The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Watch this fascinating talk visually unfold before you through witty and beautiful illustration. Dan Pink makes the case that there are hidden truths behind what really motivates us. Namely that it's not the age-old motivators of money and power that drives us, but our desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.... posted on Nov 2, 8047 reads

Remembering What We Have Forgotten
Discovering the writings of Peter Kingsley (In the Dark Places of Wisdom, Reality and now A Story Waiting to Pierce You) reminded me of what a mystery it is to be alive. One is always forgetting this, especially in this era of science's stupendous discoveries and the astonishing advance of techonology. It's as if we have the power to figure everything out. Does this confidence in our knowledge sta... posted on Nov 23, 4404 reads

The Danger of a Single Story
Growing up in Nigeria, author Chimamanda Adichie only read stories about blue-eyed British children, playing in the snow and eating apples. She loved these stories, but she could not connect to these stories. Growing up in an English-speaking former colony, Adichie nevertheless embraces Nigerian history and tradition to write critically acclaimed diasporan literature. Watch her discuss her own you... posted on Nov 21, 3386 reads

The Learning Curve of Gratitude
"Eight weeks ago, I was released from the hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism. I had just finished a tour and a week after returning home, severe chest pain and terrible breathlessness landed me in the ER. A scan revealed blood clots in my lungs. Everyone told me how lucky I was. A pulmonary embolism can take your life in an instant. I was familiar enough with the medical term, but not f... posted on Nov 26, 12278 reads

Short On Time? Try Something Awe-Inspiring
"Always plugged in and constantly juggling tasks at work and at home, many of us feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to do. But wouldn't it be awesome to feel like you had more time? In fact, a new study suggests that experiencing awe -- which psychologists define as the feeling we get when we come across something so strikingly vast in number, scope, or com... posted on Dec 3, 14482 reads

You Are Not Your Body
We often define ourselves by things that are "outside" us: relationships, work, family - even our own bodies. But what would it mean to have your life dramatically altered and your body irrevocably damaged? Who would you be then? In this TEDx talk, walking paraplegic Janine Shepherd, explores the impact of loss on the human psyche and the universal quest to find meaning and fulfillment. It is only... posted on Nov 28, 6070 reads

Help for Caregiving Kids
"At 13 years old, Nickolaus Dent is his mother's primary caregiver. He's responsible for the grocery shopping and cooking. He cleans the house. He does all the laundry. His mother, Janine Helms, has been battling HIV for as long as Nickolaus can recall, and her health has deteriorated in the last couple of years. Nickolaus makes sure she takes her medication. He often helps her get dressed, and at... posted on Dec 1, 4251 reads

Tammy Strobel's Tiny Home
"In the beginning of September, Tammy Strobel and Logan Smith moved from Portland, Oregon, to a ranch in northern California. But unlike many homeowners who move, the couple did not have to put their current home on the market or pack up their belongings into moving trucks. Instead, they simply attached their 128-square-foot home (which is on wheels) to the back of a Ford F350, and drove 400 miles... posted on Mar 5, 10658 reads

What I've Learned From the Children in My Life
In 1989, eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistry arrived in Mumbai for a visit from the United States. After a poignant encounter with the city's street children she called her parents in the US and announced her decision to stay in India for good. Shaheen went on to found the inspiring non-profit Akanksha, dedicated to educating and empowering children from underprivileged backgrounds. Today she heads T... posted on Dec 16, 21807 reads

The Wisdom of Babies
"For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected -- whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect -- was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. I saw that if you haven't experienced love, it's very difficult to know how to love. So what can we do to break this cycle ... posted on Jan 25, 0 reads

Could Boredom Be Curable?
"Philosophers and scientists alike have found ways to describe boredom as an experience, from the ochlos of ancient Greeks to the unresolved conflicts of modern psychodynamic theory. But when it comes to what actually triggers boredom, an answer has remained elusive. Boredom can occur in a perplexingly broad range of situations and seems to involve both our external environment and our inner resou... posted on Mar 8, 7038 reads

More Than Human: Striking Animal Portraits
""Erasing the awe-inspiring variety of sentient life impoverishes all our lives," historian Joanna Bourke wrote in her poignant meditation on what it means to be human. And yet our relationship with animals and our understanding of their inner lives remain inadequate at best. In 2010, photographer Tim Flach gave us his extraordinary dog portraits. This year, he's back with More Than Human -- a col... posted on Dec 18, 63196 reads

The Power of Whimsy
Public spaces serve multiple functions for society and, more and more, they are being utilized in ever-creative ways. In many of these cases, whimsy seems to be at the heart of the matter, even if it is not the main driver. For instance, in a bid to improve public health by encouraging more people to use the stairs instead of the escalator, The Fun Theory (a Volkswagen initiative) transformed a se... posted on Jan 9, 21877 reads

Second Chances on Rikers Island
"This place is about transformation. The students learn that if you can transform this environment, you can transform your life, yourself. We try to use the program at the gardens to help people build self-esteem," says James Jiler, who runs the GreenHouse program at Rikers Island in New York. Though a prison that holds nearly 16,000 short-term detainees is an unlikely site for a garden, the men a... posted on Jan 23, 11934 reads

Solar Sisters Spreading Light in Africa
"In Uganda, some 90% of the population lives without access to electricity, according to World Bank figures. Enter Solar Sister -- a group aiming to eradicate energy poverty while creating economic opportunities for women. Using an Avon-style women's distribution system, Solar Sister trains, recruits and supports female entrepreneurs in East Africa to sell affordable solar lighting and other green... posted on Dec 22, 4579 reads

6 Ways to Keep Your New Years Resolutions
It's New Years -- time to reflect on your aspirations and set meaningful goals to improve your health and happiness. Which sounds great, right? But how many of us actually keep our New Year's resolutions past January? Not many, according to a study by author and psychologist Richard Wiseman. His research found that 52% of resolution-makers were confident that they'd achieve their goals, yet only 1... posted on Jan 1, 12105 reads

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2012!
Ever year we are amazed by everyday stories of compassion, warmth, and love that fill our world with with inspiration and hope. Collected here are 10 uplifting stories from 2012 about the kindness of ordinary people of all ages and from all walks of life.... posted on Jan 3, 6985 reads

The World Needs More Love Letters
Finding a letter of encouragement in the mail or tucked unexpectedly in the unlikeliest of places is sometimes all we need when in doubt or feeling down on our luck. And imagine receiving this note anonymously, as if some magical force out there knew just what you needed to hear and wanted you to know that you haven't been forgotten. In the fall of 2010, in the midst of her own depression and lon... posted on Jan 11, 26569 reads

Journeys for Good
"A little more than three years ago, Steve and Joanie Wynn were looking to get out of a rut. Their video production company, Bayside Entertainment, was in a slump along with the rest of the economy. So when Joanie Wynn stumbled upon Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy, a fledgling business started by a former New York Times war correspondent, she thought, here's a chance to do something different --... posted on Feb 3, 5588 reads

Instant Grants In The Park
A group of calling itself the Federation of Students and Nominally Employed or Unemployed Artists spent four hours giving away "instant grants" in a park in New York City. Photographers, knitters for the homeless and artists of all types lined up for small grants. The funds were raised or donated by the federation and the exercise went deeper than just dollars for some. As one recipient noted: "It... posted on Jan 17, 3076 reads

The Wisdom of Babies
"For years I worked with families who were very abusive to their children. Over time, I came to realize that all of the suffering that the children collected -- whether it was domestic violence or child abuse or neglect -- was a result of the absence of empathy in the parent. I saw that if you haven't experienced love, it's very difficult to know how to love. So what can we do to break this cycle ... posted on Jan 26, 40087 reads

Music As A Three-Dimensional Experience
The music program at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Oakland, California opened my eyes. It happened at a student concert and was a subtle thing, hard to put in words. It all comes to light in our interview with Melanie DeMore who was a key part of their program for 21 years. "I think that whenever you go to a concert, whatever it is, the people should leave feeling way bigger than when they came i... posted on Feb 16, 3860 reads

A Family Living (And Thriving) Without Money
"A Berlin family of three has been living on practically nothing but love and the goodwill of others for more than two years and counting --not as a victims of the rough economy, but as activists who are on a money strike to protest what they call our "excess-consumption society.""... posted on Feb 23, 18046 reads

Mr. Wright's Law of Love
No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is a simple lecture - one without props or fireballs - that makes the greatest impression on his students each year. The talk is about Mr. Wright's exp... posted on Mar 9, 7560 reads

Jane Goodall: On the Future of Plants & Chimps
"Over the course of 45 years studying the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Jane Goodall revolutionized our understanding of our closest primate relatives. A champion of animal conservation and the author of 26 books, she turns her attention for the first time to plants with her upcoming book Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants." In this interview the ren... posted on Mar 12, 4496 reads

Insights From The Science of Meaningful Life
"'The science of a meaningful life'-- has exploded over the past 10 years, with many more studies published each year on gratitude, mindfulness, and our other core themes than we saw a decade ago. 2012 was no exception. In fact, in the year just past, new findings added nuance, depth, and even some caveats to our understanding of the science of a meaningful life. Here are 10 of the scientific insi... posted on Mar 13, 19657 reads

How Do You Measure Your Life?
"Every year, HBS Professor Clayton Christensen teaches students that well-tested academic theories can help them succeed not just in business, but in life. He expounds upon those lessons in his book, How Will You Measure Your Life? (...) "You'll see that without theory, we're at sea without a map or a sextant," Christensen writes. "If we can't see beyond what's close by, we're relying on chance --... posted on Mar 17, 9666 reads

The Power of Thanks
In "Sidetracked" Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan," Francesca Gino, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, explores a range of fascinating subjects, including how emotions influence decisions and the often thorny matter of understanding the perspectives of others. Blending social science and real-world examples, Gino's book also highlights the science of... posted on Mar 28, 9812 reads

Write Therapy: Patient As Narrator
While illness is universal, many of us find it difficult to face its grim truths. But writers and celebrities like Susan Sontag, Christopher Reeve, and Michael J. Fox among others have tackled the subject head on through their writing. In the last 20 years, increasing numbers of patients have written crisis or illness memoirs that have far reaching ripple effects. While the writing itself can be c... posted on Mar 24, 14904 reads

Mark Twain's Fan Mail
"Over the course of his prolific career, Twain received countless letters from his adoring readers and, occasionally, his critics. Two hundred of them, written according to the style of the era's wonderfully quaint epistolary etiquette, are collected in Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers...His correspondents ranged from school children, businessmen, farmers, and political activists, to con ... posted on Mar 27, 11596 reads

Why Mind-Wandering Robs You of Happiness
""The main thing is to get what little happiness there is out of life in this war-torn world," Clare Boothe Luce advised her young daughter, "because 'these are the good old days' now." And yet most of us are conditioned to escape into the past, into the future, into our to-do lists -- to wander off away from the present, even as we chronicle the moment in real-time on various lifestreaming platfo... posted on Apr 4, 28342 reads

The Persuasive Power of Uncertainty
"When we started this research, we had the same hypothesis that a lot of people would have, that being more certain would be generally better when you're trying to persuade somebody or convince somebody to do something. And so, we were originally thinking expressing confidence or certainty might be a solution for people who lack credibility to gain influence. And so, we did some studies to look in... posted on Apr 9, 6885 reads

How to Change the World with Hot Cocoa & Neruda
"Wake up. Don't press snooze. Sling your legs over the side of the bed. Right. Left. Turn on music. Good, good music...You need a life soundtrack. Has anyone told you that yet? Pick out something spectacular from your closet. Feel good in your skin. Put on an item that tells some kind of story. Always have a story to tell, just a wrist or coat sleeve away. And if that yellow sweater ain't got a st... posted on May 28, 36528 reads

Stay A Lover of Little Things
"No matter what big cities you go off to and big opportunities you are graced with, always take time to acknowledge the little things. Never give up on the things that make you smile, because smiling is one of the most important things we can do in this world. Find time to just wander. With No Direction. No Plan. No Time Restrictions. Look for beauty everywhere you go. The ladybugs on the windowsi... posted on May 1, 58080 reads

Hold A Piece Of the Pain: Lessons from My Daughter
"We were in the downtown area of our city when we drove past something I will never forget. Many homeless people were crowded around this broken-down truck. A man on the truck was holding up an orange saying 'Merry Christmas' and throwing out the orange for someone to catch. When I saw people pushing each other to get to the oranges, that made my heart drop. They were fighting for a piece of frui... posted on May 19, 35392 reads

Debunking the Myths of Happiness
Psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky is an expert on the subject of our most common happiness myths. One pervasive myth is that a desired change in lifestyle such as getting married or striking it rich will make us irrevocably happy. Research has shown that while these events may cause happiness in the short term, their positive effects are unlikely to last as long as we might hope. A second myt... posted on Jun 12, 27442 reads

Jessica Cox: The World's First Arm-less Pilot
Jessica Cox is the world's first licensed arm-less pilot. Born without arms, she has never let this obstacle stand in her way. With a dauntless spirit and valiant creativity, she not only drives and plays piano but has also become the first arm-less black-belt in the American Taekwondo Association. Her story reminds us of the infinite capacities of the human spirit, and what we can do when we make... posted on Apr 18, 5705 reads

A World Without Landfills
These two local heroes changed the tide of their communities through a deep commitment to nurture a healthy planet and unwavering courage to follow their hearts' calling. They're part of a "growing global movement to significantly reduce the amount of trash we produce as communities, cities, countries and even regions. It's called the zero-waste movement...Adilla is a grassroots recycler -- also ... posted on Jul 27, 23055 reads

Avoiding the 'I'll-Give-Back-Later' Trap
Steve Davis is president and CEO of PATH, an international nonprofit whose goal is to help communities break longstanding cycles of poor health. The cross-sectoral skills he attained during his earlier work in other organizations, he says, are crucial when it comes to adapting innovations to the places that need them most. In this interview, he talks about his approach to leadership and the import... posted on Oct 26, 14228 reads

Guiding Rage into Power
San Quentin is one of the nation's most notorious maximum security prisons. But it is also known for an unusual inmate rehabilitation program. Insight-Out's Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) Program offers an in-depth journey into the participants' ability to understand and transform violent behavior, track and manage strong impulses, and replace these behaviors with an attitude of emotional intellig... posted on Apr 25, 4124 reads

The Revolutionary Cardboard Bicycle
"Izhar Gafni smiles and shakes his head in wonder when asked about the whirlwind of events that have taken place since news of his revolutionary cardboard bicycle first made international headlines..."It's all happened so fast, and we did not expect it at all," exclaims Mr. Gafni, a heavyset man who displays all the qualities of an archetypal inventor -- a rapid, if somewhat erratic thought proces... posted on Apr 26, 8263 reads

A Story For People Who Want To Change the World
Change happens when we think differently about the stories that we hold about ourselves and others. In the case of best-selling author, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, her approach to medicine changed when she stopped perceiving her patients as broken beings who needed to be fixed, but rather, as "an infinite number of tiny sparks of wholeness" that merely need to be restored to their complete state. In t... posted on Jun 30, 67333 reads

The Night I Died
In this beautifully written piece, a writer describes an experience in which she moved between two realities. When attacked and almost choked to death, she tuned into a presence that utterly transformed the experience and arguably saved her life. She begins her description of the event: "I read a story about how no animals were found among the dead after a tsunami; sensing the infinitesimal vibrat... posted on Jun 21, 84041 reads

History's Finest Letters of Motherly Advice
"Last year, we celebrated Father's Day with an omnibus of history's finest letters of fatherly advice, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Jackson Pollock, and Neil Armstrong. Later adding to them was more timeless epistolary advice from notable dads like Ted Hughes, Sherwood Anderson, Richard Dawkins, and Charles Dickens. It's only fitting to honor Mother's Day with a similarly spirite... posted on May 12, 20672 reads

Survival of the Nicest
In 1871, Charles Darwin proposed that the human species had succeeded because of traits like sharing and compassion. "Those communities," he wrote, "which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring." Nearly 150 years later, modern science is confirming Darwin's hypothesis -- with practical implications for how we rela... posted on Jul 15, 37893 reads

This Is Your Brain on the Internet
We are bombarded by information, thanks in large part to the internet and its allied technologies. But exposure to unlimited information is not the same thing as the ability to capture it as knowledge or synthesize it as understanding. "We are living in a state of perpetual distraction," says Nicholas Carr, "which crowds out the more contemplative, calmer modes of thinking." We need these quieter,... posted on May 31, 9105 reads

The Keys To Self-Acceptance
Self-criticism is so common that it is often taken for granted. It is the voice that urges you to stay up late to get work done, and then scolds you for not getting enough sleep when you feel tired the next morning. This pattern of self-criticism leads to misery more often than motivation. Self-compassion, on the other hand, has been associated with happier, more optimistic, and more productive li... posted on Jul 21, 69435 reads

Seattle's One of A Kind Food Forest
Can food be free, fresh, and easily accessible? That's the bold question the city of Seattle is hoping to answer with a new experimental farm near downtown that will have fruits and vegetables for anyone to harvest. The planners have discussed what would happen if someone picks all the fruit for themselves. "But that's been perceived as a good thing," says one of the project architects. "We'll jus... posted on Jun 1, 6640 reads

The Ten Gifts of A Servant Leader
"As many small trickles of water feed the mightiest of rivers, the growing number of individuals and organizations practicing servant-leadership has increased into a torrent, one that carries with it a deep current of meaning and passion. Robert K. Greenleaf 's idea of servant-leadership, now in its fourth decade as a concept bearing that name, continues to create a quiet revolution in workplaces ... posted on Jun 4, 122963 reads

Ten Principles Of Purpose
How do you know what your calling is? And how do you make it happen? Echoing Green has interviewed hundreds of social entrepreneurs over the last 25 years who each found their purpose and manifested it in the world. From their stories, Echoing Green culled ten principles for identifying your purpose and putting it into action. Read on to learn what the ten principles are.... posted on Jun 11, 67424 reads