The Magic of Spinning
When we turn to screens for connection, it's easy to lose touch with reality. Mimi Luebbermann is convinced that, the same way we need healthy organic food, we also crave the touch of real natural fiber and wool -- a sensation that is as old as we are. Hear more of her story and of the magic she is spinning at Windrush Farm in California.... posted on May 15, 11022 reads

Design For Amplifying Human Potential
As the proliferation of computers, websites and apps continue to explode at a seemingly never-ending pace, a serious question is starting to be asked: Is all this technological innovation helping -- or hindering -- the human experience? Tristan Harris believes we must figure out ways to ensure that these advancements are indeed helping amplify human potential, and not just simply being a massive ... posted on Jun 17, 15116 reads

How Science Helps Us Find the Good
How do we find the good in this world when troubles seem so near? Is it by way of gratitude and kindness, and turning away from all thought that impedes? This lovely article explores the many ways in which we can begin to cultivate our longer-term inner evolution by way of our awareness of good.... posted on May 24, 15386 reads

Nature Needs A New Pronoun
Singing whales, talking trees, dancing bees, birds who make art, fish who navigate, plants who learn and remember. We are surrounded by intelligences other than our own, by feathered people and people with leaves. But we've forgotten. There are many forces arrayed to help us forget -- even the language we speak.... posted on Jun 6, 18135 reads

Joseph Campbell on How To Find Your Bliss
Joseph Campbell's dictum, "Follow your bliss," has come to encapsulate his philosophy of life. Decades before the screaming tyranny of work/life balance reached its modern crescendo, Campbell heard the soul's cry and identified with enormous elegance and precision the root of our existential dissatisfaction.... posted on Jun 5, 19468 reads

5 Ways To Kill Your Dreams
For all the big dreamers out there: beware! Don't let your dreams fall prey to the myths of easy success, or stumble and fall in the face of overwhelming input. Bel Pesce delivers a TED talk for all those who wish to avoid the pitfalls that come between our dreams and their fulfillment.... posted on May 13, 36187 reads

It's About Your Stance Not Circumstance
"Jacques Verduin can speak with deep understanding about being worthy of our suffering. In 1997, he founded the Insight Prison Project, an innovative in-prison rehabilitative program in the notorious San Quentin prison, and later in 2011 the Insight-Out Program. There he works with violent offenders, listening to their stories, hearing what lies beneath their crimes. Through mindfulness training a... posted on May 29, 15230 reads

David Whyte on the True Meaning of Friendship, Love & Heartbreak
After a certain age, words flow from us, often without a second thought. So how can we come back into a conscious relationship with some of the most common words in our language? How can we return with fresh eyes to words like love and friendship? Poet David Whyte dives deeply into these terms, and encourages us to return to their visceral truths.... posted on May 12, 31100 reads

Dare to Disagree
"Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren't echo chambers -- and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree."... posted on Jun 10, 28543 reads

Emerson on the True Measure of Wisdom
"We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them...To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." In this article, Maria Popova shares quotes on how to live a rounded and rewarding life, from Emerson's beautiful essay titled "Experience". ... posted on Aug 3, 1613 reads

Cartographer of Meaning in a Digital Age
"The only way to glean knowledge is contemplation. And the road to that is time. There's nothing else. It's just time." Maria Popova's Brain Pickings started as a weekly email to seven friends in 2006. Now, it's a website read by hundreds of thousands across the globe. In this conversation with Krista Tippett, Maria shares a bit of her history, and the philosophical underpinnings of her "human-pow... posted on Jul 15, 12063 reads

Eulogy Vs Resume Virtues
Do you want to be remembered for the bullet points on your resume, or for the way you interacted with others on a daily basis? In a culture that often greatly favors the former, how do we cultivate the intangible values that form the cornerstones of a higher self? New York Times columnist David Brooks wrestles with these complex questions, and poses further inquiries to help guide our thinking and... posted on Jul 22, 33540 reads

Nancy Mellon: Storytelling as a Healing Art
I opened the classroom door to hear a robust Irish voice shouting to the children: What are you doing in here? I never heard such a hullabaloo in me life! The children all sat down immediately and put their toes together under their desks. I heard the voice continuing, "I come from the country called Ireland, and I am visiting your country to find out whether American children learn anything at al... posted on Jun 27, 17910 reads

The Heartwarming Sidewalk Project
Once a month for the past several years, with the help of a makeshift ice cream cart and an old-fashioned sewing machine, Michael Swaine has taken up a spot on the sidewalk in one of San Francisco's neediest neighborhoods. His mission? Mending clothes, people ... and a community, one stitch at a time. "Meeting these strangers is really an interesting part of what I find special about being alive."... posted on Jun 9, 28683 reads

The Life You Could Save
Armed with degrees from both Harvard and Yale, Kentaro Toyama has spent the better part of his adult life trying to come up with technological solutions to help quell social problems that continue to befall some of the world's poorest societies. But in his quest, Toyama ultimately discovered that it's people and not technology, that is the real driver of social change.... posted on Jul 28, 11846 reads

I Teach to Learn: Compassion in Education
"Learning, today, is heavily rooted in the material realm. It's almost an assembly line to get a job, to get money, to survive, and for the few who get past that -- to conquer. Materialistic endeavors are, of course, very useful to operate in the world, but it requires a very different skill-set to engage with our inner values." In this essay, Nipun Mehta explores what it takes to grow our "Compas... posted on Aug 14, 20597 reads

Do We See Reality As It Is?
Thomas Huxley once proclaimed that the fact that human consciousness results from something as mundane as irritating nervous tissue is as mysterious as the fact that a genie appears after Aladdin rubs his lamp. Professor of Cognitive Science, Donald Hoffman, believes that we have been unable to understand the mystery of consciousness not because we are incapable of comprehending it, but because we... posted on Jul 11, 30845 reads

Can You Teach People to Have Empathy?
"According to the latest neuroscience research, 98% of people (the exceptions include those with psychopathic tendencies) have the ability to empathise wired into their brains -- an in-built capacity for stepping into the shoes of others and understanding their feelings and perspectives.The problem is that most don't tap into their full empathic potential in everyday life."... posted on Aug 8, 23829 reads

4 Practices For Deepening Gratefulness
"Over the past two decades, much of the research on happiness can be boiled down to one main prescription: give thanks. Across hundreds of studies, practicing gratitude has been found to increase positive emotions, reduce the risk of depression, heighten relationship satisfaction, and increase resilience in the face of stressful life events, among other benefits. The problem is, gratitude doesn't... posted on Jul 27, 49936 reads

Grace Paley: On the Value of Not Understanding Everything
Like any artist, a writer is often a channel for expressing the ineffable. Thus how, in the midst of searching, can a writer consciously reach forth and grasp a wisp of truth? Grace Paley, poet, author, and activist, argues that it is in the counterintuitive embrace of "ununderstanding" that realness in writing reveals itself.... posted on Jul 31, 12846 reads

Stop Worrying About How Much You Matter
There are some who will exude happiness well into their nineties. And, others who willl fall into the predicament of feeling life has lost its purpose. But, what makes the difference? And, more importantly -- how do we maintain our inner sense of relevance through every circumstance? The answer could be much simpler than you might realize. Read on to discover simple practices to infuse a little mo... posted on Jul 21, 48950 reads

Uncommon Gratitude
"When I consider the places I've loved and lost, I long to bring them comfort...I who have been gifted by a place wish to figure out some way to return the gesture. But what kind of gift would be right for a scraped hillside slated for fracking? For calves confined to life in crates? For all the polluted rivers, clearcut forests, diminishing wildernesses, and smoldering dumps?"... posted on Jul 19, 7391 reads

Why We Do What We Do
What motivates our action? In this TED talk life coach and motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, shares his thoughts on the art of fulfillment. "It's about appreciation and contribution.," Robbins shares."You can only feel so much by yourself." In his talk he discusses the "invisible forces" that motivate everyone's actions ... posted on Aug 4, 17875 reads

How Awe Makes Us Generous
"What do the Grand Canyon, Sistine Chapel, and gazing at distant stars all have in common? They can awaken a deep appreciation for the world around us and inspire a profound sense of awe. This sensation is often accompanied by an awareness of something larger than ourselves -- that we play a small part in an intricate cosmic dance that is life." In this article, author Adam Hoffman describes rece... posted on Aug 28, 13327 reads

Moringa Project: An Improbable Project
Enjoy this unlikely story of how the seeds of persistence, trust, and faith brought together the most unlikely of friendships between a rural Ghanaian man and an American woodworker. But perhaps more importantly, it was the partnership that was established that has empowered many underprivileged people in some impoverished villages around Ghana, West Africa.... posted on Sep 13, 12937 reads

The Secret Life of the Senses
Our senses provide us with our etchings of reality, various fabrics we draw together to create a semblance of what is real. And yet, how different is the world to a bird, or to a bee, who perceives the world in ultraviolet? Diane Ackerman charts the history of our senses, and explores the mystery of these peculiar messengers, who together weave what is from what could be. ... posted on Aug 16, 6038 reads

The Fuel of Making Good Decisions
Don't think planning healthy meals and snacks during your day are important? Read this eye-opening article that illustrates the connection between good decision-making and healthy eating. ... posted on Aug 17, 31891 reads

A Track Inspector's Good Deed Goes Viral
"Everyone has it in their heart to do things like this." Those are the words spoken by Josh Cyganik, who one day decided to take action and simply turn a negative into a positive. Enjoy this uplifting story about how one man's inspiration ended up having a ripple effect that then inspired many others to help out an elderly man and his wife transform their home.... posted on Aug 25, 20781 reads

How Good Habits Can Make You Happier
One of life's enduring missions is the quest to create good habits. The big ones always come to the forefront: eating healthier, exercising more, becoming more productive. And as many of us know, the stumbling blocks are ever-present. But as Gretchen Rubin sees it, one of the keys to effectively generating good habits is simply knowing yourself, stating, "Shape the habit to suit yourself, and then... posted on Sep 6, 20210 reads

The Inner Landscape of Beauty
Listen to what Irish poet and philosopher John O'Donohue had to say in one of his last interviews about what he called "the invisible world." As he sees it, "the visible world is the first shoreline of the invisible world...And connecting to the elemental can be a way of coming into rhythm with the universe."... posted on Sep 10, 8135 reads

Love at First Sight: K9s Online
12,000 animals come through the doors of the Humane Society of Utah every year, all of which are in need of a new and loving home. Help has come in the form of an unlikely team member, a photographer who is working wonders at uniting man and his best friend. Guinnevere Shuster's "photo booth" style portraits do a much better job of capturing the personalities of the dogs than standard snapshots, r... posted on Aug 13, 4457 reads

5 Reasons to Be Mindful
In a hyper connected world, bombarded by multiple forms of stimulation, how do we remain aware of the quiet gifts that the present moment has to offer? Cultivating a mindfulness practice can be a powerful way to train our minds and tune into the beauty of here and now. The benefits are manifold. Drawing on the latest research as well as age-old wisdom traditions, this inspiring article offers up f... posted on Aug 18, 26882 reads

Why Gifts Must Keep Moving
Physics tells us that energy can neither by created nor destroyed. Our hearts tell us the same is true of the love and intentionality that propels a gift from one human being to another. Here, Wayne Muller shares the story of Robert Montoya, and the many gifts that grew into a school in Mexico.... posted on Sep 19, 11021 reads

Learning Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World
In her enlightening and engaging new book, "Triumph of the Heart," journalist Megan Feldman Bettencourt strives to explain what forgiveness really means, some of its myths and misconceptions, as well as the healthy benefits it possesses. From incredible stories of people who have chosen forgiveness after their lives have been shattered, to others who are struggling to actually forgive themselves, ... posted on Sep 16, 14542 reads

Icelanders Open Their Homes to Refugees
After the Iceland government announced that it would accept just 50 Syrian refugees, Icelandic author Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir launched a Facebook campaign spurring 12,000 people -- 4% of the Icelandic population -- to pledge to welcome Syrian refugees into their homes. Bryndis shares, "Refugees are our future spouses, best friends, our next soul mate, the drummer in our children's band, our next c... posted on Sep 20, 11542 reads

Nicholas Kristof's Path to More Effective Giving
When deciding how to use your time and money to address the worlds problems, you may struggle with how to use those resources for the greater good. Exploring that challenge is the subject of the book A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity, written by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn. This thoughtful interview with Kristof shares more.... posted on Sep 26, 12701 reads

The People Who Make Last Wishes Come True
Kees Veldboer and his wife Ineke, a nurse, started Stichting Ambulance Wens or the Ambulance Wish Foundation to fulfill last wishes of terminally ill patients. Eight years later with 230 volunteers, six ambulances and a holiday home, the service has fulfilled almost 7,000 last wishes. ... posted on Oct 2, 6729 reads

The Science of Why We Sleep
Scientists know that sleep obeys our complex internal clocks, affects our every waking moment, and even tames our negative emotions. But what happens while we sleep and why have we evolved to sleep in the first place? In this fascinating short video, PBS's Joe Hanson explores the mysteries of sleep...... posted on Oct 5, 13380 reads

Ten Words Technology Borrowed from Nature
What do words like ecosystem, tree, spider, virus, swarm and others have in common with technology? Sue Thomas points out how they have been hijacked from nature and applied to the digital world.... posted on Oct 11, 5948 reads

The Beauty We Can't See
We think we know beauty through sight, but these four visually impaired people envision beauty in a different form. Robert, Sheila, Sean, and Virginia describe how they visualize beauty through aspects such as a person's character, or through experience, such as the smell of warm, baked cookies or grass beneath ones feet. Beauty becomes an experience of living and finding joy -- the most beautiful... posted on Oct 8, 4099 reads

Where Good Ideas Come From
Where do ideas come from? Do they come to us in a "eureka moment" like Isaac Newton's proverbial apple falling on his head? Steven Johnson's research shows that it takes a long time (the slow hunch), and a space of sharing (the liquid network) for us to come up with our best ideas. In this TED talk, Johnson focuses on spaces of creativity and shared patterns of innovation that encourage us to conn... posted on Oct 12, 3466 reads

The 5 Myths of Self-Compassion
Why are we so hesitant to offer kindness to self? When thinking of others, it feels good to share the deeper qualities of compassion -- qualities such as tenderness, understanding, and acceptance. And, yet? We experience so many hindrances in offering the same to self. In this must read article, author Kristin Neff tackles the misconceptions surrounding self-compassion. ... posted on Oct 19, 29683 reads

How To Pay Attention
If you are like most people, you probably find yourself easily distracted or preoccupied by needless thoughts. So in an effort for you to gain control of your ability to concentrate, Dr. Rick Hanson, a psychologist and the author of several books, details seven important steps you can take to keep your wandering mind focused and centered.... posted on Oct 16, 34595 reads

Neil Gaiman on How Stories Last
Why do myths and fairytales continue to enchant the popular imagination generation after generation? Neil Gaiman suggests that such stories give shape to our lives, that they are a life-form obeying the same rules of genesis, reproduction, and propagation that organic matter does. ... posted on Nov 18, 14627 reads

Desert Solitaire: A Love Letter to Solitude
In the late 1950s, Edward Abbey became a seasonal park ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah's Moab desert. Between April and September, between the canyons and the pages of his journal, he found a great many of the things we spend our lives looking for. His book maps the maze of the interior landscape as he wanders the expanse of the exterior.... posted on Nov 25, 11708 reads

Kid Warrior for the Earth
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is 14 years old, and committed to changing the world. This self-described "indigenous, environmental, eco hip hop artist and activist" is also the youth director of Earth Guardians, a nonprofit that empowers young people around the world to become involved in environmental activism. "The biggest challenge we face is shifting human consciousness, not saving the planet." Martine... posted on Oct 27, 2814 reads

Battling Bullying With Positive Post-Its
When Caitlin Prater-Haacke received a message on her Facebook page telling her to kill herself, she didn't retaliate -- she got positive. She took out a marker and some post-it notes and stuck positive messages on every locker in her high school. When that action didn't sit well with school officials of George McDougall High School, who reprimanded Caitlin for littering, the entire community show... posted on Nov 6, 3575 reads

Bus 7 and the Grandma in the Window
She was known to the children in Bus 7 simply as 'Grandma in the window'. Their connection was forged by the daily waves they exchanged as their bus crossed her home. A connection so deep that when the 93-yr-old missed her waving 'vigil' the children demanded the bus driver stop. It turned out that their dear friend had suffered a debilitating stroke. While she convalesced at a local care facilit... posted on Nov 30, 16555 reads

Kindness Includes Everything
"What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly. Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember most fondly, with the most undeniable feelings of warmth? Those who were kindest to you, I bet. Its a little facile, maybe, a... posted on Nov 13, 5260 reads

10 Ways to Become More Grateful
The consumerist culture of modern life often propogates a self-defeating brand of discontent. A die-hard preoccupation with what we lack, be it in the realm of material things, relationships or status, can often blind us to the profound gifts that we hold in each moment. We sometimes forget that the flip-side of happiness is a grateful heart. When we practice gratefulness, we tap into the richness... posted on Nov 17, 49256 reads