My Story

Everyone from Thich Nhat Hanh to Goldie Hawn has noted that the Lotus is considered the most beautiful flower…and yet it only grows out of the mud.

Originating in the muck and mire, the lotus rises to the surface; only then does it gradually open its petals and reveal its glories, blossoming in the sun.

My experience creating Radical Abundance—like much of my early financial life— definitely grew out of the mud.

You see, although I’ve been touted as “a legendary yoga master” by Bloomingdale’s in the New York Times and included in Yoga Journal’s cover story about America’s leading teachers, for much of my past I hardly ever experienced a consistent, Zen-like serenity on the topic of money.

Instead, there’s been an abundance of contrast around the subject.

I’m the first person in my family to go to college (and I got myself into and through Yale despite my family’s blue collar resistance).

I’ve taught yoga to billionaires while worrying about paying my cell phone bill.

I’ve raised over several million dollars for my own creative projects yet budgeting my own money has often been a mighty challenge.

I’ve been on a dozen TV shows and featured in more than 50 publications including Live with Kelly Ripa, People, Cosmopolitan, and even Oprah’s O Magazine, yet I am no stranger to worrying about the rent.

Early in life, I married and divorced someone independently wealthy, choosing to walk away penniless, later having to declare bankruptcy.

I’ve had my bohemian splendor loft life featured in an 8-page spread in The Modern Estate, an upscale shelter magazine, while battling my landlord in court.

I’ve even made a feature film centered around debt collection, starring Paul Sorvino and Justin Theroux aptly entitled Dead Broke (Warner Brothers DVD, 2006), that won festival awards yet lost me a small fortune.

In short, I’m quite familiar with the mud.

There’s an ancient parable in many cultures of several blind men encountering an elephant.

One touches the tusks, another the trunk, another the ear, another the sides, and another the leg.

Each man is convinced he’s correct in his description of the animal, and each definition is not so much wrong but incomplete.

Without seeing the full picture, even as we’re directly encountering a phenomenon, it’s impossible to really understand the beast that’s before us.

Until now, this has been how we’ve approached money.

Some of us have viewed money as spreadsheet calculations and tax returns; others as energy and emotion, the result of the law of attraction and creative visualizations.

This idea of uniting right and left-brained approaches to money is what makes Radical Abundance (surprisingly) radical.

I’ve found that almost all traditional financial experts tend to ignore the emotional underpinnings of our decisions.

They discuss only practical concerns like investment strategies or budgeting advice rather than exploring any of the emotional realities behind someone’s financial situation.

They don’t address the person as a whole, treating financial wellness as something that only a large bank balance can solve.

These experts work on solving money as a problem that’s “out there,” external to us and unrelated to our inner lives.

Yet––especially when we don’t realize it––it’s our emotions that drive our financial narrative.

Radical Abundance, however, takes the opposite approach.

We don’t neglect the practicalities––the numbers side of the equation––but it’s not our starting point.

Instead, we begin with what’s going on inside and then work outward.

I’ve shared this approach with over 50,000 people with amazing results.

I’ve witnessed it transform countless lives.

And I’d love to share all this with you…

My Story

It's Time to Reinvent!