By Kathleen Booker, host of the Breathwork Summit

I am humbled by the honor of hosting the Breathwork Summit, which you can enjoy for free from January 11-14. What an honor to sit and chat with incredible experts in breathwork from around the world.

Breathing is the most constant and necessary act the body does. And it does it automatically! Our breath provides us with oxygen essential for life. How we breathe is intimately related to the health of our body and mind.

Now imagine if you put a bit of consciousness into your breath. Your life will expand exponentially!

I definitely expanded breath-fully in mind, body, soul, and emotions. And I know you will too when you join us for this illuminating summit!

In my view, the breath is the most powerful way to energize ourselves, calm ourselves, gain clarity and focus, and lower blood pressure. The beauty of the breath is that your breath will take care of the shifting. All you need to do is breathe — it’s as simple as inhale… exhale...

The breath invites you to love on yourself and remember the truth of who you are at all times: whole, peaceful, loved, and calm.

What can you expect from this free summit?

Below is just a sample of the 25+ Breathwork practices you will experience:

We did Breathwork on a moringa tree farm in the Dominican Republic, where the breath of the trees breathed in us and through us. Ben-Yam Barshi shared the importance of loving on our trees and planting trees so that we have air to breathe.

Abiola Abrams took us on a Goddess journey around the world, calling on and expanding the power of the Divine Feminine in all of us.

Poppy Jaime breathed us to the acceptance, allowance, and joy of being “happy, not perfect.”

Cathleen Meredith had us rhythmically shaking our rumps in our seats as we cleared and cleaned our bodies and minds with the breath.

And through tears, I guided us to the peace that is within us at all times even when our hearts are sad.

What a remarkable four days this will be! Please register for free here.

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Company Statement regarding the Capitol takeover in Washington D.C.

While United States citizens are clearly divided in their political viewpoints, The Shift Network stands for finding a harmonious path forward — one anchored in compassion and deep listening, absent the threat of violence.

We strongly condemn the violence that rained down on Washington D.C. on Wednesday and all that ensued there. And we recognize, with deep sadness, that these protestors would have been treated very differently had they been primarily black or brown peoples.

We are committed to our vision of individual and community peacebuilding, finding common ground, and creating a fairer and more equitable world.

To empower your own inner peacebuilding, here’s a brief practice from beloved Shift faculty Andrew Harvey called "Tonglen for Your Day." This practice allows us to bring the negativity we witness in our world into the center of our hearts, so we can then transmit back love and peace.

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A note from Aliah MaJon, Chief Inclusion Officer for The Shift Network:

Soul-Searching Change... The times that we are living through, literally, seem to be requiring that I (and, perhaps, you) begin to understand exactly what making big changes will mean as we strive to build a better personal and collective future?

I considered this, and then listened deep within. This is what I heard about “Soul-Searching Change,” in terms of its nature, its power to evolve, and what my soul is calling for:

Soul-searching change is an invitation to deliberately choose to be different, to decide to make undeniable shifts within my own being and to eagerly be about the business of finding what I feel I will need to move forward as I tread on a path that I have never walked before.

Because I believe that this is the case in my life — that I am being asked to embrace soul-searching change — I asked myself four simple questions:

To answer these questions for myself I did some research, and would like to share what I sense will properly inform and equip me (and you) to act.

I must be willing to face the unknown… and become comfortable with the unfamiliar.

I must not question my abilities… and have faith that what I need will be given to me.

I must move away from others’ expectations… and trust myself to decide for myself.

I must overcome my own pride or fear… and discover how to bravely transform myself.

I must notice my own baggage and biases… and forgive myself as I reach for healing.

I must form new habits and ways of being… and celebrate my exploration and success.

I must ask for help when I require support… and understand that collaborating is a gift.

As you review this list, I suggest that you contemplate each word deeply and seek to take in the full impact of the messages. Change is most definitely afoot — this is obvious, thank goodness — but soul-searching change means that I can create that change by deciding how it will manifest in my own life and beyond.

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NOTE: “The Master Key” by Robert Peng, a featured speaker in The Shift Network’s 2020 Energy Medicine & Healing Summit, is one of the most profoundly important books I’ve ever read. I can say that it’s life-changing with complete confidence, because it changed my life before I even finished reading it. I was so impressed with this book that we are serializing the section called “One Hundred Days of Darkness and Light” in future issues of Catalyst. You can read the twenty-eighth installment (as well as the previous ones) here.
— Phil Bolsta

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The uplifting story in this issue’s “The Nicest Thing” section come from breathwork and Enneagram teacher Jessica Dibb, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit.

Jessica shares the moving story about a compassionate and generous family friend who made it possible for Jessica's sister to extend her life after a devestating cancer diagnosis.

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Finally, we’d love to hear your answer to the question, How has breathwork improved your life? To share your thoughts in our Facebook Page community, click here.

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Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

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A Personal Invitation to the January 11-14 Breathwork Summit From Your Host, Kathleen Booker

Welcome. I am so glad that you are here with me today. My name is Kathleen Booker, also known as the Jedi of Calm, and I am the host of The Shift Network's 2021 Breathwork Summit. Can I get a whoop whoop? This has been such an honor for me to do. I could go on for about a half an hour talking about that, but let me tell you why you need to register for free. I have sat with some of the most motivating, inspiring, uplifting individuals, speaking about breathwork, how the breath just supports our total wellbeing. And here's just a few folks...

To watch this 3-minute video and read the rest of the text, click here.

What’s Not Being Said
by Aki Hirata Baker, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

Living between two worlds is not an easy undertaking — and for me, living as a young female in Japan was just that. We were taught to be free; however, the freedom to exist was not granted. The stark contrast between the glaring images of imported freedom while being taught to be modest as if my life depends on it, is confusing to the psyche to say the least. To read more, click here.

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The Master Key
By Robert Peng, a featured speaker in The Shift Network’s 2020 Energy Medicine & Healing Summit

It's 1972 in the industrial city of Xiangtan, China. A frail child with a heart condition sneaks into a hotel boiler room and befriends the elderly yet vibrant attendant, who eventually reveals his true identity as a revered Qigong master. He heals the boy and, for the next 13 years, secretly teaches him the keys to unlocking the spiritual and healing dimensions of the Life Force.

It sounds like a modern-day fable, but the story is true. And with The Master Key, that grateful student, Robert Peng, invites all of us to enter the next chapter of this empowering path. Here, Master Peng brings together the unique insights of his teacher with the moving account of his own journey.

Click here to read the twenty-eighth installment (as well as all the previous installments) of this profoundly moving book.

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In this special video series, prominent authors, thought leaders, and others answer the question, “What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?

Jessica Dibb’s Story
Founder and spiritual director of the Inspiration Consciousness School and Community

EXCERPT: And this beautiful woman came up to Jamie and said, "How much do you need?" And Jamie started crying and after a long conversation said $6,000. So Martha wrote her a check for $6,000, and then over the course of the next year and a half, she wrote two more checks for $6,000 each; $18,000. And after my sister did pass away, Martha wrote me a check for $4,000, so that I could take a month off and try to get my life kind of in order after the three years of almost not sleeping.

To watch the video and read the transcript of Jesscia’s 8-minute story about a compassionate and generous family friend, click here.

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If you missed any “Nicest Thing” stories, you can catch up on all of them here.

The Height and Breath of a Person: Breathwork's Doorway to the Self
by Jim Morningstar, PhD, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

Breathwork transformed my life in the mid-1970s as one of the first Certified Rebirthers, and continues to be my major vehicle for self-discovery and growth. People from all over the planet are finding this new way to measure their growth — not against externally imposed standards, but with a tool that enlarges their relationship to their higher Self — indeed, to an experience of themselves beyond measure. To read more, click here.

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A New Diversity Model to Heal the Divides and Change our Relationships to Heal the World
By Ayo Handy-Kendi, The Breath Sekou, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

For more than 50 years, I’ve been working on solutions for pro-peace and anti-violence. I’ve monitored closely the rise of hate and polarization, recognizing that they are wider and more heated than ever before. In August 2020, I relaunched my solution to “heal the divides” to increase peace and stop violence, stating that “extreme times call for transformative responses to create extreme change.” To read more, click here.

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The Power of Not Knowing
By Masami Covey, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

As I reflect on what 2020 has brought us, I can already feel the natural expansion opening into the new year. It reminds me of a poignant Haiku written by the 17th-century Japanese poet and samurai, Mizuta Masahide.

To read more, click here.

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Biden To Pick Native American Rep. Haaland As Interior Secretary

In a historic first, President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior, his transition team announced Thursday evening. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, would be the country's first Native American Cabinet secretary.

Haaland tweeted: “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior. Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land. I am honored and ready to serve.” To read more, click here.

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Dreaming Towards Epiphany
By Shift faculty Robert Moss

If you are ready to dream in the New Year, you could set the simple intention:

Show me what the New Year will bring.

Or give this a positive spin by couching your request to your dream makers the following way:

Show me the best that life holds for me and those I love in the year ahead.

To read more, click here.

National Day of Racial Healing
Tuesday, January 19

The National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) is an opportunity for people, organizations, and communities to call for racial healing, bring people together in their shared humanity, and take action together to create a more just and equitable world.

The National Day of Racial Healing was established in 2017 as an annual convening of activists, artists, healers, changemakers, and community members that come together for dialogue and action towards much needed and long overdue racial healing in this nation. It is not the responsibility of one person, one group, or even one organization to drive this work. The responsibility belongs to all of us to participate in these honest, powerful, and moving experiences, and pursue this journey together. Through racial healing, we can all forge deep, meaningful relationships, lay the groundwork to transform broken systems, and create a world in which, together, we are a new force for positive change.

Click here for more information on the National Day of Racial Healing.

Click here to access action kits and find a local virtual event.

Click here to watch the event on January 19.

Click here to watch a 2-minute video on racial healing and solidarity.

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Click here to access the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Implementation Guidebook, which is designed to help individuals, organizations, communities, and First Nations in planning, implementing, and evaluating the TRHT enterprise. TRHT is a multi-year, national- and community-based effort to engage communities, organizations and individuals from multiple sectors across the United States in racial healing and addressing present-day inequities linked to historic and contemporary beliefs in a hierarchy of human value.

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Joy Reid Shreds Police Double Standards On Pro-Trump Insurrectionists And BLM

From Aliah MaJon, Shift's Chief Inclusion Officer: "I believe that all healing begins with telling, accepting, and committing to working with the truth, and Racial Healing is no exception. In other words, healing requires truth-telling as the first step. I consider this piece a good example.”

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid on Wednesday condemned the police response to the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, imagining a wildly different and deadly outcome had they been Black Lives Matter protesters. “I guarantee you if that was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C., there would already be people shackled, arrested, or dead,” said Reid. To read more, click here.

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Biracial Twins Are the Universe's Beautiful Answer to White Supremacists
By Walter Einenke

Occasionally, biracial twins are born with clear skin-color differences. It’s a rare circumstance that’s been termed having “biracial twins,” Dr. Jim Wilson of the University of Edinburgh told the BBS back in 2011.

"Our skin colour is determined by a number of gene variants — at least 20 variants, I would say, probably quite a few more than that," says Dr Wilson. "Some of these we know, and some of them we don't yet know, and at each of these genes, that are influencing the color of our skin, there tends to be two or more variants. One of which is producing a darker skin tone, and one of which is producing a lighter skin tone." To read more and see photos of other biracial twins, click here.

Breathwork Is an Artform
Interview with Dan Brulé, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit

Considered the “Bruce Lee of breathing” by the Olympic athletes and martial artists he trains, Dan Brulé is a pioneer in the breathwork movement. With his combined medical and military backgrounds, Dan has been promoting the benefits of breathwork for both health and peak performance since the early 1970s. In this animated discussion, Dan takes us on a ride through the potential of each breath — from awakening creativity to controlling emotions and even treating PTSD. Click here to watch this 30-minute video.

Conspiracies, a New Paradigm and What’s Truly Holistic
State of Emergence podcast with host Terry Patten and Stephen Dinan

Stephen Dinan, founder of The Shift Network, joins Shift faculty Terry Patten to explore how conspiracy thinking and new paradigm ideas are sometimes merging in a phenomenon some call “Conspirituality” — which Stephen articulated, with clarity and courage, in a Medium essay some months ago titled, “Anatomy of Delusion: How Otherwise Conscious People Descended into the Darkness.” Although this episode was recorded a couple weeks before the recent rioting and insurrection at the U.S. capitol, it’s more relevant than ever now. Click here to listen to this hour-long podcast.

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If Joan of Arc Had Cancer: Finding Courage, Faith and Healing from History’s Most Inspirational Woman Warrior
By Dr. Janet Roseman

This fascinating book draws directly from the words spoken by Joan of Arc. The fourteenth-century teenager who led the armies of France stands as the quintessential icon of feminine courage and faith. These are the attributes most needed by women facing any life-threatening disease. Dr. Janet Roseman offers a mind/body/spiritual approach designed to resurrect inner fortitude and personal power. To order your copy, click here.

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For several years, The Shift Network has hosted Indigenous leaders from around the world and invited them to share their sacred knowledge, rituals, and practices to guide us in a way of living that is sustainable, healthy, and just. We’re thus delighted that the Global Indigenous Wisdom Library makes this “virtual council” of leaders and their wisdom available for everyone, everywhere for free. The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a collection of audio and video interviews featuring Indigenous leaders from around the world sharing prayers, sacred songs, prophecies, spiritual teachings, and pathways to healing, as well as concrete examples for birthing a new era — one in which all members of the human family are treated with respect, understanding, compassion, and justice. This sacred wisdom is important medicine for us all.

The production of The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a gift from The Shift Network, designed to inspire, inform, and involve you by highlighting the voices and important messages of Indigenous leaders from around the world. We want to give a heartfelt thanks to Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. (“Brother Phil”) for his partnership in helping create this Indigenous Wisdom collection. And we thank all the speakers who have contributed to this body of knowledge. To discover more, click here.

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World Peace Library. Designed for the layperson and professional peacebuilder alike, the World Peace Library has over 425 audio and video interviews with some of the most remarkable, inspiring peacebuilders in the world available to you at NO COST. You’ll find hundreds of hours of inspirational, peacebuilding, compassion-spreading talks and trainings at your fingertips with this FREE global resource. There’s no way you can’t come away from the World Peace Library deeply inspired, transformed — and part of the solution. Click here to find out how to take peace to the next level — and help co-create a global culture of peace that leaves a legacy of good for our children, our children’s children and all of humanity and life on earth.

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Book by Stephen Dinan: Sacred America, Sacred World. Infused with visionary power, Sacred America, Sacred World is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views. To order your copy, click here.

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If you would like to submit something to The Catalyst, please see the submission guidelines: click here.

Mother Miracle

Mother Miracle is a registered nonprofit organization in the United States and India. We empower children from the slums of India to reach their highest potential by providing free K-12 education in English, as well as providing the nutrition, healthcare, and extra-curricular activities needed to succeed. In addition to free education, we provide free cutting-edge technology training that sets them apart from others. This combination enables them to find jobs, support their family, give back to the school and community, and break the cycle of poverty.

Click here for more information.

Click here to make a donation.

ELE47N

Cosmic composer and lyricist ELE47N, Rommel David Edin, started writing rhymes as a way to continue the message of his good friend and rapper, the late Pro Era Founder: Capital STEEZ. The sudden death of this young rising star catapulted ELE47N into creating music. A Brooklyn native, ELE47N is a steward of the Earth and regards food as medicine while integrating Tibetan Sound Healing as the key to living a balanced, high-vibrational lifestyle. Through his poetry, melodic beats, and colorful expression of self, people are called to tap into a way of being that is not ruled by a finite sense of time and perception but rather by the ability to live in harmony with the true Creative Nature of our existence. ELE47N is currently working on music for the TV show DMZ, directed by Ava DuVernay.

Click here to sample the songs on ELE47N’s album, “The Art of Time”

Click here to watch the music video for “Time”

Bridging Ancient Mysticism & the Science of the Near-Death Experience to Feel Into Harmony, Connection & Wholeness — A free video event with renowned academic neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, MD, the bestselling author of Proof of Heaven, and Karen Newell, author, sound journey facilitator, and co-founder of Sacred Acoustics. Be guided in a remote viewing session supported by theta sound waves to tap into Universal Consciousness, gain confidence in your intuition, and receive direct evidence of our connection with the cosmos. Wednesday, January 13 at 5:30pm Pacific

Explore the 4 Hidden Energies of Tai Chi for Unwavering Balance — A free video event with Tai Chi and Qigong grandmaster Ken Cohen. Experience a Tai Chi sequence that takes you from stillness to motion — so you can release tension, calm your mind, reconnect with the natural world, and cultivate joy. Saturday, January 16, at 10:00am Pacific

Shamanic Journeying to Connect With the Earth’s Elements & Other Nature Allies — A free video event with shamanism teacher Sandra Ingerman. Experience a shamanic journey to receive healing guidance and discover how you can cultivate truly reciprocal relationships with Nature’s beings to transform suffering and help heal All of Life. Wednesday, January 20, at 5:30pm Pacific

Reconnect to Hope, Courage & One Another Through the Power of Rituals — A free video event with ritualist Suzanne Sterling, the founder of Voice of Change and co-founder of Off The Mat, Into the World. Discover how the power of rituals and creating your own can help you move beyond grief and detachment, allowing you to reconnect and ground yourself with the nourishing elements of this precious life. Saturday, January 23, at 10:00am Pacific

The Ancient Spiritual Origins of the Enneagram as a Path for Self-Discovery & Wholeness — With renowned Enneagram teacher Russ Hudson and guest faculty Jessica Dibb. Discover insights and practices for exploring the Enneagram through its spiritual origins — to understand its unique relevance in this troubled time and to connect to presence, your soul purpose, and your contribution in the world. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Wednesday, January 20

The Client Attraction Code — With Sharla Jacobs, co-founder of Thrive Academy, the #1 source for turning coaches and holistic practitioners into 6-figure transformational leaders. Watch your business thrive with a “heart-based selling” approach that perfectly showcases your passion for what you do and gets you clients. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Thursday, January 21