Brad Wetzler is the author of the new memoir "Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing" (Hachette, 2023) and "Real Mosquitoes Don't Eat Meat" (W.W. Norton, 2005). He is a memoir writing coach, podcaster, and yoga teacher. Brad began his career as an editor and adventure-travel writer. He served as a senior editor at Outside magazine and was a contributing editor at Outside, National Geographic Adventure, and George magazines. Brad has written hundreds of articles and essays on wide-ranging topics. He writes books and articles and hosts a podcast about adventure healing, emotional wellness, and faith and spirituality. He lives in Austin, Texas.
Tell Your Origin Story: Barry Lopez: The world is held together with stories and compassion. We all have an origin story (a term from comic books). They need to understand how they got their superpowers. These superheroes had problems like humans and responded like humans. Over time it became clear that they had special […]
“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” This quote from Pema Chodron is today’s WORDS CHANGE US. Pema’s words feel true to me. They reflect my own experience. Where there’s fear, there’s heat, and something to look at. I was 51 years old and,admittedly, stricken by both doubt and fear when […]
Today’s THESE WORDS CHANGED ME come from Austrian poet Ranier Maria Rilke, whose name I always butcher when I say it out loud. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. […]
Tonight’s THESE WORDS CHANGED ME come from the Buddhist maitri practice. Maitri means lovingkindness in Sanskrit. Here are the words: May I be filled with lovingkindness. May I be safe from inner and outer dangers. May I be well in body and mind. May I be peaceful and happy. May I be free. Some history: […]
The only book I took to Greenland in 1996 was Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams. One day, during a three-week hiatus in a tiny coastal village, I took off on foot to see the Icecap. I hiked up a broad, grassy valley past lichen-covered stone ruins until it dead-ended at a rock outcropping. I followed a […]
Tonight’s WORDS THAT CHANGED ME comes from a modern spiritual classic, “The Teachings of Don Juan” by Carlos Castaneda. Here it is: “Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.” I’ve liked this quote since I first read it in the late […]
Tonight’s WORDS CHANGE US comes from “This Is Water” by the late David Foster Wallace. I think these words speak for themselves. What do you worship? “Here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as […]
Today’s THESE WORDS CHANGED ME comes from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. After days of listening to the Buddha’s teachings, Siddhartha, a wanderer seeking enlightenment, encounters The Awakened One in a grove. And guess what he does? He gives the Great One a piece of his mind! Here’s what he says: “The teachings of the enlightened Buddha […]
Whenever I share on social media about a book writing client’s success, I have mixed emotions. I never want to steal the attention and thunder from their hard-earned success. And–in life, it’s always a both/and, right?–I think there’s a way to talk about a client’s success as well as my work in a way that […]
WORDS CHANGE US I submitted my memoir to agents. The book’s working title is: Shiva Blues: A Seeker’s Journey. It’s about travel, kicking an addiction to strong pharmaceuticals, and trying to live against the grain of American Big Alpha toxic masculinity…but, primarily, the book is about personal transformation. Is transformation possible? If so, how do […]
I was in my mid-thirties and quite depressed when I first stumbled on a recording of Alan Watts’ unique style of spiritual entertainment. Within a few minutes, I was chuckling out loud and had forgotten I was depressed. These days, I no longer suffer from depression, and Watts’ recordings still crack me up and fill […]
I found this B&W print today while unpacking from my recent move. I was 30 years old, flying out the next day for Greenland and my first overseas adventure-writing assignment for a major magazine. I reported the article and then found myself camped out for three weeks on a beach socked in by pack-ice and […]
I want to tell you about a book that, each time I open it, makes me a better writer. You probably haven’t heard of it, or of the author, Ted Solotaroff. It’s not a best-seller like Bird by Bird or a popular favorite like Stephen King’s On Writing. In fact, I’ve never seen another copy of this essay […]
When I used to travel a lot as a magazine writer, I tried to work fast so that I could explore more of the countries I visited. I gravitated toward holy sites. Temples, churches, ashrams, ancient ruins, active charnel grounds. I wasn’t a believer, so I wasn’t even sure what “holy” meant. But those sites, with their […]
Working in memoir requires a writer to stand in the fire of truth. This means holding ourselves accountable to seeing what’s true about our lives. Part of my process as a book writing coach is to point clients to ways they can write with a more open heart. Writing well about our life requires us to open […]
Years ago, I committed to a daily yoga practice after two decades of casual three-days-per-week practice. Within months, I saw tangible results. I became more fit, more flexible, a little happier, a little less reactive, and even more connected to my spiritual self, which I’d abandoned years earlier. All good stuff. I kept at it. […]
Seeing our planet–the entire misty blue sphere–from outer space changes one’s perspective. Astronauts who’ve experienced this say it’s like a mystical experience. It changed them. This big shift in consciousness is called The Overview Effect. The term was coined by astronaut Frank White. He wrote that he was profoundly changed from seeing the earth as […]
Journal about your book and expertise. In other words, write like crazy about your book idea and your expertise. Ask yourself, what gifts of knowledge and wisdom do I have to share with the world? Locate your tribe. Research your audience. Who are your readers? Where are they? What do they need? How can you help them with the […]
Do you seek to publish your nonfiction book with a traditional publisher? Then you’ll want to write a compelling book proposal. To help you get started, I’m offering you this free guide to writing your book proposal. I am an experienced book-proposal coach. I help people write powerful, irresistible book proposals. If you’d like my expert guidance […]
Writing a memoir or narrative nonfiction book requires a wide range of skills. You’ve got to be able to do it all: organize thoughts, structure chapters, report the facts, and, after all the big-picture stuff, you must also pay attention to the smallest of details such as grammar and punctuation. It’s a big job, but it’s very doable with […]
