other emotions such as pride. Participants consistently reported that awe produced “a reduced sense of self importance relative to something larger and more powerful that they felt connected to,” says Piff. And subsequent analysis confirmed that this feeling of the “small self” was responsible for their ethical behavior. This seems to suggest that experiencing awe prompts people to help others. Yet another experiment exposed different groups to an awe-inspiring nature video such as Planet Earth, a funny animal video, or a neutral video. Once again, people who experienced awe reported a feeling of a “small self” which triggered more generous behav... posted on Sep 12 2015 (9,879 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 25 2015 (29,947 reads)

into our hands is almost uncontainably vitalizing, emanating an uncommon sense of communion between his humanity — our humanity — and the inanimate yet deeply animating presence of the land; between his smallness — our smallness — and the grandeur of Earth. Over and over, he surrenders to the land’s rhythms and wishes — a great act of faith that requires, manyfold more so now than it did then, relinquishing the many small violences by which we seek to bend nature to our will. Illustration from ‘Flashlight’ by Lizi Boyd. Click image for more. Four decades after Henry Beston’s beautiful love letter to darkness, Abbey considers one ... posted on Nov 25 2015 (11,557 reads)

into other people’s shoes has been a catalytic force for social change throughout human history. Credit: www.intentionalworkplace.com. All rights reserved. You can always tell when a good idea has come of age: people start criticising it. That’s certainly the case when it comes to empathy. Empathy is a more popular concept today than at any time since the eighteenth century, when Adam Smith argued that the basis of morality was our imaginative capacity for “changing places in fancy with the sufferer.” Neuroscientists, happiness gurus, education policy-makers and mediation experts have all been singing its praises. This has, of course, got the ... posted on Dec 14 2015 (12,345 reads)

finding a way to bring that source fully into the world through making the mind clearer and more generous, the heart more compassionate and the body larger and strong enough to hold it. What we call anger on the surface only serves to define its true underlying quality by being a complete but absolute mirror-opposite of its true internal essence. Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from ‘The Lion and the Bird.’ Click image for more. In a related meditation, Whyte considers the nature of forgiveness: FORGIVENESS is a heartache and difficult to achieve because strangely, it not only refuses to eliminate the original wound, but actually draws us closer to its source. To a... posted on Feb 8 2016 (43,117 reads)

of patients, and put tens of thousands of children in schools. It seems then, that the world is a better place since he swapped the peace of the Himalayas for his new hectic schedule of engagements. Altruism His latest book, Altruism, provides a complex look at a remarkably simple approach to solving the ills of the world. Ricard’s work has always revolved around positive transformation, and now he has published an 800-page guide to using one of the traits most inherent to human nature to overcome the challenges of the 21st century. Listening to Matthieu make a case for altruism and its plethora of positive consequences, it all seems so obvious. And is it a coincidence tha... posted on Feb 20 2016 (26,717 reads)

nothing wrong with me but I felt really ill for about a week. While I was in bed, I read ‘The Sacred Path of the Warrior’, a Buddhist text that I normally wouldn’t have looked at. The sacred warrior becomes tender which gives him the strength to do what needs to be done in the world. I wept and wept. I realised I was discovering who I really was.” One year later, during a tough mission in Somaliland, Rama had a second major realisation about the role of art, culture, nature and spirituality in transforming conflict and that has been the fulcrum of her work ever since. As a performance artist, Rama Mani is now fully able to channel her passion for the power of t... posted on Mar 8 2016 (15,557 reads)

our entire lives are spent in a quest to gain control, security and comfort in our lives. Unfortunately, we never really get it, so we keep trying, relentlessly. This is the main activity of our lives. What would happen if we stopped? We could be less restricted by fear, less anxious, less driven by the need for comfort … and more in love with life as it is. You might be surprised by how much we strive for control. The Ways We Try to Get Control The basic nature of life is that it is everchanging, uncontrollable. When we think we have stability in life, something comes up to remind us that no, we don’t. There is no stability, no matter how much we’... posted on Mar 10 2016 (15,652 reads)

where you were both priest and nurse practitioner. You attended to the health of the physical body and also to the health of the emotional, psychic and soul body. That, to me, seems absolutely an ideal, and that’s the scope of practice as understood for healers in more traditional cultures, isn’t it? Irene: Very much so. The Inuit shamans, the Arctic shamans, which is the group I’m most familiar with, they were story tellers, artists, healers. And the healers were, just by nature of what the healing entailed, the ritual leaders. They were the ones who flew to the moon to recover your soul, or flew to the sea to recover your soul. They did battle with the malevolent spir... posted on Mar 17 2016 (13,433 reads)

to educate yourself. In the future, when you ask your friend questions, be prepared for a “no” or “not at this time.” The oppressed are continuously asked to defend their experience, so your question may be too much in that single moment. 5. See themselves as either good or bad. Even if the intent was goodhearted, the impact is what matters most. We often will not fess up to marginalizing someone else’s identity or creating a space that is exclusive in nature. For some reason, we have in our minds that if we take responsibility for this exclusion, then we are admitting to being a bad person. Instead, we must see ourselves as good people who will mak... posted on Mar 18 2016 (39,866 reads)

which is fight or flight, and the impulse towards tribalism. We see those dynamics at work in our workplaces, and geopolitically. This is this human struggle. DR. DOTY: And we’re seeing it playing out right now in the political arena. We’re seeing it playing out in different parts of the world. And this is — my own belief is that it is an understanding of this reality that is ultimately going to define whether our species survives or not. The problem is that, by the nature of the baggage that we were just talking about, we are oftentimes easily put into a position of being fearful, because when we’re fearful, what happens? We have a tendency to shut down, w... posted on Apr 17 2016 (31,505 reads)

engineering won't get us there. It will have to be inner transformation. Sure, innovations like AI may augment our labor, and even our creative activity, but no robot will ever be responsible for the resurgence of virtue. Making virtue go viral is an unassailable human responsibility. It will always be an inside job. By taking on these challenges, make no mistake, you will be swimming against society’s current. But you’ll also be in flow with the deepest laws of nature. Now I know commencement speakers are typically supposed to inspire you to make a splash in the world, be somebody, do something big and important. But this isn't a typical university, a... posted on May 31 2016 (49,356 reads)

hand of a rock star like Iggy Pop, or experiencing the sacred during meditation or prayer. More frequently, though, people report feeling awe in response to more mundane things: when seeing the leaves of a Gingko tree change from green to yellow, in beholding the night sky when camping near a river, in seeing a stranger give their food to a homeless person, in seeing their child laugh just like their brother. My colleague Jonathan Haidt and I have arguedthat awe is elicited especially by nature, art, and impressive individuals or feats, including acts of great skill or virtue. A new science is now asking “Why awe?” This is a question we can approach in two ways. First w... posted on Jun 2 2016 (16,980 reads)

human tendency to focus on the bad, threatening, dangerous things in life. It specifically activates the fear and despair we’d feel if our child died, even if we don’t yet have one of our own. We’re really good at focusing the spotlight of our attention on what might hurt us—or hurt those close to us, especially our children. What happens in our bodies when we throw the spotlight on a threat? We get stressed out. And what’s stress? That’s a tool nature gave us to survive lion attacks—in other words, stress mobilizes our body’s resources to survive an immediate physical threat. Adrenaline pumps and our bodies release the hormone co... posted on Jun 9 2016 (19,552 reads)

story is about the creation of a song.  Its title is Earth on Fire, Hearts on Ice.  The song was born out of anguish and anger about our despoiling of the natural world. In the end it had become a prayer. I am hopeful by nature.  But I needed to get some things off my chest, things weighing heavy on my heart.    And it has been a healing balm to make this song.  I imagine it must have felt this way to black slaves releasing their sorry in their soulful gospel. In the process of writing this song I was made to look deeply into the nature of optimism in the face of dire facts.   Is optimism naïve, simplistic? &nb... posted on Jun 12 2016 (14,268 reads)

to awe-cultivation. It may have worked in an era when workers clocked in the necessary hours in order to live life after work. But in an age of evolving consciousness and where change, uncertainty and competition are the norm, we’re overworked, unhappy, and disengaged. Somewhere on the journey to progress, we seem to have lost our soul. Why Awe May Be the Answer Awe jars us out of our usual way of seeing things. But instead of making us resist change, it opens us up to the passing nature of life and to our integral, albeit tiny place in a much larger whole. We see our fragility and vulnerability, which gives us a profound sense of humility. But we also appreciate the vastness o... posted on Jul 23 2016 (13,565 reads)

to the famous assertion that “fiction is the lie that tells the truth,” the novel [Virginia Woolfe's Orlando: A Biography ] has stood the test of time not only as an immensely pleasurable work of art, which Vita’s son aptly described as “the longest and most charming love letter in literature,” but as a ceaseless wellspring of truth and wisdom on such elemental existential concerns as the elasticity of time, the nature of memory, the fluidity of gender, the enlivening power of illusion, and our propensity for self-doubt in creative work. It is the rare kind of book which, once read, accompanies... posted on Oct 30 2016 (7,771 reads)

India. Dayamani believes that displacement of indigenous communities in Jharkhand is akin to cultural annihilation and has advocated for sustainable development models that integrate indigenous worldviews and knowledge systems. “Our perspective is to make livelihoods as the basis of indigenous people’s culture. This is to sculpt a new model of development, which has a scientific thinking like the indigenous lifestyle and the technology should work in harmony and cooperation with nature. The thinking should not be just to take away from nature,” she notes. Women and girls are much more vulnerable to disasters than men are.  The aftermath of Nepal’s ... posted on Nov 15 2016 (17,215 reads)

where we’re wrong. Drive is something that can be encouraged by a wonderful teacher, by a terrific classroom environment, by an awesome soccer team that you are on, and it can be squashed as well. Knowledge@Wharton: Several people talk about grit being something that you have. You may even be born with it. But you say in your book that this is something that also can be learned. Duckworth: The “also” is crucial. People have always been asking, “Is it nature or nurture?” Are you born with it or do you develop it? The answer is, “Absolutely both.” It would be naive to discount the role of genes. But there’s also an enormous r... posted on Nov 26 2016 (15,178 reads)

and all you did was hug him and kiss him, and you had an half hour conversation about what it was all about?”   She said, “You know there are so many guests at our house right now, and my son has this habit of spending some time with me, but because of the guests, I am not able to give him so much time. So he is just angry, and he is using his anger to grab my attention. So I can choose to respond him with a slap, or I can choose to understand what is at the core of his nature— what is it that is at the core of his problem— and how can I handle that?” That was a huge learning. Not only that child but from then onwards, whenever I would see anothe... posted on Jan 6 2017 (18,706 reads)