Gail

Radical Self-Trust: Answering Your Call to Adventure!

A Holy Fools Day Conversation with Patrick O’Neill

Today’s my favorite holiday–partly because I got to make it up!

But even more celebratory, it’s a special day that invites you to answer the Call to Adventure and take an inspired action that your soul is asking of you.  

Holy Fools express what indigenous peoples call Original Medicine. You are formed for a singular purpose for which you have gifts and talents that are nowhere else duplicated. And if you don’t express those gifts, they are lost to the world for all time.

I first learned of this profound but simple teaching from cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien, with whom I had the privilege of studying for over ten years.

Angeles left the earth plane five years ago and Patrick O’Neill, with whom she co-taught for 20 years, is continuing her great work. Both of us feel the best parts of ourselves were gained by osmosis by sitting so close to Angeles for so long.

I reached out to Patrick to mine his deep wisdom on the subject of: Continue reading

Realigning Inner Drive with Outer Doing: How Soul and Ego can Partner Up!

Everywhere I’m hearing about the intensity life is serving up these days. I’m feeling it . . . are you?

The times we’re in have me primed for a Soul Reset to look at life through an inspired lens. I’m much more inclined to align my inner drive with my outer doing when I’m guided by wisdom, poetry and beauty instead of, say, the daily news!.

So for a download of the good stuff, Danielle LaPorte has rallied a whole crew of her wise and witty friends to contribute to LETTERS FOR RENEWAL: 30 Days of Courage, Conviction, and Hopefulness.  It all starts September 1, and… it’s FREE. Registration is open:

DANIELLELAPORTE.COM/LETTERS

Continue reading

Original Medicine – your expression to the world

This is the time to shine in the light of our
medicine and speak our truth.
The elders say we are the ones we have
been waiting for.

Give yourself and the world the gift of stepping
into the full experience of your power, presence
and magnificence.

Original Medicine

Continue reading

Speak from a Happy Heart in Troubled Times

Stop giving ’til it hurts & find the exquisite balance of giving & receiving

This quote from Eleanor Roosevelt embodies the spirit of Transformational Speaking.

“The giving of love is an education in itself.”

Yet while we want to express that high vibration of Love, receiving it is just as important for our own balance. So . . . what if we could also experience speaking as an act of receiving Love?

For a simple practice of how good that feels, watch this 4-minute video from Master Mingtong Gu on “How to Give and Receive Energy.”

Continue reading

Calling All Voices

The Four Questions You Must Ask Yourself to Ignite Your Holy Fool

Many of you are asking for the four questions from our Calling All Voices event. Yes! When you take the time to thoughtfully consider your answers, you’re on track to stewarding your strand in the web of life.

weave Continue reading

One Woman’s Effect: Zoe Tryon, Disturbing the Comfortable!!

The Honourable Zoe Tryon could have married a “lovely” Earl or Lord and lived in a castle.  But the Amazon called to her instead, inspiring her great passion to be a voice for the voiceless.  She has fallen in love with a people whose ancestral lands are being devastated by oil drilling, whose children are dying because their only source of water is poisoned.

Zoe in Ecuador -“Big Oil’s Dirty Secret”

Wisdom from Holy Fools

Here is some sage counsel from last year’s featured Holy Fools.

Chris Jordan:  When someone says, “Be more practical,” they are scared for you.  You don’t really overcome fear, but you can develop a relationship with it and learn to contain it. The bigger fear for me was not living my own life.

Atina Diffley.  I knew I was the person to take on the Koch brothers to stop a pipeline on our organic farm. To keep going, I kept giving myself little dares. Taking the leap is a lot like planting a field. You keep working and never know if you’ll get a crop. I call that “engaged optimism.”

Karen Brody:  Every day I wake up with a huge YES! Follow your yesses. It is hard? Absolutely.  It is worth it?  Absolutely. Continue reading

The Five Fears: And Public Speaking is only #Five!

The early months of this year were full with the launch of Transformational Speaking–Online!  So my article today is about one of the challenges we address throughout the course: the fear of speaking. Be sure to continue reading as there is a short video to help you center yourself on the spot!

Sometimes we stop ourselves from speaking our truth because fear rises up and shuts us down. You’ve heard it said that public speaking is our number one fear. After experiencing this myself for more than half my life, I was pleased to learn that Buddhism lists five top human fears, and “fear of speaking in front of a public assembly” is only the fifth.

Continue reading

The Giving of Love Is an Education in Itself

heartAs speakers and leaders, loving people into their magnificence is one of the biggest gifts we can bring to those we serve. So when I work with a client on a new talk, I send them off with the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:  “The giving of love is an education in itself.”

When taking the stage, it’s so easy to be absorbed in what we’re about to say, or in centering ourselves to alleviate fear, we forget to focus on those who will be listening to us. Continue reading

The Power of Your Untold Story

“Wherever you are is called here, and you must treat it as a powerful stranger . . .”

The above line, from the poem Lost by David Waggoner, touches me each time I hear it. So often where we actually are in our lives represents the story we don’t want others to know. It may reveal that we’re not on top of our game where our culture would have us believe we are supposed to be. It may not show us in the best light when we want to impress those around us. It may expose a broken heart to even more vulnerability. So we stuff the truth and pretend it isn’t real or important, forgetting we’re all members of the Scar Clan. Continue reading

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Follow me!TwitterFacebookLinkedinBlog Categories</h3> </div><div class="art-blockcontent"> <div class="art-blockcontent-cc"></div> <div class="art-blockcontent-body"><a href="https://twitter.com/gaillarsen" target="_blank"><img src="https://realspeaking.com/wp-content/plugins/social-profiles-widget/assets/images/default/Twitter_48x48.png" alt="Twitter" /></a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/transformationalspeaking" target="_blank"><img src="https://realspeaking.com/wp-content/plugins/social-profiles-widget/assets/images/default/Facebook_48x48.png" alt="Facebook" /></a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaillarsen" target="_blank"><img src="https://realspeaking.com/wp-content/plugins/social-profiles-widget/assets/images/default/Linkedin_48x48.png" alt="Linkedin" /></a><form action="https://realspeaking.com" method="get"><label class="screen-reader-text" for="cat">Blog Categories</label><select name='cat' id='cat' class='postform'> <option value='-1'>Select Category</option> <option class="level-0" value="5">1 Calling All Voices</option> <option class="level-0" value="7">2 The Heart of Speaking</option> <option class="level-0" value="8">3 The Art of Speaking</option> <option class="level-0" value="9">4 The Energetics of Speaking</option> <option class="level-0" value="10">5 The Business of Speaking</option> <option class="level-0" value="1">6 Can’t Help Myself Commentary</option> </select> </form><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ (function() { var dropdown = document.getElementById( "cat" ); function onCatChange() { if ( dropdown.options[ dropdown.selectedIndex ].value > 0 ) { dropdown.parentNode.submit(); } } dropdown.onchange = onCatChange; })(); /* ]]> */ </script> <div class="cleared"></div> </div> </div> <div class="cleared"></div> </div> </div> <div class="cleared"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="cleared"></div> <div class="cleared"></div> </div> </div> <div class="art-footer"> <div class="art-footer-t"></div> <div class="art-footer-body"> <div class="art-content-layout"> <div class="art-content-layout-row"> <div class="art-layout-cell art-layout-cell-size4"> <div class="art-center-wrapper"> <div class="art-center-inner"> <div class="art-widget widget widget_categories" id="categories-2"><h5 class="art-widget-title">Categories</h5><div class="art-widget-content"> <ul> <li class="cat-item cat-item-5"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/calling-all-voices/">1 Calling All Voices</a> </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-7"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/the-heart-of-speaking/">2 The Heart of Speaking</a> </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-8"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/the-art-of-speaking/">3 The Art of Speaking</a> </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-9"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/the-energetics-of-speaking/">4 The Energetics of Speaking</a> </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-10"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/the-business-of-speaking/">5 The Business of Speaking</a> </li> <li class="cat-item cat-item-1"><a href="https://realspeaking.com/category/cant-help-myself-commentary/">6 Can't Help Myself Commentary</a> </li> </ul> </div></div> </div> </div> <div class="cleared"> </div> </div> <div class="art-layout-cell art-layout-cell-size4"> <div class="art-center-wrapper"> <div class="art-center-inner"> <div class="art-widget widget widget_recent_entries" id="recent-posts-3"><h5 class="art-widget-title">Recent Blog Posts</h5><div class="art-widget-content"> <ul> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/two-reflections-2025-immersion-blog/">Presence or Perfection? Why Your Most Powerful Talk Can’t be Scripted</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/may-2025-immersion-blog/">One More Transformational Speaking Immersion! Santa Fe May 8-11</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/holy-fools-day-2025/">Hey, Holy Fool — Today Is Your Day!</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/books-list-2024/">Books by Transformational Speakers 2024</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/holy-fools-2024/">Holy Fools 2024</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://realspeaking.com/emergence/">An emergence story for these times … and all of time</a> </li> </ul> </div></div> </div> </div> <div class="cleared"> </div> </div> <div class="art-layout-cell art-layout-cell-size4"> <div class="art-center-wrapper"> <div class="art-center-inner"> <div class="art-widget widget widget_archive" id="archives-2"><h5 class="art-widget-title">Blog Archives</h5><div class="art-widget-content"> <label class="screen-reader-text" for="archives-dropdown-2">Blog Archives</label> <select id="archives-dropdown-2" name="archive-dropdown"> <option value="">Select Month</option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2025/06/'> June 2025 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2025/05/'> May 2025 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2024/11/'> November 2024 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2024/04/'> April 2024 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2021/10/'> October 2021 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2020/11/'> November 2020 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2020/10/'> October 2020 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2020/03/'> March 2020 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2019/04/'> April 2019 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2018/08/'> August 2018 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2018/04/'> April 2018 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2017/06/'> June 2017 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2016/12/'> December 2016 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2015/09/'> September 2015 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2015/03/'> March 2015 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2014/10/'> October 2014 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2014/02/'> February 2014 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2013/07/'> July 2013 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2013/03/'> March 2013 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2012/04/'> April 2012 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2012/03/'> March 2012 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2012/01/'> January 2012 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2011/03/'> March 2011 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2010/11/'> November 2010 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2010/08/'> August 2010 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2010/07/'> July 2010 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2010/05/'> May 2010 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/11/'> November 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/10/'> October 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/08/'> August 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/06/'> June 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/03/'> March 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2009/01/'> January 2009 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2008/12/'> December 2008 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2008/11/'> November 2008 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2008/01/'> January 2008 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2007/08/'> August 2007 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2007/05/'> May 2007 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2007/04/'> April 2007 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2007/03/'> March 2007 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2006/12/'> December 2006 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2006/10/'> October 2006 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2006/07/'> July 2006 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2005/03/'> March 2005 </option> <option value='https://realspeaking.com/2004/04/'> April 2004 </option> </select> <script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ (function() { var dropdown = document.getElementById( "archives-dropdown-2" ); 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