Can Death Become Your Ally?
"Death is an important ally for appreciating life. I am not referring to a morbid preoccupation with death. Rather, I mean the felt awareness of our finitude as physical beings -- an honest recognition of the short time we have to love and to learn on this earth. The knowledge that our bodies will inevitably die burns through our attachments to the dignified madness of our socially constructed exi... posted on Jun 07 2012, 38,273 reads

7 Essential Books on Optimism
Every once in a while, we all get burned out. Sometimes, charred. And while a healthy dose of cynicism and skepticism may help us get by, it's in those times that we need nothing more than to embrace life's promise of positivity with open arms. Here are seven wonderful books that help do just that with an arsenal ranging from the light visceral stimulation of optimistic design to the serious neuro... posted on Jun 05 2012, 40,823 reads

Meditating with Dinosaurs ... Really?
"When I first encountered Pascal's words, I felt like they were telling me, in a poetic way, to sit down and shut up, and that just felt, well... sort of rude. It also felt a bit insulting, in suggesting that for myself or for others, we bring a chunk of our suffering onto ourselves because we're too cowardly to sit quietly and face our thoughts and our feelings. Over time, however, the quote grew... posted on May 31 2012, 19,239 reads

Carl Sagan on Balancing Skepticism & Openness
"Seven years ago this week, David Foster Wallace argued that "learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think." Yet in an age of ceaseless sensationalism, pseudoscience, and a relentless race for shortcuts, quick answers, and silver bullets, knowing what to think seems increasingly challenging. The art of thinking critically is a habit that requ... posted on May 28 2012, 19,261 reads

When Nothing Works
I'd had tendinitis in my elbow for over a year. Even something as gentle as twisting a doorknob made me wince in pain. I went to see my brother, Bertie, who also happens to be my doctor. As Bertie examined my elbow, I reminded him of everything I had done to try to fix my problem. When it began to hurt, I used ibuprofen. When that didn't work, we tried two injections of cortisone, six months apart... posted on May 27 2012, 26,928 reads

Einstein on Thinking and Belief
"Einstein explained that psychologically, our beliefs and axioms rest upon our experiences. There exists, however, no logical path from experience to an axiom, but only an intuitive connection based on our interpretation of the experience, which is always subject to revocation. At one time, ancient astronomers believed that the heavens were eternal and made of ether. This theory made it impossible... posted on May 23 2012, 39,253 reads

Offbeat Graduation Speech Gets Standing Ovation
2012's Baccalaureate speaker at the University of Pennsylvania was an unconventional choice for an Ivy League school. To address their newly-minted graduates, aspiring to dazzling careers, they picked a man who has never in his adult life, applied for a job. A man who hasn't worked for pay in nearly a decade, and whose self-stated mission is simply "to bring smiles to the world and stillness to my... posted on May 14 2012, 398,469 reads

15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy
"We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering -- and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy -- we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go." Dana Sauvic, a student of the arts, economics and spiri... posted on May 10 2012, 566,291 reads

How to Stop Labels from Becoming Judgments
"A yoga teacher of mine was describing a class he held for girls struggling with anorexia. He asked them to stand hip-width and was shocked when all of them were standing with their feet as wide as the yoga mat. Their physical bodies were much thinner than what their mental perceptions told them. It isn't something that just afflicts these girls -- all of us fall prey to believing labels that defi... posted on May 09 2012, 24,242 reads

What the Internet Does to Your Brain
"Inherent in any media technology -- from the telephone to TV to Twitter -- is an emphasis of some ways of thinking and a de-emphasis on other ways of thinking. If you look at the Internet, what it emphasizes is the ability to supply lots of information, in many forms, very quickly. As a result, it encourages us to browse through information in a similar way -- by grabbing lots of bits of data sim... posted on Apr 24 2012, 16,200 reads