Dr. Sara O'Neill

10/20/2026

Pure listening is something that is greatly misunderstood. Sometimes called Deep Listening, Simply Listening, or Just Listening, its a way of being present with someone or something that brings the essence of what is being listened to to the forefront. You are listening without agenda, as a baby listens. Or like you would listen to a piece of music. Letting it wash over you.

Sometimes the directive to listen like a rock is given. I think of it as witnessing.

You are listening without anything on your mind. A pure open space for the other person or what you are listening to to come through.

A mentor of mine, Mavis Karn, calls it Listening to the music that that person is.

Whatever you listen to will expand, will flourish and blossom. If its another person, its the greatest gift you can give them. The gift of being truly listened to. Without agenda.

In the last 3 years, I have been a founding curator of The Listening World Conference in Prague and for the last 8 months the host of the podcast A World That Listens. In this years-long, deep dive into True Listening, I realized that you can listen to anything. Anything you want to have more of.

Read the full blog to learn how listening can help you to feel the aliveness and freedom that is at the foundation of everything.

https://www.liveyouralivelife.com/blog/listen-for-what-you-want

Listen for What You Want   Pure listening is something that is greatly misunderstood. Sometimes called Deep Listening, Simply Listening, or Just Listening, it's a way of being present with someone or something that brings the essence of what is being listened to to the forefront. You are l

10/19/2026

Quote of the week: "Other than what you're thinking and believing, aren't you actually perfect, right here, right now?" - Byron Katie

10/13/2026

Last night, we rewatched the Oliver Stone classic football movie "Any Given Sunday" with Al Pacino, and something struck me about life, as it did the first time I saw the movie.

Life is an "any given Sunday" game.

We think we know what is going to happen, and we never do.

Now that fall is in full swing, football has come back to my house. I love hearing the sound of it floating up from the basement as the weather gets cooler. I love how passionate my husband and son get about who is favoured this year, the different match-ups, who of the beloved players are on which teams. Especially at Thanksgiving (this past weekend), there is much ado about football around here.

In American football (as opposed to soccer or football elsewhere), the phrase "Any Given Sunday" refers to the fact that while there is a massive amount of chatter, betting, hoping, wishing, sports pundits punditizing, and general thinking going into the outcome of each game, come Sunday night - when most games are played - anyone can win.

We don't know what will happen.

The underdog can go up against the mighty powerhouse and win. A strong team can have a series of unfortunate plays or injuries (or both) and go down fighting. The game is played in every inch (as Al Pacino's character illuminates in a famous speech) and you never really know the outcome until the final second.

Why do I say that life is an "any given Sunday" game? Read the full blog below to find out!

10/12/2026

Quote of the week: "Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity." - Eckhart Tolle

10/07/2026

One of the topics that is the most transformative for my coaching clients is the topic of Fun.

Literal fun. Not finding the fun in something. Not doing the hard thing and allowing yourself some fun after. But the realization that life is fun.

Even when it doesn't look like it at first.

One client wanted to get more clients in her business. She kept assuming that this activity wasn’t fun and then creating from there. She was giving herself a foundation of “this won’t be enjoyable, and it will be hard” as the first directive of the creation.

So then, Big Surprise! the ideas she came up with were boring, hard, and stressful. She then struggled to implement these un-fun ideas. And then, to top it all off, she blamed herself for "just not being the kind of person that is good at business".

Whew! That's exhausting!

And yet we all do a version of this. In different areas of life.

Curious about what we did to shift this? Read the full blog here: www.liveyouralivelife.com/blog/fun-1

Fun   One of the topics that is the most transformative for my coaching clients is the topic of Fun.   Literal fun. Not finding the fun in something. Not doing the hard thing and allowing yourself some fun after. But the realization that life is fun .   Even when it does

10/05/2026

Quote of the week: "You can only perceive the beauty that lives outside you when you feel the beauty that lives inside you." - don Miguel Ruiz

10/01/2026

A little late, but here is the quote of the week: "We are the power behind our experience of life. Knowing that and noticing how we are using our power gives us back the freedom we were born with." - Sara Joy O'Neill

09/30/2026

There is a well-known (in some spiritual circles) book called A Course in Miracles. I had heard about it from friends and colleagues for many years, how they were studying it and the insights gained from it.

I never felt interested in reading it. Until recently.

That sounds dramatic but isn't actually.

I just found myself picking it up the other day. I noticed I wanted to read it when I hadn't before.

How this book came into being is interesting.

Two research psychologists working and teaching together in the late 1960's expressed that "there must be a better way". A better way to live, a better way for humans to relate to one another, a better way. The result was A Course in Miracles.

My take on the bit I've read so far is in this week's blog. To read about it, click the link. I'd love to know if you've read A Course in Miracles and, if so, what you learned.

www.liveyouralivelife.com/blog/miracles

Miracles   There is a well-known (in some spiritual circles) book called A Course in Miracles. I had heard about it from friends and colleagues for many years, how they were studying it and the insights gained from it.   I never felt interested in reading it. Until recently. &

09/23/2026

Clients often ask me how to be present more of the time.

Or how to feel less of the emotions and feelings they don't want and more of the feelings and emotions they do want.

My answer to both is often a version of stop managing your emotional state.

They are often people who have been long afraid of their emotions and are suppressing them in some way. When you stop suppressing your normal emotions, it can feel like a lot, all of a sudden.

Then, sometimes, people will swing the opposite way and overfeel their feelings. Wallowing in them because they were told somewhere to "feel your feelings".

This ends up feeling terrible.

We don't need to control our emotions. They are designed to naturally rise and fall. The less we do, the more our naturally built-in system can take care of things how it's designed to.

An emotion only lasts 3-5 minutes because that's the half-life of the neuropeptide that generates it in your brain and spinal cord. If you are having sustained or longer-lasting emotions, it's because, as it's waning, you re-think the thinking that generated it in the first place. Over and over. Every 3 to 5 minutes.

Curious to learn more? Check out this week's blog at
www.liveyouralivelife.com/blog/stop-managing-to-be-more-present

Stop Managing to be More Present    Clients often ask me how to be present more of the time.   Or how to feel less of the emotions and feelings they don't want and more of the feelings and emotions they do want .   My answer to both is often a version of stop

09/21/2026

Quote of the week: "We are the Self, dreaming that we are a person searching for the Self." - Mooji