Five-A-Day Plan For Well-Being
Simple activities such as gardening or mending a bicycle can protect mental health and help people to lead more fulfilled and productive lives, a panel of scientists has found. A "five-a-day" program of social and personal activities can improve mental wellbeing, much as eating fruit and vegetables enhances physical health, according to Foresight, the government think-tank. Its Mental Capital and ... posted on Oct 30 2008, 5,947 reads

Playing For Change: Peace Through Music
Mark Johnson is the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music: Playing For Change: Peace Through Music. The film brings together musicians from around the world -- blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, chamber groups in Moscow, a South African choir -- to collaborate on songs familiar and new, in the effort to foster a new, greater understanding ... posted on Oct 28 2008, 3,928 reads

Research Links Meditation With Compassion
Like athletes or musicians, people who practice meditation can enhance their ability to concentrate -- or even lower their blood pressure. They can also cultivate compassion, according to a new study. Specifically, concentrating on the loving kindness one feels toward one's family (and expanding that to include strangers) physically affects brain regions that play a role in empathy."There is such ... posted on Oct 26 2008, 2,797 reads

The New Face of Giving
A charity that provides water to African villages posts locations of new wells using Google Earth, and a 13-year-old contributor in Manhattan tracks the progress. A cancer charity accepts "micro-donations" of $5 by text message. An orchestra in Michigan begins posting videos of its performances on YouTube to try to draw patrons. The United States long has been a nation of givers, but a new generat... posted on Oct 22 2008, 2,162 reads

Mandela's 8 Lessons of Leadership
"Nelson Mandela has always felt most at ease around children, and in some ways his greatest deprivation was that he spent 27 years without hearing a baby cry or holding a child's hand. Last month, when I visited Mandela in Johannesburg -- a frailer, foggier Mandela than the one I used to know -- his first instinct was to spread his arms to my two boys. Within seconds they were hugging the friendly... posted on Oct 21 2008, 8,143 reads

An Act of Kindness in 1988
Mary Menth Andersen had just married Norwegian Dag Andersen. She was looking forward to starting a new life with him. But first she had to get all of her belongings across to Norway. The date was November 2nd, 1988. At the airport she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness: "You'll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway, t... posted on Oct 16 2008, 10,254 reads

If Everyone Cared
This music video by Nickelback lauds several examples of individuals who have stood up to injustice, and won. The examples range from Bob Geldof's Live Aid concerts in 1984 to Nelson Mandela's triumphant release from prison in 1989 and election as South Africa's first democratically elected president.... posted on Oct 13 2008, 3,103 reads

An Unexpected Thank You
"You probably don't remember me," she began, "but I have come back to file for Graduation with Distinction" And then she pulled out a piece of paper from her wallet and gave it to me to read. It was my handwriting, but I didn't remember writing it. As the Assistant Director of the Honors Programs at the university, one of my jobs was to review student transcripts to make sure they met requiremen... posted on Oct 06 2008, 4,859 reads

Dance Like No One Is Watching
There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, at the top of nearly every list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called "Dancing." In just a month since its online release, it has been viewed by more than ten million people. After 14 months of traveling in 42 countries, it's the story of a guy named Matt doing the gratitude dance with a cast of th... posted on Oct 03 2008, 8,336 reads

The Story of a Sign
With a stroke of the pen, a stranger transforms the afternoon for another man in this emotionally stirring film by Alonso Alvarez Barreda. The winner of the short film online competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Story of a Sign has since become a regular feature of Mexico's national television programming. ... posted on Sep 27 2008, 4,078 reads