Runner Carries Competitor Half a Mile
When high school cross-country runner Josh Ripley heard the screams of a competing runner, Mark Paulauskas, Josh knew he needed to help. While other competitors in the race ran by, Josh stopped to see what was wrong. In the first mile of a 2-mile race, Josh found Mark holding his ankle and bleeding profusely. Worried that Mark had punctured his Achilles heel, Josh carried the wounded runner for a ... posted on Sep 30, 9463 reads

3 Lessons From A Collapsed Lung
"At the start of my junior year at USC, my left lung spontaneously collapsed unexpectedly. After being admitted to the ER, I spent four days at the Good Samaritan Hospital with a uncomfortable chest tube jutting out of my body. This was my first, real, and personal encounter of the true fragility of life: the fact that I could possess perfect health one day then instantly have to cling on for de... posted on Nov 9, 8803 reads

A College Degree 23 yrs After Memory Loss
A freak accident involving a ceiling fan may have taken Su Meck's memory of everything that happened for the first 22 years of her life, but it did not rob her of her determination. Since the accident that left her with amnesia, the 45-year-old from Maryland, has had to relearn how to walk, talk, read, write and drive. But Meck, whose identity was once as a mother and homemaker, carved out a place... posted on Oct 23, 9892 reads

Giving Back Where He Belongs
When most people think of the American dream, they imagine all this country has to offer them. But for 40-year-old Hamid Chaudhry, a Pakistani immigrant and owner of a Dairy Queen in Reading, Pa., that dream isn't just for the taking. "I'm part of the society," Chaudhry tells CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. "And when you belong somewhere, you have to give back." A few years ago, after becomi... posted on Oct 27, 3384 reads

Change Yourself, Change the World
"There are 4 ideas you have to believe if you seek to "be the change you wish to see in the world: 1. Real change requires patience: It takes time to move others through love (rather than by carrot or stick), but the results are real and lasting. 2. Real change is decentralized/local: The revolution will not be provided by governments or corporations. 3. Real change cannot be traditionally measure... posted on Oct 29, 31154 reads

Karma Kitchen: The Pay-It-Forward Restaurant
Imagine a restaurant where your bill reads $0.00, because your meal is a gift and can't be paid for -- only paid forward for the person after you. How long might the chain of generosity last? At Karma Kitchen, in three cities around the United States, it has gone on for close to 25 thousand people -- and is still going. Filmmaker Katie Teague shares a thoughtful and hopeful short video portrait of... posted on Oct 30, 3235 reads

The Essence of a Great Presentation
"A few months ago when I had worked with Macy in the recording studio, I found the circumstances even more daunting. Nearly every time I began to play, my mind would start churning: 'I'm not a professional musician. I'm going to make a lot of mistakes. The audience/album producer/recording engineer will think I'm lousy. I am lousy. I am going to let Macy down. Why did I think I could do this?' I'v... posted on Nov 4, 16197 reads

Celebrating World Kindness Day
Today is World Kindness Day, and we thought you'd enjoy this real-world story of spreading smiles. "'Right on. This is my kind of protest,' he says while going past me. I hadn't thought of it way before. But perhaps it is a protest -- for lack of smiles in the world. About 15 of us gathered earlier today to create poster boards that we would proudly hold up on busy street intersections of San Fran... posted on Nov 13, 3414 reads

Stillpower: A Path to Flow, Clarity, and Responsiveness
Sports guru and author Garret Kramer has a unique theory about what separates great performers. Kramer believes that the classic 'grind it out' mentality that we're taught at a young age actually prevents athletes from realizing their potential -- and he's betting it's impacting your performance at work, too. His insights led him to write a book: 'Stillpower: The Inner Source of Athletic Excellenc... posted on Nov 17, 8064 reads

5 Reasons Why Meditation Beats an iPhone
"People buy iPhones to be universally connected and have a ton of cool functions and features at their fingertips. But as the wise monk Rev. Heng Sure once said, everything we create in silicon already exists in carbon. I'd add that the silicon technology is a poor facsimile at best. So how exactly do you tap into the wonderful carbon technology you carry around with you all the time? Meditation i... posted on Nov 22, 47105 reads

Four Degrees of Separation
In 1929, Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy proposed that there were six degrees of separation between any two people in the world. The theory was made popular by a play, movie and later a trivia game in which players try to link the actor Kevin Bacon to another Hollywood star within six steps. Yesterday, Facebook announced that with its 721 million members, and 69 billion friendships between th... posted on Nov 26, 6622 reads

The Journey of a Basketball Player Turned Poet
"I started writing this terrible, I call it an awesomely bad, novel. I was going out with this French woman and I told her about it. I told her 'This book is just juvenile. I don't know how to do this.' She said, I have a friend of the family, a writer, and maybe he can help you with it. I agreed with that. So the next thing I know, I meet this little French guy with the glasses. He says to me, 'I... posted on Dec 9, 3156 reads

How Doctors Die
"In his last few months of life after discovering that lung cancer had spread into his brain, my older cousin Torch went to Disneyland for the first time, ate his favorite foods, had no serious pain, and remained high-spirited. Torch wasn't a doctor, but like many doctors who have access to medical care when diagnosed with a fatal disease, he chose state of the art end-of-life care: death with dig... posted on Dec 13, 0 reads

The Three Building Blocks of Virtue
"Depending on what you paid attention to in school, you might remember Confucius by the Silver Rule ("Do not do to others..."), his exotic concepts (e.g., filial piety), or a series of grammar-challenged jokes ("Confucius say..."). Confucius did have a lot to say, but if there is one principle that runs through his philosophy, it's that personal virtue is the way to the good life and the good soci... posted on Dec 21, 16372 reads

Seven Tips for Fostering Generosity
"We all know gift giving is an essential, ritualized part of the holidays. But what about the rest of the year? There's good reason to practice generosity even after you've greeted the New Year. As we've reported in the past, giving activates parts of the brain associated with pleasure and social connection; releases endorphins in the brain, producing a 'helper's high'; and provides many long-term... posted on Dec 25, 12557 reads

Love, the Most Powerful Medicine
For a brief time, hospice nurse Dean Nash is able to break down the barriers of sickness and the reality of dying through his 10-year-old Australian Shepherd, Stormy. Bringing Stormy into the Crossroads Hospice, Nash says, offers patients unconditional love -- allowing them to temporarily forget about dying and instead focus on the delight of a "ball of fur and a wet nose" to lift their spirits." ... posted on Dec 26, 6363 reads

5 Reasons Why We Serve
In a world dominated by financial incentives that appeal to a mindset of consumption, it becomes all the more critical to turn the tide by engaging in small acts of generosity and continually shifting the mindset towards one of inspired contribution. It's a beautiful fact that in practicing kindness in this way, we can't help but deepen our understanding of how inner and outer change are fundament... posted on Dec 27, 38107 reads

Ways To Go Green In 2012
As we head into 2012, many of us will be resolving to lose those few extra pounds, save more money, or spend a few more hours with our families and friends. But there are also some resolutions we can make to make our lives a little greener. Each of us can make a commitment to reducing our environmental impacts. This article offers a set of simple starting points -- ranging from recycling and plant... posted on Dec 29, 14236 reads

A New Kind of New Year's Resolution
The upcoming new year serves as a reminder of hope, possibilities, and new beginnings. As we prepare to step into 2012, here's a new tool to help turn our annual motivation outward, resolving to brighten the lives of others: Resolution12.org. Its organizer, a chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania named Rev. Chaz Howard, calls it "a public campaign to challenge people to make outwardly-focused... posted on Dec 31, 11981 reads

Gandhi on the Power of One
"There were many observers who said Gandhi was extraordinary, an exception to the limitations that hold back the rest of the human race. Others dismissed him -- some with great respect, others with less -- as just another great man who was leaving his mark on history. Yet, according to him, there was no one more ordinary. 'I claim to be an average man of less than average ability,' he often repeat... posted on Jan 9, 23005 reads

The Power of Failure
Often times we invest failure with the wrong kind of power by thinking it's a permanent state that holds us down, rather than a temporary condition that we can learn and grow from -- often to remarkable heights. This 1-minute video gives us a window into well-known figures of the world, such as Edison, and Lincoln who all share a common trait. They each failed (and spectacularly so!) in their res... posted on Jan 14, 6201 reads

Nurse Donates Own Kidney to Patient
The way Clay Taber looks at it, he's got three moms now. There's the woman who gave birth to him and raised him, of course. Then there's his fiancee's mother. And then there's the transplant nurse who, though practically a stranger, donated one of her healthy kidneys so that he might start married life untethered to a dialysis machine. Allison Batson first heard about Taber, now 23, in August 2010... posted on Jan 16, 24366 reads

In Africa, the Art of Listening
"For nearly 25 years I've lived off and on in Mozambique. Time has passed, and I'm no longer young; in fact, I'm approaching old age. But my motive for living this straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the other in European snow, in the melancholy region of Norrland in Sweden where I grew up, has to do with wanting to see clearly, to understand. The simplest way to explain what I'... posted on Jan 17, 30383 reads

A Doctor's Notes on Hurt & Healing in Haiti
"There is always humming from somewhere. It is usually low and musical as patients try to distract themselves from phantom limb pain that is not at all phantom. It is 13 days after the earthquake. I am coordinating a 12-member team at St. Marc's hospital, a government facility on the west coast of Haiti." In this gripping piece, poet-doctor Sriram Shamasunder covers life and death, resilience, com... posted on Jan 19, 10719 reads

Man Builds Fairy Tale Home -- For $4700
"Simon Dale is a family man in Wales, the western part of Great Britain. His interest in self-sustainability and an ecological awareness led him to dig out and build his own home -- one of the loveliest, warmest, most inviting dwellings you could ever imagine. And it cost him only $4,700. Can you imagine a more charming entrance than this?"... posted on Jan 28, 221552 reads

Training the Mind to Find Happiness
"At first, I sat on a couch cushion in the middle of my living room, and meditated for 5 minutes using my kitchen timer. At the beginning, I experienced what the book referred to as a 'waterfall' of thoughts. Having never tried to focus my mind on something so simple as respiration, so many thoughts poured down on me: 'What am I going to have for lunch?' 'What if this doesn't work?' 'I should do a... posted on Feb 3, 27102 reads

Redefining What it Means to Grow
"As we all grow in our lives and careers, it's normal to expect a raise every year. Why? Because it's a signal of growth. Growing is good -- not growing is downright un-American. You didn't get a raise? You're not growing? Well then you must be no good. But why only 1 way to measure growth? If I get a 10 percent raise next year but eat less healthy food, spend less time with close and extended com... posted on Feb 10, 15809 reads

4 iPhones and a Subway Serendipity
In October 2010, little-known New York City band, Atomic Tom, had their instruments stolen. But a little bit of bad luck wasn't going to stop these musicians from doing what they love. Riding over the Manhattan Bridge on the B train, the band gave an impromptu performance of "Take Me Out" ... using four iPhones to simulate the drums, guitars, and piano they had recently lost. And they caught it on... posted on Feb 12, 5592 reads

Valentine's Day Wisdom
"We've heard it said that this day -- which once belonged to a legendary saint in whose wake loving deeds flowed like a river -- was hijacked so many years ago by corporations looking to cash in on a beautiful state-of-the-heart technology. They who strode in preaching a catchy new religion: I love therefore I buy. And maybe we bought it. At any rate we've been blaming them ever since. Why give th... posted on Feb 14, 6296 reads

Gandhi on Knowledge Without Character
"We have not yet learned to make use of our most civilizing capacities: the creativity and wisdom we all have as our birthright. When even one person comes into full possession of these capacities, our problems are shown in their true light: they are simply the results of avoidable -- though deadly -- errors of judgment. Gandhi formulated a series of diagnoses of the modern world's seemingly perpe... posted on Feb 17, 82368 reads

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying
Author and songwriter Bronnie Ware shares: "For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomen... posted on Feb 23, 262805 reads

Competing with Love
"I had a hard time with most of my subjects, especially math. One day, after looking at my grades, my father had a heart-to-heart chat with me. He said, 'The way to crack your subjects is to fall in love with them. When you start loving what you are learning, it will no longer look like work. Everything will fall in place after that. Just fall in love.' I was in sixth grade around then, and decide... posted on Mar 3, 19906 reads

Jeff Skoll on Story-telling & Social Change
One of Jeff Skoll's passions is storytelling. It stems from his youth, when he hoped to be a writer and inspire people to help solve the world's biggest problems. Skoll took a detour on that path when he met Pierre Omidyar and became eBay's first employee and president. Ultimately that detour enabled him to tackle his early passions on a scale that he could only have dreamed of before. He is famed... posted on Mar 14, 7186 reads

The Memory Project: Portraits of Compassion
At the base of a volcano in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, there's an orphanage. Although developing world orphanages aren't normally festive places, on this day, at this time, there was reason to celebrate: the arrival of a young man named Ben Schumaker. Schumaker comes from faraway Wisconsin, and he comes bearing gifts. He carries a suitcase with 62 pounds of portraits -- portraits of the kids, a... posted on Apr 12, 4609 reads

When Life is Ugly Make it Beautiful
"The Josephine beauty parlor in northern Paris is celebrating its first birthday Thursday. Some 1,200 disadvantaged women -- abuse victims, former convicts or addicts, disabled women, single unemployed mothers -- have come here for a professional haircut and makeup, or to borrow clothes for a job interview, since it opened on International Women's Day a year ago. Thanks to volunteer workers and pr... posted on Jun 9, 7740 reads

The Pursuit of Silence in A World of Noise
Writer George Prochnik says he's had a passion for silence as long as he can remember. "I can't sit in my house without hearing air conditioners. I worry about this layer of noise that's placed on top of infrastructure noise." In his new book, In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, Prochnik leaves the noisy confines of New York City and goes on a global quest to find tho... posted on Apr 11, 6397 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, 16174 reads

A Chinese Living Water Garden
Water is art activist Betsy Damon's passion. She was studying sacred springs in China when she began meeting individuals interested in water from a variety of angles: medicine, hydraulic engineering, spirituality. This unique collaboration led to an invitation to review a major water project in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. Because of her critique, the project was actually scrapped. But th... posted on Mar 25, 8036 reads

The Language of Love
"Love is a funny thing. As the saying goes, we often find love when we least expect, but it might be equally true that when we do find love it's different than we expected. This beautiful short film was created to raise awareness and money for a good cause, which it did. But it has gone so much further in showing us what love looks like, and how we can connect with each other when we have the cour... posted on Mar 31, 10347 reads

Infinite Family
Amy Stokes uses the internet to connect South African teens affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty with volunteer mentors from around the world. She is the founder of Infinite Family an effort in South Africa -- where nearly two million children have been orphaned by AIDS. A diverse and growing team of Infinite Family's mentors have stepped forward "to fill the void of adults -- to teach, discuss, encou... posted on Jun 15, 2582 reads

What's the Greatest Gift Your Mother Gave You?
"The way her face absolutely beams when she sees me and her voice lightens with happiness when I call her on the phone. Every time. Even after 38 years," says Kristen Harnisch. "My mother always had a sense of wonderment. The color of a leaf, a sprinkling of snow, the smell of hot soup--she found the greatest pleasure in everyday things," Nancy Bradford reflects. "When I was two days old, I was ab... posted on Apr 21, 6322 reads

Life Lessons from A Winged Visitor
"Something in the sunlight caught my eye. A moving something. A small moving something. Could it really be? A butterfly had landed on the floormat inside the house. Beating its wings ever so slowly, trying to catch its breath. I crept closer, just wanting to capture its beauty in my hands. To just admire its simplicity and intricate design. She sensed my presence, and we locked energies. Slowly, s... posted on Jun 2, 16015 reads

Mr. Happy Man
For six hours each day, Bermuda's Johnny Barnes stands at a busy traffic intersection telling all who pass that he loves them. His delight and sincerity are infectious, and the people of the island love him back. His service is a simple reminder of the power of happiness and loving-kindness to change any day for the better.... posted on Apr 19, 5075 reads

How To Find Your Purpose
"'Find something more important than you are,' philosopher Dan Dennett once said in discussing the secret of happiness,'and dedicate your life to it.' But how, exactly, do we find that? Surely, it isn't by luck. I myself am a firm believer in the power of curiosity and choice as the engine of fulfillment, but precisely how you arrive at your true calling is an intricate and highly individual dance... posted on Apr 22, 56699 reads

Lessons From Those Who Lost & Found
Jill Bolte Taylor, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy and Chef Grant Achatz are an unlikely trio. What do this brain scientist, late eye surgeon, and a leader of the molecular gastronomy movement [yes there is such a thing] have in common? At a takeoff point in their careers they were each dealt a sucker punch -- one that robbed them of what was arguably their greatest gift. Yet none of them threw in the... posted on Apr 25, 32874 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 9, 24179 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, 397672 reads

The Boy Who Played With Fusion
Taylor Wilson always dreamed of creating a star. Now he's become one. "Taylor would transform the family's garage into a mysterious, glow-in-the-dark cache of rocks and metals and liquids with unimaginable powers ... he would conceive, in a series of unlikely epiphanies, new ways to use neutrons to confront some of the biggest challenges of our time: cancer and nuclear terrorism...he would build a... posted on May 26, 6962 reads

Mr. Rogers at the Emmy Awards
For 33 years, Fred Rogers -- known to one-and-all as Mister Rogers -- invited children into his television "neighborhood" to teach them curiosity, ethics, and self-belief. When honored with an Emmy Award for lifetime achievement, Mister Rogers delivered a thank-you speech very much in keeping with his role as educator and role model -- using ten very special seconds of silence.... posted on Jun 11, 10274 reads

How to Speak More Wisely
"It had been three weeks since my throat started to feel sore, and it wasn't getting better. The pain was most acute when I spoke. So I decided to spend a few days speaking as little as possible. Every time I had the urge to say something, I paused for a moment to question whether it was worth irritating my throat. This made me acutely aware of when and how I use my voice. Which led me to a surpri... posted on Jun 16, 52799 reads