Awaken Hope PM Edition with Jeff Rasley on How to Create Art in Life

My story and background might be a little different than some of your guests. I built a successful career in law and business, and was the senior partner in a small firm and a millionaire by the time I was 40. I was very engaged with the law and the business side of managing a firm. And, I was a very involved husband and father of 2 children. We had a great life, but in my 40s I began manifesting mid-life crisis symptoms. I already had a sports car and a Harley, but those toys didn't help. I seemed to need something beyond family life, career, and financial good fortune. The existential angst I felt by not having an answer to, "Is that all there is?", began to shake the foundations of the good life I had. My wife told me to take a hike. But the therapy she actually suggested was to go trekking in the Himalayas and to reconnect with the adventurous and more spiritual self I had lost in the pursuit of "success". It worked, and it changed the direction of my life. After that first trek to Mt. Everest at the age of 42, I returned to the Himalayan region 14 times. I took more time off work and adopted a more spiritual and meditative approach to life, which includes daily meditation. I wrote several articles about travel experiences from a spiritual perspective. I also began leading "philanthro-treks", which combined visiting Nepal with culturally sensitive development work. That led to the creation of the Basa Village Foundation (BVF), which serves a remote area of the Nepal Himalayas. When I first trekked to Basa, Nepal in 2008 I was welcomed by a community with no running water, toilets, electricity, lights, radios, TVs, telephones, or transportation other than walking. Cooking and heating was done with open fire pits. The BVF has provided the funds to build a school, hydroelectric and water systems, computers and educational materials for the school, smokeless stoves for the homes, toilets for the school, reading glasses, shoes, solar-powered LED lights, and a medical clinic. The BVF also raised the money to rebuild the village after devastating earthquakes in 2015. Our current project is the development of a commercial co-op business raising pigs and goats to economically help the Basa Village. Several of the fourteen books and many of the 80+ articles I've written are about finding new meaning and changing direction in life. My first book, Bringing Progress to Paradise: What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Progress-Paradise-Mountain-Village/dp/1573244821 is the story of my first experience of the Himalayas and the journey through the mid-life crisis to found the BVF. You Have to Get Lost Before You Can Be Found: A Memoir of Suffering, Grit, and Love of the Himalayas and Basa Village https://www.amazon.com/kindle/dp/B07YXGPRMW was written after my last trip to Nepal, and is a reflection on all that I have learned and experienced over 25 years of philanthro-trekking. 72 Wisdoms is a guidebook for those seeking to live a more meaningful life. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJYGHZCM I have taught a class about Philanthropy at Butler University, and I've given many talks to civic, religious, and social organizations in central Indiana and Chicago about living a meaningful life, and I have appeared as a guest on over 150 radio/TV and podcast shows. Additional information may be found at my website, www.jeffreyrasley.com. A Bio is attached, if needed. Please let me know if you would like to arrange a guest appearance.