Blog
What Choosing Your Truer Life Really Looks Like
It’s not dramatic. It never looks like a montage in a Hollywood movie where the house gets remodeled, the book written, the life regained after the unwanted divorce, so quickly, so easily, all set to a tune of heart-stirring music. It rarely feels glamorous or...
The Magic Ingredient for Living Your Truer Life
I adore stories with magic and fantasy elements because they remind me our lives are epic journeys, and we work to create what is good and true for ourselves. I love the reminder to rout the dragons that hoard our treasure and to not be led astray by false gods that...
Navigate Your Life: Tara Mohr
I first met Tara online in the early days of Twitter and we then became friends after she told me, "The Woman's Comfort Book meant so much to me; I read it when I was 14." After our first phone chat, I hung up and thought, "That gal is going places." She sure has....
When your truer path shows up yet again
This weekend Bob and I went to dinner at a little restaurant off island. The proprietor greeted us when we walked in the door of what appeared to be her house - a funky bungalow with fat orange squashes growing around the porch and a push lawnmower abandoned in the...
Navigate Your Life: Nathalie Lussier
Today is the day!! It's the Life Navigation Primer call! 4pm PACIFIC (5pm MT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET), I'll be teaching, musing, talking to YOU about how we choose, how we navigate, a life that is ours. I'm excited and honestly, I'm a little scared. I'm always scared before I...
Please Join Me in No More Waiting
I used to believe shaping a life that included more of what I wanted was something I could do only if everything was right. As in: if I wasn’t depressed, if my health wasn’t wobbly, if I wasn’t doubting myself, and everybody else was pretty happy - especially my Lilly...
Navigate Your Life: Justine Musk
I so hope you are loving this guest post series as much as I am - just so varied and wise, and so reflective of how we can use so many means and mindsets to shape our truer lives. Justine Musk believes that being uncooperative with bullshit is to be cooperative with...
Navigate Your Life: Kate Northrup
This is the halfway point in my guest post series where 10 women I admire share how they shape their truer lives. You can scroll back here if you missed posts. So far I've given thought to how I schedule my days, how I push myself when it feels useless, and returned...
Navigate Your Life: Karen Walrond
I hope you're savoring this guest post series on how 10 women I admire create their lives. I am reading and re-reading, thinking deeply about how to use this wisdom myself. Today we have Karen Walrond; she is such a treasure! She's an author and gifted photographer...
Savor & Serve in August
I write this from the shallow swamp where the black dog hunts, otherwise known as a bout of the blues. I wrote about NOT being ashamed of being depressed here, and it's been one of my popular posts ever. Turns out many of us suffer from feeling depressed. AND while...
Navigate Your Life: Laura Roeder
I hope you're enjoying the guest post series on how 10 women I admire create their lives. Today is Laura Roeder, the founder of Edgar. Laura is an astonishingly smart cultural transformer, through the vehicles of social media and business. I'm always learning from...
Life Navigating Through My Bout of Depression
I'm interrupting this wonderful run of brilliant women talking about how they shape their lives to tell you I'm depressed. At first I was afraid that telling you this would make you not take my course because who wants to learn from a depressed teacher? But then I...
Navigate Your Life: Susan Hyatt
Who do you learn from? What circles do you sit in, listening to how others live their truest lives? I've convened one this month, asking women I admire how they create their lives. Today is the sparkly Susan Hyatt, whom I met a few years ago at a weekend event...
Navigate Your Life: Sarah Selecky
I believe in the transformational power of learning from each other. Of sitting around in a circle sharing stories & wisdom, especially practical wisdom. That's why I curated the series of guest posts that start today, written by women I admire for creating more...
Lower Your Standards
I often use terms that have evolved over many years and I neglect to define them. In honor of my many new readers (welcome!) and to set the stage for the Life Navigation Course, here's the last in a short series of "What in the heck is she talking about?" posts....
Conditions of Enoughness
Con·di·tion [kuhn-dish-uhn] noun: a state of being. Enoughness [ih-nuhf-ness] adjective: sufficient to satisfy a factually stated desire; a satisfactory amount. What is enough? What a tantalizing question. Can you feel it in your body, maybe around your belly button...
How & Why To Know Home
I often use terms in my work that have evolved over many years and I often neglect to define them. In honor of my many new readers (welcome!) and in preparation for my upcoming Life Navigation Course, I hope you find this short series of "Jen's lexicon" or "What in...
How to Gracefully Reenter Life After a Retreat or Vacation
Many years ago, I wrote in The Woman's Retreat Book about reentry after a retreat. I've shared that content at every retreat I've led because reentry is often so difficult and so much can be lost through a careless return to ordinary life. But it doesn't have to be...
Step Back
I write this from the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos where I am drenched in rain, thunder and wonder. Today some of the women went to Pat Woodall's gallery and painted. Pat kept telling everybody to "step back" so they could see what they were painting. Julie said,...
What I would tell you if you were here with me
If you and I were chatting under the pergola about writing & life & owning your desires, this is what I would tell you: It matters that you journey for what has been lost, misplaced, abandoned. It is where a crucial part of your wholeness lives. I would tell...
How to Build More of the Life You Want
There is one thing that held me back for more than 20 years in creating the business I wanted. One thing I consistently did that meant I had less impact, served fewer people, and made less money. I feel a hot blush of shame writing this so taking a deep breath... That...
Need Help Getting Started
Making Your Thing?
Grab the stunningly intuitive & effective:
Make Your Thing guide
I’m not one of those creepy people who make it hard to unsubscribe or email you again nine years after you’ve unsubscribed. Giving me your email is like a coffee date, not a marriage proposal.