Thriving with the Power of Presence

Thriving with the power or presence

Pictured: Arianna Huffington, Alanis Morissette, Dr. Dan Siegel, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Excited to join in the exploration of healthy ways of living at the upcoming conference, THRIVE, with Arianna Huffington and Mika Brzezinski.  Looking forward to discussing the importance of cultivating meaningful connections in this digital age with Arianna and Alanis Morissette.  Along with many others at this two-day event, including Katie Couric, mindfulness researcher Richie Davidson and songwriter Peter Himmelman, I look forward to immersing ourselves in the art and science of living a meaningful and compassionate life.  This is a gathering to explore Arianna’s call to action, beautifully expressed in her new book, Thrive:

“The relentless pursuit of the traditional measures of success—money and power—has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress related illnesses, an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and ironically our careers.  Money and power are only part of the equation. What’s missing is “The Third Metric,“—a combination of well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.”

This is a time in our scientific understanding in which we now have empirical support revealing that living what the Greeks called a life of eudaimonia—one of connection, meaning, equanimity, and compassion—not only feels good, but is associated with healthy changes in the very ways in which our genes are expressed to help prevent inflammatory diseases (Barbara Fredrickson), improvements in how we maintain our chromosomes to maintain the health of our cells (Epel Study), and how our immune functions to prevent and fight infection (Richie Davidson) These research-proven findings reveal how being present for life is at the heart of thriving.  When we are present we are curious, open, accepting, and loving—the COAL state of being that enables us to live a life of clarity, compassion, and connection. Now is the time to develop such presence in our interpersonal and internal lives and support the cultural shift in how we define what it means to thrive in a life of well-being.

You can watch a video of the presentation from the 2014 Thrive Conference here.

This was previously published on the Huffington Post

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