manager, and her son, who is following in his grandfather's footsteps. When both anchors become unstable, Kat's life tips dangerously out of balance. The market and her finances flip, and relationships start slipping through her fingers. Eager for solutions, she turns to find uncanny wisdom from places she never expected.

The Observer unpacks the idea of 180-degree thinking, which changes everything for Kat. Now, seemingly impossible goals now come into focus with crystal clear clarity. As Kat focuses on the right things, the impossible becomes her new reality.

Book Details:

Title: The Observer: A Modern Fable on Mastering Your Thoughts & Emotions

Author: Todd Stottlemyre

Genre: *Praised for breaking the boundaries of both fiction and non-fiction / women’s fiction, sports fiction, business, self-help, motivational, inspirational, mental health

Publisher: Made for Success Publishing (December 29, 2020)

Print length: 200 pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH TODD STOTTLEMYRE

Things you need in order to write: clarity, a creative environment, time.

Things that hamper your writing: stress, overwhelm that destroys creativity.

Things you love about writing: I love being able to share a message of true-life events and experiences, of tragedy and triumphs to inspire and impact others to pursue their inner greatness.

Things you hate about writing: I find I do better talking than writing and my passion comes out deeper in my voice when I am speaking.

Easiest thing about being a writer: sharing personal stories, experiences, and moments.

Hardest thing about being a writer: relating to the masses so that it will enrich their lives.

Things you love about where you live: I love outdoor opportunities because of our weather and the ease of travel throughout the country because of where we are located.

Things that make you want to move: the summer heat in Arizona.

Things you never want to run out of: family and friends.

Things you wish you’d never bought: golf courses.

Favorite foods: Poke, sushi, Italian. 

Things that make you want to throw up: celery, peas, wild rice.

Things you’d walk a mile for: a great meal.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: negative people.

Things you always put in your books: real-life experiences. 

Things you never put in your books: to teach something I have never learned through experience.

Favorite places you’ve been: Europe, Hawaii, Turks & Caicos.

Places you never want to go to again: bad hotels.

Favorite things to do: vacation with my family, fishing with my brother. 

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: cleaning the garage and moving.

Things that make you happy: dates with my wife, great food, inspiring movies, winning. 

Things that drive you crazy: losing, negative people, messy environments, excuses.

The last thing you did for the first time: rode a Segway. 

Something you’ll never do again: Pink Jeep Tours.

BOOK TRAILER

OTHER BOOKS BY TODD STOTTLEMYRE

Relentless Success

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Todd Stottlemyre is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for 15 seasons most notably as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays with whom he won two World Series championships. He also played for the Oakland Athletics, St Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Awarded for his outstanding integrity and dedication to community service, he received the prestigious Branch Ricky Award and the Lou Gehrig Award. After leaving professional baseball, he pursued a career in finance building an asset management business at a high-profile Wall Street firm. He is the co-founder and owner of a private equity fund that owns, manages, and oversees a number of companies. Today, Stottlemyre channels his passion for winning as a high-performance business coach, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. Taking all he has learned both on and off the field, he works to help people achieve unparalleled success in every dimension of their lives. His latest book, The Observer: A Modern Fable on Mastering Your Thoughts & Emotions released on December 29, 2020.




Connect with Todd:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads


Buy the book:

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

FEATURED AUTHOR: GEORGE MILTON

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

What would you do if you had a revolutionary resource to help you become a successful leader, reach your goals, make your life better and propel you to become all that you are meant to be? Sounds impossible? Well, it’s not! In the “impossible” is the “possible.” And if you want the possibility of becoming successful, U. S. Army Retired Colonel, George Milton’s book, Failure Is Not The Problem, It’s The Beginning Of Your Success is a must read. Most leadership books discuss how to achieve success only, but in life we all fail sometimes. If you want to succeed you must walk through the doorway of this life changing resource, failure. In his amazing book he addresses the challenge of adversity and how failure can motivate you, focus you, and change your life for the better. His inspiring story of growth from a difficult youth to a distinguished career Army combat officer, he shares that it was only possible because he changed his attitude. Not only does he reveal personal triumphs and defeats, he demonstrates in12 easy to follow steps, how you can transform your mindset from negative to positive regarding failure and in the process become successful.

Book Details

Title: Failure Is Not the Problem, It’s the Beginning Of Your Success
Author: George Milton

Genre: self-help

Publisher: Marissa F. Cohen (March 7, 2020)

Print length: 150 pages

 

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH GEORGE MILTON

Things you need in order to write: a quiet place.
Things that hamper your writing: writers block and too much noise. 


Things you love about writing: it allows me to share what I’ve learn over many years.
Things you hate about writing: I sometimes think writing has to be perfect.

Easiest thing about being a writer: coming up with ideas to write about.

Hardest thing about being a writer: trying to get all the details on paper. 


Things you love about where you live: the ability to get to the beach within an hour.
Things that make you want to move: I want to live in Cali.


Things you never want to run out of: love for people.
Things you wish you’d never bought: a fake diamond ring off a street vendor. 


Words that describe you: kind, generous, loving, trustworthy, gentle, motivated, energized.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: too direct.

Favorite foods: Korean foods.
Things that make you want to throw up: watermelon.  

Favorite music: classical.
Music that make your ears bleed: heavy metal.

Favorite smell: lavender.

Something that makes you hold your nose: skunk.

Something you’re really good at: motivating people.

Something you’re really bad at: forgiving myself or being too hard on myself. 


Something you wish you could do: play the piano.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: giving up on playing the piano.

Last best thing you ate: Korean food.

Last thing you regret eating: a rotten tomato off the vine from the garden.

Things you’d walk a mile for: TRUE LOVE!
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: rude people.

Things you always put in your books: all topics regarding failure but, in a positive way.

Things you never put in your books: things that would hurt someone’s feelings intentionally.

Favorite things to do: read, workout, swim, dance, talk, teach, mentor, train on leadership.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: watching a scary movie.

Things that make you happy: motivational speaking, coaching, mentoring, talking to people. 

Things that drive you crazy: rudeness.


Proudest moment: as a single dad, raising three amazing kids.
Most embarrassing moment: a girlfriend threw a cup of ice water in my face in front of several of my friends as they all laughed.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: becoming an Army paratrooper. 

Something you chickened out from doing: drinking spit from a cup that others spat in to pledge a fraternity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

George Milton is the CEO of Failure Is Not The Problem, LLC, a consulting company that specializes in leadership development and training, life coaching, and motivational speaking. He is a United States Army Retired, Colonel who has over 30 years of experience as an internationally known Communicator, Coach, Mentor, Trainer Intuitive Counselor, Teacher, Inspirational Speaker, TV Co-Host and Author. George connects with people of all ages on all levels. He is a former University Assistant Professor who has extensive experience working with the federal government but also has a tremendous background in working within city government and community organizations. In his role as a Senior Staff Officer at European Command in Stuttgart, Germany he routinely briefed and spoke with Ambassadors. He has experience speaking to and training foreign government officials and delivering oration to foreign public entities. As the Division Chief of the Civil Partnership Division, at European Command, he led on an annual basis, a group of staff members to Oxford University, in Oxford, England on a two week trip to study and learn how to properly” Partner” with civilian agencies in support of military organizations.

George Milton’s straight-from-the-heart, passion and high-energy, motivates audiences to step beyond their limitations and into their greatness in many ways. Over the past decade, George has used his role from keynote speaker to Master Trainer, creating the kind of workshop learning experience that got him committed to personal-and-professional development. His charisma, warmth and humor have transformed ordinary people into extraordinary achievers by using his own life, and his in-depth study of others’ challenges, to build an understanding of what works, what doesn’t work, and why.

He is a Certified Trainer in Success Principles, successfully completing the competency examination, and adoption of the Canfield Code of Ethics.

Connect with George:
Website  |  Facebook

Buy the book:
Amazon 

FEATURED AUTHOR: OPA HYSEA WISE

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

 
No Place to Hide is a suspenseful page-turner that examines personal transformation amid violence & racial injustice.

Against hope, Smythe Windwalker Daniels anonymity is compromised and a threat has been made against her life. The danger impacts not only her life but the lives of those around her. She reluctantly accepts the FBI’s protection, hoping to testify and bring a promise of justice to a community.



Smythe is a woman with vision in her eyes and fire in her soul. From a young age, Smythe was discriminated against as a mixed-race girl in a predominantly white neighborhood. She travels to Hawaii to escape the corporate rat race, only to get entangled in a pesticide poisoning cover-up attempt by a mega corporation. While on the run, she seeks to find meaning in events that now threaten her life. Through a series of misadventures, she discovers how all events are all woven together in this tapestry called “life.”



As she uses her past experience to find meaning in her present, she begins to see beauty in the midst of chaos. But the harder she tries to hide, the more difficult it is to survive.
 
 


Book Details


Title: No Place to Hide


Author: Opa Hysea Wise


Genre: mystery, fiction, suspense, thriller,


Publisher: Made for Success Publishing (November 3, 2020)


Page count: 300 pages





 
 

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH OPA HYSEA WISE

 
A few of your favorite things: really good wine, canvas art and books-both works of fiction and nonfiction.

Things you need to throw out: old tax returns and bank statements.

Things you need in order to write: Earl Grey Lavender tea, Hawaiian music. Revisions to my writing are a given, so my iPad and the various apps I use to create a story or blog are necessary. Finally, household chores must be completed before I can even be in the space to write.

Things that hamper your writing: television noise absolutely hampers my ability to write a cogent sentence; my neighbors’ singing, hence the need for music.

Things you love about writing: I love how the story line unfolds as I write. Interviewing the characters in my head—listening to them tell me their stories and why it is important to include those stories in the larger narrative. I also love the process of rewriting—nuancing a sentence.
Things you hate about writing: (hate is such a strong word—annoyed better suits) is what I love about writing — nuancing a sentence. I can become impatient with myself as I work to feel into a scene of the story.

Easiest thing about being a writer: topics are always in abundance. I have a constant story in my head.

Hardest thing about being a writer: when the story ends there is a profound sense of grief that I must work through.

Things you love about where you live: my mom lives close.

Things that make you want to move: it’s much too hot where I live. I am not a fan of the desert and home for me is anywhere along the Pacific Ocean, so I am moving.

Things you never want to run out of: wine, tea, clean water (is it even possible to have clean water that does not harm in the United States) compassion for others, a roof over my head, friends and love.

Things you wish you’d never bought: some clothing items which still hang in my closet.  What was I thinking!!!???

Favorite foods: pizza, my mom’s pumpkin pie and malasadas, healthy foods include any dish that has a ton of veggies in it, including brussel sprouts.

Things that make you want to throw up: most meat dishes.

Favorite songs: “Take the Limits Off” by Israel and New Breed, “The Promise and Change” by Tracy Chapman, “Sometime,” and “Ella’s Song” by Sweet Honey and the Rock.

Music that make your ears bleed: heavy metal.

Favorite beverage: smooth whiskey, mineral water.

Something that gives you a pickle face: rotted food.

Favorite smell: the scent of pine and/or the scent of the ocean.

Something that makes you hold your nose: someone’s bad breath.

Something you’re really good at: teaching and staying relatively positive.

Something you’re really bad at: I’m really bad at playing team sports—basketball, softball . . .

Something you like to do: run, meditate.

Something you wish you’d never done: talked myself out of entering an Ironman race.

Things you’d walk a mile for: I would walk a mile to see the ocean and forests again.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: seeing violent films, gory films, listening to hate speech.

Favorite things to do: read, jog, visit my best friend in California and watch Marvel movies or movies that uplift my spirit such as A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood featuring Tom Hanks.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing  gasoline pants to get out of doing: going to a cocktail party to hobnob with people.

Things that make you happy: a walk along the ocean, all of the holidays between September through December.

Things that drive you crazy: rush hour traffic, the state of division in the United States today.

Best thing you’ve ever done: left the corporate life.

Biggest mistake: underestimating how difficult leaving a secure financial corporate position could be and the steps needed to compensate for the huge loss of income.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: standing on stage with my mentor and baring my soul to a group of seventy-five-plus people.

Something you chickened out from doing: asking someone out on a date.
 
 
 
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 

Opa Hysea Wise is an American author, born to mixed race parents. Like so many people of color, she came to experience a sense of “otherness,” which fueled her desire to discuss diversity as the woven fabric within the American tapestry. She worked as a Training and Development specialist and manager in Government and Corporate organizations. Often tasked to develop and deliver diversity courses, Opa brought a sense of understanding, compassion and a call to action to her audience, with the firm knowledge that returning to the connection we all have would be but one step to returning to love. As both a Jack Canfield Success Coach and an author, Opa Hysea Wise looks to set a fire within the hearts of both her students and her readers.
 
Connect with Opa:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads


Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  BookShop  |  IndieBound

FEATURED AUTHOR: RENEE LINNELL

ABOUT THE BOOK



After seven years of faithfully following her spiritual teacher, Renee Linnell finally realized she was in a cult and had been severely brainwashed. But how did that happen to someone like her? She had graduated magna cum laude with a double degree. She had traveled to nearly fifty countries alone before she turned thirty-five. She was a surf model and a professional Argentine tango dancer. She had started five different companies and had an MBA from NYU. How could someone like her end up brainwashed and in a cult? 



The Burn Zone is an exploration of how we give up our power―how what started out as a need to heal from the loss of her parents and to understand the big questions in life could leave a young woman fighting for her sanity and her sense of self. In the years following her departure from the cult, Linnell struggled to reclaim herself, to stand in her truth, and to rebuild her life. And eventually, after battling depression and isolation, she found a way to come out the other side stronger than ever. Part inspirational story, part cautionary tale, this is a memoir for spiritual seekers and those who feel lost in a world that makes them feel like they don’t belong.

Book Details:


Title: The Burn Zone: A Memoir


Author’s name: Renee Linnell


Genre: Memoir


Publisher: She Writes Press (October 9, 2018)


Print length: 299 pages






LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH RENEE LINNELL


A few of your favorite things: coffee, my surfboards, my car, my house, my friends, my health, my body (in no particular order).
Things you need to throw out: all the cat food I saved when my cat died (because I thought she was going to reincarnate soon), clothes I feel ugly in, anything I haven’t used in the last year.


Things you need in order to write: quiet, alignment, my computer, a sense of something wanting to be expressed.
Things that hamper your writing: noise, irritated or sluggish mood, a full schedule. 


Things you love about writing: the flow, the feeling of it moving through me as if I’m a channel, the contentment I feel when finished.
Things you hate about writing: self-doubt.


Easiest thing about being a writer: perfect excuse for an introvert to stay home. 

Hardest thing about being a writer: self-doubt, forgetting that I’m doing it because it feels right and accidentally getting swept up in the “I hope people like this” drama.

Things you love about where you live: it is SO quiet and so beautiful. The deer, elk, foxes, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and occasional moose that visit me. And the seasons.
Things that make you want to move: Sometimes I feel landlocked. And sometimes the winter seems very long. And sometimes I miss the ocean and all of the opportunity in a city.


Things you never want to run out of: love, health, friends, happiness, joy, desire, passion, creative ideas.
Things you wish you’d never bought: The house I tried to turn into an ashram. 


Favorite foods: coffee, chocolate, tequila, cheeseburgers.
Things that make you want to throw up: mushrooms, sea urchin, wild game.

Favorite music: Dancehall reggae, calypso, soca, and devotional chanting.
Music that makes your ears bleed: anything with anyone whining or complaining (but, sometime I really do like very loud, very offensive gangster rap).

Favorite beverage: water no ice, coffee, tequila.

Something that gives you a pickle face: soda.

Something you’re really good at: dancing.

Something you’re really bad at: anything with a ball
.

People you consider as heroes: anyone who uses her/his strength, power, intellect, and opportunity to lift others up.

People with a big L on their foreheads: anyone who uses her/his strength, power, intellect, and opportunity to push others down.



Last best thing you ate: a kale/spinach/chard/berry/almond butter/flaxseed/nutritional yeast smoothie. 
Last thing you regret eating: the airplane chicken lunch.

Things you’d walk a mile for: love, friends, to help someone, to be in nature, to feel better.
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: gossip, complaining, very loud talkers, anxious mean nervous energy.

Things to say to an author: “I love your book.”
“It was a page-turner.” 
“Your book helped me so much.”
“You are a great writer.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I just haven’t gotten around to reading it.”

Favorite places you’ve been: Fiji, Buenos Aires, Bhutan.

Places you never want to go to again: I can’t really think of one. South Florida comes to mind. Lol But, my twin lives there so I have to go once or twice a year.

Favorite books: I love Lee Child’s books!

Books you would ban: None. I think we all need to express ourselves how we want to and I think there is a market for everything.

Favorite things to do: surf, dance, snowboard, yoga, hike, bike, write, meditate.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: gossiping, small-talk, ladies lunches.

Things that make you happy: quiet, serenity, live reggae music, being on a boat, being in nature, snowboarding down an empty mountain.

Things that drive you crazy: too many people swarming around.

The last thing you did for the first time: A new version of my book talk: instead of being “cult survivor” I decided I was ready to simply be “Renee with a wild story; Renee who went through exactly what she had to in order to bloom.” I realized I wanted to stop dragging the past with me and focus instead on all the wisdom gained; to simply be an example of thriving after tragedy.

Something you’ll never do again: Join a cult. 



ABOUT THE AUTHOR  



Renee Linnell graduated Magna Cum Laude with a double degree, traveled to nearly fifty countries before she turned thirty-five, was a surf/bikini model and a professional Argentine Tango dancer, started five different companies, and got an MBA from New York University. She also spent close to seven years in a Buddhist cult and ended up severely brainwashed. In her new memoir, The Burn Zone, Renee discusses her journey into "deranged and damaged" and her awakening on the other side. Her key message is: “Our difference is our destiny, and that when we stop trying to hide the parts of us that make us different, we will truly soar!”

Connect with Renee:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble