What Mindfulness is Missing
Dr. Jim Doty grew up in poverty and with an alcoholic father and depressed mother. But when he was 12 years old, a chance encounter with a woman named Ruth, and her teachings on mindfulness, visualization, and compassion, changed his life. He is now a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.... posted on Jul 05 2016, 57,530 reads

Elie Wiesel's Nobel Acceptance Speech
Extraordinary Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel passed away this weekend at 87. He inspired millions with his messages of peace, atonement and human dignity. Maria Popova of Brain Pickings invites us to "Remember this luminous human being with his timeless, increasingly timely Nobel speech on human rights and our shared responsibility in ending injustice."... posted on Jul 04 2016, 21,154 reads

Thinking Outside the Box
Despite its relative small size, big things are emerging from an innovative idea that is bringing a wealth of knowledge and hope to those living in marginalized communities. The 'ZubaBox,' is a shipping container that has been cleverly transformed into a solar-powered internet cafe that provides school children in remote areas "a space that they deserve to improve their learning experience and ach... posted on Jul 03 2016, 16,888 reads

Art & Healing: Katherine Sherwood
UC Berkeley art professor, Katherine Sherwood suffered a serious cerebral hemorrhage paralyzing her right side. Impatient with the slowness of rehabilitation therapy, she decided to go back into the studio and try painting using her left hand. It turned out to be the most effective therapy she could have imagined. And her painting, many agreed, had become better than ever. As she says, "I strongly... posted on Jul 02 2016, 4,284 reads

A Eulogy for My Mother
"For the first 58 years of my life, I would have to say that my relationship to my mother was a complex and difficult one. She was a huge personality, full of great passions, creativity, rages, and generosity. I remember saying to friends that I loved my mother in small doses, but that she didn't come in small doses. She was a force of nature." Celebrated filmmaker Mickey Lemle has shared the sto... posted on Jul 01 2016, 47,010 reads

Navajo Justice: Life Comes From It
"The Navajo word for "law" is beehaz-aanii. It means something fundamental and absolute, something that has existed from the beginning of time...It's the source of a healthy, meaningful life. Navajos say that "life comes from beehaz-aanii," because it is the essence of life. Imagine a system of law that permits anyone to say anything they like during the course of a dispute, and no authority figur... posted on Jun 30 2016, 22,724 reads

The Body's Grace: Insights from a Paralyzed Yoga Teacher
"Matthew Sanford says he's never seen anyone live more deeply in their body -- in all its grace and all its flaws -- without becoming more compassionate toward all of life. He's a renowned teacher of yoga. And he's been paralyzed from the chest down since a car accident in 1978, when he was 13. He teaches yoga to the able-bodied. He also adapts yoga for people with ailments and disabilities, incl... posted on Jun 29 2016, 30,237 reads

A World of Solutions
Directed by Louie Schwartzberg and narrated by Morgan Freeman, this video shows the beauty and natural violence of millions of years of evolution and the impact of humans on this complex system in less than 200 years. However, while we are still in peril, we have the means to solve our problems in the present. Just as mycelium root systems feed all plant life, humans can use modern technology, suc... posted on Jun 28 2016, 3,842 reads

What Role Were You Born to Play in Social Change?
Bill Moyer was "best known for identifying eight stages of successful social movements, which he named the Movement Action Plan, or MAP...he also invented a powerful tool that clarifies how we work for change on two levels: individually and organizationally.Four Roles of Social Activism" This article delves into the roles of advocate, helper, organizer, and rebel, and how we can embody them effect... posted on Jun 27 2016, 16,386 reads

Art as Experience
When discussing the future of art recently with a friend, author Maria Popova was reminded of an important book entitled 'Art as Experience.' The book, based on a series of lectures delivered at Havard back in 1931 by famed philosopher and psychologist John Dewey, tries to illustrate the delicate balance between living and experiencing life, and thus, the art that then grows organically from it.... posted on Jun 26 2016, 12,283 reads