Monday, January 24, 2011

ABOUT LYDIA CORNELL

May all the gifts inside you make their way into the world, and may all your dreams come true.  Blessings for a Happy 2012!  Luv xo Lydia


Award-winning actress, writer, talk show host, comedienne and inspirational public speaker, Lydia Cornell grew up in  in America’s living rooms. Best known for her starring role as the daughter of TV legend Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) in the hit ABC series Too Close for Comfort, Cornell was one of the most popular sex symbols of the 80’s, playing the virginal cheerleader Sara Rush. An international celebrity, Cornell starred in over 250 shows, films and TV episodes. Recently seen on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lydia is currently starring in the new Kelsey Grammer-Bill Zucker Comedy Hour and has her own channel on Kelsey’s new celebrity TV network TODHD. As cohost of her own A.M. radio show in Las Vegas, she interviewed world leaders, Pulitzer Prize winners, White House advisors, presidential candidates and Congressmen. Now she has her own LIVE talk show each week — a provocative, humorous celebrity TV show on the fastest growing network with Kelsey Grammer.  
  
Cornell has been invited to contribute her writings to the International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary. As a standup comic, she has played the Improv, Laugh Factory, Riviera and Sahara in Vegas (where she opened for The Amazing Jonathan, and recently appeared in her original 3-woman play Pain is Inevitable, Sex Optional. 
Triumph over Tragedy

Lydia Cornell is a women and children’s advocate, and an inspirational speaker on domestic violence and teen suicide prevention — as well as on drug, alcohol and Adderall[1] abuse. She endured a shattering personal tragedy when she found her younger brother’s body after a drug overdose. Sober now for 15 years, she speaks to recovery groups of up to 300 or more.

She hosted a documentary for Safe Passage Home.org — an organization that gives extreme life makeovers to victims of domestic violence, which will be shown on Oxygen network. 

She mentors teenagers and is deeply involved in women’s and children’s charities. A mother of boys, she has been raising teenagers! Last fall she housed domestic abuse victims and cared for their children throughout the school year. With the help of the police, Cornell helped rescue a battered woman from a predator. 

Cornell speaks at high schools, hospitals, and women’s centers on overcoming grief, unemployment, sexism, ageism, depression, self-sabotage, obnoxious teenagers — and every imaginable hardship. Her talks are laced with poignant stories of transformation with an innate sense of comic timing. “If you can laugh at yourself you probably won’t kill yourself.”






Sixteen years sober, Cornell does inspirational public speaking all over the country on domestic violence as well as drug and alcohol abuse.

Cornell’s triumph over tragedy, depression and addiction was the result of a ‘catastrophic spiritual awakening.’ “There is a reason so many celebrities are in rehab these days,” she says. Her experiences in overcoming a string of failures and humiliations inspired her to assist others with their own demons. 


Above, left to right: Ray Middleton, Ted Knight, Deb Van Valkenburgh, Nancy Dussault, Lydia Cornell, Jim Bullock, Audrey Meadows
Bill Zucker, Kelsey Grammer, Lydia Cornell, Scott Baio
Lydia Cornell, Larry David in HBO's "Curb"











Russell Brand and Lydia Cornell on the red carpet for the Noreen Fraser Cancer Foundation.







In 2010 I went through a devastating divorce, but after surrendering the fear and sadness, amazing things began to happen. My son Jack turned 16 and we took a road trip to Oregon through Monterey, Big Sur and Carmel. It was the best trip of our lives. Spoke at Texas A&M on domestic violence prevention, and just hosted Variety's Power of Comedy (with Russell Brand) for Kelsey Grammer's network. Also, producing a live comedy show each week on a new TV network with New York Times Entertainment Journalist and bestselling author Cindy Pearlman. 
































Monday, January 17, 2011

IMMORTAL

It is a spiritual law that in the midst of love, everything that is unlike love, must come up for healing. In other words, all the ugliness we are seeing right now in the world, is erupting in order for it to be purged, healed and done away with.

Despite catastrophic events such as the Tuscon shootings, school shootings, BP Oil spill, wars and catastrophes — good things are coming, and are actually here. We have to open our eyes and see that in the midst of turmoil, actual change for the GOOD is taking place. But it takes our connected, joint vision — our progressive belief in a better (more fair) world, that actually CREATES it. 

Love, God is an interactive force, just like the environment. It needs our collusion, belief, and leaps of faith to activate change. Miracles happen as a result of our belief in them.  

 In a diverse society, the only moral tenet we need to practice is the Golden Rule. God is love and prayer is the invisible transfer of love to another.  By taking leaps of faith, I've somehow been able to transform the deadening illusion of "reality" by changing my viewpoint. (Reality is actually beauty, goodness, love, truth, harmony.) We can physically change our experience of the world by changing our view. The key to this is to simply stop rehearsing turbulent thoughts, and to be grateful for the good in our lives.

The past two years have been brutal, full of tears and prayers for the world, young people committing suicide, and even my own marriage. I've succumbed to hopelessness at times. But I've been experimenting with new thought again. For example, whenever I have a fear-based or depressed thought I stop in my tracks and instantly reverse the thought — see the other side. See the beauty in the present moment, relax and realize the sky is not falling. It helps to think of others first, to reach out and help a friend or a stranger. I find that when I have genuine compassion for the suffering of the human race, and I really put myself in the shoes of my friends who are struggling and homeless, I totally forget my own problems. The past two years I have brought women in to sleep on my couch, rescued a domestic abuse survivor from a predator, and gone to help several women who had no food or Christmas gifts for their children. But there is so much more to do. In my own home I have also confronted demons. People who take advantage of kindness.

It's important to find humor anywhere you can find it. There is abundant good in the world and it becomes visible the more you choose to see it. 

The picture in your mind is your reality. Change the channel if you are getting a bad picture.