The Poet Sarah Kay on How We Measure Creative Success
When discussing the legitimacy of her poetry, Sarah Kay answers, "I think my work, from a broad perspective -- by this I mean my work as a writer, teacher, organizer, human -- is about trying to invite people in and create spaces where people feel welcome and comfortable with poetry, but are still creatively challenged. When that's happening, that feels like success to me." This piece offers a li... posted on Mar 21, 6220 reads

Reframing Our Relationship to That We Don't Control
A palliative care physician, Dr. B.J. Miller brings design sensibility to the art of living until we die. He learned to see life as a "creative enterprise" and largely redesigned his own physical presence after an accident in which lightning struck him with 11,000 volts, leaving him without both of his legs and part of one arm. Tune in to his wisdom on how we can reframe our relationship to our im... posted on Apr 4, 26183 reads

Camden Sophisticated Sisters
In the former industrial center of Camden, New Jersey, a city with the highest crime rate in the United States, Tawanda Jones drills over 300 children at Camden Sophisticated Sisters. Practice starts at 5pm, but doesn't really get going until 5:30pm, after "Miss Wawa" has hugged and kissed all the kids. Jones sets a tough standard: each team member must complete 200 hours of community service, kee... posted on Mar 24, 3015 reads

Science of Mindlessness and Mindfulness
Ellen Langer, a psychology professor at Harvard, defines mindfulness as the simple act of actively noticing things, which can bring increased health, competence, and happiness. Her provocative, unconventional studies prove that it's possible to become physiologically younger through a changed frame of mind. She has suggested for decades what neuroscience is pointing to now: that our experience of ... posted on Mar 28, 26421 reads

Remember to Remember
"When I was in the fourth grade, in the summertime when it would rain, we would always go out on a friend's porch and sit there all in a row, enjoying ourselves just looking out at the world, hearing the rain come down. And once, when I was meditating, I thought, Why not just be inside myself like that, just looking out? And by God, it was just like sitting on the porch, looking out at the rain! T... posted on Apr 2, 10458 reads

5 Things Science Says Will Make You Happier
Happy people are healthier; they get sick less often and live longer. They have more friends, make more money and are more productive at work. Decades of research show that happiness is not just a personal issue, but a matter of public health, global economics, and national well-being. Although it isn't easy, there are some proven methods...... posted on Apr 29, 70119 reads

Everyday Conversations to Heal Racism
"I am a second-generation Mexican American leadership coach and elder living in California. I experienced so much prejudice and racism during my young adulthood that for years I avoided even being in the presence of white people. Finally, well into my 30s, I realized that the wounds and pain I carried were robbing me of my full potential. I could do better than be angry at other people; I could wo... posted on Apr 8, 11025 reads

House Calls for the Homeless
In 1992, Dr. Jim Withers camouflaged himself as a homeless man to make medical visits to people living on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was shocked to find out how ill people were. In 24 years, Withers' "street medicine" has reached over 10,000 people, and his comprehensive program, Operation Safety Net, provides mobile medical vans, drop-in centers and helps advocate for insurance a... posted on Apr 21, 3522 reads

The Disease of Being Busy
How did we get so busy that we no longer have time for each other? What happened to a world in which we can sit with the people we love so much and have slow conversations about the state of our heart and soul, conversations that slowly unfold, conversations with pregnant pauses and silences that we are in no rush to fill?... posted on Jul 17, 37936 reads

Changing the World One Word at a Time
Listen to Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen, members of the Get Lit organization, who are determined to change the world, one word at a time. In this performance of "Somewhere in America," they open for singer John Legend at the Hollywood Bowl. The poem calls to attention the kind of information passed along unintentionally in classrooms, and addresses some hard truths and dark... posted on Apr 27, 4713 reads

Everything is Incredible
How often do we burden imagination - and the artistic product of imagination - with prosaic expectations appropriate only to the physical realities of the mundane world? What is the cost of these blinders? And what is the power of an unfettered creative process? These themes, and many others, are explored in this beautiful film, which tells the story of a poor, bent, Honduran villager who has been... posted on May 3, 3884 reads

Thinking Like An Ecosystem
Ecology is all about interconnection and unending change, creating patterns of causation that shape every organism and phenomenon, so "thinking like an ecosystem" means living in the perpetual "why." An eco-mind is also able to see that our own species' thriving, through our consciously creating the essential context for that thriving, determines the well-being, even the continuation, of other spe... posted on Jun 3, 12938 reads

What Would A Slow School Movement Look Like?
"Pausing to ponder the nature and consequences of a burger bar in the center of Rome was how a major eating revolution began. Carlo Petrini, a prominent Italian journalist, was walking past a newly opened McDonald's franchise when he stopped and said: If this is fast food, why not have Slow Food? In much the same way, I was thinking about the standards-based school curriculum, with its emphasis on... posted on May 18, 13844 reads

The Library of Things: Sharing More Than Books
Ever been in a situation where you want to take on a Do-it-Yourself project, only to be demoralized by having to go out and buy an item that you know you will likely use just once? Well, enter the local library in Sacramento, Calif., to perhaps -- once and for all -- solve this dilemma. Their project, aptly named the Library of Things, works just like how a library operates with books, enabling pe... posted on May 25, 13588 reads

Iris Grace & Thula: A Girl & Her Cat
Iris Grace Halmshaw, is an extraordinary 5-year-old British girl who was diagnosed with autism three years ago. In the first few years of her life she barely communicated. Painting proved to be an unexpected outlet, and her ethereal creations stunned not just her family, but the art world at large. "While Iris has been painting for more than 18 months now, a new friend joined her family just befo... posted on May 14, 20328 reads

7 Lessons About Finding the Work You Were Meant to Do
"Finding your calling -- it's not passive," [StoryCorps founder Dave Isay] says. "When people have found their calling, they've made tough decisions and sacrifices in order to do the work they were meant to do."In other words, you don't just "find" your calling -- you have to fight for it. And it's worth the fight. "People who've found their calling have a fire about them," says Isay, the winner o... posted on May 13, 17502 reads

Finding Meaning in a Digital Age
Almost 200 million bloggers on the internet create a new blog every half second. Homaira Kabir regrets that writing "now comes in bite-sized pieces for a public looking for ease and entertainment, and hungry for information." But in her grandfather's journal she read about "a time where people had the heart to pause their own lives in order to embrace each other's struggles... After all life happ... posted on May 23, 15064 reads

The Thank You Project
In 2004, Kellie Haddock and her newborn son were in a horrible accident that took her husband's life. 10 years later, Haddock spent 6 months tracking down the people who saved her son's life and organized an event in their honor. Some of the caregivers had never been thanked before for what they do. "There is so much wrong in the world and it's so easy to point out what people are doing wrong. We ... posted on May 24, 4350 reads

Rising to the Occasion: Unleashing Our True Potential
"I remember a dream of long ago -- we all have this kind of dream, I think -- in which I came onto the stage to play a solo organ recital. The audience applauded and quieted down, I took my seat on the organ bench, placed the music just so, my fingers on the keyboard, and then realized I'd never played the organ before. I was a flute player, for God's sake! I had no ideas what to do next, but it w... posted on Jun 6, 12106 reads

Allow Breathe Curious: A Coloring Book for Mindfulness
"Allow Breathe Curious" is a unique collaboration that emerged from one mother's budding interest in mindfulness and her daughter's deep-seated conviction that art can be an instrument of positive change. A series of sleepless nights prompted Anne to develop a list of words to foster mindfulness. Starting with 'Allow' the list grew over time to include all of the letters of the alphabet. When her ... posted on Jun 1, 17528 reads

Why We Feel Awe
"News stories and social media posts inundate us every day with tips for greater happiness, health, and general well-being. But who has time to fit them into our already packed schedules? Recently, though, my research has led me to believe that one simple prescription can have transformative effects: look for more daily experiences of awe. This doesn't require a trek to the mountains. What the sci... posted on Jun 2, 17211 reads

Whitefoot: Wendell Berry Tells the Story of a Mouse
"Her name was Peromyscus leucopus, but she did not know it. I think it had been a long time since the mice around Port William spoke English, let alone Latin. Her language was a dialect of Mouse, a tongue for which we humans have never developed a vocabulary or a grammar. Because I dont know her name in Mouse, I will call her Whitefoot. The name fits because her four small feet and all the undersi... posted on Jun 8, 7363 reads

Optimism in the Dark Night
"In the process of writing this song I was made to look deeply into the nature of optimism in the face of dire facts. Is optimism naiive, simplistic? Does it require living behind rose-colored glasses in denial of the truth? After all, how can any of us feel hopeful about our earth's ecosystem and how it is trending?" Singer and song-writer Gayan Macher offers up his new song, "Earth on Fire,... posted on Jun 12, 14528 reads

The DNA Journey
Travel search site Momondo conducted a DNA experiment with 67 people from around the world and asked: do you dare question who you really are? Participants were asked what they thought the test would uncover, and were also encouraged to share some of their views and prejudices about people from different parts of the world. Some weeks later they were invited back. Watch the surprising results.... posted on Jun 13, 6936 reads

Beyond the Known Territory
"When I was in my twenties, I would let myself go and when an image came up, I'd paint it. I'd have a piece of paper and ideas would come to me, and I'd try to depict them. Looking at these later, I'd see things revealed -- childhood memories or hidden things going on in my life -- these things would be there. But when I did the painting, I wouldn't see any of this." Rue Harrison talks about the m... posted on Jun 15, 7940 reads

Housecalls for the Homebound
When Dr. Samuel Lupin's critically-ill daughter passed away he was understandably devastated. Then he channeled his grief into serving other patients who, like his late daughter, were fragile and housebound. ""Because of her, I got involved in this," he says. "You sort of feel like, these are my patients, this is my extended family, and they need me much more than patients in an office." Little di... posted on Jun 18, 36206 reads

Navajo Justice: Life Comes From It
"The Navajo word for "law" is beehaz-aanii. It means something fundamental and absolute, something that has existed from the beginning of time...It's the source of a healthy, meaningful life. Navajos say that "life comes from beehaz-aanii," because it is the essence of life. Imagine a system of law that permits anyone to say anything they like during the course of a dispute, and no authority figur... posted on Jun 30, 22808 reads

What Science Taught Me About Gratitude, Compassion & Awe
Dacher Keltner, world renowned psychologist and researcher credited with expanding the field of science to include emotions, offers thought leadership that can shift our cultural narrative towards kindness and care. He shows us that the levels of the basic human nervous system include compassion (through experiments in which images of human suffering lit up the subjects' mammalian nervous system),... posted on Nov 4, 31444 reads

Wendell Berry: What Are People For?
In these poems Wendell Berry — poet, novelist and environmental activist — writes about what it means to be human, the human experience of solitude, of community, of love and work, of desire and despair.... posted on Jul 18, 34483 reads

What Role Were You Born to Play in Social Change?
Bill Moyer was "best known for identifying eight stages of successful social movements, which he named the Movement Action Plan, or MAP...he also invented a powerful tool that clarifies how we work for change on two levels: individually and organizationally.Four Roles of Social Activism" This article delves into the roles of advocate, helper, organizer, and rebel, and how we can embody them effect... posted on Jun 27, 16405 reads

Paying Attention, Discovering Joy
When asked whether the poems she wrote helped connect her to the joy they expressed, poet Barbara Crooker had this to say, "I write from personal experience. If you look at the facts of my life, you might not think that there would be much reason for rejoicing. My first child was stillborn and my first marriage fell apart partly because of this, my third daughter had a traumatic brain injury when ... posted on Jul 26, 11370 reads

Living Gandhi's Message In Inner City Oakland
Francisco ("Pancho") Ramos-Stierle's life changed abruptly when he learned that the university where he was pursuing his PhD was working with an outside laboratory to develop next generation nuclear weapons. At that time, he refocused his life on service and activism. He explains, "I began to evolve my definition of success. It wasn't just about me getting to do what I wanted to do; it was finding... posted on Aug 23, 17303 reads

How Anxiety Reduces Empathy
It turns out that anxiety can have a negative effect on not just ourselves, but our dealings with others. In a recent series of studies on how specific emotions influence perspective taking, participants experiencing emotions with uncertainty, like anxiety and surprise, displayed greater egocentrism than those feeling other emotions such as anger or disgust or even neutral feelings. When stressed ... posted on Jul 12, 22786 reads

Elie Wiesel's Nobel Acceptance Speech
Extraordinary Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel passed away this weekend at 87. He inspired millions with his messages of peace, atonement and human dignity. Maria Popova of Brain Pickings invites us to "Remember this luminous human being with his timeless, increasingly timely Nobel speech on human rights and our shared responsibility in ending injustice."... posted on Jul 4, 21198 reads

Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Grammar of Animacy
"Puhpowee...translates as 'the force which causes mushrooms to push up from the earth overnight.' As a biologist, [Robin Kimmerer] was stunned that such a word existed. In all its technical vocabulary, Western science has no such term, no words to hold this mystery. You'd think that biologists, of all people, would have words for life. But in scientific language our terminology is used to define t... posted on Aug 17, 11224 reads

Bolivia's Law of Mother Earth
Imagine a lake having the same rights as a landowner. Or a condor with the same rights as a child. Under Bolivia's historic Law of Mother Earth, signed into law in 2010, all entities in nature have equal rights to humans. Based on Andean spiritual principles, the law was enacted in an effort to curb climate change and the exploitation of Bolivia's natural resources. It spells out seven specific ri... posted on Jul 15, 32199 reads

Leadership & Authentic Self Esteem
"There was a time when we believed self-esteem to be the royal road to flourishing...However, later studies showed that increases in self-esteem did little for our happiness or performance, but ample for our egos. Professor Roy Baumeister's work with self-esteem showed that we'd been raising a generation of narcissists who went on to wreck havoc in their lives and in their workplaces. It now appea... posted on Oct 18, 16830 reads

A Tale of Two Americas and the Mini-Mart Where They Collided
Ten days after 9/11, a shocking attack at a Texas mini-mart shattered the lives of two men: the victim and the attacker. In this stunning talk, Anand Giridharadas, author of "The True American," tells the story of what happened next. It's a parable about the two paths an American life can take, and a powerful call for reconciliation.... posted on Jul 30, 24917 reads

10 Tips for Effective Communication
In this article, Liz Kingsnorth explores the ways we can improve our relationships with others at home, at work and with friends, by improving the way we communicate. Kingsnorth offers ten tips to keep in mind to communicate non-violently when engaging with the world, which include simple actionable steps like listening more than speaking, to more complex ideas exploring empathy and non-verbal co... posted on Aug 20, 177866 reads

The Fine Art of Taking Time
"When I tell people I'm an artist they usually tell me they can't draw. I'm not sure when art became conflated with realistically representing things by making marks on surfaces, but I bet it was before cameras and copy machines. I carved this rickshaw for my friend to print onto fabric so she could have a rickshaw skirt. The lack of perfection is part of the art. However, transferring informatio... posted on Sep 8, 14353 reads

6 Ways More Nature in Our Lives Can Reduce Violence in Our World
In some settings the natural world has the power to heal human hearts and prevent violence. That statement isn't based on modern Romanticism, but on a growing body of mainly correlative scientific evidence, with a tight focus on the impact of nearby nature. Read on to discover six reasons why meaningful relationships with nature may -- in concert with other approaches -- bolster mental health and ... posted on Nov 14, 18917 reads

The First Allergy-Friendly Food Bank
For people with food allergies or Celiac disease, groceries can be extremely expensive. Those on very limited budgets can get caught in a gap in the social safety net because available food products may be unsafe. Facing just this problem when her daughter was diagnosed with food allergies, Emily Brown worked with fellow mom, Amy Goode, to launch the Food Equality Initiative, aimed at making food ... posted on Oct 9, 9226 reads

Mumbai's Signal Shala: A School in a Shipping Container
"Signal Shala" or Signal School is a school that operates out of a shipping container under a flyover in Mumbai, India, and facilitates education for children who otherwise beg or sell small items at traffic signals to earn a living for themselves and their families. 28-year old Aarti Parab is a teacher at Signal Shala. In this article she shares what inspires her to co-create an environment of l... posted on Dec 8, 10920 reads

On the Relationship Between Failure, Humility and Wisdom
"Failure is like the original sin in the biblical narrative," according to philosophy professor Costica Bradatan, who is writing a book to be called "In Praise of Failure." He says that "regardless of class, caste, race, or gender, we are all born to fail, we practice failure for as long as we live, and pass it on to others. Yet failure gives us the chance to look at everything -- at the world, at... posted on Sep 13, 9071 reads

Arlene Samen: A Global Healer for Women
Arlene Samen has been a Nurse Practitioner in Maternal Fetal Medicine for over 33 years. In 1997, Arlene met the Dalai Lama and showed him what Interplast could offer children of Tibet. He said to her, "You must go into Tibet and help rural people. When you are on the path of service, all doors will open to you." That meeting deeply impacted the trajectory of Arlene's life of service. In 2004, she... posted on Jul 11, 7767 reads

Fleet Maull: Waking Up in Prison
Fleet Maull founded Prison Dharma Network in 1989 while serving a 14.5 year mandatory-minimum sentence for drug smuggling at a maximum security federal prison medical facility. He led a twice weekly meditation group in the prison chapel for 14 years and also helped start the first inside prison hospice program and provided daily care to dying prisoners until his release. In 1991, he founded Nation... posted on Sep 24, 14765 reads

A Bible Belt Church's Response to a Mosque
Leaders of a growing Muslim community in Memphis, Tennessee, wanted to build an Islamic center where they could gather not just to worship, but to host weddings and other parties; gather on weekends and holidays; house a day care for children; and have activities for the elderly. When they finally succeeded in purchasing a plot of land opposite a church, Dr. Bashir Shala, head of the board of trus... posted on Sep 29, 6084 reads

The Gift of Danger: Lessons from Aikido
"As I began to practice aikido, there were indeed moments when my own energies blended with those of another person and I had a taste of what I had hoped to find. But often I reacted unthinkingly when someone grabbed at my arm or struck toward my head. Id try to muscle through or, just as tensely, hold back from moving. As I witnessed these automatic outbreaks of fear and hostility, I began to rec... posted on Oct 13, 10953 reads

How to Raise an Environmentalist
"From climate change to overfishing to deforestation, it seems that we are on the brink of a natural disaster on an epic scale. If we cannot do something to reverse these trends, we will surely make our planet uninhabitable." So, what could spur people, especially children, into action? "Research indicates that motivating people to care takes more than just reciting facts and making doomsday predi... posted on Nov 3, 12464 reads

How to Protect Against Nature-Deficit Disorder
With today's use of technology, it can be easy to forget to go outside, but studies show that making this a habit can be bad for your health, especially for kids. In this interview with Richard Louv, author of the book, "Vitamin N: 500 Ways to Enrich the Health & Happiness of You Family & Community," Louv talks about the upsides of getting outside. Spending time in nature can result in a host of b... posted on Nov 23, 16637 reads