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Our guest this week is Claudia Dawson. Claudia works with Kevin in his studio in Pacifica, California. She manages the Cool Tools website and produces and co-writes Recomendo, our weekly newsletter that gives you six brief personal recommendations of cool stuff.

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Show notes:

Readwise
“Readwise pulls all of your highlights from your Kindle library and then sends them to your email every day or every week — you choose the frequency. All you have to do is create an account on Readwise and link it to your Amazon Kindle account. You can select the books you want your highlights exported from and which ones you don’t. You can also import highlights and clippings from books and documents that were not purchased on Amazon. This is a great tool to remind yourself daily of what you read.”

Aura app (iOS, Android)
“Aura is my new favorite meditation app. I’ve tried Headspace, Calm, Breathe, and this app is better. There are thousands of meditations available in different categories like if you’re anxious, or need to focus, or sleep or just need a boost of confidence. You can usually choose between 3 and 7 minute versions of each, and if you have the premium version, I believe, you can also skip meditations and move on to another one. I usually scroll down to see the reviews before I start an audio meditation and if it doesn’t sound great, I’ll skip. You can download the ones that really work for you. The app also has a gratitude journal, channels you can follow if you like a particular teacher, and new content is uploaded weekly.”

Frownies ($16)
“This is something I previously recommended on Recomendo, but I depend on it so much, so have to mention it again. Frownies is basically a patch with adhesive that you stick on your forehead between your eyes to prevent frown lines. When I sleep I often scrunch up my forehead and then wake up with deep lines between my eyes, this patch prevents those wrinkles from forming while you sleep. I’ve been using them for more than a year now and they work great.”

Vertillis ($19)
“I played this mindful card game with my in-laws during the holidays and it really helped me get to know them better. There are two rounds of individual questions and two rounds of group questions. The questions either ask you to reflect on the past year or to contemplate your goals for the upcoming year. It takes about an hour to play if you’re a group of 4 or more. It’s a perfect after-dinner game and is meant to be played only once a year with the same group.”

01/25/18