{"id":9902,"date":"2019-03-04T06:45:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T11:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newvinegrowing.wordpress.com\/?p=9902"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:37:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:37:50","slug":"stillness-and-mindfulness-are-where-transformation-begins-a-guest-post-by-lara-zielin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/stillness-and-mindfulness-are-where-transformation-begins-a-guest-post-by-lara-zielin\/","title":{"rendered":"Stillness and mindfulness are where transformation begins — a guest post by Lara Zielin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lara
\nLara Zielin’s newest book, “Author Your Life,” comes out Tuesday
\nEditor’s note:<\/strong> My friend Lara Zielin has written several books in recent years, but the one coming Tuesday is her most personal. “Author Your Life”<\/a> shares what Lara experienced by writing the story of her life in third person, and giving the character of Lara joy, abundance and all manner of wonderful life experiences.<\/em>
\nLara flew to join our women’s goal-setting day in 2018. She says our gathering gave her the courage to keep going with Lara’s Life and helped her believe she was onto something special. I’m honored we could support her in this project.<\/em>
\nToday she shares an essential part of what fueled her transformation: stillness and mindfulness.<\/em>
\nHow do you change your life? I mean really change your life for the better?
\nThis is the question at the heart of every self-help book, including my own if I\u2019m honest, but if you asked me to distill change into one thing, I\u2019d tell you that it all comes down to finding stillness.
\nStillness and mindfulness are where transformation begins. It\u2019s how we pipe down and listen to our hearts and get honest with ourselves.<\/strong>
\nEvery great story starts right there. Harry Potter\u2019s journey doesn\u2019t begin when he arrives at Hogwarts \u2014 it starts with his realization that there\u2019s something different about him, and he doesn\u2019t fit in with the Dursleys. Neo doesn\u2019t start off by choosing the red pill or the blue pill in the Matrix \u2014 before all that, he allows himself to acknowledge that there\u2019s something very wrong with the world he\u2019s living in.
\nOf course, in our culture, we don\u2019t really value stillness or moments where we get honest about how we\u2019re feeling. When you ask someone how they are, their answer of \u201cBusy\u201d is like a badge of honor.<\/strong> I\u2019m guilty of it too, especially as I try to do all the things<\/em> for my book launch. I feel guilty<\/em> if I\u2019m still or quiet. I feel like I don\u2019t have time to pipe down. Instead, I tell myself should probably send out a few more emails.
\nEven though I\u2019m still practicing all this stuff myself, I have learned that finding stillness doesn\u2019t have to be this big, huge endeavor in order for it to work wonders. We don\u2019t have to book a 30-day meditation retreat in India or rent a tiny cottage in the Shetland Islands surrounded by solitude (though, OMG, both those things sound incredibly awesome to me right now).
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\"Lara
These are the eight notebooks Lara filled up in 2018 while writing “Lara’s Life.” They are cheap notebooks she got on sale at TJ Maxx and wrote in by hand. They are super basic, and they still changed everything. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFor a year, I found stillness at my kitchen table at 4 a.m. I\u2019d spend just a few minutes each day writing a story I called “Lara\u2019s Life,” where I\u2019d write about myself in the third person, like a character, and put myself into stories where I lived the life I wanted. I\u2019d also journal and read and meditate. I did it all wearing worn-out yoga pants and slippers, with bad breath because I hadn\u2019t brushed my teeth yet.<\/strong>
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\nThese few minutes in the quiet before my day got going changed everything. The ripples of this work extended into every aspect of my life. Within a year, I had stopped drinking, I had more joy and positivity, my relationships were better, and I was financially more abundant. It sounds crazy, but just a few minutes of stillness and reflection each day changed it all.
\nOf course, I understand that not everyone is a morning person and I\u2019m not recommending that you get up at four o\u2019clock unless it\u2019s your ideal time of day (as it is mine, which I know is bananas).
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\"AuthorYourLife-LZ-sm\"
Author Your Life: How One Writer Changed Her Life Through the Power of Storytelling, and How Your Can, Too. Lara Zielin’s book comes out Tuesday. You can order it on Amazon<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nAll that\u2019s really required for stillness is breathing. Just stopping and noticing your breath and concentrating on that for a few minutes.<\/strong>
\nYou can get still on your commute to work.
\nYou can get still waiting to pick up your kid after school.
\nYou can get still in the sliver of time after you wash your face and before you head to bed.
\nIf you\u2019ve got a little more time, then try folding in meditation or journaling or writing your story or reading a book that can help you grow. Maybe go from two minutes a few times each week to five minutes, if you can.
\nSeconds and minutes add up. You really can begin to change your life in the space of a few breaths. Making meaningful and lasting change truly starts there.<\/strong>
\nLara Zielin is a published author, editor, and the creator of “Author Your Life.”<\/a> Her debut young-adult novel, “Donut Days,” was selected to the Lone Star Reading List, and her romance novel “And Then He Kissed Me” (written as Kim Amos) was nominated for a Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Award. Her magazine articles have appeared in Writers Digest, Culture, Medicine at Michigan\u00a0and more. Her nonfiction book “Author Your Life”<\/a> is about using the power of writing to create a better story for yourself. She lives in Michigan with her husband and dog, and her goal is pretty much to eat all the cheese.<\/em>
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