I’m a big believer that our experience of the world exists within conversations – because our lives are defined by our relationships, which are defined by conversations. I’m currently engaged in a course on a new field of study, Conversational Intelligence, which covers the neuroscience of conversations as it relates to our personal lives and professional organizations. So, inevitably, expect an occasional nugget that touches upon the transformative nature of conversations until the end of July. 🙂 Now onto the art of letting go… This is a topic that comes up often, both with friends and clients. Holding on to “stuff” can be a serious source of voluntary misery. Today’s nugget… I learned that cortisol, a neurotransmitter associated with the “fight or flight” response that tells the brain to shut down executive functions when a threat presents itself, has a shelf life of 26 hours in our system. That’s a long time. What’s also important to note is

Happy New Year!! I’m writing this while my husband and I are sitting in the Taipei airport waiting for a connecting flight to Bali to attend a dear friend’s wedding. Almost there after 14 hours with some more to go so if you catch any typos it’s because I’m starting to see double. But jet lag or not, there’s no way I could skip the first post of this fabulous new year. The obvious subject would be resolutions, but I’m not going there. I trust you’ve had your fair share of “new year’s resolutions” content flood your feed and conversations and have already publicly or privately affirmed the shifts you’d like to make. That’s great. That’s all true for me too. But rather than dive into resolution talk – the “stuff” that we’re looking to start, change, create, or quit –

10 simple listening tips to seriously improve ALL of your relationships Nothing like the holidays to impel a conversation about communication. Our lives and the quality of our existence are determined by relationships, which are defined by communication. Whether it’s relationship to self or relationship to many, whom you may or may not enjoy the company of, lots of us will be contending with the quality of communication over the next two weeks. So, moving into the new year and inspired by the many conversations I’ve been having over the last few weeks, I share 10 basic tips from a fabulous little read: A Little Book of Listening Skills by Jennifer Austin Leigh and Mark Brady Ph.D, that just may make all the difference for you this holiday season.  I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard