When our building manager informed us it was time to freshen up the lobby of the Common Ground office, we lobbied him for the chance to put our principles into practice. We headed down to G&R Paint Company on Sutter Street in San Francisco, to talk to owner/colorist Philip Reno about eco-friendly paint options (philipsperfectcolors.com) and left with four gallons of C2 LoVo paint (c2color.com). Our building manager loved the nontoxic, low-VOC paint’s rich color and smooth and even finish, and we all loved that the paint was virtually odorless (sparing us all the cloud of stinky, toxic fumes, thank you very much). Now we’ve got a dazzlingly white lobby and a new favorite paint! Oh how we love happy endings.
— The CG Team
In “Soul in the City” (December ’08), Summer Bowen correctly reports on the stressors of city life, including “parking, street cleaning and sardine-like density.” My city solution to stress is to walk or ride my bike — and leave that car behind. As [legendary “neighborhood preservationist”] James Marston Fitch said in the New York Times, as long ago as 1960, “The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic.”
— Andrew Kay Liberman, via email
Three Cheers for Coaching
I was thrilled to see the combination of “Off the Couch and Onto the Mat” with “Put Me in Coach” in November’s issue. Anyone who has practiced yoga has at least had hints of how our work on the mat carries forth into our lives, and putting these two together intentionally is incredibly powerful.
As a life coach and yoga teacher, I’ve been working with my clients on the third leg of that triangle — Yoga Coaching. [We explore what] they’re trying to achieve, what it is that has been holding them back, and the similarity in how it shows up in both contexts. From there we build parallel practices for both contexts to create an inspiring life.
For instance — if you find yourself quitting just before you succeed in your goals, you can practice the warrior pose, holding it longer than you normally would. In this way, you come face-to-face with what it’s like for you to want to give up when things get difficult. Instead, you stay with the pose, cultivating the determination to complete and discovering your deeper strengths.
This example is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with Yoga Coaching and it’s publications like yours that inform us about the cutting edge of transformational health and technologies. Thanks for an inspiring and supportive read.
— David Shlussel, CEO, Open Here Coaching
I just read the article about life coaching by Stephen Krcmar. It was great and I loved it. Coaching is interesting and great to read how this particular one supported the author. Well done!
— Elana, via email
We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For
I really appreciated Andrew Cohen’s article, “No More Fairy Tales,” in your November issue. It touches on what I’ve observed for quite a while now, that a shift in consciousness is upon us rather than ahead of us. While it’s true that this presidential election has brought us profound words spoken from a higher level of consciousness, words which resonate with millions of souls in this country and around the world, it is just the beginning of an inspired collective where we heed the call to examine, exercise and exhibit the innate greatness that we are at our cores. As a result of the global economic collapse and this country’s political process, the newly enlightened, like those before them, must figure out how to step into and wear a pair of brand new shoes. We must all continue to tip the scales and push for the landslide that reshapes the terrain of our lives.
— Mark Jacobs, via emails