Welcome to Elephant Academy.

We're honored to be in the company of fellow Mindful Lifers who want to do what they love, do well for the world, and do well for themselves—that's Right Livelihood.

Inside this course, you'll find a taste of the mindful life, a passion for the written word, and the occasional video that ends a half-second too soon (we never claimed to be professional video editors). We're here to guide you in uncovering your voice, word by word, and to welcome you into our writing community.

Let's jump right in with some words from Waylon, a short introduction to Elephant Journal, and a few details about the program:

We'll cover more of Waylon's 11 Writing Tips in another lesson, but you'll get a glimpse of them here as he reads Gary Provost's writing exercise. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

This exercise gets us into the rhythm of writing. Writing can be music. But, we're going to start as Twain, as Hemingway, as many others have—with writing as communication, writing as something genuine.