Cultivating Courage in Young People
The youngest generations of our world are shaping the future. With extraordinary drive and determination, they are paving the way to a society in which their voices are heard and their opinions matter. This article explores how we can help them as they build on their strengths, develop resilience, and stand up for what they believe in. Tips include allowing them to embrace their failures and honor... posted on Jun 18 2019, 6,249 reads

How Conformity Can Be Good and Bad for Society
Conforming to the ideas or opinions of others is a loaded concept for many of us, resulting in some instinctual "not me, not ever" reactions. However, without some conformity, the dance where individuals create and evolve successful societies is impossible. Becoming a good dance partner means knowing how to match steps with those around you while at the same time staying in touch with your interna... posted on Jun 17 2019, 3,919 reads

Sleep is Your Superpower
Sleep is your life-support system and Mother Nature's best effort yet at immortality, says sleep scientist Matt Walker. In this deep dive into the science of slumber, Walker shares the wonderfully good things that happen when you get sleep -- and the alarmingly bad things that happen when you don't, for both your brain and body. Walker shares the research on how quality of sleep impacts our immun... posted on Jun 16 2019, 25,849 reads

Deepening Our Comfort with Uncertainty
While many of us associate uncertainty with discomfort and fear, there is an exquisite beauty to be found in the transformation that takes place when we can welcome the unknown. Kristi Nelson, the Executive Director of A Network for Grateful Living, examines what it means to surrender to the unpredictable nature of our days and the rewards that manifest as a result. "Much of our freedom depends on... posted on Jun 15 2019, 0 reads

Lessons of Impermanence
"As a palliative care doctor, I spend much of my time face-to-face with pain and suffering, debilitating disease and death. When I began my training, I thought I was comfortable with the idea of mortality, and with the notion that fighting death at all costs wasn't the sole purpose of medicine. But I hadn't expected that the type of medicine I'd chosen to practice would require a strength and pers... posted on Jun 14 2019, 11,181 reads

The Power of Everyday Rituals
In a world often fraught with stress and disorder, the Balinese ritual of canang sari is a reminder of the sacred nature of all things and times. On Balinese street corners and in hallways, at the entry to shops and homes, these small baskets of flowers remind the giver and the passerby of how one can enter into what is essential in everyday life. Author Jay Griffith experienced the value of rit... posted on Jun 13 2019, 3,653 reads

In Which the River Makes Off with Three Stationery Characters
The river beckons the lumberjacking beaver and spawning chinook salmon to capture its currents, to countervail its flow. Befurred and befinned they dance to its gurgling song but do not yield to the flow, living for their time as dissenters, laboring at cross-purposes against currents as frantically stationary characters in their water world - "there is music that will dissolve your anchors, your ... posted on Jun 12 2019, 2,159 reads

Free Trip to Egypt
Seeking to build a bridge of mutual understanding and friendship, a Canadian-Egyptian entrepreneur living in Switzerland decides to reach out to the very people who fear him. He travels across the United States to find Americans concerned about an Islamic threat and makes them an intriguing offer: a Free Trip to Egypt.... posted on Jun 11 2019, 2,472 reads

Helping Hospitals Discover the Person Within the Patient
"Bob Hall was recovering from yet another surgery when the volunteer first walked into his hospital room. It was March 2014, and unfortunately Hall had been in and out of the hospital quite a bit. It had been a rocky recovery since his lung transplant, three months earlier, at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, WI. But the volunteer wasn't there to check on his lungs o... posted on Jun 10 2019, 4,729 reads

The Seasons of the Soul
In The Season of the Soul: The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse, Ludwig Max Fischer, Ph.D., makes Hesse's vivid, evocative poems on love, imagination, nature, the divine and the passage of time available in English. Through his commentaries, Fischer helps readers understand Hesse's poetry and wisdom within the context of his life. Although Hesse, author of the novels Steppenwo... posted on Jun 09 2019, 8,892 reads