Like many people. ever since I was very young there’s been this part of me that likes very much to shift into fiction adventure romantic fantasy realms where I let dramatic imaginations take me deeper perhaps than even ‘real life’ usually does. I spend time telling stories in order to explore certain feelings and ideas [...]

Much of my work involves quieting the chronic flow of thoughts, images, memories and imaginations through the mind (thinking) in order to enter into highly-rewarding direct engagement with the real world (experiencing). In order to comprehend why a quiet mind is often more valuable than being lost in thought, I’d like to share several new [...]

Almost all of us had one or more people, usually a parent, grand parent, or relative, who deeply touched our lies before we were six years old, imprinting positive qualities at the core level of faith and emotional resonance. IF you pause a moment, do you remember someone early in your life who truly touched [...]

(this was written for the Huffington Post …) “The person who maintains a higher quality of awareness will almost always succeed beyond someone with a lower level of awareness – that’s a basic performance law. And companies that maintain a higher awareness profile will outperform companies whose leaders and employees are less aware, less alert, [...]

I was just reading in the New Yorker about the invention of the mouse by Xerox, Stanford, Apple and so forth – moving from pure science and exploration, more and more into practical public application. And I realized that the history of the invention of Focus Phrases is very similar – like the computer mouse, [...]

Everywhere in the world, everything is speeding up – so we in turn tense up. Time pressure and anxiety about the future too often give us the emotional shakes, and sometimes we even collapse inwardly under the strain. Not good. If we continue getting more and more stressed, trying to go faster and faster even [...]

Always in the beginning … you can choose to shift your inner focus to your breaths … as they come and go … without effort of any kind … the air flowing in … and out as you now begin to read (and listen inwardly to) these ancient words … of Lao Tzu ~ When [...]

How can you act, to brighten the mood of your workplace? Right this very moment, you are in charge of where you focus your power of attention, and what thoughts you hold in your mind. If you focus on negative thoughts and scenarios in your mind, you’re going to make yourself feel low and bad [...]

Sometimes I have the need to speak out on things that most people feel intimidated about talking about. One night, after getting hit in the face overmuch by media advertising that I didn’t want to experience, I found myself feeling shouting these words: “Where are our much-needed world visionaries who can see a century ahead and [...]

Here are four recent radio interviews in which the host allowed John to actually guide listeners through the Focus Phrase process. You can listen to the interviews streaming, or download them to take on the road with you: 1) Namaste in Vancouver is the publisher of consciousness authors such as Eckhart Tolle and Michael Brown. [...]

For the last four months, I’ve been getting up most mornings, doing my own meditation, and then sitting down to write a short blog on whatever seems most important that day. These blogs are all collected in the archives (on the right, below, sorted by month). It’s too bad in a way that blogs disappear [...]

Many people ask this question, because we have the idea that meditation demands stern rigorous discipline, which most of us these days don’t have unless absolutely essential. Have we become a weak undisciplined nation? Or have we broken free from unnecessary self-motification? Discipline is a word that a great many people react to negatively – [...]

When you have just 90 seconds to regroup, refresh, recover and relax, a short mini-uplift video can be a life-saver, the perfect support tool for instantly shifting your focus away from all the stressors at work, toward a bright present-moment mood. Stress gets you when you let your breathing get tight, when you get lost [...]

(Quote from Executive Genius) “There’s no question – a person who maintains a higher quality of awareness at work will almost always win out over someone with a lower level of awareness; that’s a basic performance law. And other variables remaining constant, the company that maintains a higher awareness quotient will outperform companies whose leaders [...]

Everyone experiences regular bouts of low energy and mental clarity at work. What can you do about this? One solution seems to be to bring to mind certain Focus Phrases that boost alertness and energy, or to use your mobile or computer to access short (even just 90-second) video uplifts that instantly redirect your attention [...]