Welcome to Finding Light 25: Inside & Out! I’m grateful to have you along for this journey. This series is built around an audacious premise and a challenge:

Can we teach ourselves to find or notice more light every day? What would happen if we spent a year of our lives doing that?

To answer those questions, each week throughout 2025, I’m asking that you read the latest entry, which starts with a brief prompt, exercise, or question around various ways we can find more light. I’ll be sending those out via email to those who subscribed here and posting here on the Finding Light website.

Before I get to the Week 1 prompt, which will usually be at the top of each entry, there are some additional things I’m asking you to read and do since we’re just starting the process. Please know that this additional information is only for the first entry and the remaining weeks will be more succinct:

  1. First, I want to give you an outline of how this works, what you can expect this project to be, and how to get the most out of it;

  2. Next, I’ll ask you to set an intention before you begin;

  3. Moving into this week’s topic, we’ll start to define “light” and the many ways it can potentially show up for us;

  4. Then it will be time to begin our Week 1 prompt.

Week 1 prompt

Week 1 Prompt: How Do You Define Light?

We’re ready to begin the work of Finding Light! I’m asking to you pull out your notebook or notes app and spend some time each day thinking about how you define “light”, writing down some examples. You can see how I define it below, but this is all about what resonates with you. There are no “right” answers!

I) How This Works & What To Expect:

There are a couple of important points I want to make clear upfront. Please read these before proceeding:

  • This is a self-directed program and it’s up to you how much time and energy you put into it. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out of or benefit from this project. But there’s no “right” amount.

  • Each week’s entry will contain a basic Prompt that I’m asking you to spend at least a few minutes a day on throughout the week, followed by a Concept section for those who want to spend the time to learn more about or explore the theory or my “why?” behind that week’s concept. And I’ll be linking to some of my favorite sites, tools, and support articles throughout the series in a Resources section listed at the end of each entry.

  • If you simply did the weekly prompt and did no further reading, listening, or study, that would be fine. I want to make sure this isn’t overwhelming since we all have busy lives. But I’ll offer more for those who want to go deeper.

  • Some of the prompts will be science-based or from the realm of positive psychology; some will originate from metaphysical or spiritual traditions; and some are simply nuggets I’ve picked up along my journey as a podcaster, photographer, creative, and seeker.

  • Over time, I’ll be introducing you to (and then going deeper into) the foundations that underlie the work that we’ll all be doing to find more light. We’ll be covering topics like mindfulness, flow, positive psychology, quantum physics, energy work, creative self-expression, philosophy, contemplation, and the power of questions.

  • My experience has been that we “find light” more easily when we are mindful, engaged in flow (including our energy), creating, reflecting, and open to new experiences and shifts in our awareness via the questions that we ask.

  • Don’t think of me as the teacher. I’m more of a tour guide, gently facilitating our discovery process. And I don’t pretend to be an expert at anything; I’m just a curious student of life, sharing what I’ve learned!

  • I’m building this in real time, so aspects of Finding Light will change and evolve over the year.

  • For example, a few people have asked about community and calls together. Weekly Zooms would be too much, but maybe one call a month or at least quarterly? What do you think? Email me here. Or I’m open to other suggestions for building community.

  • I’ll send a second email later in the week that I’m calling Finding Fridays. Those will be all about the “outside” portion of our dual mission to find more light, focused on seeing more light in others and advocating for and building a world where things you define as “light” are valued, created, and sustained.

  • Only you can define “light” for yourself. I’ll tell you how I’ve quantified it and give examples that resonate for me, but those may not be applicable to you. You’re on your own customized path!

  • The best way to get the most out of this process is to set an intention before we start. See below for more info on doing that. That’s important because our intention affects where our attention goes, a concept we’ll be covering soon in this exploration.

  • Feel free to invite others who you think might be interested in joining this journey. There’s no deadline, so they can start any time and catch-up on prior weeks if they’re interested and motivated! Just direct them to sign-up here.

  • Finally, I recommend using a journal or notebook and using that throughout 2025 to document your journey and findings. Or if you prefer a digital notebook, I recommend the Day One app, Evernote, a Google doc, the Apple notes app, or Microsoft OneNote After an entire year of this work, I’ll think you’ll be surprised by what you’ve discovered!

II) Setting an Intention:

Before you begin, I’m asking each of you to set an intention for this project. As an example, it could be to bring more light into your life every day or around being open to experiencing light in ways that you hadn’t considered before. Or maybe it’s something more specific.

Doing that helps us (consciously and subconsciously) focus our attention towards things we’ve defined as “light” and reinforce thoughts, feelings, and actions/behaviors that lead to the desired outcome we’ve declared. That’s another topic we’ll cover down the line.

So before you do this week’s prompt, spend some time thinking about WHY you signed up for this project and what you hope to get out of it. Write that down in your notebook or app.

We’ll revisit that intention periodically to see how it’s going. And I’d love to hear what your intentions are, if you’re willing to share them with me. Please respond to this email or message me here if you feel comfortable doing that (no worries if not).

III) Defining “Light”

On to Finding Light! The term “light” can mean a variety of things — for me, it includes visual light, sound, felt senses, energy (a higher vibration), and awareness; keep reading for some concrete examples. We’ll touch on all of them throughout this series.

In purely scientific terms, visible light is electromagnetic radiation within the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be perceived by the human eye. But for our purposes here in Finding Light, I’ll be talking about light in a few different conceptual ways:

  • Light that we see (visually; experienced in person or captured in a photograph or video or expressed via art);

  • Light in the sound realm (aurally; experienced vibrationally in a song or sound or tone or mantra);

  • Light in our body or energy field (experienced viscerally or as a felt sense); or

  • Light in the spiritual/metaphysical realm (experienced as understanding or awareness or elevated states of consciousness).

Examples:

Things that might mean “Light” for you: photographs of a beautiful sunset; the sound of a baby cooing or a cat purring; an “a ha” moment when looking for answers; holding hands with a loved one; the high of a great workout or moving your body; sensing the “light of awareness” in church or meditation; the feeling of a dog licking your face; reliving cherished stories with a partner or child; reading a great book or watching an inspiring movie; making art or poetry; being in community with like-minded souls; playing a musical instrument in “flow”; a walk in nature….

Those are all specific examples of “light” in a micro sense, which we’ll be working on. But for others, the light you’re looking for could be something bigger, a general feeling of well-being, relief from the heaviness, anxiety, or fear you might be dealing with.

You might be looking for a lighter feeling at a macro level — one of hope or optimism or the sense that despite all the uncertainly and swirl in the world, “in this moment, everything is OK” (shout out to my friend/teacher/mentor George Mumford for that mantra). We’ll be covering that as well throughout this series.

FYI, I chose the term “Finding” in Finding Light because it’s both an active and passive word. You can actively seek out light in various realms or you can realize light (in a “look what I found” way) when you become more self-aware. Both ways of “finding” are important here.

Being open to experiencing light in all realms will help shift your attentional focus and set into motion the process. That’s why I asked you to write down your intention for this project in the section above.

Now, it’s your turn to define “Light” if you haven’t already:

It’s not until we decide to take personal responsibility for our internal world that true change is possible. Sometimes that happens when we get a brief taste or glimpse of freedom from those internal oppressors and we want more. Or sometimes life deals us a big blow (or three) and we decide we can’t go on the way we’ve been operating any longer.

Week 1 Prompt: How Do You Define Light?

We’re ready to begin the work of Finding Light! I’m asking to you pull out your notebook or notes app and spend some time each day thinking about how you define “light”, writing down some examples. You can see how I define it below, but this is all about what resonates with you. There are no “right” answers!

IV) Resources / Links: 

In subsequent weeks, I’ll list and link to the resources I reference in this section.

V) Questions?

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me here and I’ll get back to you soon.

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