Popov, Linda Kavelin

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POPOV, Linda Kavelin

PERSONAL: Married Dan Popov (a psychologist); children: two.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—The Virtues Project, 192, Sun Eagle Dr., Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada V8K 1E5. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Psychotherapist, consultant, and public speaker. The Virtues Project, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada, cofounder, 1991; Virtues Project International, Salt Spring Island, president and chief executive officer. Coproducer of television series Virtues: A Family Affair.

MEMBER: Boys and Girls Clubs of America (charter member of think tank on character).

AWARDS, HONORS: Woman of Distinction award, YW/YMCA, 2001.

WRITINGS:

(With husband, Dan Popov, and brother, John Kavelin) The Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

Sacred Moments: Daily Meditations on the Virtues, Plume (New York, NY), 1997.

A Pace of Grace: The Virtues of a Sustainable Life, Plume (New York, NY), 2004.

Member of advisory editorial board of the spirituality and ethics segment of CTV National News, Canada.

SIDELIGHTS: Linda Kavelin Popov is a trained psychotherapist who has been a consultant to corporations and governmental agencies in the United States and abroad. With her husband and brother, she founded The Virtues Project, which became the basis for a thirteen-part television series. The principles of the project were also the basis of the book The Family Virtues Guide: Simple Ways to Bring out the Best in Our Children and Ourselves. When the authors began their program, they studied the great books of several religions for the virtues they would promote. They adopted fifty-two virtues, one for each week of the year.

Alberta Report writer Terry O'Neill, who spoke with Popov, noted that "at the heart of The Virtues Project is a simple yet profound thesis: that children have within them the innate ability to recognize virtue and to act virtuously, but that modern culture has transformed them into moral illiterates." Popov told O'Neill, "We're so lost. We are lost to ourselves. We are out of our minds, because we've become so distracted by materialism. We've become so overurbanized and so overstressed that, really, we live a lifestyle that disconnects ourselves from our own spirit. And this is one of the main purposes of The Virtues Project, to help people honor their own spirit, to get back to some routine of reverence." Popov was raised in the Baha'i faith, which places great value on service, a calling she felt as a child and which grew stronger as she became an adult.

Popov is the author of Sacred Moments: Daily Meditations on the Virtues and A Pace of Grace: The Virtues of a Sustainable Life. In the latter she calls up the virtues upon which her project focuses and offers advice on how to simplify one's life. She recommends yoga, deep breathing, slowing down, eating well, adequate exercise, play, and prayer. She recommends that we accept and show appreciation for those close to us, be thankful for what we have, and bring more joy into our lives. Publishers Weekly contributor Mark Rotella said that "there's very little to argue with here."