I am filming a nationwide documentary about our current economic state. It is an unique and an exciting time; we are on the verge of making a difference and impacting our future in a huge way. I want to ask the question: What’s next?

From January 24 to April 30, I will visit the major, most impoverished cities in the United States, from Los Angeles to New York. I will interview everyday Americans: rich, poor, black, white, etc. I will interview students, families, and single adults. In addition, a large portion of the story will be the voices of both small businesses and large corporations. Businesses are shutting down and laying off. Recently, Sharper Image shutdown all major operations; DHL is closing down all domestic operations; Citigroup laid off 53,000 jobs; Chrysler shutdown their plants for a month. And I got laid off on December 5th, 2008. I subsequently applied for unemployment for the first time on December 8th, 2008. We all share a common story– I am going to capture and share that story.   Read more...

Wise men say that one must never lose hope even in times of great crisis.

True, hope is a glorious emotion to feel. It can bring excitement and some form of marvel to life. Hope can be a tremendous motivator.   Read more...

I will start my day with mindfulness. Renew my license to dream.

Refocus. I will not call my problem a problem. I will call it a challenge.   Read more...

Motivation will not magically happen. Your motivation will change from day to day. You have to recommit to your goals each day, tweak them to fit changes in your lifestyle and attitude and find new ways to motivate yourself over the course of your life.

If you're sitting on the couch watching Oprah's Best Life episodes while eating Kashi cookies dipped in melted Hershey's kisses from Halloween (don't even laugh - it happens) and waiting to feel "motivated" to head to the gym, you are fooling yourself.   Read more...

The Sunday after the dawn of 2009, Beliefnet.com ran this wonderful gallery called Inner Peace on Earth. I loved the idea of the earth itself creating inner peace. I have often thought that the drastic weather phenomena we are experiencing all over the planet are Her attempts at reestablishing Her own balance, and what is balance but another name for inner peace?

Ruth Fishel is the marvelously inspired author of Peace in Our Hearts, Peace in the World: Meditations of Hope and Healing. On the eight screens of her gallery, she shares the affirmations below. Any one of them is a window into the magical house of peace within.   Read more...

I often wonder how we can solve the social upheaval we are seeing all over the world. As an individual I feel a sense of helplessness. Yet I see so many good things happening too driven by wonderful people based on love, compassion and sound values. These people seem well balanced emotionally and spiritually. So, how do we reconcile these with those who espouse hatred, who are emotionally volatile and violent ?

It appears that we have to go back to basics – ‘the mother - child connection’.   Read more...

Okay, it’s time, I have to write. Since I have been asked to be a blogger for Ode when the magazine went online I sent in a staggering two entries. Being too busy while setting up The Hub in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, being my main excuse. But now I feel the urge to do something, because I have to, because I’m done feeling like I am a bystander with no influence. I’m talking about getting involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I am an Israeli by birth, and have lived there until I was seven years old. My education and field of work is, perhaps not entirely incidentally, in peace-building. My mission is to prove that we are better together, we know more, we can do more, and we can come up with more holistic and sustainable solutions.   Read more...

To my sincere delight, I received an email last week from The Peace Alliance saying that we, the change.org voters, had done it! The establishment of a U. S. Department of Peace was a whopping number two on the top ten list of recommendations that will be presented to President Obama on Inauguration Day.

I whooped when I saw it but probably not for the reason you think. Yes, I’m glad that Peace will have a front seat at the presentation, but the thing that really blew my skirt up is that I am not alone in dreaming peace into reality for our Earth. Thousands of people heard about the opportunity to vote for peace on change.org, and those same thousands took that opportunity, ran with it, and told their peeps.   Read more...

There is an interesting medical company here in Japan. It is called Fujiyaki, which means Fuji Medicines. It was started after World War II by a man named Mr. Takayanagi. He realized that many people still were undernourished after the near starvation levels they had to maintain during the war. He knew they desperately needed vitamins and minerals. He also realized transport was minimal at best, especially in the rural areas. Of course, poor transportation added to the problem of proper nutrition. But he was a man of ingenuity. So, for him the difficult situation was a challenge that he eagerly embraced.

He collected a few people to help him and sent them out into the surrounding areas on foot. They carried their supplies on their backs and went from town to town, village to village, farm house to farm house selling their wares. All the ingredients were natural and affordable. At that time, they all came from Japan.   Read more...

"Happiness does not come from success, success comes from happiness" - Buddha

I do that. I have a concept of success in my mind: business man, spiritual, no negative thoughts and feelings, no fear or complaining, confident, loving, beautiful and strong. I believe that if I have that I'll be happy. I'm regularly not happy because of it.   Read more...