Author: Sarah K Peck

Is Making A Blog Really Worthwhile?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

It’s hard to understand why so many people are spending so much time investing in making “free content” when there are so many other things to do in building a business.

Have you ever made a product and wondered why it didn’t go anywhere, or feel like you’re spinning your wheels at your company throwing content at the wall to see what sticks?

For a long time, I felt like content creation was a mystery.

It made me wonder: how do some people grow audiences quickly and generate revenue so fast? Why do some products get made and launch to the sound of crickets? How do you build an audience and community that trusts you, wants what you have to offer, and looks forward to sharing your work?

When I was starting out, I wrote and wrote (more than 100 essays!) and nothing seemed to work. That was before I realized how to start sharing my work in ways that actually spread my message. (It turns out pushing “publish” on WordPress and waiting for people to show up doesn’t really work.)

Let’s stop making products that don’t go anywhere, and let’s start making work that matters.

This month, I’ve had the chance to sit down and document everything I know about content marketing, building an audience, and creating work that is useful and meaningful to other people. It falls under this term “content marketing” — which sounds like a buzzword, but really means something deeper.

Content Marketing is part science, part inspiration. It’s a blend of using your intuition and creativity, and also getting real about what it takes to grow an audience. You have to wear the hat of both a scientist and an artist, leaning on hard data as well as on your intuition.

In short, Content Marketing is the beautiful art of making work that matters — and then finding ways to share it with people who want to see it.

I’m jumping up and down to finally write about this — and share the work I’ve been putting together. It’s my most recent baby, and we already have a list of nearly 4,000 people (3,801 and counting!) signed up to be notified when the class opens up.

For the last two months, I’ve been interviewing folks, putting together the curriculum, and recording videos for my next course: One Month: Content Marketing. I’m making this class with One Month — the startup in New York city I recently joined forces with, where I’m heading up their communications efforts.

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If you’re tired of creating content that doesn’t go anywhere, you’ll learn our proven strategies for building an audience, growing your leads, and creating valuable content that actually gets shared. Along the way, I’ll share with you specific strategies for growing an audience, building a body of work, and positioning you (or your company’s executives) as a thought leader within your industry.

Registration for this class opens this Thursday, when we’re opening up the course to a small group of students to join in on our next class.

If you want to learn about marketing, creating content incentives, growing your email list, and building an audience, then I’d be more than thrilled to have you on board.

(Hopefully) I’ll see you there!

How Do You Stay Healthy In A World Pressing Us To Be Hyper-Connected?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

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There are secret spaces inside of any city.

In Brooklyn, the underground subway is noisy, chaotic, and dirty. I wear gloves to avoid germs, and I try not to touch anything if I can try. Loud advertisements are ripped and edited almost immediately after they are posted; teenagers often color in the eyeballs with red sharpies and write crude notes in thought bubbles over health care advertisements.

But underground, where the subways rush by, where papers fly up, it gets noisy for a few minutes. A few minutes of deafening noise, of a rushing train that’s not stopping, a time when any conversations pause, and people wait.

As I’m walking from one end of the subway platform to the other, the passing train makes me smile — because I begin to sing. I’m learning how to sing (I just had my second private lesson), and in the subway, I can practice, for just a few minutes, without anyone hearing me.

Sometimes I scream into the subway abyss, just because I can.

Last week, I got to talk with Rob Lawrence, who recently launched the Inspirational Creatives podcast, and he asked me questions in a way that I hadn’t heard before.

Every so often there’s a question, an interviewer, a person that noodles further into my brain. Gets me thinking, talking, curious. As a writer, it’s challenging to express myself in speech in the same way that I’m accustomed to on paper; I get nervous, at times, that I won’t say it quite right. That I won’t get to dig into the deeper ideas.

Yet this one went deeper on several subjects. In this episode, I talk to Rob about the ideas of loneliness and being alone, and how they relate to the craft and the business of creativity.

How do you stay healthy in a world that’s pressing us to be hyper-connected?

I was lucky to chat about ideas that mean a lot to me — here are a few excerpts:

Of all the interviews I’ve done, there are still two that stand out in my mind — this one and the one with Srini Rao for the Unmistakeable Creative. Something about what Rob and Srini have done with their story structure and teasing ideas out have, well, captured ideas in a way that I think they deserve to be captured.

Inspirational Creatives —Episode 21.

I’m grateful to be able to share this with you. Listen to the full podcast here. Enjoy, and if you have time, check out some of his additional interviews on how to reduce overwhelm, or dealing with the competing pressures of doing social media, blogging, and business all at once.

Habit change, solitude, and stillness

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

January certainly went by in a hurry.

I have quite a few things for you, and I’m just now sitting down to send you these notes.

If you’re interviewing at a new company, here are 12 questions to ask during your interview.

How do you find stillness and solitude in a hyper-connected world? (Podcast)

Want to make habit change? Here’s 8 ways to create habit change (that actually work).

For me, the more you give, the more you get.

Frazzled as a content creator? Let’s talk about the power of evergreen content.Make work that stays, saving you time in the long run. (Podcast)

Now that it’s the end of January, are you drifting away from those resolutions? Here are three tips for keeping your goals. (Video)

Bloopers can be funny! These are all the takes that didn’t cut it. (Video)

And whoa! It Starts With was named one of the top 100 websites for writers by The Write Life!

Thanks to all of YOU who share this work, connect me to awesome new people, and encourage each other to keep thinking and making.

February can be a cold month. It’s a great time to buckle in by the fire and make some work happen. Even if you’re lying down, under a blanket, with a warm cup of coffee… or a glass of wine!

A 30-day Writing Challenge, A Brand New Class, and a Book Giveaway.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

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Want to be a better writer?

What does it take to become a better writer? I’ve been thinking a lot about resolutions and goals lately, and every time I talk to someone, I hear the same dream:

I want to write more.

So these past few weeks, I’ve been making a few new things to help with this. At my new job at One Month, at least half of my teammates said that they also wanted to make writing a priority for 2015. After some late-night giggles and brainstorming, I whipped together a quick challenge for us: 30 days of writing prompts, so you can write a new essay each day.

Fun announcement #1: Take the 30-day writing challenge (free)! 

Want to write with us? Sign up here to get email prompts delivered daily for a month and join us on the writing journey.

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Also, I’m teaching a brand-new class on content marketing — including tips on copywriting, building relationships, understanding your customer, and capturing email leads. Which leads me to…

Fun announcement #2: I’ll be teaching a new class on Content Marking in February!

In February, I’ll be teaching a brand-new One Month class on Content Marketing.

Content Marketing covers the ins and outs of creating brilliant content and connecting with your desired audience — through a deep understanding of your user, strategic publishing, and creative copywriting. We’ll cover topics like thought leadership, copywriting basics, creating landing pages, writing great headlines, and capturing leads.

If you want to be on the early-bird access list for the course, sign up here.

The class will be four weeks long, with screen-share videos and personal videos 3-4 times each week. We’ll do three projects together, and you’ll get to meet your classmates and talk through ideas in a private forum. You can email me and chat about questions you have along the way. This is a chance to dig deeper into the field of content marketing and improve your writing and marketing skills.

But before I finalize the development of the class, I’d love to know from YOU: Why are you interested in taking this class?

I’m in the early stages of planning the course, so I’d love your feedback and insights. In exchange for sharing your thoughts and feedback with me on the upcoming course, I’ll send four survey participants a digital copy of my favorite book this month, Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You.

Fun announcement #3: A book-giveaway! Take the survey, win a book.

Let me know what you’d love to learn about content marketing — and what topics you think I should focus on during the class. It’s a short survey, and I’ll be giving away four copies of my favorite book this month randomly to people who fill out the survey before January 30th.

Take the survey, here. (Survey is now closed). 

Thank you!

Mediocrity is Deadening. Be Different, Be Daring, Be Unusual.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

When the world asks you for typical, do one better.

When you’re surrounded by people who do only as much as they have to, you’ll feel pulled to do the same.

Mediocrity is a pull towards the middle. Averages pull brightness down.

Standards might bring the lowest up to passing, but they’ll also be a strong pull towards bringing the best down.

Fitting in and being well-liked is about being the same. It’s about not standing out, not being different, not challenging the way things are.

Bend the systems. Break the rules. Exceed expectations, and then blow their minds again. Better yet, remove expectations by doing something completely unexpected. Be willing to be a bit unusual, and disliked.

Yearn for more. Find your limits, and test them. Then learn some more. Never stop learning. Be bold, be different, be daring.

Why do the same thing that’s already been done?

Why be mediocre?

When the blues hit, what do you do? Notes on darkness, sadness, and melancholy.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What do you do when you get sad?

Sometimes dwelling in darkness can be a helpful, healthy adventure. Other times, too much time in the dark can prompt stagnation and wallowing. How do you know how far to go? When is it too much? When is darkness healthy and when is digging into rumination too much spiraling inwards?

In high school and in college, I dealt with waves of sadness and depression. I learned what it meant to be too tired. Some days, after six hours of swim practice and a full course load of college academics, I would sob myself to sleep. Missing my family, adjusting to life, and the relationship angst that came from dating as a hormonal teenager all added up to a lot of sadness. For me personally, the biggest challenge is when I work too hard and forget to take time to stay emotionally balanced.

Over time, I turned to writing as an outlet — and I learned about emotional resilience. For me, having a bucket of tools to turn to whenever I’m feeling wonky can help alleviate the pressure.

Darkness and the dynamics of holidays

At this time of year, there’s a lot of built-up stress. People can be tired, run-down, and overworked. In addition, the pressure of the year’s end — hitting financial targets, making performance reviews, or not getting your resolutions completed from last year — can make this a dicey emotional time.

Add to that travel, seeing family members, and navigating the politics of in-laws, and you have a recipe for a tricky situation. Throw in a bunch of sugar from too many cinnamon rolls and maybe eating half a gingerbread house (yup, I’ve done that), and I’m sobbing like a 5-year old after too much birthday party.

In short, winter’s darkness coupled with end-of-year stress can be a recipe for bumming yourself out.

What do you do when the blues hit?

Over the past decade, I’m so grateful to have built a repertoire of skills and tools I can use at my disposal when my mood gets the better of me. But the thing about being in the wallows is, sometimes all the advice in your head goes to naught — and you need to ask, yet again, for some good advice.

Emotional resilience isn’t a one-trick pony. Instead, it’s the ability to use multiple tools to help alleviate the stress. For me, I know that if I go for a walk every day, take time to journal, and talk with at least a few good friends every week, I’ll generally feel pretty good.

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I reached out to several friends of mine and asked for advice: what do you do when they blues hit? Here’s what I got back.

I got a surprising number of responses — so I thought I would compile and share them, here, for any of you that stumbles through a melancholy day or two, like me.

“I give myself a set period to wallow in it. Favorite comfort food, retreat from people, think and reflect. Then wake up the next morning and be productive and positive.” — Melinda

“Write a list of specific things I am grateful for in my life.” — Keith

“Close my eyes and go to my happy place! Or actually GO to my happy place. I have several stashed around the area, so I can drive there in a couple hours if need be.” — Heather

“Step outdoors. Listen for birds. Look up. Take a deep breath or two.” — Amy

“80’s hiphop and dancing in front of a mirror, obviously.” — Karen

“Get my body in water somehow (pool, rain, shower, bath). Swing on a swingset. Basically insert myself into an environment different than the day to day — feet continuously off the ground and body in motion is the fastest way I know how to do that.” — Valerie

“Get out and talk to people, and listen to them.” — Bridget

“Do something silly or nice for someone else.” — Lauren

“Run! (The exercise, not fleeing). And run outside!” — Ian

“Going through the self-compassion formula: common humanity, self-kindness, mindfulness.” — Ian

“Listen to music that will make you cry (to let it all out) then something happy to lift you out of that mood. Or skip the first bit, go straight for light-hearted, fun, dynamic, and inspiring tunes.” —Amy

“Exercise and ensure I’m eating well.” — Lee

… Good food, healthy habits, friends to talk to, a good cry, a shower, a way to let off steam… This sounds familiar.

Each of these doesn’t seem like much in and of itself. Sure, I can eat an apple. Maybe a good cry in the shower will help, too. Take myself for a walk? Okay, I’ll do it.

Whatever it is, all the small things — all the small ways you can practice kindness towards yourself — can add up and take the edge off. It’s not one thing that makes a drastic difference, but all these small things that can slowly change my emotional direction.

I’ll add a couple more of my favorites:

Paint, draw, or sing —

Do something creative and expressive, with no pressure on results or outcome. Go sing in a church, sign up for an art class, or pull out some markers and scribble messily and angrily until you laugh your face off.

Hug someone who needs it. —

Compassion and hugs. Give someone a big hug and let the oxytocin out!

Book a massage or a spa date for yourself.

Sometimes your physical body just needs to be touched.

Write in your journal with a snuggly blanket and a good cup of tea.

Whenever I write in my journal, my brain starts to relax. If I take the time to write and reflect in the evenings, I calm down, my energy slows, and I sleep better.

Write letters to friends and people you’re thankful for.

Make a gratitude list.

When you take the time to remind yourself of what you’re grateful for, your brain shifts.

Do “Candle Time”

This is a new habit my husband and I recently started. In addition to turning off our screens late at night (and he’s much better at this than I am; I am still a part-time phone addict) — we’ll turn off all the electric lights in our room and light a bunch of candles for the last hour before bed. We sit in the near darkness and calm down, reflecting, and letting our thoughts unwind.

Go for a long walk.

Walking soothes my brain. Doesn’t matter if it’s cold, dark, or rainy — something about the rhythm of footsteps syncs my brain into a new pattern.

Set your sleep cycle on a more regular pattern.

Cool down your caffeine or alcohol intake — replace it with fizzy water drinks and a splash of lemon, ginger, mint, or honey. Ease up on your adrenals.

Sometimes I’m well past worn out, and my sadness is from being tired. In the evenings I’ll make a spicy cup of tea instead of wine, and in a few days, I start to feel better. (Try this: add a slice of jalapeno, some lemon, and honey to a peppermint tea. I love it!)

Drink green juices and many glasses of water. Hydrate thyself! Hydration can sometimes ease my headaches and sadness in less than an hour.

Still stuck? Still feeling icky?

Talk it out. Find a friend, a therapist, or a coach who will listen to you as you work it out. Words and language and exercise are all ways of moving through our ideas and our stories — our stories change as we give them shape, and talk therapy is a real tool.

When I was too broke for therapy in my graduate school years, I bartered trades and signed up for new coach deals whenever people were looking for new clients. (You can often find new coaches who are starting their business and looking for clients to test tools on, and you can sign up for four sessions to chat at awesome discount prices.)

And if you’re not broke and still need to talk, head over to a new place, take a deep breath, and sign up.

(PS: If it’s a deeper issue and you think you might want to work with a psychologist or therapist, trust yourself. You might be in a spot in your life that could use some professional expertise and TLC. You deserve it, and it’s worth it.) 

What about you? What are your strategies for darker days?

What do you love to do to treat yourself? What are the hidden benefits of sadness, and how do you take care of yourself?

An invitation into the darkness: the value of rumination and notes on finding your own inner guru.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

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The darkness of winter: time to turn inwards.

The northern hemisphere is swaddled in darkness, as it is each winter. Today is the longest night of the year; the shortest day. The sun will rise late and quickly dash off, leaving us behind to contemplate the cold, wind, and dreariness of night. Despite the prominence of electric lights and bright screens, and cheery holiday tinsel lining the streets, it’s still dark by early afternoon.

It makes me tired, it makes it harder to work. I struggle to keep going in the afternoon, wanting instead to curl up and hibernate. For many of us, we forget that this is the darkest day of the year. We’ll notice it only through our increased desire for caffeine, a twinge of melancholy, or a lack of motivation. As Clark Strand writes in Bring On the Dark, “few of us will turn off the lights long enough to notice” the winter solstice happening right around us.

“There’s no getting away from the light. There are fluorescent lights and halogen lights, stadium lights, streetlights, stoplights, headlights and billboard lights. There are night lights to stand sentinel in hallways, and the lit screens of cellphones to feed our addiction to information, even in the middle of the night. No wonder we have trouble sleeping. The lights are always on.” — Why We Need The Winter Solstice 

These dark days are a gift: it’s an opportunity to turn inwards, to reflect, and to ponder.

Darkness invites contemplation, reflection, and inner reflection. Dwelling in it can also, for me, bring up deeper sadness and sorrows. It comes in waves, for me, the periods of stillness and rest, of quiet and solitude. Sometimes my mind dips into periods of darkness; I know that I’m deep in restoration and rebuilding. Patterns emerge; ideas begin to form. My other senses sharpen as I rely less on my eyesight.

We’re called to go into the darkness. To find our own inner guru.

When you dim one sense, you brighten the other senses, adding clarity, range, and acuity to your abilities. The ability to feel a range of emotions increases your emotional depth. The upside of darkness, however, is that it is a beautiful time for rumination and reflection.

In yoga, inviting the darkness in is an invitation to find your own inner wisdom, your own inner guru. In studying with Sara Neufeld recently, I learned more about how darkness is an invitation to find your own inner wisdom.

The word “Guru” comes from two words, gu (darkness) and ru (light). From a seat of heaviness or darkness, we go through experiences that bring us to light. One who has experienced both darkness and light has accumulated wisdom. In the yogic tradition, we all are our own gurus — capable of finding our own inner wisdom when we go inwards and close our eyes to contemplate our being.

“The night was the natural corrective to that most persistent of all illusions: that human progress is the reason for the world.” — Clark Strand

Sometimes, finding lightness requires going through the dark. We go not around, but through. The earth spins into darkness every year, so should our souls.

The Secret (Business) Beauty in Complaining

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

My head buzzes when I am around people who start to complain too much. It’s like an electric current goes through my head, starts building, and then my frazzled mind-space begins to implode under all of the pressure.

I like solving problems, and can be known to interrupt or interject with “Yeah, sure, okay, but — how do we fix this?” instead of patiently listening.

{I’m working on it. I’m a much better listener than I was five years ago.}

The worst is when complaints run in a continuous loop, as though their very existence begets more opportunities to begrudge the same thing over and over again. I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about. Someone who complains about the same thing over and over again, and yet does nothing to fix or change the situation.

But complaints aren’t always bad.

Complaints are valuable — the first time.

If we can ignore the tinny-tin-tin buzz chattering complainers (I sometimes picture those world cup Vuvuzuelas as the pinnacle of a swarm of complainers, buzzy bees dancing around my ears doing nothing for nobody) then we can try to hear the music in the buzz. I like to think it has something to tell me — or you:

Every complaint is an opportunity.

Even the gripers have their merits: a gripe is feedback, a reflection on the world, information for a product or a process — and it can be something that reveals a way in which our environments can be different, changed, or better.

If the complaint stops at just that — a vocal expression of disapproval or — well, then it doesn’t do much good. That’s just whining.

And if a complaint happens more than once, it’s time to act.

Sometimes I find myself repeating the same complaint in my head. If I hear myself say it more than once, though, I try to immediately think: What can I do about this?

A complaint is the first key towards solving a problem. The easiest problems to solve are ones we can readily identify.

A great way to solve problems is to look around and see that they exist. So the next time you hear someone complain, look again at what’s being said.

Complaining about late buses? Then figure out a system for notifying riders of the bus schedule and arrival times. Complaining that banks aren’t open on Sundays? Figure out a way to do banking on Sundays without going into a teller. Want to stop getting parking tickets? Make a map of the cities’ street signs and rig it to your iPhone alarm clock. Complaining that you can’t find things? Figure out a better way to stay organized.

Annoyed that telephones are stuck into wires in walls and you have to stand in one place to talk to someone? Oh snap, invent a cell phone.

Businesses solve problems.

People make stuff to fix problems you have — sometimes before you knew you had a problem in the first place — and it’s in order to make your life a little bit better.

Often, the opportunities require work, effort, or time (hence the complaint) but they are certainly opportunities. They should challenge us to figure out how to do something better and figure out new solutions.

Often, it’s just a small thing that can be fixed or tweaked to make something much better. Hipmunk gives Kayak a run for it’s money on finding cheap airline flights. HootSuite, TweetDeck, BufferApp, and Meet Edgar are all variations on the same problem: coordinating social posts and sharing your work in the social world.

Making something slightly better or easier to use can be a huge opportunity.

Complaints should happen once.

Then they should spur you to action. Complain. Then think: How can I fix this?

The brightest people in the world — and the basis for many, many business ideas — comes from a simple look at something that doesn’t *quite* work so well and coming up with a way to make it better. A greater challenge, of course, is to create a solution for a problem people didn’t know they had: Apple’s iPod, for example, solved a problem that many people didn’t realize they had in the first place: the ability to carry an indefinite amount of music around with you in your pocket.

Many of the best businesses, in fact, understand a problem or an opportunity and then fix it before you even knew it existed.

An amazing example of this will come from Google’s Cars, if the cars end up working very well (which I hope they do): the problem? People don’t like driving, or at least they don’t like driving on a regular basis, when the drive is the same day-to-day and they could be using that time (often 1-2 hours in traffic each way) for something else. Clearly, the public transportation systems and the way that they are run leave something to be desired in all of us — otherwise, we wouldn’t have so many cars cramming into our cities and spaces. People prefer being in their own cars, under their own terms. Even when it’s ridiculously expensive to own a car. I look forward to the solutions that stem from the opportunities of car sharing, private rides, and better public transportation.

If you’re complaining about the same thing over and over again and you already know how to fix it, or you have an idea of how it could be better, then it’s time to start working on it.

And if you’ve never thought about it this way before: every time you see something you don’t like, from trash on the subway to long lines to confusing information, realize that it’s probably a business waiting to happen, and it could be yours.

Listen to what other people are complaining about as free advice for what might be a great business opportunity.

What are people complaining about? What are you complaining about? How are you going to fix it?

Bam. There’s your next business idea.

Go make something better.

Slowing down to connect across the world: two sisters, reconnecting. {Guest reflections by Easkey and Beckey-Finn Britton}

Posted on by Sarah K Peck
Easkey Tree Hugging
 

You immediately inspired me to have a ‘slow morning’ – get my body moving with some gentle, nourishing stretches and movements (from Dad’s routine!), make French press coffee and sit on the deck in the morning sun thinking nothing at all. Spying some wild blueberries on a nearby bush and foraging for my breakfast… Hope you get in the sea. I walked barefoot today, too.

– Easkey, October 2014

I was grateful my big sister, Easkey, decided she wanted to do this with me out of all the people in her world. For the first time in a long while I saw things for what they were, an amazing chance to connect with a sister whose path in life zigzags all over the world, exploring every nook and cranny, while mine follows the river, always flowing forward, always at home within itself. It was a chance that could not be missed. – Beckey-Finn, October 2014

Quiet whispers of intuition: seedlings, writings, and an idea.

It was hushed and quiet during the late Fall of 2013 in brownstone Brooklyn; the outside world was damp and leaf-strewn. I curled up at my writing desk inside my new apartment, warm yellow lights casting into the early darkness each afternoon as I carved out a new routine in a brand-new city. That night, I scribbled down a few ideas for a series I wanted to create.

Grace… and openness, I sketched. Movement and being. Presence. Gratitude. I jotted down some notes, catching ideas into my moleskine. Practices that move your body, open your mind, encourage you to reflect, connect, nourish. A series of letters, or emails. Something to connect us. Something deeper than just writing. And I love writing.

But could I do that by email?

And would anyone want it?

Quiet whispers of intuition don’t come stomping and shouting into my life.

They come briefly, a light wind, a stretch here and there, an idea that pops into mind while I’m journaling. It’s as though my adult self turns around in my chair to see a five-year old’s whimsy and curious eyes, asking me to come and play. If I shut it out, it runs away.

Our intuition doesn’t shout at us until we’ve really misbehaved.

Luckily, I listened.

I scratched and scrawled, wrote and edited, and made a new adventure — a two-week guided journey, a series of stories delivered from me to you, virtually, in this magical process that the internet lets us have.

Into my journals went the story of what I was making. Out onto the screen came an email. I pressed publish, that tantalizing blue button that still scares me, and went to sleep.

That week, people responded to my whisper. In fact, it was the highest course enrollment I’d ever had, and for a program I still didn’t quite understand.

We all took a breath and jumped in.

This was the Fall of 2013.

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Grace and Gratitude: A Journey Inwards

It’s been a year since I launched the first series, and in the space in between, thousands of emails have been quietly delivered to inboxes around the world with prompts to pause, stretch, listen, and weed out space in your life and mind. I follow the journeys and the progress through email letters, instagram photos, and I even get to form new friendships with lovely souls who join in and understand what I’m trying to do.

Over the course of the last twelve months, I’ve heard beautiful stories from hundreds of people around the world. “Thank you,” they share with me. “This is exactly what I needed.” One woman wrote in to tell me that on the last day of the course, she conceived — after several years of infertility.

In the journey, I ask people to soften to their inner heart, to listen to their spirit whispers, and to find happiness in the life they have all around them. Sometimes, we just need a new frame with which to see.

And today, two sisters (and friends of mine) shared with me the journey they took together, last Fall, on their own Grace and Gratitude journey. I’ve opened up my blog to them as a guest series and a window into the power of gratitude. They’ve inspired me so much, and I hope their stories inspire you as well.

Meet Beckey-Finn and Easkey Britton: Two sisters who decided to share a journey together to experience gratitude, open to grace, and reconnect to each other. They’ve both written their stories — here’s what can happen when you open your heart.

Easkey and Beckey

Two sisters. One journey, one moment at a time.
Part 1: By Easkey Britton

Dear Beckey-Finn: I don’t want or need anyone to tell me it will be alright (because I know it will) but I feel shit and want to be ok with that for a little while… until it passes. I realise it is so much easier to have gratitude when we feel happy and so much easier to have self-pity/loathing when we feel down. I look forward to looking inward with a fresh start tomorrow (I thought today would be my fresh start but it didn’t happen) with gratitude for all that I am. For now I’m Easkey – tired, sore and a little sad. Already feel better having shared this with you!
— Easkey, March 2014-11-04

It’s been a year of grace and gratitude, a journey shared with my little sister, Beckey-Finn.

I live a nomadic lifestyle that takes me far from home throughout the year, and it sometimes makes sustaining and nurturing a meaningful connection with those I love most challenging, especially family.

We know they aren’t going to abandon us, we will remain sisters for life and yet it is too easy to take that bond for granted. I didn’t want us to drift apart, I wanted to find a way to share with her those parts of my life that only a sister could understand, even if we couldn’t be together all the time and instead of feeling there would never be enough time to catch up on all the important things we were facing and going through in life.

Sarah’s Grace and Gratitude course offered the perfect opportunity for us to reconnect and by sharing the journey, make it stronger for both of us. Ideally we ‘d do this in person, create a lovely space, wrap up together on a sofa, candles lit, other times it is by Skype or email writing our thoughts – giving and receiving. It is a practice that has strengthened our bond beyond imagining. With my restless, nomadic existence and her home-grown life, instead of drifting further apart we are closer than ever. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride but we hold each other accountable, finding the yin to our yang.

My Grace and Gratitude practice has been an expansive heart opening process. A kind of release brought about through powerful, and sometimes painful, letting go.

“Weeding out the weeds” – the practice of letting go of what no longer serves me – has left space to cultivate a practice of simple, creative habits and a safe space for those monthly check-ins with my sister.

It has allowed me to slowly begin to live with greater honesty that comes from truly listening to ourselves, each other and the world around us.

There have been many times I’ve felt on the edge of being broken but instead of pushing harder or becoming consumed by the need to control the outcome, our Grace and Gratitude practice has reminded me the power of process: the process of being kind to myself and giving myself permission to feel however I feel and be ok with that, to just sit with it and breathe a while. 

Sometimes my Grace and Gratitude practice is more subtle and less explicit.

Grace is more subtle, but equally powerful — if not more so. I understand it as a dynamic dance.

It’s about getting grounded, presence, conscious mindfulness, an exercise in Be Here Now… my mantra became ‘make space for grace’ by weeding, de-cluttering, clearing, literally and figuratively.

Space to let go, grow and for creativity to flourish.

One of the practices asks you, “what will you do to listen to your heart?” It became okay to stop doing what I’ve always done if it no longer served me, no longer lit me up deep inside. I discovered I didn’t have to stop to be still but could find my stillness in movement, or as Nithya Shanti so beautifully described it, “be steady in movement and discern flow in stillness.”

My Grace & Gratitude practice has taught me how to be kinder to myself and to give thanks for my gifts – where I’ve come from and all that I’ve already don’t. Before I rush to the next big thing, my Grace & Gratitude sessions with my sister remind me to reflect, to look at where I want to go. And to know that I am already enough.

Easkey Power Pose

Some of my favourite G&G practices:

My ‘G&G power pose’: being grounded is very important to me because I’m so often full of ideas, facing forward, restless and constantly moving, living an unpredictable lifestyle.

Being in nature or connected to my environment is hugely important for me and makes me come alive. Gratitude has taught me the importance of making time for play and wonder.

So I like to be in the elements and feel the world around me through all my senses. I drink in the horizon, close my eyes and feel how the wind brushes my cheeks or the sun gently kisses the back of my neck. To feel the solidness of the earth beneath my feet, or better yet to go barefoot and dip my feet in the sea or wriggle my toes in the grass and stretch my fingertips skywards like a universal embrace. It teaches you how to live wholeheartedly in each moment.

My gratitude prayer: Before I go to sleep I name the one thing I’m most grateful for that day, the one thing that surprised me, and the one thing that touched my heart.

When we started last year we both reflected on what grace and gratitude meant for us:

It’s important to share gratitude. Grace is that feeling you get when you’re in sync with something. My grace is being able to take life, not necessarily in my stride, but with a clear mind and desire to be in that moment. It’s opening up to the universe and allowing it to shower you in whatever it has to offer and give.What surprised me is how many things I’m grateful for that I didn’t even acknowledge or think about or realise!

— Beckey-Finn, December 2013

I think vulnerability and humility are the sister and brother of grace and gratitude. Grace is not turning a blind eye to what we have the power to change. Grace is acceptance, surrender and letting go… it’s knowing when to say no thank you so you can say yes tomorrow…grace is being open to change, to the unknown, embracing uncertainty, honouring our humility and vulnerability. Openness. Space. Standing tall. Moving from the core but with fluidity. Smiling.

— Easkey, December 2013

Going forward, I want to keep working on practicing ‘creative habits’, to explore and learn more about mindfulness (or blue-mind-fulness, how to incorporate my experiences and insights from the sea and surf to better understand myself and others) and to listen better to myself and others. 

I’m a water dancer and a wave maker.

A seeker and explorer.

Freedom and passion are the code I live by.

Grace and gratitude are my compass.

I’m so happy for your transformation, guidance and opportunity to share with you Beckey-Finn.

Love and gratitude,
Your big sister
Easkey

A sister-sister journey of grace and gratitude
Part 2: Beckey-Finn

It all started with a bit of a random email from my big sis asking if I wanted to take part in the Grace and Gratitude course. My initial thoughts were a lot of ‘ehhhhhh… huh?! Sounds a bit weird!’

But it was right at this moment that my Grace and Gratitude journey really started. I was graceful in opening myself up to the experience instead of shying away. I was grateful my big sister, Easkey, decided she wanted to do this with me out of all the people in her world.

For the first time in a long while I saw things for what they were, an amazing chance to connect with a sister whose path in life zigzags all over the world exploring every nook and cranny while mine follows the river, always flowing forward, always at home within itself.

It was a chance that could not be missed. 

My Grace & Gratitude practice has been a journey to the expanse of the ocean. It has opened me to moving with the rapids, twists and turns of my path while still maintaining the laid back flow of who I am (the trick is to dive in deep where it’s calmest).

For me, it is a journey that happens beneath the surface of who I am, beneath the day to day of my life, something that has become a part of me.

Being a journey it has been easy, tough and everything in between for both of us but meeting each other in whatever way we can on the first Sunday of every month gives us the space to really reflect on the month gone and the month to come. This is important to me, as I am a very reflective person but now have less time in my life for it. So, I always know that I will have that space at least once a month with someone I can trust absolutely and completely with my heart and soul. 

What is most incredible about our monthly Grace & Gratitude practice is that we are forever finding what we need in these moments within each other. I have learnt to live more dynamically, dancing with grace, accepting the opportunities that present themselves even if they take up my time, which is second nature to Easkey. And she has learnt to stop, breathe in gratitude during the pauses that present themselves in her busy life instead of filling them which is very me. I realise more and more we bring out the best in each other and have become a great support for each other where there never seemed to be enough time and space to do so before.

You immediately inspired me to have a ‘slow morning’ – get my body moving with some gentle, nourishing stretches and movements (from Dad’s routine!), make French press coffee and sit on the deck in the morning sun thinking nothing at all. Spying some wild blueberries on a nearby bush and foraging for my breakfast… Hope you get in the sea. I walked barefoot today too. — Easkey, October 2014

By continuing to practice Grace & Gratitude we have realise that there are these themes in our lives that we struggle with. For me it is time and for my big sister it is space. By having grace and gratitude practices, and creating this time and space for each other, we have learnt to harmonise better with these themes. Working with them instead of fighting them.

Life Pie

Some of my favourite G&G practices:

Creative/body moments: I take little moments out of my workday to doodle on my doodle wall or to do some stretches on my yoga mat (usually with my cat, Fin, joining in). Taking that moment to be graceful in a little bit of play and give some gratitude to my body.

100 happy days: This was a challenge I decided to do when I first started my business in January this year, taking a picture of something that made me happy or grateful that day. It has made me far more aware of all the small things I am grateful for in my day to day that got overlooked before Grace & Gratitude. I spot these things all the time now.

It is so important for me to continue to have this in my life. Every month it grows and I want to incorporate more active practices which Easkey is very good at such as the life pie and soul collaging.

Big sis, every practice and every chance we get to reflect makes me more and more grateful to have you as my sister! 

Big hugs,
Lil sis
Beckey-Finn

Beckey-Finn Britton is a filmmaker and longboarder from the North West coast of Ireland. She hails from the Britton surfing family in Donegal where life evolves around the sea. She works as a Creative digital Media Consultant at her own business, Bexter Productions, and has recently started working with coastal environmental organisation, Clean Coasts, as their digital media and community engagement officer.

Easkey Britton is an internationally renowned professional surfer, artist, scientist and explorer from Ireland, with a PhD in Environment and Society. Her parents taught her to surf when she was four years old and her life has revolved around surfing ever since. She is co-founder of the non-profit Waves of Freedom which uses the power of surfing as a creative medium for social change.

A little rest can add a lot of happy.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Are you tired?

There’s something I’ve been reminded of lately—

Happiness doesn’t come from doing nothing; too much of nothing often feels more depressing.

But in the midst of the busy, happiness can come from a little bit of rest.

A change to your schedule.

A two-hour reprieve with a babysitter.

A Friday night in.

An hour-long lunch break where you sit in the sunshine.

A 20-minute cup of tea at your favorite tea shop on your way home, before you dive back into the working world.

Getting your nails done or having someone rub your back for a few minutes.

Getting the project that you’re working on done.

Staying in to listen to your heart’s pulls. Skipping the ten events that make you say meh just to stay home and do that weird thing that makes you say YES.

A little bit can go a long way.

Sometimes it’s writing “no, thanks” to an email that makes all the difference.

Sometimes it’s shutting down your computer 30 minutes early, or taking yourself for a walk.

Sometimes it’s doodling, taking a few photographs, or making something new for dinner just because you feel like it.

Whatever it is, today’s happiness isn’t necessarily an epic journey. Sometimes it’s a gentle conquest. Sometimes it’s as easy as a shift in your mindset.

Sometimes just a few minutes makes all the difference.