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, 36529 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, 35393 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, 27444 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, 67334 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, 84044 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, 69437 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

At 18, He Taught Us How To Live Before He Died
"Every teenager believes they are invincible," said Zach Sobiech. "It's not the kind of invincible like Superman; it's the kind of invincible like, 'I'll see you in five months.'" Zach didn't have five months. He died of cancer on 20 May 2013, shortly after his 18th birthday. This film gives us glimpses of Zack's enormous capacity for love, his gentle humor, haunting music, and the quiet courage w... posted on May 25, 10027 reads

How the Internet Helped Us Learn How To Share
In 1996, poet and essayist John Perry Barlow created "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace." It was intended to serve as a bold announcement -- that a new era of human empowerment was near. "We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace," he offered. "May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before." And though, there were a few first rocky step... posted on Sep 4, 18280 reads

Robert Hass On Rivers & Stories
In this essay, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Robert Hass brings our attention to the potential resilience of rivers as stories across cultures, places, and time, that most of the life on earth depends on fresh water, and that like stories they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. In between they flow, if we let them...... posted on Oct 20, 22219 reads

10 Hypotheses on the Commons
"Question: before refrigerators, what did people do when they had too much food? Answer: they threw a party!" What happens when we adopt an attitude of abundance, and embrace this natural phenomenon in our lives? In this excerpt from his keynote address at the International Conference on the Commons, Roberto Verzola explores 10 connections between systems of abundance and the re-emerging "commons"... posted on Jun 15, 21600 reads

39 Ways to Live Not Merely Exist
"Too often we go through life on autopilot, going through the motions and having each day pass like the one before it... If you want to truly live life, to really experience it, to enjoy it to the fullest, instead of barely scraping by and only living a life of existence, then you need to find ways to break free from the mold and drink from life. What follows is just a list of ideas, obvious ones... posted on Jul 28, 301329 reads

The Heroic Imagination Project
What makes a hero? Are they exceptional people, or ordinary people who do extraordinary deeds? Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus in psychology from Stanford, and pioneer behind the infamous Stanford Prisoner Experiment, is working with high school students in Oakland and Los Altos to find the answer. Read more about his efforts to catalyze our "heroic imaginations" and inspire everyday heroes ac... posted on Oct 10, 15752 reads

A Romanian Truck Driver's Love of Underdogs
Truck driver Tamara Raab has made a couple of 2,000 mile round trip journeys to drive a massive load of donated dog and cat food, veterinary supplies and pet beds to animal shelters in Romania -- a global hot spot for animal cruelty and neglect. But this time she didn't have the 3,500 Euros required to pay the fuel. So she sought support from a nonprofit that sponsors major animal protection effor... posted on Jun 20, 29711 reads

Wonder: The Most Human of Emotions
What purpose does the feeling of wonder serve? It seems to have three essential components: sensory, cognitive, and physical, as in that breathless moment when we gasp and say 'Wow!' Finally, it has a dimension that can be described as spiritual. In other words, wonder seems to unite science and religion. This thoughtful essay shares more.... posted on Aug 6, 8960 reads

Making Good: The Art of Repair
"The 16th-century Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu is said to have ignored his host's fine Song Dynasty Chinese tea jar until the owner smashed it in despair at his indifference. After the shards had been painstakingly reassembled by the man's friends, Rikyu declared: 'Now, the piece is magnificent.' So it went in old Japan: when a treasured bowl fell to the floor, one didn't just sigh and reach f... posted on Jul 14, 6181 reads

How to Make Giving Feel Good
"On a fine summer morning in Vancouver, British Columbia, a graduate student approached passersby with a box of envelopes and an unusual request: "Are you willing to be in an experiment?" If people said yes, she asked them how happy they were, got their phone number, and handed them one of her mysterious envelopes. When people opened the envelope, they found a five dollar bill, accompanied by a s... posted on Nov 11, 33363 reads

Can Patriotism Be Compassionate?
Patriotism can be a tricky word in a world where love of one's country can sometimes be streaked with a fear or intolerance of other nations. But that's not the whole story..."When the Greater Good Science Center analyzed the results of its "connection to humanity" quiz, it found plenty of people who identified with both country and humanity. They are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, so far the res... posted on Jul 4, 20551 reads

Dad & Daughter: The Unstoppable Kindness Duo
"People talk about how if they win the lottery they can help so many people. You hear that all the time. But if you start actually doing small acts... it really is a great way to see the human connection and how little things really do matter -- even if it's just a compliment or a smile. It doesn't necessarily have to do with money." Geoff Nedry is a long-time kindness agent who early on found an ... posted on Sep 10, 24459 reads

Lessons In Living From A Cat Named Ali
At a recent retreat held in New Jersey, attendees were asked to think of a gift they had received that had a special impact on their lives. "One personal reflection of mine, took me down memory lane to about seven years ago, to a time when I was experiencing some hardships that wanted to come in a sequence of one after the other... However, a turning point came my way, by way of being given a gif... posted on Oct 4, 31109 reads

Unlocking the Mysteries of Time
"We construct the experience of time in our minds, so it follows that we are able to change the elements we find troubling -- whether it's trying to stop the years racing past, or speeding up time when we're stuck in a queue, trying to live more in the present, or working out how long ago we last saw our old friends. Time can be a friend, but it can also be an enemy. The trick is to harness it, wh... posted on Sep 25, 0 reads

A 40-Year-Old Photo That's Gone Viral
At what point do we begin to judge one another? To create these subtle distinctions which are based at times on nothing more than gender or race? These cracks in humanity where we allow a space for mistrust, suspicion and doubt to grow. In late July 1973, photographer Joseph Crachiola would snap an image that would become the cornerstone of many post-Zimmerman verdict discussions. Read more about ... posted on Aug 3, 18383 reads

We Have Never Been Alone
Have you witnessed another person's vulnerability and unabashed surrender to their pain in a way that leaves you in a deep and humbled awareness of your own wounds? In this piece Hannah Brencher writes with a poetry that captures the rawness of our shared human experience. She reminds us of the bond and companionship that is ironically inherent in one of the most complex human emotions -- Loneli... posted on Sep 15, 30833 reads

The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill
"Even before I released the disc, I knew it was a long shot. And, unfortunately, it was a clumsy one too. We were playing Ultimate Frisbee and we were tied 14-14 with a time cap. The next point would win the game. I watched the disc fly over the heads of both teams. Everyone but me ran down the field. I cringed, helplessly, as the disc wobbled and listed left. Still, I had hope it could go our way... posted on Sep 1, 43609 reads

Reclaiming the Streets
Expressing a need for ordinary citizens to come together and own their cities, young Nigerian-born artist and poet Inua Ellams has been leading impromptu 'runs' around London by night, searching the streets for alternative stories and new configurations. All over the world, through defiant protests, performances, citizen action, even unsolicited horticulture, the battle for civic space continues t... posted on Oct 31, 3835 reads

Relationships Are More Important than Ambition
Are you an ambitious person? How would you say you measure success in your life? In a society that so often defines worth in terms of material possessions, prestige and money, it can be easy to lose sight of the value that resides in our interpersonal connections and community. Click here to read a variety of studies and stories that illustrate how strong community connections correlate more close... posted on Sep 20, 26205 reads

A Philly School's Big Bet on Non Violence
So often our mindset is that we must 'control' violence, that we must set out to ensure that violence has no way of inserting itself onto the path we walk each day. And, with respect to our children, we instinctively build fortresses to shield them from harm and injury. But, in doing so aren't we instilling an attitude of continuous fear? Read what happens when a school in the most dangerous secti... posted on Oct 11, 22155 reads

The Teenager Who Started an Orphanage
On a not-so-uncommon trip to find herself after high school, Maggie Doyne ended up founding an orphanage and building a school in rural Nepal by the age of 23. It started when she made eye contact with an orphan girl in a small village who was carrying a heavy pack of stones to make money. Maggie saw, in that moment, what so many spiritual leaders have tried to distill in their teachings -- she kn... posted on Sep 17, 71434 reads

What Is Empathy?
"The term "empathy" is used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Contemporary researchers often differentiate between two types of empathy:: "Affective empathy" refers to the sensations and feelings we get in response... posted on Feb 5, 59171 reads

Love's Micro Moments of Connection
Is there any scientific basis for believing that love can stretch beyond the boundaries of our intimate relationships? What do the latest developments in human biology and psychology have to say? Barbara Fredrickson is better qualified than most other people to answer these questions. A professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leading figure in the burgeoning "positive ps... posted on Oct 17, 23432 reads

How to Design Neighborhoods for Happiness
Over the past 40 years we've seen a shrinking sense of community in America and this writer points at the design of our neighborhoods as a key factor in how to bring us back together. He writes about the New Urbanism, an "architectural movement to build new communities (and revitalize existing ones) by maximizing opportunities for social exchange: public plazas, front porches, corner stores, coffe... posted on Oct 15, 74767 reads

Peter Buffett: We're Not Doing Enough to Change the World
"We're always talking about lifting people out of poverty from living on two dollars a day, but I am thinking, how can we all live on two dollars a day?" If this quote sounds to you like an intriguing and different approach to philanthropy and world change, you may want to read on to learn more about Peter Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, and his critique of "philanthropic colonialism."... posted on Oct 8, 25239 reads

Camille Seaman: We All Belong to Earth
Camille Seaman, world traveler and renowned photographer, says that "Part of the magic of an artist is being able to sort of draw from the intangible and create a physical..." But Camille's was a bumpy road, and her story is unusual. Not the least of it is her almost instant success in the art world -- she is now a senior TED fellow. Read about her fascinating life in this interview.... posted on Dec 1, 22361 reads

Artship in America
Slobodan Dan Paich's bold vision as an artist has taken him across many different countries, peoples, and cultures. Through a series of improbable events that led him to become a child radio and film star in his native Yugoslavia, Slobodan has had an unusual life. In this interview at his very small apartment in San Francisco, Slobodan describes his fascinating journey from architectural experimen... posted on Nov 23, 15739 reads

A Shift to Humility: Resilience & Change
Andrew Zolli, the curator and executive director of PopTech, was interviewing a farmer in Kenya where climate effects have dramatically shifted rain patterns to the point where their crops have stopped growing. These farmers, mostly women, have had to leave their homes near schools, hospitals, and fixed infrastructure in order to survive. During the interview, she looked at Zolli in the eye and sa... posted on Dec 5, 23101 reads

The Truth About Love & Vulnerability
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will ... posted on Dec 13, 7500 reads

Carl Sagan & The Pale Blue Dot
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena...There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." These are the words of astronomer Carl Sagan, taken from his book Pa... posted on Apr 15, 23386 reads