What core principles and values do you think are important to live by?
Be gentle with yourself, and kind to others.
What is paradise?
A stable mind, mornings, laughing so hard it hurts, Mary Oliver.
What are your thoughts on meditation?
Our mind controls our bodies. In the west, we so heavily emphasize taking care of one's bodyโworking out, eating healthyโbut we don't emphasize taking care of our minds. Meditation is that. It is a way to befriend and know yourself, and more importantly, others. Learning to work with one's mind is the realest, most sustainable way I know to develop peace and understanding in our totally messed up world.
What has been your best investment?
Meditation practice, putting in the time to work on communication with friends, family, and lovers, and house plants.
Has there been any one moment that helped define your life?
Birth?
What does love feel like?
Coming home.
Tell me a Lucy fun fact....
I snort when I laugh.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Slow down, keep going, watch your aggression, keep your tender heart. Do your best and forget the rest.
You work with a non-profit that teaches at-risk youth mindfulness. Could you tell me a bit about that?
The non-profit I work for is called Akasa Community Outreach. We partner with public schools in Los Angeles, providing a wellness curriculum teaching gardening, cooking, and mindfulness. Mindfulness is inherently a tool for self-reliance and self-awareness, empowering our youth, our future, with the experiential knowledge that they are not their thoughts and emotions, and that they can take a pause before reacting to such. Through practice, they can "ride the horse rather than the horse riding them," which, in my mind, is the best fight to fight.
Window seat or aisle?
Train: window. Plane: aisle.
If you found a finger, what would you do?
Feel really sad for the person who lost their finger.
What is one talent or strength of yours, which has been critical to your success?
Vulnerabilconfidence. I made a new word because you said one.