Four Ways to Give Good Feedback
"When effectively administered, feedback is a powerful way to build knowledge and skills, increase skills, increase motivation, and develop reflective habits of mind in students and employees. Too often, however, the feedback we give (and get) is ineffectual or even counterproductive." This piece from Time magazine suggests four ways to offer effective feedback, drawn from research in cognitive sc... posted on Jun 6, 15559 reads

Rituals for Wastelands
"We shut ourselves away from wounded places, psychologically, emotionally, and communally, but there is a better way to heal ourselves and our world." As earth-bound beings, when we witness the destruction of the natural environment, we find the darker parts of our humanity staring back at us. How do we heal our relationship with the land and with ourselves when such destruction can be so difficul... posted on Aug 26, 16900 reads

Is Technology Shaping Your Life Or Vice Versa?
"Sherry Turkle founded and directs the intriguingly titled MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She made waves with her book Alone Together; it was widely reviewed as a call to "unplug" our digital gadgets. But as I've read her and listened to her speak, I hear Sherry Turkle saying something more thought-provoking: that we can lead examined lives with our technology. That each of us, in our ever... posted on Jul 1, 29381 reads

6 Ways to Find Work You Love
"The idea of fulfilling work -- a job that reflects our passions, talents, and values-- is a modern invention. Open Dr. Johnson's celebrated Dictionary, published in 1755, and the word "fulfillment" doesn't even appear. But today our expectations are higher, which helps explain why job satisfaction has declined to a record low of 47 percent in the U.S., and is even lower in Europe. If you count y... posted on Aug 8, 52389 reads

A Tale of Misplaced Love and Irony
"When the world began, there was a place for everything in the human heart, and everything was in its place. This meant one never, ever had to look for anything. Which sounds awfully convenient, and that is exactly what it was. Awfully. Convenient. In this impeccable order of things everything happened on a schedule. Serendipity, for instance got the 2 pm slot on Tuesday afternoons (which meant of... posted on Jul 12, 32522 reads

Can You Learn To Control Your Mind
Why should we control our minds? The wisdom of the ages and now, modern neuroscience, shows that "a human mind is a wandering mind and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind." On the other hand, being in the "flow", or being completely present to the moment, is linked to greater happiness. And achieving this state of mind isn't as ambiguous as one might think. It simply involves effectively controlli... posted on Aug 15, 61792 reads

Using Emergence to Scale Social Innovation
Do you want to change the world? If so, it may help to first understand how the world actually changes. This article co-authored by Margaret Wheatley describes how "emergence" - the linking together of local efforts and networks into global phenomena -- drives all substantial changes in nature and society. The networks we create, together with our mindfulness of other efforts regionally and global... posted on Sep 2, 35393 reads

Today I Lived And You Did Too
"I'm going Hands Free. I want to make memories, not to-do-lists. I want to feel the squeeze of my daughter's arms, not the pressure of over-commitment. I want to get lost in conversation with my spouse, not consumed by a sea of unimportant emails. I want to be overwhelmed by sunsets that give me hope, not by extracurricular commitments that steal my joy. I want the noise of my life to be a mixture... posted on Nov 14, 98492 reads

The Day I Stopped Saying Hurry Up
Being a parent in this fast-paced world often means constantly fighting the clock to maintain control, make appointments, and complete to-do lists. What effect does this constant rushing have on our parenting and on our children? Rachel Macy Stafford was blessed with a laid-back, carefree, stop-and-smell-the roses type of daughter who made her ask this difficult question and who opened her eyes to... posted on Sep 13, 133199 reads

How Big Ideas Spread
"In the era of the iPhone, Facebook, and Twitter, we've become enamored of ideas that spread as effortlessly as ether. We want frictionless, "turnkey" solutions to the major difficulties of the world -- hunger, disease, poverty. We prefer instructional videos to teachers, drones to troops, incentives to institutions. People and institutions can feel messy and anachronistic. They introduce, as the ... posted on Aug 1, 6028 reads

Just Do It: No TYME Like the Present
When Elaine was 23, she found herself with 3 infants and 3 teenagers under her roof. Her home quickly became the neighborhood hangout spot. When a small circle of sharing in her living room grew into the size of a church hall, she knew she had to do more. That's when TYME was born: Teach Youth, Motivate and Empower. By day, Elaine runs programs for underserved kids, teens, and adults. By night, sh... posted on Jul 30, 28611 reads

How To Be More Than A Mindful Consumer
"Today we're so steeped in consumer culture that we head to the mall even when our houses and garages are full. We suffer angst over the adequacy of our belongings and amass crushing credit card debt to, as the author Dave Ramsey says, buy things we don't need with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like..." Annie Leonard, the creator of Story of Stuff drives home an idea with true r... posted on Sep 28, 31818 reads

Wearing The Be Love Sign
"I go to the library in Santa Monica to write quite often. The other day, I went there to get some work done, and I see this man standing and looking at some books. New nonfiction. He has a sign on his chest that says "Be Love." I ask him if I can take a picture, and he happily obliges. I turn around to get some money in my wallet. (He's homeless -- that much is evident.) I turn back around, and... posted on Sep 7, 51036 reads

How Is Your Leadership Changing?
Well-known author and organizational consultant Margaret Wheatley has written about a troubling trend: the movement of today's leadership toward a command-and-conquer model that stifles worker motivation and creativity. In this article she challenges readers to check in on their leadership styles and to consider moving toward a style that is more trusting and distributive of responsibility. To thi... posted on Oct 3, 27987 reads

Material World: A Global Family Portrait
"Photojournalist Peter Menzel's visual anthropology captures the striking span of humanity's socioeconomic and cultural spectrum. In 'Material World: A Global Family Portrait', Menzel traveled to 30 different countries, found a statistically average family in each country, and photographed them outside their home, with all of their belongings. The result is an incredible cross-cultural quilt of po... posted on Dec 16, 43335 reads

Ten Ways to Help Girls Transform the World
Imagine legions of girls confident in their creativity and wisdom; comfortable in their bodies and safe in their classrooms; and ready to take on the world. But we still have a ways to go to get there. In this article World Pulse asks women around the globe for their stories and compiles a list of the best ways to help young girls transform their lives and our world.... posted on Nov 15, 23064 reads

From Ego-System to Eco-System
"We live in an age of profound disruptions. Global crises in finance, food, fuel, water, resource scarcity and poverty challenge every aspect of our societies. These disruptions also open up the possibilities for personal and societal renewal. To seize these possibilities we need to stop and ask ourselves some basic questions: why do our actions collectively create results that so few people want?... posted on Nov 5, 27723 reads

6 Boys, One Cop: A Story of Restorative Justice
In one of Frank Baum's Oz books, Dorothy winds up in prison in Oz and is treated to luxury, kindness and warm cookies. When she asks why, the guard says, "Why would we treat people meanly when we want them to be kind?" The prison system in the US often runs counter to this notion of kindness and rehabilitation. This article focuses on a town in Longmont, Colorado where restorative justice that pro... posted on Dec 21, 26334 reads

Two Children Teach the World About Love
Trenton and Lindsay Cochran are best friends, brother and sister, support and inspiration. 10-year old Lindsay, who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, has been in a wheelchair since she was 2. Trenton understands deeply that his life would have been very different if he didn't have a disabled younger sister. Not only is this mature 12-year old a helper and protector, he is an advocate and amba... posted on Apr 11, 13842 reads

Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments of Teaching
Philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell is one of the most intellectually diverse and influential thinkers in modern history. Writer Maria Popova, founder and editor of Brain Pickings, summarizes Russel's remarkable vision for the responsibilities of a teacher, touching on the purpose of education, the value of uncertainty, the importance of critical thinking, the... posted on Dec 9, 51266 reads

How To Eliminate Junk Stimulus
Does your life feel busy or cluttered? Clearing out our mental and emotional closets starts with an honest appraisal of where and how we live, and letting go of what is simply taking up space. In an era when filling our homes and our calendars has become a cultural fixation, this can mean breaking old habits and the severing of ties with our beloved "stuff." While it may not be easy, the Greater G... posted on Jan 12, 64471 reads

The Neuroscience Of Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier
"Consider this: Negative attitudes are bad for you. And gratitude, it turns out, makes you happier and healthier. If you invest in a way of seeing the world that is mean and frustrated, you're going to get a world that is, well, more mean and frustrating. But if you can find any authentic reason to give thanks, anything that is going right with the world or your life, and put your attention there,... posted on Oct 30, 353696 reads

Six Life Lessons from Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, the author of literary epics such as 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina', is most often thought of as one of the 19th century's greatest novelists. However, "few are aware that he was also one of its most radical social and political thinkers. During a long life from 1828 to 1910, Tolstoy gradually rejected the received beliefs of his aristocratic background and embraced a startlingly... posted on Dec 23, 180292 reads

The Marriage of Love & Power
Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit that raises charitable donations to invest in companies, leaders, and ideas that are changing the way the world tackles poverty. In this interview, she talks about her revolutionary approach to philanthropy that has impacted the lives of over 100 million people, what moved her to leave her safe world of banking to work with t... posted on Feb 6, 22747 reads

She Lost Her Legs But Not Her Dream
Sri Lestari is a paraplegic who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. She lost the use of her legs while riding as a passenger on a motorcylce and, for ten years, never left her home. Indoensia, like many places in the developing world is a hostile environment of people with disabilities. Not only are the streets, footpaths, and buildings inaccessible, but their physical limitations carry broad stygmas. Bu... posted on May 2, 2742 reads

A Story of Grace & Grit
"I don't look at myself as a healer, but I do know healing when I'm in the presence of it. And it's mysterious, magical ... It's not dependent upon the action of any one person, but it arises from the conglomerative energies. It's a team effort, always. It comes about with great love, and it gives great love." Dr. Grace Dammann was a frontline AIDS physician who survived a devastating accident fi... posted on Dec 31, 27063 reads

How Fruit Auctions Are Helping Farmers Thrive
One in six Ohio residents works in the agriculture industry, and the food and agriculture industries contribute an estimated $79 billion to the state's economy each year. Yet nearly 90 percent of the food Ohioans buy comes from outside the state. What would happen if Ohioans began eating more food grown right in their towns and counties? Read on to learn more about the growing success of "fruit au... posted on Apr 26, 8606 reads

John Upton: A Life in Photography
As a student, he rubbed elbows with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White, Imogene Cunningham and Dorothea Lange, and photography became a search, a way of life. "I'm out there looking for photographs and sometimes I reach a point where what's out there is looking for me. Minor used to talk about how that would happen. One thing Minor did, and I catch myself doing, is that when you've photograph... posted on May 12, 22771 reads

Pop-Up Clothing Swap For the Homeless
When Kayli Levitan and Max Pazak found themselves confronted with the growing homeless population in their native Cape Town, South Africa -- they immediately set out to develop a solution. The challenge? Connecting the haves with the have-nots in a manner unlike any before. "We wanted to bridge the gap...making it easy and safe to donate and more dignified to receive. The middle ground we needed w... posted on Apr 1, 20691 reads

The Nature of the Self: How We Know Who We Are
Our emotions, beliefs, and ideals are constantly changing, and most cells in our bodies are completely renewed every seven years. How, then, do we know who "we" are? Over the past ten years, the emerging field of experimental philosophy has examined this paradox, along with its many related questions about morality, happiness, love, and how to live. In this fascinating video, Yale University profe... posted on Mar 13, 28896 reads

A Radical Homemaker Celebrates 40
Shannon Hayes, mother and homemaker on a family farm, used to spend birthdays mourning the passing of another year. But on her 40th she decides instead to spend the day in celebration and joy by giving herself an important gift. In this touching piece, Shannon shares how she learned that turning 40 meant being "grown-up enough, confident enough, fearless enough to face my deepest, most secret drea... posted on Mar 30, 18097 reads

Wonder: When & Why The World Appears Radiant
In his breathtaking new book author Paul R. Fleischman carries out an in-depth and masterful exploration of a unique and timeless human quality: Wonder. Remarkably researched and elegantly articulated the book is an invitation to come newly alive to the mystery and magnificence of being on this earth. This short excerpt takes an ordinary moment on a winter's morning and deftly opens our eyes to th... posted on Mar 5, 0 reads

Talking Trash With Jeff Kirschner
Jeff Kirschner believes litter should be approachable, noticeable, and a spark for thinking about how we look at packaging and trash. He is an evangelist for the power of consumer engagement and education. He is also a believer in our shared impact using social media - including its built-in metrics -- to change public perception and stir public action. That's where Litterati comes in. Jeff is b... posted on Apr 27, 9277 reads

10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently
"Even when we're not at a fork in the road, wondering what to do and trying to hear that inner voice, our intuition is always there, always reading the situation, always trying to steer us the right way. But can we hear it? Are we paying attention? Are we living a life that keeps the pathway to our intuition unblocked? Feeding and nurturing our intuition, and living a life in which we can make use... posted on Apr 30, 137242 reads

Empathy With The Enemy
"If empathy is truly to take its place as a central value in contemporary culture," says author Roman Krznaric, "we need to put it to the test in the most difficult situations...We must extend our empathetic imaginations not just to the dispossesed or disadvantaged, but also to those whose views and actions we might oppose or disdain...That is how empathy can become both a moral guide and a basis ... posted on Mar 2, 24634 reads

Vancouver's Duck Lady
Take a walk in downtown Vancouver on a sunny day and you might just run into Laura-Kay Prophet and Bobbi the Duck. Or, more precisely, Bobbi V. Laura-Kay got her first duck, Harvey, in 1980, but it was the first Bobbi, that spurred her to start Duck $oup, a private charity that Laura-Kay funds from her pension and occasional part-time work. Bobbi I started laying one or two eggs a day, so Laura-Ka... posted on Apr 2, 4083 reads

Sophisticated Simplicity
"When we consider the powerful forces transforming our world -- climate change, peak oil, water and food shortages, species extinction, and more -- we require far more than either crude or cosmetic changes in our manner of living. If we are to maintain the integrity of the Earth as a living system, we require deep and creative changes in our overall levels and patterns of living and consuming. If ... posted on Apr 29, 19743 reads

Lessons From My 93-Year-Old Kindergarten Teacher
Mary Beth Washington is the stuff that kindergarten dreams are made of. "She did almost everything contrary to the rules: she took the kids out walking in the rain, she napped with them during naptime, she came to school dressed like a circus performer. She was in love with birds, dancing, poetry and people." Now in her 93rd year, she is as spirited as ever and still going strong with her walking ... posted on May 5, 25974 reads

6 Things Shyness Can Teach Us
Most people have experienced episodes of shyness in their lives, and some may even be naturally inclined towards having a shy personality. Shy people are often deep thinkers, observant, and good listeners who like to be aware of themselves and others. In a world where gregariousness and rapid action has taken centre stage, this article points out a handful of things that shyness can teach us about... posted on May 22, 24328 reads

10 Projects To Help Save The Earth
Due to the rise of intellectual property and economic monopolies, the Open Source movement is fast becoming a thriving and expanding effort to give everyone public access to knowledge, culture and tools. From building your own electric car or building your own home, to even using the sun generate a solar energy supply system, the information flooding the world had never been so readily available. ... posted on Jun 10, 18032 reads

Mark Nepo On Being The Poem
"Every person has some gift and some trouble, and some mature deep awakened part of soul, and some other part that is blind. This is how we kind of pollinate each other in the human spring. We all need each other." Here, Tami Simon speaks with poet and philosopher Mark Nepo about relating to pain, sincerity as intelligence, the role of pilgrimage in our lives, and the spiritual path of the artist.... posted on Jul 12, 23524 reads

The Laundromat with a Big Heart
The Indian Express laundry shop resembles an average laundromat in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, India. The piles of neatly folded clothes and smiling faces of the shop's workers reflect their expert and efficient service in cleaning people's garments since 1940. A closer look, though, reveals a softer, warmer side to the shop: cats. Big and small, these furry creatures are often rescued from... posted on Jun 9, 15648 reads

4 Ways To Be More Present In Travel
"Being present is about slowing things down enough to truly feel, experience, and sense them -- to grasp them in full." During moments of movement it is all too easy for our attention to shift from the past to the future. But in the present moment, we can foster meaningful connections to people and places. How, then, can we be more present in our travel and share our travel stories with greater r... posted on May 7, 16395 reads

Trying Not To Try: Cultivating the Art of Spontaneity
"The best way to get approval is not to need it" Hugh MacLeod memorably counseled. We now know that perfectionism kills creativity and excessive goal-setting limits our success rather than begetting it -- all different manifestations of the same deeper paradox of the human condition, at once disconcerting and comforting, which Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian Studies and Embodied Cognition a... posted on Jun 3, 14100 reads

The Age of Outrospection
In the age of outrospection, the journey lies in taking a whole-hearted leap into the shoes of another. Outrospection, defined by Maptia as understanding "life through the eyes of others, fostering an adventurous curiosity for other lives and places beyond our own experience." Widening our circle of compassion from loved ones to embrace all beings with care and goodwill not only has intrinsic valu... posted on Jul 21, 22908 reads

Cartographies of Time
Industrialization, and now globalisation, continues to promote the importance of strict clock-based routines. Think about it, how would we be able to interact on an international basis without a shared understanding and agreement on how we measure time? And yet all over the world there are fascinating, often enchanting stories from cultures that still measure time in more traditional ways, and in ... posted on Jun 23, 14552 reads

Joyce Carol Oates On the Art of Beholding Beauty
Perhaps counterintuitively, the diaries of celebrated artists, writers, and scientists, private as they are, are often reminders not only of their humanity but of our own, brimming with deeply and widely resonant insights on our shared struggles and yearnings. Such is the case of The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates -- a chronicle of Oates's characteristically self-reflexive, sometimes self-conscious,... posted on Jun 19, 9962 reads

Slomo: The Neurologist Turned Slow Motion Skater
Dr. John Kitchin was a successful neurologist who, on the surface seemed to have it all. But underneath the trappings of his material success he was ill-at-ease and unhappy. There was a haunting emptiness inside. After a serendipitous interaction with an elderly man in a cafeteria line, Kitchin decided to trade in his career and luxurious lifestyle (that included a Ferrari, an exotic animal farm a... posted on Jul 14, 6182 reads

Jim Hunter on Servant Leadership
Jim Hunter has been training servant leaders for over 30 years and is the author of two internationally best-selling books on the topic. Servant leadership brings love to leadership, and Hunter defines it as "the business of identifying and meeting people's legitimate needs, seeking their greatest good so they can grow." In this interview, Hunter discusses how to create real change through servant... posted on Aug 7, 30424 reads

Empty Hands, Full Heart: Music for the Soul
At the pinnacle of a dizzying career, young Indian-American rapper Nimesh "Nimo" Patel was haunted by an unshakeable sense of emptiness. In his mid-twenties, he abandoned the limelight. An inner voice nudged him to radically simplify his life and find his purpose in service to others. Moving to the Gandhi Ashram in India, he dedicated himself to the children in surrounding slums. After a 7-year mu... posted on Jun 16, 48788 reads