Life can be tumultuous, leaving us feeling trapped and disconnected from the world around us. In moments of despair, it is not uncommon to find ourselves grappling with negative thoughts and emotions, building an impenetrable wall around our hearts. This metaphorical stone is none other than our ego, which blinds…

In the pursuit of emotional well-being, one might wonder if it’s possible to navigate life without getting entangled in the web of thoughts and beliefs. Ideally, the key lies in not engaging with every passing thought and avoiding belief-driven traps. Instead, an alternative approach involves practicing the feelings one desires…

In the vast symphony of life, we often find ourselves playing a unique musical note that represents our emotions, aspirations, and innermost desires. Just as a tuning fork resonates at a specific frequency, our emotions create a distinctive harmony that shapes our reality. Like tuning forks, we can only perceive…

Do you ever want to start your own website? Kelly and I (Jessica) are web designers by trade, and for years we struggled to find a good, affordable web host for our website schooloflifedesign.com. Running a business with both a membership program and shopping cart functionality tested our old webhost’s…

We’ve always talked about our work as digital drugs: a way to feel the effects of intoxicants (specifically psychedelics) without having to take them. We like to think our work is a way to transcend reality, much in the way shrooms or acid would help you do. That’s why we…

Here at School of Life Design, we have a not-so-small obsession with the meditative practice of silent counting. So obsessed, we had to make the Cult of Counting Handbook journal. The Handbook is a great way to train attention and manifest miracles, but what about all the parts of the…

If you can expect the best about everyone, that is what they will show you. You get what you expect. So if you see people as good, that is what you will see in your reality. If you see people as broken, damaged or evil, that is what you’ll get.…

Welcome back to I Love Mondays! This week we’re exploring DOING NOTHING. Not doing, not thinking, not feeling bad, and not getting in the way. It can be scary to the mind to give up control, but the reward is nothing short of magickal. Our thoughts create problems, not solve…

Thought patterns gather momentum. When you look for something, you see it. The more you see it, the more you expect to see it. The more you expect to see it, the more you see it, and so on. This can be awesome when you’re consciously creating a satisfying pattern,…

In a few days we’re having our very first visitor to our new place in Cleveland. We’ve been scrambling to get our home in order—hanging blinds, thrifting furniture, painting walls, cleaning toilets. I caught myself starting to get overwhelmed and stressed, but I just refer back to the list of…

Today is my 909th day sober from alcohol. Lately I’ve been talking about drinking a lot, casually tossing it into conversation on a daily basis. “Maybe we should spend that $20 on a bottle of vodka,” or, “Wouldn’t it be fun to do some shots like old times?” I’ve also…

The theme for this week’s I Love Mondays is releasing resistance with gratitude. Our internal struggles are easily remedied with a shift in perspective from pushing away to embracing. As you go about your week, notice when you feel annoyed, angry, or sad. What are you resisting about your experience?…

Since our big move to Cleveland, we’ve been noticing more magick and synchronicity than ever. One of our biggest manifestations this week was getting our books stocked in a new witch shop in a nearby town. Love and magick is thick in this part of Ohio and it’s inspiring us…

We’re settling into our new life in Cleveland and enjoying every minute of it. The major challenges of moving are over, and now we’re working on creating a work/life balance that allows for as much fun as possible while still paying the bills. This week’s epiphanies are about learning to…

Picking up our lives and moving 500 miles from our home state really stirs up the emotions. New problems, but we can see how they’re patterns. New frustrations, but same old feeling. Wherever you go, there you are. The repeating issues really stand out in a new environment. Getting annoyed…

Hello from the hippest up-and-coming city ever, Cleveland, Ohio! We are back with a fresh I Love Mondays inspired by our recent adventures in moving two states away. We get asked a lot, “Why Cleveland???” So I’ll lay that out right now: The housing is affordable, it’s on Lake Erie,…

Hello from sunny Texas! Kelly and I are on an adventure in the Lone Star state, basking in the weather and swimming to our hearts’ content. Along our travels we have picked up a few gems that have helped us lighten up and have more fun with life, which we…

Welcome to I Love Mondays, where peace and joy are just a shift in perspective away! This week we’re working with our magickal minds to get what we want, and see how we’re still getting what we want even when we don’t! We can feel good and love life regardless…

A practice that always helps me feel better and manifest my desires is writing. I’ve been honing my practice since I began blogging in 2010, and in 2011 we started making worksheets to make the process more fun. I’ve been struggling with staying positive and in a good mood the…

This week’s issue of I Love Mondays is about remembering that the whole world is a reflection of our inner world. If you want to change the world, change yourself. We are all equal. We have more in common than we are different. We can influence our experience by choosing…

Ever feel overwhelmed? Stagnant? Do you ever feel like you’ve been plodding away at ‘attaining enlightenment’ for some time now and haven’t made much progress? Sometimes I think to myself, “All I do is try to feel good and I still feel like shit, what is the point?!” But then…

Welcome to I Love Mondays #13! It’s my BIRTHDAY! I’m celebrating by practicing presence, banishing dread, transmuting despair into hope, and noticing everything I’m doing right. The older I get, the more impermanence I witness, and the more I want to go crazy enjoying my precious time on this earth.…

I love writing these I Love Mondays blogs because they challenge me to face my problems and see them in a new light. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the contrast of life, feeling like, “It’s always something,” or that we can never win. But for every problem we experience,…

Welcome to I Love Mondays #11, where a simple shift in perspective can help you relax and manifest nothing but good things! This week’s prompts will turn the most stressful aspects of your life into opportunities to generate love and enjoy your life the way it is. As Mike Dooley…

Do you ever get really good at DOING YOU and feeling good and sticking to your routine, and then you manifest all this good stuff and you get attached to it and get in your own way and make another emotional mess to manifest your way out of? US TOO.…

After a couple months of dealing with doctors and lawyers, I’m starting to understand how the longer I live, the more problems I’ll have. There will always be another sickness, another financial crisis, and another family drama. There will always be more troubles and things to fret about! So right…

School of Life Design came into being as a spiritual business inspired by a lot of psychedelics and a little bit of Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week. Now here we are, 8 years later, still blogging about our epiphanies on the magick life. When I remember what I learned…

Sometimes it can be hard to remember that the universe is conspiring in your favor. How can the universe be benevolent when all I see around me is pain and heartache? How can I trust the flow of life when it seems like only bad things happen, and to good…

Life can seem like all death and decay. But what if we didn’t take it so seriously? In the face of lawsuits, illness, root canals and environmental destruction, Kelly and I are choosing to be light and enjoy life anyway. As painful as life can be, we can find equal…

This week in I Love Mondays, I am remembering that life really, truly does want me to thrive. Everything that happens in my life is either something I wanted, or something trying to help me get to where I want to be. In the moment when something bad happens, it’s…

Due to legal and health issues at SoLD HQ, I’ve had a rough week! One day I’ll write about it but for now, just know that I felt scared, threatened, sick, depressed and hopeless. Luckily the universe is always on my side and came through with three angels to help…

This week’s epiphanies are all about letting go of the negative and looking for the positive. We’ve equipped you with a good-quality-detector for appreciating in others what you want to cultivate in yourself. We’ve also provided a teacup for filling with all the attachments you’ve let go. There is a…

Within we go, journeying to rest by the flame of our spirit, restoring and replenishing our deep reservoir of power and purpose. -helpyourselfbk Today in I <3 Mondays, we are embracing the cold. When Kelly and I first moved back to Illinois from hot, sunny, Austin, Texas, we were terrified…

Remember Tuesday Tips? I collected my weekly lessons and realizations into a tidy blog post divided into the categories Doing, Thinking, Feeling and Being. Then Kelly distilled the whole effort into a book called—what else?—Doing Thinking Feeling Being. I took a break from publishing my epiphanies for the last couple…

The only real freedom in life is deciding not to let external circumstances be your reason for feeling good . . . or bad. Imagine for a moment that you truly don’t care about that thing you think you need to happen. Think about the situation and say to yourself,…

If you’ve ever said to yourself, “I knew this would happen,” what were the circumstances? Were you ecstatic about the way things turned out, or disappointed? How did you know it would happen? You can always choose a feeling of knowing about any subject matter. You can choose to know…