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, 14768 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, 16639 reads

How Poetry Captivates Us
Robert Hass is one of contemporary American poetry's most celebrated and widely-read voices. He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-1997 and has won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the mid-1990s, Cofounder of the River of Words organization, which provides tools for teaching ecoliteracy to young students through multidisciplinary, interactive curricula, Hass is Distingui... posted on Nov 29, 10990 reads

The Power of Emotional Agility
Just like physical agility, emotional agility is important to overall health, well-being and successful relationships at work. Psychologist Susan David, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and author of the book, Emotional Agility, offers insights about the "critical skill set" needed to achieve emotional balance. She notes, "emotions help us not only to communicate with other people but also to ... posted on Nov 17, 13985 reads

Staying Alive: Mary Oliver on How Books Saved Her Life
"Adults can change their circumstances; children cannot...Whatever can take a child beyond such circumstances, therefore, is an alleviation and a blessing." Mary Oliver shares how books provided salvation, a place into which she could disappear, and how her passion for language helped her conquer her pain and find power through her work.... posted on Dec 7, 15958 reads

Do You Like Me? Do I?
""While I was at Facebook, I came up with an idea to solve a problem. Here was the problem. Lets say, I posted this awesome photo. Five or ten people might comment, and I'd feel great...But I soon noticed that people who didn't have something new or clever to say, might not say anything at all. They'd come up to me in the hallway and tell me they liked something I'd shared. WAIT A MINUTE. How muc... posted on Nov 21, 35475 reads

Thanksgiving Spotlight on Gratitude
On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday of November as a day to give thanks, a new national holiday, Thanksgiving. He urged his fellow citizens then embroiled in civil war to not lose sight of the gifts surrounding them, among them "fruitful fields and healthy skies." Lincoln understood that, even in the worst of times, gratitude is essential. As we celebrate Than... posted on Nov 24, 15070 reads

Annie Dillard: On Seeing
"When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. It was a curious compulsion; sadly, I've never been seized by it since. For some reason I always "hid" the penny along the same stretch of sidewalk up the street. I would cradle it at the roots of a sycamore, say, or in a hole left by a chipped-off piece of ... posted on Dec 1, 27256 reads

Annie Dillard: Living Like Weasels
Annie Dillard tells us we could learn from weasels "something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive...open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will...yielding, not fighting. A weasel doesn't "attack" anything; a weasel lives as he's meant to, yielding at every m... posted on May 25, 37251 reads

Wisdom from the Women at Standing Rock
"For months, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota has become ground for resistance against the construction of a crude-oil pipeline that desecrated sacred burial and prayer sites and threatens the water supply of the surrounding Native American community. The growing encampment of water protectors at Standing Rock has drawn supporters from across the United States amid escalating te... posted on Dec 5, 42051 reads

Moving the Giants: An Urgent Plan To Save The Planet
"Moving the Giants" tells the story of arborist David Milarch. In 1991, Milarch had a near death experience that inspired a radical restructuring of his life with a goal to harness the incredible life force of redwood trees to generate healing and change. His efforts among the redwoods serve two purposes: First, as the planet warms and conditions for these redwoods change in their southernmost ran... posted on Dec 12, 3279 reads

Digital Green: Helping Farmers Through Video
"Today what Rikin Gandhi and his 65-member team do at Digital Green, an independent, non-profit that he heads, is simple: train farmers to make and show short videos where they record their problems, share solutions and highlight success stories. They provide farmers with nifty $200 handheld, battery-operated, small, handheld pico projectors to show the videos to small groups of people in electric... posted on Dec 9, 4116 reads

Krista Tippett on Sounds True
In this interview with award-winning journalist and author Krista Tippet, she shares insights on journalism as a force for progress, beginning, first, with a good question and active listening: "Good listening starts even before words begin to be spoken, even before we speak the question. It starts with the invitation we create, the way we create the invitation, the space we create. If it's not tr... posted on Dec 31, 13548 reads

Maya Angelou: The Day I Learned the Value of a Smile
"My paternal grandmother who raised me had a remarkable influence on how I saw the world and how I reckoned my place in it. She was the picture of dignity. She spoke softly and walked slowly, with her hands behind her back, fingers laced together. I imitated her so successfully that neighbors called me her shadow. "Sister Henderson, I see you got your shadow with you again." Grandmother would look... posted on Dec 16, 24928 reads

Giving the Homeless a Hand Up with Technology
At HandUp.org, before you help someone in need, you can see their face, look into their eyes, see their children, their smile, read about their challenges, and even send them a message. In a meaningful way, HandUp.org connects donors with those in need. The brainchild of Rose Broome, HandUp.org fulfills a need she realized existed when saw a homeless woman sleeping on the street. Here she was in S... posted on Jan 2, 15291 reads

Kids in Hospital Receive Magical Christmas Surprise
This holiday season, kids in a hospital in Australia were able to see Santa and hang out in a winter wonderland without having to leave the building.In one day, photographer Karen Alsop took photos of 30 kids with Santa and a green screen at Monash Childrens Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. During their photo shoots, the patients expected a typical Santa photo. They had no idea Alsop had plans to... posted on Dec 25, 10564 reads

Barbara Crooker: Poetry as a Form of Love
"I believe the way we most fully integrate ourselves with the world, is through our senses. When I teach creative writing classes, I love it when I get a five-day class, so that each day I give them an exercise based on one of the senses. I think the electronic world makes us out of touch with our embodied selves. For me, nature is a huge source. I want to be outside. I want to turn to it. I want ... posted on Feb 3, 11898 reads

Welcome to Terra Sapiens
In this article, planetary astrobiogist David Grinspoon, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and adjunct professor of astrophysical and planetary science at University of Colorado, focuses on our growing knowledge of what we are doing to this world. He says “we have entered a new epoch of Earth history, one in which the net activity of humans has become an agent of global cha... posted on Jan 24, 5460 reads

Generation Waking Up
Kosmos: "You have been working with young people for a number of years now, Joshua. How is this generation different?" Josh Gorman: "There's a new generation of young people waking up and coming of age all across the planet, a generation rising between an old world dying and a new world being born. We are the make-it-or-break-it generation. The all-or-nothing generation." Gorman is the founder of ... posted on Jan 18, 12442 reads

How Behavioral Science Helps Tackle Big Issues
Over the past several decades, behavioral science researchers have uncovered a wealth of fascinating insights into the human mind. But much of this study has been confined to laboratories and academia. Alissa Fishbane is bucking that trend by applying the lessons from behavioral science to the social sector. As managing director of ideas24, her team advises governments and nonprofits about how to ... posted on Mar 15, 11928 reads

Say Your Truths & Seek Them In Others
In a lyrical, unexpectedly funny talk about heavy topics such as frayed relationships and the death of a loved one, Elizabeth Lesser describes the healing process of putting aside pride and defensiveness to make way for soul-baring and truth-telling. "You don't have to wait for a life-or-death situation to clean up the relationships that matter to you," she says. "Be like a new kind of first respo... posted on Feb 25, 24805 reads

This Woman's Novel Approach to Poverty Is A Game Changer
"Compass Working Capital's mission is to help struggling families build the savings and the skills they need to climb out of poverty. Compasss programs combine financial education and coaching, with incentives for saving. The asset-based approach works: 60 percent of families in the flagship program have increased their incomes by an average of $11,000 a year, and 81 percent have seen their saving... posted on Mar 2, 13208 reads

Living Needs Aging: A Conversation with Ashton Applewhite
In this interview ageism expert Ashton Applewhite discusses what she has learned over the course of her work. "People literally don't realize that it is no more acceptable to criticize someone on the basis of age than on the basis of anything else about themselves, I think the most important thing to think about is language-- because we live in a youth-oriented society, we tend to use young to equ... posted on Feb 22, 13899 reads

How Do We Wake Up?: A Conversation with Mark Dubois
"Nature's subtleness changed me even when I wasn't aware of it. In retrospect, I feel sort of like an insensitive oaf who got to play in the fields of the Lord and had no idea where I was, except it made all of us smile. So even if we don't have language or recognition of it, my experience is that nature works through us." Today, few people know better, or feel more deeply, our essential connectio... posted on Feb 13, 11015 reads

Removing Weeds, Tending Flowers: Reflections from a Changemaker
Last month, a remarkable gathering took place in Ahmedabad, India. Dubbed, "Gandhi 3.0" it was a retreat that brought together change-makers from around the world who aspire to drive that change from the inside out, through the power of inner transformation. One of the first speakers at the retreat was Sachi Maniar, a dynamic young filmmaker-turned-social-entrepreneur who devotes a significant par... posted on Feb 10, 13260 reads

Getting Unstuck: The Art of Possibility
We begin with grand plans for accomplishing a task, and too often end in frustration with having nothing done. What if we changed our view and looked at a rut as an opportunity instead of a problem? Rosamund Stone Zander, the author of "Getting Unstuck," helps us see the inner wisdom we all have. On her journey as a writer, slowing down is the key that opened a surge in creativity. She suggest... posted on Feb 27, 14502 reads

Gardens & the Art of Delayed Gratification
Alanda Greene grew up having spent time nurturing a deep connection with nature through gardening -- planting seeds and watching them grow. She remarks that even now, "no matter how many times I plant seeds, these small, hard beads of potential, I am thrilled when the signs of growth emerge. It is as if I never really believed it would happen this time. Seems just too improbable that those tiny ... posted on Jul 22, 10563 reads

Against the Clock: How Tech Has Changed Our Perception of Time
Alan Burdick's most recent book, "Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation," chronicles his quest to understand the nature of lived time. He recently joined Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist and author of "Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now," for a conversation on what we miss about the nature of time when we only think about it as a number. The conversation touches on the tension ... posted on May 23, 18423 reads

Esther the Wonder Pig
"She has a popularity rating most teenagers can only dream of. Her main Facebook page has more than 160,000 likes. Her musings about life with her two dads in Ontario, Canada, draw thousands of comments. And while she can't take selfies, her photos get forwarded around the world. Meet Esther the Wonder Pig who does more than make people laugh: evidence of what her human guardians call the "Esther ... posted on Mar 3, 22439 reads

Spotlight on Women Who Are Changing the World
While a woman's work is never done, just what that work is has changed dramatically in recent years. From financiers to social activists, inventors to world leaders, women are shaping the present and helping to build a stronger future. Together they are easing the burdens of poverty and fighting for social justice. Today marks International Women's Day. In celebration, this Daily Good Spotlight on... posted on Mar 8, 14879 reads

Greeting the Light: A Conversation with James Turrell
"I was a Quaker and then, for a while, I wasn't. And now I am again," Thus begins a deep conversation with one of the worlds most important artists. Learning to fly when he was sixteen, later he flew monks out of Tibet. "I feel like I've had several lifetimes in this life," he says. But light is this artist's subject."My grandmother told me that as you sat in Quaker silence you were to go inside t... posted on Mar 26, 15779 reads

The Newscaster Who Wouldn't Give Up On A Foster Child
For 25 years, retiring newscaster Gloria Campos has profiled foster children who were waiting to be adopted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the "Wednesday's Child" television segment at WFAA-TV. Campos estimates that, over the years, she has featured more than 350 children, 75 percent of whom were adopted thanks to her reporting. But of all those children, there was one young boy whose story she ... posted on Apr 19, 17792 reads

How Nature Makes Us Healthier and Happier
Studies show that communing with nature is beneficial for your health and your life socially, psychologically, and emotionally. The article in Yes Magazine discusses what these research studies have found regarding the benefits nature provides.... posted on Dec 7, 16527 reads

Billy Barr: The Snow Guardian
Who is Billy Barr and how has he single-handedly produced remarkable evidence of climate change? For the past four decades, Barr has lived alone in a cabin in the remote, ghost town of Gothic, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains, one of the United State's coldest locations. With no external incentives, or formal training in the field, he began keeping meticulous snowfall records to escape boredom duri... posted on Apr 15, 4217 reads

A Nobel Laureate on the Power of Not Knowing
"Surrender to not-knowing" was the catchphrase of poet Wislawa Szymborska who offered this as a guide to participate in the wonder of creation as an artist. Whether a scientist, poet, or everyday worker we are all artists as we become co-creators in life. As we step into each moment with the willingness to allow for the unexpected to unfold, we make art with the stuff of our lives. The alternative... posted on Apr 28, 12708 reads

This Is A Poem That Heals Fish
What is a poem? The beautiful children's book, 'This Is a Poem That Heals Fish', follows the journey of a young boy seeking to answer just that. Written by French poet Jean-Pierre Simen and brilliantly translated into English by Claudia Zoe Bedrick, the story is as moving as it is profound. Poetry, by its very nature, is often elusive, and this is reflected in the responses of the characters who a... posted on Apr 12, 18295 reads

Ask Him Anything
Mansoor Shams is a 34 year old U.S. Marine. He's also a Muslim whose family immigrated to America when he was just 6-years-old. In "Ask Him Anything: This Muslim Marine Wants to Bust Myths About His Faith" from PBS News Hour, Shams travels to 4 western U.S. cities to combat prejudice and open up a dialogue about the fears and prejudices people may have about Muslims and immigrants, often finding c... posted on May 7, 3228 reads

Brother David Steindl-Rast on Matters of Heart
When Brother David reached out to his readers of Integral Yoga Magazine in the 1970s to write him on any matter on life and the spirit, one reader responded with an inspired request on matters of the heart. What do we mean when we talk of the heart space? Is it courage? Faithfulness? In his response, Brother David illuminates his view on what it truly means to life from love - in a heart-centred e... posted on Jul 17, 11210 reads

Viktor Frankl & the Search for Meaning
Few books of the last century have had a greater impact on our quest for meaning than Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. This all-time bestseller was written by a Jewish man who had just lost everything in the Holocaust. When Frankl, emaciated from concentration camps, returned to his beloved Vienna, no one was there to meet him. His mother had been gassed at Auschwitz. His brother had been... posted on Apr 14, 58756 reads

Re-Imagining the World: An Artist's Remarkable Life Journey
They say that a creative adult is the child who survived. From an early age, Slobodan Dan Paich had a powerful awareness of his inner compass. In the decades since, it has led him across the globe and against many odds, to build community through art and to leverage the creative force for re-imagining the world. Slobodan reminds us how staying true to ourselves, and working with our fears, we can ... posted on May 11, 3259 reads

The Freedom of Real Apologies
In 2009, the U.S government quietly released the congressional resolution of "Apology to Native Peoples," hidden inside the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. In response, Layli Long Soldier authored WHEREAS, a book of pioneering poetry, which went on to receive the 2016 Whiting Award. Soldier, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, grew up in Arizona where she now teaches English at Di... posted on May 12, 6466 reads

Jeannie Kahwajy: Catching Everything As Help
"I want to catch what people are offering, catch everything as help; like Aikido. Aikido is a martial art where it doesn't matter what intention somebody is moving towards you with. I can always catch it as helpful energy -- I get to develop this redirecting skill." Jeannie Kahwajy is an executive coach and the CEO of Effective Interactions. She believes an attitude of love is the most effective w... posted on Apr 11, 15793 reads