Storytelling & the Art of Tenderness
"Like all orientations of the spirit, tenderness is a story we tell ourselves -- about each other, about the world, about our place in it and our power in it. Like all narratives, the strength of our tenderness reflects the strength and sensitivity of our storytelling. That is what the Polish psychologist turned poet and novelist Olga Tokarczuk explores in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech." Maria... posted on Dec 9, 4095 reads

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
"Have you ever wondered about the lives of each person you pass on the street, realizing that everyone is the main character in their own story, each living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: 'sonder.' Or maybe you've watched a thunderstorm roll in and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would shake up your life. Thats called 'lachesism.' Or you were looking... posted on Dec 10, 8342 reads

You Can Grow New Brain Cells
Can we, as adults, grow new neurons? Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret says that we can, and she offers research and practical advice on how we can help our brains better perform neurogenesisimproving mood, increasing memory formation and preventing the decline associated with aging along the way.... posted on Dec 11, 3834 reads

Suleika Jaouad: Transforming Isolation into Creative Resilience
"According to a recent poll from the American Psychological Association, nearly half of U.S. adults said the pandemic has made planning for their future feel impossible. It makes sense. We can't go back to the lives we had before the coronavirus pandemic, but what lies ahead is murky. Many of us feel frozen, caught in a holding pattern -- in the liminal space between what was and what will be. Sul... posted on Dec 14, 2109 reads

Fishpeople: Lives Transformed By The Sea
This breathtaking film tells the story of people who are dedicating their lives to the sea. From Hawaii, Tahiti, Catalina Island, Antarctica, Australia and San Francisco, we witness spectacular images of the ocean as we are introduced to: a woman spearfisher who expresses compassion for her prey, an endurance swimmer, a photographer who captures the vast expansiveness of the ocean with his camera,... posted on Dec 17, 1627 reads

Earwitness to Place
"Seeing is a relatively passive event. Hearing, on the other hand, is almost entirely physical; component parts of our being respond to incoming waves of air pressure, oscillating in cyclical patterns that are transformed into meaningful signals, indicators that are life-affirming and comforting, or irrelevant, or predictive of danger. Every living organism produces some kind of signal. Hearing th... posted on Dec 29, 1449 reads

Doorways to Our Childhood Selves
"At the beginning of each new year, I consider my favorite poets, writers, poems, and stories. They provide ways to claim a voice yet to be discovered. I write about this in an essay, 'Doorways to Our Childhood Selves.' After we published this essay last year, I was deeply touched to hear from many of you who had written to me to share your own relationship to stories and how they continue to impa... posted on Jan 2, 2615 reads

The Best Greater Good Articles of 2022
Here is a fascinating round-up of the most-read Greater Good articles from the past year-- along with favorites picked by their editors. Ranging from ways to stop procrastinating, and how to stay open in difficult conversations, to how to learn from your failures and how to know if you are actually humble-- there is something to intrigue, inspire and illuminate each of us.... posted on Jan 3, 2993 reads

How to Question Your Own Decisions
"When the Nobel Prizewinning physicist Arno Penzias was asked what led to his success, he explained that he made a daily habit of asking what he called "the jugular question." Penzias said, The first thing I do each morning is ask myself, Why do I strongly believe what I believe? Penzias felt it was critical to constantly examine your own assumptions. And this is important to do whenever making de... posted on Jan 12, 2198 reads

The Just Listen Project
Toussaint Bailey, a "husband, father, son, brother, executive and Black man in America," like so many others, has experienced daily the pain of racism. His sense of rage, sadness and confusion became more prominent after overtly racist events of the past few years. Struggling with how to continue to function as a Black CEO in a nearly all white firm, he had for the first time an authentic, raw con... posted on Jan 13, 1765 reads

Two Types of Heartbreak
"A disciple asks the rebbe: Why does Torah tell us to place these words upon your hearts? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts? The rebbe answers: It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in. The following... posted on Jan 15, 3303 reads

The Matter with Things
"Iain McGilchrist is psychiatrist, neurologist, philosopher and writer whose seminal work, The Master and His Emissary (2009) presented the notion that the two hemispheres of the human brain approach the world in two very different ways. He argues passionately for the importance often overlooked in the modern world of the right hemisphere, which sees the world as a unified, living process. In hi... posted on Jan 23, 2048 reads

Meeting Our World Views
"It's common these days to hear calls for new worldviews. These calls are often accompanied by a condemnation of the current ways of thinking, doing, and being. My claim is that every worldview is attempting to take care of something. And if we don't acknowledge and respect these aspects of our current worldviews, then they wont fundamentally change." Alexander Carabi shares more.... posted on Jan 24, 1432 reads

Creativity & Leadership in Learning Communities
"Every living system occasionally encounters points of instability, at which some of its structures break down and new structures, or new forms of behavior, emerge. The spontaneous emergence of order -- of new structures and new forms of behavior--is one of the hallmarks of life. This phenomenon, often simply called emergence, has been recognized as the basis of development, learning, and evolutio... posted on Jan 25, 1229 reads

Putting the Power of Law in People's Hands
What can you do when the wheels of justice don't turn fast enough? Or when they don't turn at all? Vivek Maru is working to transform the relationship between people and law, turning law from an abstraction or threat into something that everyone can understand, use and shape. Instead of relying solely on lawyers, Maru started a global network of community paralegals, or barefoot lawyers, who serve... posted on Jan 26, 1199 reads

The Practice of Story Stewardship
"I'm going to start by acknowledging that I've been wrong about something for years. For two decades, I've said, "We need to understand emotion so we can recognize it in ourselves and others." Without exaggeration, I've said this thousands of times, and I've heard it from other researchers at least that much. Well, let me go on the record right now: I no longer believe that we can recognize emotio... posted on Jan 28, 3485 reads

3 Steps to Build Peace & Create Change
"As the child of Holocaust survivors and a World War II refugee herself, peace builder Georgette Bennett was stunned by the human toll and tragedy of the Syrian civil war. She got to work, bringing together historical enemies to build an aid pipeline from Israel to Syria -- a feat many considered impossible, but has since helped millions. Through this inspiring story of unlikely partnership, Benne... posted on Jan 31, 2784 reads

David Bohm: On Dialog
"Krishnamurti said that to be is to be related. But relationship can be very painful. He said that you have to think/feel out all your mental processes and work them through, and then that will open the way to something else. And I think that is what can happen in the dialogue group. Certain painful things can happen for some people; you have to work it all out. This is part of what I consider dia... posted on Feb 12, 4319 reads

Finding Wonderland
The secret is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. Its then, only then, that youll find Wonderland. Lize Venter speaks of her lost innocence through abuse that cast a dark line through her childhood, causing fear and nightmares. She shares her current life filled with love of her family and the many animals who are part of that family, as she urges viewers to surround themse... posted on Feb 17, 1806 reads

Young Forever: Why Balance Matters
"The hallmarks of aging are how our biology becomes out of balance. Conventional medicine describes the what: what disease, what pathway is dysfunctional, what drug to take. The model of functional medicine guides us to the why, to the root causes of diseases and aging. Many longevity research efforts focus on just treating the hallmarks of aging, without treating their underlying causes. That's w... posted on Mar 2, 4510 reads

The Seven Types of Rest Everyone Needs
"Have you ever tried to fix an ongoing lack of energy by getting more sleep -- only to do so and still feel exhausted? If that's you, here's the secret: Sleep and rest are not the same thing, although many of us incorrectly confuse the two. We go through life thinking we've rested because we have gotten enough sleep -- but in reality we are missing out on the other types of rest we desperately nee... posted on Mar 21, 15176 reads

A Concerto is a Conversation
When we achieve anything in life, "we" is the operative word. We are supported by the life choices and dreams of others. Kris Bowers, a virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer, recounts the collective story of his family. His 91-year-old grandfather traces their shared choices and dreams from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.... posted on Mar 31, 1212 reads

Say Wow: A Conversation with Poet Chelan Harkin
At the age of 21, on a pilgrimage to Israel, Chelan Harkin found herself sitting alone in the same cell that some 140 years earlier had confined the founder of the Baha'i faith. The quietude was suddenly broken by a voice she took to be the Persian prophet's spirit saying, "Let us dance." This unexpected invitation cracked her heart wide open and spontaneously led her to fill the resonant chamber ... posted on Apr 1, 5038 reads

The Enneagram: Nine Pathways to Presence
"Russ Hudson is one of the world's foremost teachers and developers of the Enneagram personality typology system, having coauthored (with Don Richard Riso) five bestselling books on the subject...In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Russ about the original purpose of the Enneagram, how our personality types are linked to a deeper level of awareness, and how we can use the Enneagram system to co... posted on Apr 7, 6541 reads

The Art of Lying Fallow
"I suspect our ability to ask the unanswerable questions that Hannah Arendt knew are the heartbeat of civilization is intimately related to our capacity for dwelling in a particular state of being beyond the realm of our compulsive doing. Bertrand Russell called it "fruitful monotony." Adam Phillips called it "fertile solitude." Walt Whitman called it "loafing." The Buddhist tradition describes it... posted on Apr 20, 5206 reads

To Be Made Whole
"Look, we are not unspectacular things.
We've come this far, survived this much.
What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?
What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No.
No, to the rising tides.
Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?
What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain <... posted on Apr 22, 3523 reads

How to Grow Re-Enchanted with the World
"Katherine May explores what it takes to shed the cloak of meaninglessness and recover the sparkle of vitality in Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (public library) a shimmering chronicle of her own quest for a better way to walk through this life, a way that grants us the ability to sense magic in the everyday, to channel it through our minds and bodies, to be sustained by it. May ... posted on Apr 25, 4069 reads

The Men of Rice: A Conversation with Eduardo del Conde
"They were working with big baskets. They would cut a few rice plants at a time and hit them on edge of the basket so the rice seeds would shake out. It was like a dance. It was a very beautiful place. It was one of those days when you feel completely overwhelmed." So recounts photographer Eduardo del Conde, telling of his first encounter with field workers harvesting rice south of Mexico City. Li... posted on Apr 27, 1235 reads

Visions of Indigenous Futures
"The project began with a number: 562. It was the number of federally recognized tribes in the United States when photographer Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) quit her job, packed her camera, and hit the road in 2012 to try to photograph a member of every tribe. A decade later, Wilburs efforts are bearing fruit in the form of a new book, Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America (T... posted on May 7, 1837 reads

Frida Kahlo: The Woman Behind the Legend
"In 1925, Frida Kahlo was on her way home from school in Mexico City when the bus she was riding collided with a streetcar. She suffered near-fatal injuries and her disability became a major theme in her paintings. Over the course of her life, she would establish herself as the creator and muse behind extraordinary pieces of art. Iseult Gillespie dives into the life and work of Frida Kahlo in this... posted on May 8, 3000 reads

Beauty & the Dumpster
One day, Meredith Sabini found a large dumpster in front of her neighbor's house, packed with all her treasures and belongings. The widow had passed on and her family members quickly loaded her possessions and left the dumpster behind. Ms. Sabini, founder of The Dream Institute of Northern California in Berkeley whose mission is to restore the dream as a cultural resource, muses: "It is common the... posted on May 27, 25328 reads

A Primordial Covenant of Relationship
"In this talk given at St. Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in London, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee speaks about what it looks like to live in an unfolding apocalyptic reality and the creative possibilities that are waiting to be embodied. In this time of deep uncertainty, he reminds us of the ancient, primordial covenant of relationship with the living world that can give us a ground to st... posted on Jun 1, 3455 reads

Christopher Titmuss: Adventures of the Spirit
"We must remember we are exhaustible. We need renewal. Silence, quietude, time alone, naturally gives that. Then we can come back in to serve others in small ways. That we do. Then we take time for renewal. Jesus, the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and all the great sages recognize the importance of connection with others to serve, then step back from that into quietness, then renewal, and then serve. Thi... posted on Jun 6, 2508 reads

Lion Heart
Luzuko Madonci wanted to be a lion when he was a child. His friends laughed at him. And yet as an adult he has indeed developed the heart of a lion, exhibited by his joyous wholehearted laughter, his confidence, and his courage in the face of trials. Having overcome childhood trauma, he has learned to embrace his emotions and to see pain as a helper, a teacher, a residue of something good that is ... posted on Jun 16, 2356 reads

Jacques Lusseryn: I Loved in a Stream of Light
French author and political activist Jacques Lusseyran (1924-1971) was blinded at the age of 7. In 1941, at the age of 17, he became a leader in the French resistance against Nazi Germany's occupation of France. Eventually, he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp because of his involvement in the resistance. He was one of 30 out of 2000 inmates in his group to survive. Later, he wrote about h... posted on Dec 17, 2164 reads

Jenny Odell: Another Kind of Time
"What songs are audible when the wind stops? What has been kept alive in the time snatched from work and sheltered from ongoing destructionwhat moments of recognition, what ways of relating, what other imagined worlds, what other selves? What other kinds of time?" In this conversation, artist and writer Jenny Odell points beyond the domination of clock time toward ways of being that are more in tu... posted on Jul 23, 2972 reads

Seth Godin: The Song of Significance
When Seth Godin made an exception to his no-flying for work rule to help run a conference for entrepreneurs working on climate, issues, it was at the request of a man named Dan in Australia whose 10-year-old daughter was born with health issues. The day before the conference the man let him know his daughter wasn't feeling well, so he wouldn't be there in person. Seth ended up running the conferen... posted on Jul 31, 2985 reads

Hope and Feathers
"Africa is a place we all have in common. It is the widely acknowledged cradle of humankind, as most anthropologists agree that our hominid ancestors likely evolved there. So an Evolutionary Eve, mother to all of us regardless of race, ethnicity, or nationality, likely padded across the African plains. Given this multimillion-year perspective, I or anyone else should've been awestruck at the prosp... posted on Aug 16, 1469 reads

Haben Girma: Transforming Constraints to Creative Opportunity
"As the first deafblind graduate from Harvard Law School, Haben Girma aims to help eradicate what she calls "ableism" in society, the assumption that disabled people are inferior. "We are not inferior. But society often sends this message," she says. Now a distinguished human rights lawyer advocating for disability justice, she is an internationally recognized beacon of empowerment and inclusivity... posted on Oct 17, 1287 reads

The Art of Paying Attention
"In an invitation to slow down and look at the world around you, graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton illustrates how drawing can spark deeply human, authentic connections. Ready to try? Grab a pencil and join MacNaughton for this delightful talk. "Drawing is looking, and looking is loving," she says."... posted on Oct 21, 6090 reads

The Endless Vows
"There are four vows we can practice in any given moment that will return us to what matters, that will return us to ourselves and each other. They are simple and always in reach, though they require everything from us. They are the utterances: help, thank you, I'm sorry, and I love you." Poet Mark Nepo shares more in this piece from Parabola magazine.... posted on Oct 28, 2456 reads

Beware the Fairy Host
"In Ireland, Halloween (Samhain) is a major temporal hingewhen the year turns from light to dark, and the boundary between the living and dead, the fantastic and the mundane, grows gossamer thin. Orion's science editor, Natalie Middleton, caught up with Jonny Dillon, archivist of the National Folklore Collection at the University College of Dublin to find out what fairies can teach us about naviga... posted on Nov 2, 1990 reads

The End is an Illusion
The uplifting words and music of Jont are accompanied by a heart warming video display of loving connections, providing a healing combination of "medicine the world needs right now." With the focus on a sense of belonging and living fully, it is a joyous reminder that "connecting to the love will keep us safe and we will be just fine. We will be just fine."... posted on Nov 3, 2430 reads

Passing Through the Storm
"What does it mean to be a person? Inevitably we think of people as individuals. A Google search supported by an experimental generative AI defines personhood as a state of being characterized by properties including intelligence, the capacity to speak a language, creativity, the ability to make moral judgments, consciousness, a soul, self-awareness. A person, Googles A.I. informed me, is also det... posted on Nov 4, 2052 reads

The Edge of the Sacred
"The idea of sacredness tends to come up often in my work. What anoints something as sacred? Its a question I often receive as a Din poet talking to audiences across the country. But its a subject I feel I cant talk to, because that kind of esoteric knowledge is unreachable. Not in the sense that I cant learn it, because I can. Its unreachable in the sense that perhaps I am not ready to learn it, ... posted on Nov 9, 1574 reads

Could Creativity Transform Medicine?
"Medicine has a "creativity problem," Emily Peters says, and too many people working in health care are resigned to the status quo, the dehumanizing bureaucracy. That's why it's time to call in the artists, she argues, the people with the skills to envision a radically better future. In her new book, Artists Remaking Medicine, Peters collaborated with artists, writers and musicians, including some... posted on Nov 15, 1501 reads

Metaphors of Movement
"In his 1914 poem The Best Friend, the Welsh poet and occasional vagabond W.H. Davies pondered a timeless question: Now shall I walk, or should I ride? This seemingly simple dilemma encapsulates the modern industrial choice between slow-paced ageless wandering on foot or embracing the thrill of motorized transport, along with the attendant speed and freedom it offers, which has become such an inte... posted on Nov 22, 2709 reads

Grateful: A Love Song to the World
Musicians Nimo Patel and Daniel Nahmod brought together dozens of people from around the world to create this beautiful, heart-opening melody. Inspired by the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge, the song is a celebration of our spirit and all that is a blessing in life. For the 21 Days, over 11,000 participants from 118 countries learned that gratefulness is a habit cultivated consciously and a muscle bui... posted on Nov 23, 3917 reads

The Man Who Made Lonesome George Less Lonely
"In the middle of the Pacific the black, volcanic ruins of Pinta Island were once dotted by thousands of "living rocks," Galpagos tortoises chomping prickly cacti, hatching their babies, slowly chasing the equatorial sun. But the island was stripped bare over the 19th century, as hungry whalers discovered that they could be stored as fresh meat for a year without food or water in their ships' hold... posted on Dec 4, 1837 reads

The Unlikely Success of Wingspan
"We begin by angling a lamp toward the wall, allowing just the perfect amount of warm light to fall on the table. Windows are flung open, inviting the night air inside. Then, the careful act of removing each bag, box, and card. We fill clear, shallow bowls with small pastel eggseasily mistaken for Cadburys at first glance. Other bowls brim with cardboard tokens. And as I neatly unfold each players... posted on Dec 7, 2186 reads