Millennials Rising — Joseph Sehwani

You’ve likely heard the stereotypes about millennials: They’re a generation of entitled misfits. They lack a strong work ethic. They’re only interested in activities that offer immediate gratification.

You want the truth? This generation isn’t going to wreck the world. They’re going to save it.

If millennials feel entitled to anything, it’s the opportunity to be passionately engaged in a vision they can pour their entire heart and soul into. Show them what success looks like, then get out of the way and watch what awesome looks like.

I’d like to introduce you to Joseph Sehwani, one of nine millennials I interviewed who have faced and overcome significant obstacles that stood in the way of their goals and dreams. It’s a privilege to share their inspiring life stories with you here.

Click here to see all the Millennials Rising stories.

JOSEPH SEHWANI

Joseph Sehwani

Joseph Sehwani, born in 1994, is a student at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He is the founder of the Dreamscape Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people who are struggling with disease or disability.

It all started in my high school Spanish class on September 21, 2011. After rubbing my left eye, the words and colors on the whiteboard all

My Video Interview with Dr. Scott Kolbaba

MY INTERVIEW WITH DR. SCOTT KOLBABA (1 OF 4)

Dr. Scott Kolbaba

It was a pleasure interviewing Dr. Scott Kolbaba, an internist in private practice in Wheaton, Illinois, and the author of Physicians’ Untold Stories: Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!

Scott’s book feature stories from 27 physicians about their personal encounters with near death experiences, inspired visions, dreams, unexplained miraculous healings, and more. Tying all these stories together is a

Using Face Reading to Tell an Old Soul from a Young Soul

Click here to order Barbara’s book, which comes in PDF or iPad for $20 or in paperback for $24.99

What’s in a face? Plenty, according to Face Reading expert Barbara Roberts. In this video interview with Barbara, she explains how to distinguish an old soul from a young soul.

Click here to schedule your own Face Reading session with Barbara.

Click here to order Barbara’s books.

Click here to listen to “11 Lessons on How to

Be Enthroned in the Castle of Goodness

This beautiful quote by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, perfectly expresses the imperative of heeding the inner urge to lift your thoughts and your gaze heavenward.

Paramahansa Yogananda

 
 
 
 
 
 
Think that which is good; love that which is good. Be enthroned in the castle of goodness, and your memories will be like

Astrological Predictions for 2017 for Each Zodiac Sign

Laurie Baum

These astrological predictions for each zodiac sign for 2017 were written by my good friend Laurie Baum, MSW, a psychological astrologer and psychotherapist in practice in Encinitas, California. As you can see from her article, Laurie integrates the wisdom of natural patterns in the heavens with spirituality and psychological insights.

Click here for Laurie’s comprehensive astrological forecast for 2017.

You, too, can benefit from Laurie’s wisdom. She writes a free astrological newsletter about how planetary alignments affect our lives on earth. Click here to e-mail Laurie to subscribe at no cost, or visit Laurie’s website and click on “Free Email Newsletter.”

Laurie is a former newspaper and news magazine reporter who is profiled in the books Psychic New York and The 100 Top Psychics in America. She is the author of five books:

A to Z Acrophonology: Discover the Power of the Letters in Your Name

Everything You Need to Know About Your Astrology Sign

Whispers from the Cosmos

Sacred Mysteries of Egypt

Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium

Laurie also offers counseling appointments by phone. She will answer your questions about major life decisions and talk with you about the reasons you have incarnated, the lessons you are here to learn, where you are on the wheel of karma, and the psychological developmental cycles you have been through and are going through. She will look at current influences on your health, finances, relationships, career, and any relocation plans that may be necessary. She also will look ahead with you at the next seven years of your life. A reading with Laurie can help you take the next step in your life. Sessions, which are available via landline phone or Skype (audio or video), are digitally recorded.

To make an appointment with Laurie, click here to e-mail Laurie or call her at (760) 753-7676. Click here to visit Laurie’s website for more information.

YOUR PERSONAL ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS

Illustrations by Kagaya, a Japanese digital fine artist.
Click here to visit Kagaya’s website.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19)
You are about to have more contact with the public. Uranus, planet of innovative change, makes a powerful angle to the Sun on January 10, 2017. This will open the way for you to re-direct your energies into the public arena. Potent Mars, your planetary ruler, then moves into Aries on January 27/28, 2017. This will further energize your interactions with the public. You will have the opportunity to re-sculpt your outer image and the way you interact with the world. Take a thorough inventory of your life to see where you can make positive changes to enhance your reputation. Change for the sake of change will not get you where you are trying to go. But well-thought-out, strategic moves will land in the fortunate circumstances. A solar eclipse on February 26, 2017, will further catapult you toward the finish line. Lucky Jupiter in Libra opposes fiery Uranus in Aries on March 3, 2017 and September 28, 2017. These celestial alignments will bring rapid change that is fortunate for you. You will be especially lucky when you connect with people who think strategically. Venus, planet of love, turns retrograde in Aries from March 4 to April 15, 2017. This interlude will give you an opportunity to

Laurie Baum’s Astrological Forecast for 2017

Laurie Baum

This comprehensive astrological forecast for 2017 was written by my good friend Laurie Baum, MSW, a psychological astrologer and psychotherapist in practice in Encinitas, California. As you can see from her article below, Laurie integrates the wisdom of natural patterns in the heavens with spirituality and psychological insights.

Click here to read Laurie’s 2017 predictions for each individual zodiac sign.

Personally, I never had much of an appreciation for astrology and just didn’t care enough about the subject to investigate it further. Then two things happened.

First, I happened to read a chapter in a life-changing book that burned off the fog of ignorance and answered every question I had about astrology. It was written with clarity, precision, wit and wisdom, and I felt the subject come brilliantly alive for me as I read it. Click here to read that excerpt on astrology.

Second, I had an hour-long astrological reading with Laurie Baum. We discussed

Rumi is There, Ever at Your Side

Rumi

How can a 13th-century Sufi mystic help you navigate your spiritual path?

The answer is both simple and profound. The mystical poetry of Rumi, who was born Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī in present-day Afghanistan, has an incredible capacity to ignite the fire of divine love in our hearts and illuminate the way of passion for spiritual seekers.

I wrote this post for The Shift Network blog. I hope you enjoy the beauty of Rumi’s poetry!

Wherever you are in your spiritual search, Rumi is there, comforting, encouraging and inspiring you to leap with joyous abandon into the loving arms of the Divine.

If your first exposure to unfamiliar spiritual teachings uproots your belief system and leaves you reeling from information overload, Rumi is there, welcoming you into a new and beautiful world of understanding and assuring you that all is well.

Looking up gives light,
though at first it makes you dizzy.

If your search for wisdom is exclusively directed outwards, Rumi is there, admonishing you to look within.

There is a basket of fresh bread on your head, and
yet you go door to door asking for crusts.
Knock on your inner door. No other.

If you tell yourself that you are unworthy of

Soaring Beyond the Heavens

I love this soul-stirring quote by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi.

Reading it not only calms me, it sets my spirit soaring! Yogananda was a master at painting beautiful word pictures that were also imbued with spiritual inspiration and joy, joy, joy!

Paramahansa Yogananda

In the airplane of your visualization, glide over the

Full Circle: Bob Poznanovich

I interviewed Bob Poznanovich, Executive Director of Business Development at Hazelden, for a Minnesota business magazine article titled “Full Circle.” Bob’s story is a perfect illustration of the adage, “What goes around comes around.” In other words . . . a full circle.
 

INTRODUCTION

Androcles, the Roman slave who removed a thorn from a lion’s paw, was later spared from death when the lion recognized him in front of a bloodthirsty crowd in the Coliseum. If Androcles had been a Twin Cities business leader, a seemingly isolated incident early in his career would undoubtedly have led to his company capturing the lion’s share of the market years later.

These three stories from Twin Cities businesspeople illustrate the inscrutable relationship between connection and coincidence. Call it karma, reaping what you sow or what goes around comes around; inexorably, like a circle completing itself, scales are balanced and debts repaid.
 

BOB POZNANOVICH’S STORY

Bob Poznanovich

I was the first kid from my family to go to college. I had grown up in a ghetto-like neighborhood in Chicago without a father in the house or any good male role models. I literally didn’t know how to behave in college. Hanging out with decent, successful people as opposed to hanging out with neighborhood guys on street corners was all new to me.

Jerry was a member of the fraternity I joined. He was two years older than me and was well known, well liked and well connected. He was a member of the student senate, active in other university organizations and very much a leader on campus.

For whatever reason, Jerry saw potential in me and became a mentor and friend. He helped me fit in by showing me how to get involved in the student senate and other campus events and activities. With his help, I started to develop on a personal level and discover my own leadership capabilities. The year I graduated, the faculty and staff selected me as Greek Man of the Year within the fraternity community. As a result of Jerry’s efforts, I

Full Circle: John Rollwagen

I interviewed John Rollwagen, former chairman and CEO of Cray Research, for a Minnesota business magazine article titled “Full Circle.” John’s story is a perfect illustration of the value of connections, synchronicities and how we often find ourselves in someone else’s orbit.
 

INTRODUCTION

Androcles, the Roman slave who removed a thorn from a lion’s paw, was later spared from death when the lion recognized him in front of a bloodthirsty crowd in the Coliseum. If Androcles had been a Twin Cities business leader, a seemingly isolated incident early in his career would undoubtedly have led to his company capturing the lion’s share of the market years later.

These three stories from Twin Cities businesspeople illustrate the inscrutable relationship between connection and coincidence. Call it karma, reaping what you sow or what goes around comes around; inexorably, like a circle completing itself, scales are balanced and debts repaid.
 

JOHN ROLLWAGEN’S STORY

John Rollwagen

When I was 12 years old, George Hanson was my scoutmaster at Cleveland Avenue Methodist Church in St. Paul. In the summer of 1959, when I came back from my first year of engineering school at MIT, I was looking for a summer job and my dad said, “Why don’t you call George Hanson?” I said, “George Hanson, my old scoutmaster?” He said, “Yeah, I read in the paper that some new company is starting up. It’s Control something. George is involved and maybe they’d have a spot for you.”

The company turned out to be Control Data and I

Full Circle: Ed Klemz

I interviewed Ed Klemz, founder and CEO of Central Coast Solutions for a Minnesota business magazine article titled “Full Circle.” Ed’s story is as profound as it is beautiful.
 

INTRODUCTION

Androcles, the Roman slave who removed a thorn from a lion’s paw, was later spared from death when the lion recognized him in front of a bloodthirsty crowd in the Coliseum. If Androcles had been a Twin Cities business leader, a seemingly isolated incident early in his career would undoubtedly have led to his company capturing the lion’s share of the market years later.

These three stories from Twin Cities businesspeople illustrate the inscrutable relationship between connection and coincidence. Call it karma, reaping what you sow or what goes around comes around; inexorably, like a circle completing itself, scales are balanced and debts repaid.
 

ED KLEMZ’S STORY

Ed Klemz

My mom, Marge, worked at Sperry Rand in New Brighton for more than 15 years. During that time, a security guard named Charlie was always at his desk, which was elevated so he could look down at the employees when they entered. Charlie was one of those great guys who greeted everyone by their first name and asked how their kids were. There were hundreds and hundreds of employees there and Charlie knew every single one of them.

One day, my mom walked into the guard shack, which she had to walk through to get into the building she worked in. Charlie wasn’t at his desk to buzz her in, so she used her card, entered the building and went up to her office. But something didn’t sit right with her. Not only was Charlie not at his post, there was nobody there, which was even stranger. So instead of sitting down and getting to work, my mom decided to go see what was going on. She walked back downstairs, stood on a pipe, looked over the top of the security counter and saw Charlie lying on the

Are There Any Questions?

This simple story, from Robert Fulghum’s book, It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It, is a profound reminder of the healing, purifying and transformative power of forgiveness and the innate goodness of humankind.

ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS?
by Robert Fulghum

“Are there any questions?” An offer that comes at the end of college lectures and long meetings. Said when an audience is not only overdosed with information, but when there is no time left anyhow. At times like that you sure do have questions. Like, “Can we leave now?” and “What the hell was this meeting for?” and “Where can I get a drink?”

The gesture is supposed to indicate openness on the part of the speaker, I suppose, but if in fact you do ask a question, both the speaker and the audience will give you drop-dead looks. And some fool—some earnest idiot—always asks. And the speaker always answers. By repeating most of what he has already said.

But if there is a little time left and there is a little silence in response to the invitation, I usually ask the most important question of all: “What is the Meaning of Life?”

You never know, somebody may have the answer, and I’d really hate to miss it because I was too socially inhibited to ask. But when I ask, it’s usually taken as a kind of absurdist move—people laugh and nod and gather up their stuff and the meeting is dismissed on that ridiculous note.

Once and only once, I asked that question and got a serious answer. One that is with me still.

First, I must tell you where this happened, because the place has a power of its own. In Greece again.

Near the village of Gonia, on a rocky bay of the island of Crete, sits a Greek Orthodox monastery. Alongside it, on land donated by the monastery, is an institute dedicated to human understanding and peace, and especially to rapprochement between Germans and Cretans. An improbable task, given the bitter residue of wartime.

This site is important, because it overlooks the small airstrip at Maleme where Nazi paratroopers invaded Crete and were attacked by

Loving Liz

Preston and Liz Palmer

When I introduced Preston and Liz to each other at our favorite restaurant some years back, I didn’t realize I was setting in motion an epic love story! Liz recently posted this letter from Preston and gave me permission to share it.

BONUS: Click here to see the secretly spectacular and spectacularly secret wedding of Preston and Liz Palmer.

Here is what Liz wrote:

This morning I woke up and found an envelope on the shelf next to my toothbrush … It contained a letter from my husband and these earrings. The letter said:

Lizzy, I went for a ride after my meeting last night. Driving aimlessly for a while, I ended up at Hard Times Cafe, where a sweet, wrinkly old Native American Indian woman with a braid in her hair approached me with a small collection of earrings. Her husband was sitting outside on the curb making more by hand. I told her I didn’t really see any that I thought my wife would love. She asked in a way you can imagine an old Indian woman in her wise voice would ask, “What is it your wife loves?”

I thought for a second and responded with reserved pride in my cleverness, secretly hoping to stump

Awake: The Life of Yogananda

AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA TRAILER

Click here to order the Awake DVD.

Click here to choose a one-time digital rental of Awake for $4.99.

Co-director Paola di Florio

Awake: The Life of Yogananda, the documentary exploring the life of Indian guru Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, opened in theaters nationwide in the fall of 2014.

Co-director Lisa Leeman

The film quickly gained great acclaim, winning prestigious awards at major film fests, including the

Adele Impersonates Adele . . . to Perfection!

Teaming up with the BBC’s Graham Norton, the superstar singer disguised herself as an Adele impersonator and hung out with a bunch of other Adele impersonators. The result? Priceless!

Adele’s lark is reminiscent of this awesome Jewel prank when she went undercover at

We Are All Refugees

I am proud to share this beautiful essay by my beautiful daughter, Erin, who posted it yesterday on social media. It is well thought out, well articulated and well-crafted, which is no surprise given that Erin is a smart, loving and amazing human being.

Here is Erin’s essay.

My very existence was determined by multiple ancestry strains leaving their homelands, searching for safety and security. The blood that runs in my veins encompasses numerous nationalities, religions, and legacies of people who left all they knew. Of people whose hearts were never the same after their families, friends, and neighbors were murdered. Of people who didn’t speak the language of their new “home” and were never welcomed.

The blood that runs in my veins is also the blood of the people left behind, the ones who couldn’t