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long life

How to Be More Alive

Last week I began a series on longevity – the factors that have the biggest impact on our lifespan. I started with what I think is most important – living… Read More

How to Live a Longer Life

Perhaps more than ever, mortality is the focus of our news – day after day, week after week, month after month. Over time such persistent messages find their way into… Read More

What are you longing for most in life?
At the end of life what do you want to have accomplished?
If you knew you had one year left to live would there be anything you’d want to fix or clean up?
What are you ready to let go of – habits, attitudes, obligations, beliefs, outdated goals, etc. – that aren’t serving you?
What do you want to explore more deeply?
What would make life feel ridiculously fun?
What feels really nourishing in your life?
Of all the things you’ve done or accomplished in your life, what has given you the deepest sense of fulfillment? When have you been most proud of yourself?
Where do you find yourself not being fully “present” in your life, or not participating fully?

I hope your answers to these questions help you know yourself better and give you some insights into your true needs and drives. In the Dreambook these questions are followed by a section on each of the following areas of life:

Livelihood, career, and influence
Relationship and family
Community connection
Physical wellness
Creation, exploration, and play
Psychological and spiritual health

For each of these arenas, you visualize a best case scenario three years into the future and answer a series of questions that guide you to define exactly how your life will feel, look, and taste. It’s such a powerful process. So many users have written us to say that just doing this – being prompted to clearly define what they want and intend to create – launched the manifestation of their dreamlife into reality. Much of the rest of the book deals with choosing clear goals related to these insights and forming plans to achieve them – and, importantly, nourishing yourself and staying balanced along the way. I hope you’ll join us for the 2020 version of the book. If ever there were a year to see clearly the path ahead (20-20, get it?), it’s this one! Be well, Peter [post_title] => See 20/20 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => dream-it-plan-it-do-it [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-09-18 21:41:21 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-09-18 21:41:21 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7638 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 4 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8140 [post_author] => 1 [post_date] => 2020-12-24 22:23:26 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-12-24 22:23:26 [post_content] => If you’re interested in health and breathing, you’ve probably heard of Wim Hof, AKA the Iceman. He’s best known as that crazy Dutch guy who has broken all sorts of world records for exposure to cold, such as fastest barefoot half marathon in snow, longest swim under ice, and longest time in direct, full-body contact with ice. His secret is a special breathing method based on a Tibetan Buddhist practice called tummo. In one study, monks practicing tummo were able to raise the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 14.9 degrees Fahrenheit! Dramatic impacts from breathing are also common among anyone who’s done “hypnobirthing” or Lamaze. The Lamaze Technique was developed by French doctor Fernand Lamaze about 70 years ago as a method for giving birth more naturally. It was based on earlier techniques used by women for centuries to manage – or even completely transform – the pain of childbirth with breathing techniques and reframing. Since he founded the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn has been guiding people to get out of pain using mindfulness techniques, of which intentional focus on the breath is central. Moreover, many of the patients in this clinic are dealing with terminal illness and the majority report experiencing greater peace about their condition through these practices. There’s an abundance of evidence that simply changing the way we breathe can have a dramatic impact on pain – whether it’s the pain of prolonged exposure to extreme cold, the pain of childbirth, or the pain of cancer. In my online pain management course, Live Pain Free, I teach many breathing techniques for pain relief. A good place to start is by simply bringing your attention to your breath throughout the day. Breathing can be completely unconscious, which, for most modern humans, means it’s shallow and rapid – a terrible combination for pain and its associated stress. As soon as we notice it, the breath becomes longer and deeper, even without intending it. If we do bring some intention to it, the breath becomes a magnificent always-available tool for shifting consciousness and altering sensory perception. Take a moment to bring all of your attention to a single breath. See how well you can give the whole of your focus to that breath. I’ll wait. Isn’t it amazing (and unfortunate) how the mind can wander during the space of one breath?! It’s a tricky but simple practice: pay complete attention to the inhale and exhale. Then keep going. If you notice you’re distracted, bring yourself back to the breath. Spend no time or energy following the trains of thought that arise or pondering they keep showing up. It’s just the nature of the mind. This in itself is enough of a practice to calm your whole system, to expand your awareness, and to alleviate pain. As an optional second step, try inviting the experience of whatever pain you may be experiencing – physical pain, emotional pain, the pain of worrisome thoughts about the world, etc. – into the space of your breath. Let your pain be here without fighting it. As you inhale, intend that you’re becoming more and more open (you can even try mentally repeating “open… open… open… open…”. As you exhale, intend that you’re releasing any pain, resistance, or stagnation. Be curious about what you find and feel. Refrain from judging or resisting. Just “turn toward” whatever you discover, and keep breathing slow and deep. Allow the inhale to draw breath way down into the base of the belly. Allow the exhale to carry out the air from the deepest pockets of your lungs – and all the little nooks of your being. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Mind (Breath) Over Pain [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => mind-breath-over-pain [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-12-24 22:23:26 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-12-24 22:23:26 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=8140 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7926 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2020-07-02 22:56:11 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-07-02 22:56:11 [post_content] => Check out this interview I did on The Raw and Wild Hearts Podcast! We talk about how to strengthen your immune system, keep infections mild, and manage the psychological, emotional, and spiritual implications and opportunities presented by the Coronavirus pandemic. I did this interview with an an aim to share my knowledge about how all of us can increase our personal levels of sanity and physical health in the throes of this pandemic. Please share this with anyone you know who might benefit, and feel free to add your questions and comments below ... I'd absolutely love to hear from you. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => Empower Your Health during Coronavirus ... and Always. (audio cast) [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => empower-your-health-during-coronavirus-and-always-audio-cast [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-07-02 23:04:06 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-07-02 23:04:06 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7926 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7638 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2019-09-18 20:22:20 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-09-18 20:22:20 [post_content] => A few years ago, Briana and I set out to create the ultimate system for planning, goal making, and life-sweetness-maximization. The result was The Dreambook. We launched it as a crowd-funded Kickstarter project and greatly exceeded our funding goals. In the years since then it’s been popular and successful beyond our wildest dreams. When we were crafting the Dreambook, we knew that users would need to do some preliminary work to get aligned. So the first part is about discovering what your core values are, identifying your gifts, defining your life purpose, and learning what you really want. It might seem a simple thing to know what you really want, but over the past few years of publishing this book, we’ve probably gotten more comments about this section than any other part. It turns out that our days are filled with thoughts of what we want, they’re even more filled with thoughts of what we don’t want. And they’re also filled with thoughts of things we used to want or were told we should want. Rarely do we go through a deep, introspective process for learning what really gives us satisfaction, what makes us feel most alive, what naturally energizes us, what inspires us bring our best self to the table. So there’s a whole section for that, and people often tell us it’s incredibly illuminating. I want to share with you an excerpt from that section so you can see what I’m getting at and try it out. I invite you to do this for yourself, even if you only have a few minutes. Just answer these questions honestly, as if no one will ever see the answers, and as if you’ll have the approval of your friends, your family, and yourself – regardless of how you respond.

What are you longing for most in life?
At the end of life what do you want to have accomplished?
If you knew you had one year left to live would there be anything you’d want to fix or clean up?
What are you ready to let go of – habits, attitudes, obligations, beliefs, outdated goals, etc. – that aren’t serving you?
What do you want to explore more deeply?
What would make life feel ridiculously fun?
What feels really nourishing in your life?
Of all the things you’ve done or accomplished in your life, what has given you the deepest sense of fulfillment? When have you been most proud of yourself?
Where do you find yourself not being fully “present” in your life, or not participating fully?

Livelihood, career, and influence
Relationship and family
Community connection
Physical wellness
Creation, exploration, and play
Psychological and spiritual health

You may also be interested in:

See 20/20

Mind (Breath) Over Pain

Empower Your Health during Coronavirus … and Always. (audio cast)

The Dragontree

long life

How to Be More Alive

How to Live a Longer Life

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