7 Habits of Mindful Eating
"The rhythm of life is becoming faster and faster, so we really don't have the same awareness and the same ability to check into ourselves." These words from an unexpected source: a Harvard nutritionist. Dr. Lilian Cheung, with Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh, co-wrote 'Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life.' "That's why mindful eating is becoming more important. We need to be coming back ... posted on Feb 20, 17563 reads

3 Little Monks and a Moment of Truth
"This is Ankur," our host Sachi had said, with the catching enthusiasm she's known and loved for, "He's an amazing photographer and has recently gone totally 'gift economy'." Meaning that he offers his photography unconditionally as a gift, inviting recipients to 'pay it forward.' I look over at the young man seated in front of me. An unguarded face lit now by a smile both shy and warm. "What's yo... posted on Mar 13, 40218 reads

Behind the Beautiful Forevers
"My husband is an Indian citizen, and since we met in 2001, I've been watching the landscape of his country transform as its economy grows. Some of the change is staggeringly obvious, like the skyscraping luxury condominiums with stirring views of other skyscraping luxury condominiums. But I couldn't quite make out what had and hadn't changed in historically poor communities. I generally find issu... posted on Jun 26, 5693 reads

Why Leaders Must Feel Pain
On a plane flying cross-country, a CEO and management consultant tunes into a fellow passenger's sharp-edged interaction with her five-year old daughter, and finds himself unexpectedly in tears. The incident unleashes a series of insights on the importance of acknowledging the pain we encounter in ourselves and the world. "This act of diving deeply into the feelings we avoid, the feelings we don't... posted on May 7, 21076 reads

Henry, an iPod and Music's Alchemy
His name is Henry, and he lives in a nursing home. For years he slouched deep in his wheelchair, utterly unresponsive to caretakers and visiting family. Until one day he was given an iPod -- preloaded with popular tunes from his youth. What followed was a dramatic, exuberant transformation that has to be seen to be believed. "Alive Inside", a new documentary brings to viewers a study of the alchem... posted on Apr 17, 22759 reads

The Science of 'Social Jet Lag'
"'Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool,' Napoleon famously prescribed. (He would have scoffed at Einstein, then, who was known to require ten hours of sleep for optimal performance.) This perceived superiority of those who can get by on less sleep isn't just something Napoleon shared with dictators like Hitler and Stalin, it's an enduring attitude woven into our soci... posted on May 20, 18253 reads

A Classroom Where Children Rule the World
The World Peace Game, a brainchild of public school teacher John Hunter, pits teams of students against each other as leaders of countries in crises and conflict. The students strategize and negotiate, compete and cooperate, wage war and make peace. But the game is not won until all countries enjoy security and prosperity. In this deeply moving video, Hunter describes how the game is played and re... posted on Jun 4, 4292 reads

The Little Guide To Contentedness
"Let's take a look at my life before contentedness: I was addicted to junk food and fast food, and overweight and unhealthy. I bought too many things on impulse, owned too much clutter, and was deeply in debt and struggling to make it to the next payday. I was unhappy with who I was, wanted desperately to change, tried a thousand different programs and books. I was always changing the way I did th... posted on Sep 8, 37345 reads

Learning How To Forgive
"What exactly is forgiveness? When we are in the state of unforgiving, we are holding on to a grudge. A grudge is a story of hurt and resentment that we believe to be true and repeat over and over in our thoughts. It lodges in our body and mind like a freeloading visitor who won't leave. It keeps our hearts clamped shut, depletes our energy, and hijacks our creativity. The story of the grudge invo... posted on Dec 23, 0 reads

A Taste For Life: Adam Campbell
Every now and then, if you're lucky, you run across someone like Adam Campbell. In this interview he shares one key insight after another. "If you think about a city, almost every single thing that you see is artificial. It's created in the minds of men and women and is a projection of our own ideas. And there is a great paucity of imagination there. Everything is in straight lines. Everything has... posted on Feb 2, 5163 reads

Childhood's Magic Milestone
"Betty Peck at 92 is full of a radiant loveliness that brings to mind fairy godmothers and enchanted gardens. Visiting her is a little like falling down Alice's rabbit hole. A train track with a real train runs around her Saratoga home. There are ivy-covered walls, crazy winding paths, tree houses, even a Rapunzel tower, and an amphitheater under the trees complete with a Romeo and Juliet balcony.... posted on Dec 3, 25223 reads

Maya Angelou: Still I Rise
From the moment it was published in 1978, "Still I Rise" has been one of Maya Angelou's best-loved and most influential poems. It has inspired figures as diverse as Bill Clinton and Tupac Shakur and has become a staple in the canon of American poetry. Dr. Angelou's directness and candor affirms the power of individual strength over collective history, as well as to the power of individual lives to... posted on Apr 6, 9347 reads

Finding Time: Slowness is an Act of Resistance
"The four horseman of my Apocalypse are called Efficiency, Convenience, Profitability, and Security, and in their names, crimes against poetry, pleasure, sociability, and the very largeness of the world are daily, hourly, constantly carried out. These marauding horsemen are deployed by technophiles, advertisers, and profiteers to assault the nameless pleasures and meanings that knit together our l... posted on Apr 10, 9584 reads

The Woolen Socks Miracle
"Our last regular paycheck was in April of this year. Through so many incredible acts of kindness and lots of hard work in every form we have made it month to month and day to day and week to week and had absolutely EVERYTHING we have needed...but not much more. It's hard as a mother to know that Christmas is coming and you don't have much extra to "fill the stockings"" Melody Ross is an internati... posted on Aug 29, 28702 reads

Elemental: Water, Film & the Human Spirit
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a director, producer, musician and composer who set out on a journey around the world to film a documentary about water -- that integral substance that connects us all and sustains life. In this conversation, Emmanuel talks about his practice of focusing on the process rather than the outcome, staying authentic to himself and those he films, and trusting the ripples. He ref... posted on May 17, 4785 reads

Are You Humbitious Enough to Lead?
What is humbition? It is that particular blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful businesspeople, and is an antidote to the arrogance that can often trip up companies and entrepreneurs. The wisest leaders are the ones "smart enough to admit that they cannot take all the credit for their success. More likely than not, what they've achieved is some combination of good fortune, ... posted on Jun 17, 26410 reads

Radical Joy for Hard Times
Have you ever loved a place that isn't there anymore? Maybe you had an unkempt field made for exploring, or a patch of woods that was as familiar as your front door and then a fire, flood or bulldozers wiped it away. Trebbe Johnson, founder of "Radical Joy for Hard Times" explores the loss of natural spaces and how we can give back in order to help heal the earth and our own personal cuts and brui... posted on Jul 22, 18761 reads

The Overview Effect: Insights From Astronauts
Forty years ago, the astronauts of Apollo 8 orbited the moon for the first time and snapped the iconic "Blue Marble" photographs of the earth from space. It was not only an image of stunning beauty; it represented a powerful new perspective of earthly life and its place within the cosmos. It produced a radical shift in self-awareness. The earth has a unity and cohesion we understand intellectually... posted on Oct 12, 7029 reads

The Place Where I Write
"Sometimes I can't find tape to save my life, but I have all of these other objects always at my fingertips, and it is in the midst of these juxtapositions, this disorder and uncertainty, that I write. Not only does being neat and organized take time, but a tidy environment makes me feel compelled to have tidy thoughts. And never do they come that way. The disorder is freeing; may it all come any ... posted on Nov 6, 15101 reads

How to Train Your Brain to See What Others Don't
Remember the last time you had an 'aha' moment? The pleasure of a new and profound insight can leave us with that feeling of freshness and awe at witnessing something for the very first time. It is a deeply satisfying in itself and needs no external rewards. Cognitive psychologist, Gary Klein researches the science behind these epiphanies and shares his findings so that we can cultivate habits ... posted on Sep 8, 108242 reads

The Truth Demands To Be Lived
Among many other assignments, Americ Azevedo, philosopher, author and lecturer of peace studies, now leads a meditation class with 603 students in one of the largest lecture halls on the UC Berkeley campus. He has taught university classes in philosophy, religion, leadership, finance, business and information systems,and held the first podcast at UC Berkeley in 2005. He now co-teaches a class on i... posted on Nov 12, 29576 reads

Politics & The Sharing Economy
"Can the sharing economy movement address the root causes of the world’s converging crises? In recent years, the concept and practice of sharing resources is fast becoming a mainstream phenomenon across North America, Western Europe and other world regions. According to most general definitions that are widely available online, the sharing economy leverages information technology to empower... posted on Mar 2, 11673 reads

A Safe Haven In Nepal
2010 CNN Hero of the Year, Anuradha Koirala, started Maiti Nepal (roughly translated to "mother's home") to protect Nepali women and girls from crimes such as domestic violence, trafficking, prostitution, child labor, and other forms of exploitation and torture. Since 1993, Maiti Nepal has helped rescue and rehabilitate more than 12,000 women and girls, providing a safe place for them to recover a... posted on Aug 1, 2689 reads

I'm Just Like You
Videographer Ellie Walton flew to Liberia to film a documentary highlighting the beauty and strengths of the children of the Hope for the Deaf School -- children who face immense discrimination and are often abandoned by their families. Coincidentally, she arrived in Monrovia on the same day as Hip Hop artist Chad Harper (aka Famus), whom she had met the month before in India. Chad had come to exp... posted on Mar 16, 3653 reads

Clean Your House, Your Mind Will Follow
"With spring cleaning in effect, many are rolling up their sleeves and reaching into the corners and hard-to-reach places that have often been long neglected. As a merely physical task, cleaning can be arduous, gratifying, and everything in between. But if taken up with the spirit of self-purification, cleaning serves as a powerful instrument for heightening awareness of the present moment and of ... posted on May 11, 25142 reads

Toy Stories: Children and Their Favorite Things
For over a year, photographer and journalist Gabriele Galimberti visited more than 50 countries and created colorful images of boys and girls with their most prized possessions: their toys. From Texas to India, Malawi to China, Iceland, Morocco, and Fiji, Galimberti recorded the spontaneous and natural joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the child owns a veritable fleet... posted on May 21, 17058 reads

Why Compassion In the Workplace Matters
Workplaces vary on the extent to which "companionate love" is present. According to Wharton Management professor Sigal Barsade, companionate love is shown "when colleagues who are together day in and day out, ask and care about each other's work and even non-work issues...They are careful of each other's feelings. They show compassion when things don't go well. And they also show affection and car... posted on Jun 12, 22971 reads

The Lost Voice of A Generation
None of us can know the span of our life. Some of us will live a long life and die in old age; others leave much sooner. No, the meaning of life is not how long we live, it's about the fact that we lived at all, and that we touch the lives of others by living. Poet Marina Keegan may have died young, and tragically, but she had found her voice, and expressed it through poetry that touched the lives... posted on Jul 28, 25889 reads

A Physicist Speaks On Randomness & Choice
"When you look at your life...if you think about all the details of what happened to you, you will find that there was a time where you had the extra cup of coffee, where if you hadn't, you wouldn't have met Person A. When I look back in my life, I could find so many instances like that...And the course of your life depends on how you react to those opportunities and challenges that the randomness... posted on Jul 15, 26436 reads

Tools Of Our Tools: The Role Of Technology In Our Lives
These days, we function in many ways as the "tools of our tools" -- beings bound to our devices and technology. "But even as our ancestors developed tools over time to leverage their muscles, senses and brains, they also developed tools to leverage their soul, or psyche, so as to be composed within themselves, and thus try to establish just and civil societies." Here Tom Mahon shares his thoughts ... posted on Aug 4, 25065 reads

The Innovation of Loneliness
While our focus is shifting towards individual achievements over community, more and more people are feeling lonely. They feel vulnerable opening up to others for warm, friendly, heart-to-heart conversations. Then, along comes social media...As people share and chat from islands of isolation, filtering and massaging information, they are undermining the genuine credibility of conversation. Bits an... posted on Jul 23, 5770 reads

9 Ways In Which The Culture of Watching Is Changing Us
Our constant use of cameras, TVs, computers, and smart devices is affecting our thoughts and behavior to a degree we may not even realize, changing how we identify ourselves and how others understand us. We are watching so many -- and so many are watching us in so many different places and ways -- that watching and being watched fundamentally alter how we think and behave.... posted on Sep 11, 33925 reads

Songwriting With Soldiers
A chance meeting with a soldier after performing in a hospital in Germany inspired songwriter Darden Smith to work with members of the military to turn their stories into music. Smith now runs Songwriting With:Soldiers, a non-profit organization which pairs veterans and troops with professional songwriters in a peaceful environment. The service members share their stories and the songwriters mold ... posted on Aug 20, 14892 reads

Margaret Wheatley: On Working With Human Goodness
"There is nothing equal to human creativity, caring and will. We can be incredibly generous, imaginative and open-hearted. We can do the impossible, learn and change quickly, and extend instant compassion to those in distress. And these are not behaviors we keep hidden. We exhibit them daily." When faced with everyday struggles, and more broadly, the weight of wars and human suffering, Margaret Wh... posted on Sep 20, 30285 reads

Father Rocky's Safe Haven For Street Children
What is the link between a Catholic priest and at-risk youth in the Phillippines? Hope for the future. In 1997, Father Marciano "Rocky" G. Evangelista, known as Father Rocky, founded the Tuloy sa Don Bosco School. Since its inception, the Don Bosco School has functioned as a refuge for thousands of teenagers and street children who could otherwise have become absorbed into the prevailing system of... posted on Oct 12, 11034 reads

No Regrets: Living With Dying
Patti Pansa knew the common regrets of the dying, and with stage-four metastasized breast cancer, she wanted to live her last days without them. "Between radiation treatments, spinal surgery, and a bucket list trip to Alaska, Patti wrote essays, talked with anyone who would listen, dreamed and created...Patti spent the last five months of her life celebrating, sharing, creating, loving, and living... posted on Mar 4, 49526 reads

Lily Yeh & Barefoot Artists
Lily Yeh launched Barefoot Artists "to spark transformation, healing and social change in places plagued by poverty, crime and despair." Since its launch, the group started by Yeh has carried out projects and workshops in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. In this brief article, Yeh describes her journey as an artist and her calling to "bring colors" and beauty to communities plague... posted on May 30, 12981 reads

The 21-Day Technology Challenge
"The hustle of family life -- work, school, appointments, practice, homework, dinner, bed -- is constant. We move in and out of activities and commitments with ferocity...And since our life is designed to fully embrace living it, we have to be mindful of all the pieces that might creep in and occupy more than their fair share. Technology is one of those pieces." Author Janell Burley Hofmann works ... posted on Apr 17, 17887 reads

Seeds: A Story of Uncommon Change
Discover the story of Aruna, who's journey speaks of the transformative power of love and service. Aruna grew up in a poor leprosy community in India and, like so many other kids growing up in the harsh reality of a slum, did not believe in her dreams or that much good would come from her life, other than a prescribed arranged marriage. That was, until, she met Jayesh Patel, co-founder of Manav Sa... posted on Sep 7, 3024 reads

Rudy Corpuz: It Takes a Hood to Save the Hood
Rudy Corpuz, an anti-violence activist was born and raised in San Francisco in the 1970s and 80s in a neighborhood where drugs and gangs were the norm. He had a rough start, never graduated from high school, didn't start reading until he was in the eighth grade, dealt and did drugs, and was a gang leader. He then had a magical turning point, a "a dramatic change of heart" that catapulted him into ... posted on Oct 20, 7880 reads

Slowness is an Act of Resistance
"The four horsemen of my apocalypse are called Efficiency, Convenience, Profitability, and Security, and in their names, crimes against poetry, pleasure, sociability, and the very largeness of the world are daily, hourly, constantly carried out. These marauding horsemen are deployed by technophiles, advertisers, and profiteers to assault the nameless pleasures and meanings that knit together our l... posted on Nov 2, 8850 reads

Conversational Leadership: Thinking Together for a Change
If our conversations and personal relations are at the heart of our work, then how do we contribute to or take energy away from this natural process? Are we using the intelligence of just a few people instead of hundreds or thousands? What if increasing the success of efforts to cut costs and make organizations more efficient, innovative, and competitive depended on focusing on the core process o... posted on Nov 27, 5171 reads

Peace is Possible: The Remarkable Story of A Prison Friendship
"For more than 50 years, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (in Spanish, FARC) have been fighting a guerrilla war for social justice. In response, the rich and powerful created paramilitary forces to defend the existing social order. On both sides, those doing the fighting are mostly poor villagers and workers." In this interview, we learn of an extraordinary and unlikely friendship betwe... posted on Apr 26, 8280 reads

What If Schools Taught Kindness?
"The school environment can be very stressful; in addition to any issues they bring from home, many students struggle to make friends and perform well in class. Being excluded, ignored, or teased is very painful for a young child, and we thought it could be impactful to teach empathy and compassion. When other kids are suffering-- like that boy who split his chin-- can we understand how they might... posted on Feb 10, 32553 reads

Art & Science Fusion
"Diane and I feel like the students need to break across what E.O. Wilson calls "the borderland." We have an entomologist, a botanist, a horticulturist; artists, musicians and photographers come in and talk to the students. We have a photography class and the professor, Terry Nathan, is an atmospheric scientist. He came to us and said, "I've been a bit of a photographer all my life, but there was ... posted on Apr 30, 10232 reads

How Imaginative Storytelling Expands Our Scope of the Possible
""We must always take sides," Elie Wiesel urged in his spectacular Nobel Prize acceptance speech. "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." And yet part of the human tragedy is that despite our best intentions and our most ardent ideals, we often lull ourselves into neutrality in the face of injustice -- be it out of fear for our own... posted on May 7, 9718 reads

The Mystery and Art of Living
Krista Tippett is best known as the host of "On Being," the award-winning public radio conversation, podcast, and website which explores the questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? In this interview, Pico Iyer turns the tables on Krista and interviews her about her life, her inspirations, and the topics in her eloquent and passionate book, ... posted on Jul 10, 14343 reads

How Smartphones Are Killing Conversation
Today's cell phones threaten to hinder humanity rather than help unless we take control of our behavior and put people first. In her new book, "Reclaiming Conversation," MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, author of the bestseller "Alone Together," explores the social effects of cell phones and the importance of honoring and protecting the quality of conversation in our everyday lives. In this intervie... posted on Jul 31, 31080 reads

Running as Spiritual Practice
"For the Summer Olympics, we explore a topic our listeners have called out as a passionate force and a connector across all kinds of boundaries in American culture: running. Not just as exercise, or as a merely physical pursuit, but running as a source of bonding between parents and children and friends; running as an interplay between competition and contemplation; running and body image and surv... posted on Aug 30, 10883 reads

Social Permaculture
We need the power of creative and compassionate groups and communities working together to move us toward a more kind and sustainable world. However, maneuvering relationships within communities and keeping them united can be very challenging. In this piece, a life-long permaculturist shares the wisdom she's gathered from four decades of work with intentional communities and groups of changemakers... posted on Dec 4, 5733 reads