For Most of us, life is often a humdrum course of the same-old and the nothing-new. We may dream about running away to exotic lands or retreating to distant monasteries, but the whirligig of life won't let us out of its clutches.

Michael Lipson offers a fresh way of looking at this old predicament. Using exercises pioneered by the great spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner, he gives ancient yet very timely keys to freshening our perceptions and opening our horizons.

The six steps on this stairway are thinking, doing, feeling, loving, opening, and thanking. If they sound simple, that's because -- in a way -- they are. They show us how to infuse consciousness and mindfulness even into ordinary and overlooked parts of life. Practiced for just a few minutes a day, they can reveal the surprise in the universe that is usually hidden by stale, habitual attitudes.