The Art of Chill

Chill isn't just for the mind. It's for the heart.

If you ended up here by accident, you can find neuroscience and the latest research in our Science of Chill section.

God has one crazy sense of humor, making me both an artist and a businessman. A quiet, shy yogi. And, an eccentric entertainer who sings and sometimes dresses up as a unicorn 😬. A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Meditation helps balance these dualities. Music is the language of the soul, and has become a huge part of my devotional practice through kirtan chanting.

My good friend and mentor Jonathan Fields created an excellent assessment called SparkTypes, from his book Sparked. Jonathan helps you discover the work that makes you come alive. My SparkTypes are Performer and Sage. I share this because each of us “contains multitudes” to quote Walt Whitman. For artists— music, and meditation are two sides of the Permission to Chill coin. As are art, and science. I traded my youth for touring in bands, writing and producing songs.

Permission to Chill is equal parts art, and science. You can sample this aspect of my teaching below. On our retreats, we love to sing and chant together. These clips

Permission to Chill: The Pause Button

This is a 4-min, immersive audio excerpt from my book: Permission to Glow— A Spiritual Guide to Epic Leadership. This clip introduces the “Pause Button Symbology” of Permission 1: To Chill. Best experienced with headphones 🎧

If you’d like to go a little deeper, here is a 1-min activation of The 4 Permissions.

Permission to Glow: 4 Permission Invocation

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A Mantra Becomes a Song

I released a new single in January 2025. If ‘Move Through Me (I am the sky)’ speaks to you, I’m asking you share it to help others heal. It is written for teachers and healers— and “…especially, for yogis, the healing, and the healed.”

Why a song? Writing and singing this helped me heal. It also contains our most crucial practice in these wild times. To remember: “I am the sky / watching all weather move through me.”

I’ve used this mantra in my work as a meditation teacher for years. Similar to The 4 Permissions in my book Permission to Glow, the mantra grew into a chant, and now apparently— into a song and lyric video. Watch it below.

‘Move Through Me (I am the sky)’ is an invitation to look deeper. I certainly needed to this past couple years. My friend, healer, and fellow yoga teacher Alison Lewis encouraged me to release the song so she could share it with her communities. Having been blessed by Alison’s healing gifts many times, I was happy to do so. This one’s ours, now yours Sunny D.

Comment and let me know if you heard it?! Excited to have this out.

Again, please feel free to share. The song can be found on all streaming platforms today, or later this week. You can also listen to full track “Move Through Me” on Spotify or Apple Music

Our world’s giving us no shortage of things to be confused, hurt, or outraged by. God gave us shame, shock, and grief for a reason. We’re not intended to live there. We need to look what we fear in the eyes, and release it.

To heal it into our scarred beauty, the imperfect warrior in each of us. That’s been the (rough) gift given to me this past year, and I’m ready to pay it forward.

We wonder how people survive unimaginable loss. This is how. By letting the shock, and grief wash through us. Soften our edges.

More about How I’m Leaving Things

It has been 11 months since my life unraveled, and I surrendered into recovery. The first promise of recovery:

“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.”