have fixed notions about the time course of success and the nature of talent that encourage us to write off the very people who are most likely to (eventually) change the world. "This is you," the elderly school psychologist said as he pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses and pointed to the left side of what looked like the outline of a camel's hump. I sat closer, trying to make sense of what I was being shown. "And this," he said, moving his finger toward the far right of the hump, "is gifted." Leaning forward, I patiently explained to him that maybe this was me, at age 11, but 6 years later, it was no longer me. "You see," I ex... posted on Sep 24 2013 (36,893 reads)

to the energy flow of the moment; and also in being motivated to succeed to the full extent of your ability in your hope-filled future that in turn, enables you to soar to new destinations. With that temporal balance comes a new flexibility in adapting to the many situational challenges you will face. Respect and learn from the past, yours and those of others. Selectively immerse yourself in a present-orientation that fosters human connection and compassion, while opening you to appreciate nature and art more fully. Use its pleasures as self-rewards for the hard-earned successes you have won, and will achieve by being future-focused. Finally, although there is never enough time in ou... posted on Jul 25 2013 (120,314 reads)

be free of it.” ~Eckhart Tolle “The water hollows out the stone, not by force but drop by drop.” ~Lucretius Yes, I know it hurts. Whether you feel sad, scared, lonely, or regretful, it weighs heavy like a ton of bricks, dragging you down. And it keeps you from realizing the brilliance that you are. What do you do to escape from emotional pain? Do you drink or eat to excess, keep yourself ridiculously busy, sit around hoping for a better future? It’s human nature to do everything you can to avoid turning around and meeting the feelings that arise in you. Who wants to feel pain? No Escaping But here’s the problem. These temporary measures sim... posted on Aug 28 2013 (38,806 reads)

of its wild animals has evolved, or maybe devolved, into a surreal kind of performance art." Yet even conservationists’ small successes — crocodile species bouncing back from the brink of extinction, peregrine falcons filling the skies once again — even these pride points demonstrate the degree to which we’ve assumed — usurped, even — a puppeteer role in the theater of organic life. Citing a scientist who lamented that “right now, nature is unable to stand on its own,” Mooallem writes: "We’ve entered what some scientists are calling the Anthropocene — a new geologic epoch in which human activity, more ... posted on Sep 5 2013 (14,472 reads)

a doomer, a nihilist making matters worse by running up the white flag. If I wanted to 'withdraw', I was told, that was fine: I could go off and be depressed in the corner, but I had no right to tell other people about it. I needed to shut up and let the activists get on with their work of Saving The World. “Withdraw not with cynicism, but with a questing mind. Withdraw so that you can allow yourself to sit back quietly and feel, intuit, work out what is right for you and what nature might need from you.” Looking back on this, I can see their point. If I were still deep in campaigning mode, perhaps I would feel the same if somebody else who had stopped doing it tol... posted on Nov 7 2013 (25,634 reads)

see bits of your hair and fingernails growing out of there! I think that what I personally know about you was showing up in this person who you invented. Who you can also embolden to do and be things that you would never do or be.” It’s funny. So I’m all over this book. It’s about a 19th century botanical exploration. My character, Alma Whittaker, is a botanist who is the daughter of a great botanical entrepreneur, and she’s looking for nothing less than the signature of nature. She’s a real scientist and she’s stubborn about her quest. At the same time, this novel is a love story, and there are great disappointments in the love story. All of ... posted on Sep 30 2013 (23,619 reads)

you know, what could be very broadly described as your spiritual sensibility also from an early age. Would you say that? Ms. Macy: Yes, I would. And I would say also the summers that I spent at my paternal grandfather's farm in upstate New York — being in the fields, in the woods, around the barns — felt so real and gave me a sense of — that the world was very big and wise and intelligent and that I could had an appetite to disappear into it. And it was this streak of nature mysticism that made the summer months so much more vivid and real to me than the nine months I spent in New York City going to school. And I lived for that. There were hymns of St. Francis &hel... posted on Nov 3 2013 (35,066 reads)

too. It just took him a while to learn how to do it well. How to flourish In 2009, I delved into the Grant Study data to establish a Decathlon of Flourishing—a set of ten accomplishments that covered many different facets of success. Two of the items in the Decathlon had to do with economic success, four with mental and physical health, and four with social supports and relationships. Then I set out to see how these accomplishments correlated, or didn’t, with three gifts of nature and nurture—physical constitution, social and economic advantage, and a loving childhood. The results were as clear-cut as they were startling. We found that measures of family soci... posted on Oct 23 2013 (66,827 reads)

to spend all of our time essentially poking this neuron with a stick and seeing what happens. And philosophy, which was full of great questions, the kind of questions you wish you had answers to, but none of the tools for answering them. And then magically this field had emerged in the middle, which combined neuroscience and artificial intelligence and computer science and linguistics and philosophy of mind. And it was kind of a hybrid field in which people who had a shared interest in the nature of mind and brain were slowly figuring out their own vernacular. Ms. Tippett: And that just absolutely points at, I think, one of the defining features of the world we are leaving behin... posted on Dec 5 2013 (22,874 reads)

to wholeness a community fragmented by colonization.  To the Okanagan People, as to all peoples practicing bio-regionally self-sufficient economies, the knowledge that the total community must be engaged in order to attain sustainability is the result of a natural process of survival. The practical aspects of willing teamwork within a whole-community system clearly emerged from experience delineated by necessity. However, the word cooperation is insufficient to describe the organic nature by which members continue to cultivate the principles basic to care-taking one another and other life forms, well beyond necessity.  Having been born into such a living community, albei... posted on Dec 15 2013 (31,709 reads)

life? There are, of course, many strong programs that have been designed to help students develop empathy and positive relationships. But new research suggests another way: awe. Very little is known about the experience of awe; however, several new studies, many conducted by the GGSC’s Dacher Keltner, have shown awe to be a potentially powerful positive emotion that might just help our students develop empathy. Here’s how it works: When we see a grand vista in nature such as Victoria Falls, or experience an inspiring work of art such as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” or Michelangelo’s Pieta, or ponder the phenomenal inn... posted on Dec 19 2013 (108,833 reads)

with life. This relationship emerged in poor and rich countries alike—again, it held up even after controlling for individuals’ income. Across the 136 countries studied, donating to charity had a similar relationship to happiness as doubling household income. The link between prosocial spending and happiness seems to be remarkably universal. But these findings don’t mean that people always experience pure, unmitigated happiness from helping others: Research shows that the nature of the giving situation matters. Investing in others can take a seemingly limitless variety of forms, from donating to a charity that helps strangers in a faraway country to buying lunch for a ... posted on Nov 11 2013 (33,101 reads)

they didn’t lose weight or achieve noticeable improvements. They go outside. Want to feel alive? Just a 20-minute dose of fresh air promotes a sense of vitality, according to several studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. "Nature is fuel for the soul, " says Richard Ryan, Ph.D, the lead author of the studies. "Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature." And while most of us like our coffee hot, we may prefer our serving of the great outdoors at a more lukewarm temperature: A study on weather and individual happiness unveiled 5... posted on Dec 27 2013 (356,062 reads)

is generally a reflection of our inner dialogue, which is constant and unceasing. Our inner dialogue tends to support our particular world view, our image of ourself, and our subjective beliefs. We know too much; we can name and provide a label for everything under the sun. We have our own agendas, our predisposed attitudes, and our own ­cultural biases. We rarely see the world in a fresh way or question the numerous and often unconscious filters that ­influence the nature of our perception. Moments of real seeing are beyond the labeling propensity of the mind, beyond what we think we know. Seeing is a step into the unknown and requires some degree of intentio... posted on Jan 3 2014 (30,673 reads)

contributor Steven Kotler wrote in a piece on Einstein's creative genius. They ask the big questions. Creative people are insatiably curious -- they generally opt to live the examined life, and even as they get older, maintain a sense of curiosity about life. Whether through intense conversation or solitary mind-wandering, creatives look at the world around them and want to know why, and how, it is the way it is. They people-watch. Observant by nature and curious about the lives of others, creative types often love to people-watch -- and they may generate some of their best ideas from it. "[Marcel] Proust spent almost his whole life ... posted on Mar 24 2014 (179,343 reads)

Do a three-minute body scan. This is a long-established idea among well-being practitioners. It involves mentally scanning your body by briefly becoming aware of each part of your body as you practice deep breathing. It's a powerful form of self-care. If you need some guidance in this regard, check out this three-minute video from Elisha Goldstein, a psychologist and the author of The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life. 3. Spend time in nature. Take a walk in a park, or anywhere in nature, on your own. Don't answer the phone, or check email. As Pickert suggests, "Take a hike and observe your surroundings. Resist the urge to ... posted on Jun 1 2014 (143,694 reads)

toys to each other. Henry, 5 (Berkeley, California) Maudy, 3 (Kalulushi, Zambia) Somewhere between Peter Maisel’s Material World series, James Mollison’s poignant photographs of where children sleep, and Rania Matar’s portraits of teenage girls through their bedroom interiors, the series touches on something beyond the sheer visual curiosity of this global atlas of childhood. What emerges is a poignant living testament to the nature-and-nurture model of human nature: The children’s choices, far from pure personal preference, are deeply rooted in social norms and gender conditioning, as in the dominant pink color in m... posted on May 21 2014 (16,973 reads)

Positive Electron Topography scans, of the brain showing different regions thinking at different times when certain questions are asked. Now is that rudimentary, or what? RW: Well, Chardin said something about depending on the scale at which you look at matter, certain things are apparent. But they are not clear on a different scale. The earth’s continents move around clearly if you’re looking at them in geological time, but for us, they appear to be fixed. The minerals of nature would seem to be inert, but what about the odd element that is radioactive? What the hell is that? Chardin makes an analogy between radioactivity in the mineral world, and consciousness in the ... posted on May 26 2014 (11,060 reads)

one simply has to look. She watches a “puffy-feathered female cardinal” rustle in the bush outside the window, picking at the bright red berries in a coat of her own colorful plumage as “the male hits the eye like a sudden manifestation of grace, or even of God.” Witnessing this whimsical vignette, Oates pauses to consider her very capacity — our human capacity — to behold such beauty: Queer, in fact maddening, to think that “beauty” in nature is for us alone: for the human eye alone. Without our consciousness it doesn’t exist. For though the birds and other creatures “see” one another they don’t, I assume, &l... posted on Jun 19 2014 (9,916 reads)

science is just beginning to understand how Facebook has changed our social lives since it was born ten years ago. Over the past ten years, Facebook has added a new dimension to the social lives of over a billion people—and together with other social media like Twitter and Instagram, it has created an entirely new category of social ties. Given their popularity, social media have become the topic of a growing body of research in the social sciences. For Facebook’s tenth birthday, I collected ten discoveries this research has yielded. If you’re on Facebook, then these studies apply to you! 1. Facebook might increase dissatisfaction with your life. Th... posted on Nov 16 2014 (28,967 reads)