How to Lead a More Courageous Life
When confronted with fear, the brain will seek relief in the form of old coping habits if left to its own devices. However, there are things we can do to help it change course. If we set the stage for courage, our awareness of what happens to us becomes our greatest ally. "The more you interrupt the old fear-based habits and replace fear-based responses with responses to boost courage, the more yo... posted on Apr 18, 31892 reads

Rachel Remen: The Grace of Being Seen
"I wanted to share with you a letter that meant a great deal to me that was posted to my website in response to my blog. Carol addresses it to physicians but it is true of us all; everyone who goes to work every day in this broken healthcare system in the hopes of helping others, despite everything. It has never been harder to be a health professional and I have never been prouder to be counted am... posted on Apr 21, 8432 reads

This is Me at 68: Elders Reflect During Crisis
In this beautifully illustrated compilation, citizens 60 and older share their experiences and reflections related to the COVID-19 global pandemicfrom becoming a grandmother to dancing in the street.... posted on Apr 23, 17941 reads

How I am Finding Purpose and Connection in a Pandemic
"As a millennial living alone in a small studio in San Francisco, I felt paralyzed knowing that orders to shelter in place would likely soon go into effect, trapping me in just 300 square feet for the unforeseeable future.The coming weeks loomed bleak and lonely, a growing shadow of despair that I knew would engulf so many of us. I was at a loss for what to do next. My first instinct was to call K... posted on May 23, 9975 reads

Contact with the Sacred
With spectacular visual images, this film reminds us of the necessity of connecting with the sacred in everyday life. It honors the sacred through sensory feelings of connection, with both the vast expanses such as mountain tops and waterfalls, and with the single dandelion sending its seeds into the future. This connection is further enhanced by the peaceful music that accompanies the images, pro... posted on May 24, 3956 reads

Vertical Literacy: Reimagining the 21st-Century University
The traditional output of universities knowledge is not the missing piece to catalyzing social change. MIT Senior Lecturer Otto Scharmer offers a new university model that builds the capacity to lead transformative change through deeper inner work and outer knowledge, so we no longer collectively create environmental, social, and economic results that nobody wants.... posted on May 25, 11708 reads

NBA Mental Coach Shares 7 Ways You Can Thrive Under Pressure
Do you ever wonder how a basketball player can stand at the free throw line with the game in his hands in front of 30 million viewers and casually sink a shot? How about when a surgeon is in the middle of a procedure and the patient starts to bleed profusely, or when a lawyer has to convince a jury that her innocent client isn't guilty of murder? How do they keep their heads?Graham Betchart, the d... posted on May 28, 7023 reads

Mother Culture
"How does a whale find meaning in life? The question that will take us far from our comfort zone. At eight a.m. we are already traveling over deep ocean. Our thirty-foot boat, an open one, is crowded with gear, four assistants who traffic in curiosity and adventure, our huge dreadlocked Caribbean captain Dave Fabien, plus Shane Gero. Plus me. We seek a classic sea monster: the sperm whale, Jonah-s... posted on Jun 14, 3678 reads

Former Surgeon General's Book on Human Connection
"When Dr. Vivek Murthy was surgeon general of the United States during the Obama administration, he went on a listening tour of America: He wanted to hear firsthand about people's health concerns. That meant addressing opioid addiction, diabetes and heart disease. And one more thing -- something he wasn't really prepared for -- the number of Americans suffering from a lack of human connection. Lon... posted on Jun 15, 4668 reads

Eula Bliss: Talking About Whiteness
You can't think about something if you can't talk about it, says Eula Biss. The writer helpfully opens up lived words and ideas like complacence, guilt, and opportunity hoarding for an urgent reckoning with whiteness. This conversation was inspired by her 2015 essay in The New York Times, "White Debt." More from Krista Tippett here. ... posted on Jun 16, 7862 reads

Empathy vs Sympathy
Empathy and sympathy are not just two different approaches to confronting the emotional challenges of others; they are diametrically opposite responses in many important ways. Sympathy places another's problems at a distance from us, places us in a position of superiority, and "drives separation", says the film's narrator, Dr. Bren Brown. Empathy, on the other hand, requires that one internalize t... posted on Jul 10, 4158 reads

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
In 2002 Thom Bond was a successful environmental engineer, passionate about designing smart buildings that used alternative energy. Then he chanced upon Marshall Rosenberg's landmark book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. "By the time I read Chapter 1, it hit me that I had found what I was looking for...A set of concepts and ideas to be able to move through conflict." Thom realized ins... posted on Jul 11, 8207 reads

Designing Schools of the Future
"We are building a state-of-the-art Formula 1 engine in the body of an old, broken-down Buick, and wondering why the car won't go."While pedagogical methods have advanced tremendously in recent decades, the shape of our learning spaces has not. Think: rooms filled with desks in rows all facing front, in an environment directly counter to contemporary progressive learning styles. Seeking to remedy ... posted on Jul 15, 4140 reads

Random Acts of Kindness Education Workshops
We often think of kindness as something a person has, or doesn't. But kindness, like all actions and skills, can be taught and has to be practiced. The Random acts of Kindness Foundation has a workshop for doing just that!... posted on Jul 24, 2881 reads

Venkat Krishnan: The Joy of Giving
Venkat Krishnan is the founder of GiveIndia-- an innovative platform that launched in 2000 to catalyze a "giving culture." It was one of the first crowd-sourcing platforms in the world dedicated exclusively to social welfare. Venkat later went on to launch DaanUtsav, an annual festival that takes place each October, and aims to unite people from diverse backgrounds across the country in a celebrat... posted on Jul 28, 5765 reads

Bill Drayton: Half the Population is Out of the Game
"A fighter for civil rights who was raised to value empathy and was fascinated by Gandhi's India, Bill Drayton believes that Ashokas entrepreneurial model, to which he has dedicated himself for years, can change the world. Drayton created Ashoka 40 years ago and it now has the largest network of social entrepreneurs on the planet. Drayton insists that technological progress creates a new inequalit... posted on Jul 29, 3718 reads

Spirit Run: The Story of a 6000 Mile Relay
In 2004, Noe Alvarez dropped out of college and ran a 6,000-mile relay with indigenous people through North and Central America. His new memoir about that time is called Spirit Run. More in this NPR interview.... posted on Jul 31, 2980 reads

The Earth Treasure Vase Healing Project
"In 1990, I had the opportunity to meet a 106-year-old Buddhist Lama living in a cave in a remote part of Nepal. As I was walking up the highest mountains in the world, I realized that I had a chance to actually ask a question of the old wise man in the cave. As I was walking, I contemplated what I should ask him that would be of benefit, not just for me, but for all of us because most people do... posted on Aug 2, 8845 reads

Seven Ways to Live in the Direction of Your Purpose
"How do you go about finding your purpose if its not obvious to you? Is it something you develop naturally over the course of a lifetime? Or are there steps you can take to encourage more purpose in your life? Likely both, says Kendall Bronk, a researcher who directs the Adolescent Moral Development Lab at Claremont Graduate University. People can find a sense of purpose organically--or through de... posted on Aug 12, 11174 reads

The Church Forests of Ethiopia
Over the past century, nearly all of Ethiopia's native forests have been cleared for farming and grazing. Now it is up to the Orthodox Churches--who for centuries have safeguarded pockets of primary forest that grow around them--to preserve Ethiopias quickly shrinking biodiversity and teach people how to live with forests. ... posted on Aug 15, 2558 reads

BLM: Four Lessons in White Allyship from South Africa
"As Black Lives Matter protests, triggered by the killing of George Floyd, spread across the world in response to systemic racism and police brutality, questions are being asked about how white people can lend their support. Our previous and ongoing research into the South African anti-apartheid movement provides four key lessons we can draw on today in the fight against racism."... posted on Aug 19, 7052 reads

A Pandemic Letter to My 17-Year-Old Son
"Starting when you were just a toddler, you'd crawl into my lap to play a game. I'd lay hands on each part of your body, naming it aloud. Wed begin with the grass of hair on your head and slowly work our way down to your piggy toes. You soon learned even the regions of your brain, the organs in your torso, and your seven chakras." So begins a touching letter written by a mother to her 17-year-old ... posted on Aug 30, 11206 reads

Photographing the Hidden Story
Photographer Ryan Lobo tells how conscience led him to search beneath sensational aspects of journalism for the soul of a story. From this shift he discovers, "Focus on what's dignified, courageous, and beautiful, and it grows."... posted on Sep 2, 3185 reads

How to Be at Home
This tender animation on the theme of isolation reunites filmmaker Andrea Dorfman with poet Tanya Davis ten years after their first collaboration on the viral film "How To Be Alone." "How To Be At Home" speaks to what so many of us are going through these days with quarantines, lock-downs and stay-at-home orders. "Lean into lonelinessand know youre not alone in it." And remember: we are connected.... posted on Sep 27, 4170 reads

Joanna Macy: Entering the Bardo
"In this op-ed, eco-philosopher and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy introduces us to the bardo--the Tibetan Buddhist concept of a gap between worlds where transition is possible. As the pandemic reveals ongoing collapse and holds a mirror to our collective ills, she writes, we have the opportunity to step into a space of reimagining."... posted on Oct 1, 20798 reads

Trail of Light
This beautifully moving film features Aralyn Doiron, a delightful woman who has trained to be a Death Walker, someone who values a relationship with death and someone who values life. She suggests that it is only when we acknowledge that we are going to die one day, that we can truly start to live. The fact that many of us are separated from death is a disconnect from our humanity. She encourages ... posted on Oct 2, 3577 reads

The Dugnad in Our DNA
Traditionally, dugnad (a Norwegian word) refers to "the collective effort of individual Norwegians who sacrifice their personal desires, and allow their own sense of 'normal' to be temporarily disrupted, for the benefit of their community or country. On March 12 of this year, after the first Norwegian died from COVID-19, Prime Minister Erna Solberg called for a national dugnad. She asked everyone ... posted on Oct 3, 8311 reads

Meeting Our Pain With Compassion
"I'd like to explore the essential place of compassion in our lives in a very simple way. As human beings we have a conscious awareness that is open to what is. Our very nature is openness. On a feeling level this openness shows up as sensitivity, tenderness, rawness, as an exquisite receptivity and responsiveness. As a consequence of this delicacy, we are also easily hurt. Its like the softness o... posted on Oct 5, 3441 reads

An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth
In 1926 Vladimir Vernadsky's pioneering book The Biosphere showed for the first time that the biosphere of the earth was an integral dynamic system controlled by life itself. The biosphere "receives from every part of celestial space an infinite number of other radiations... We have hardly begun to realize their fundamental importance in surrounding processes, an importance scarcely perceptible to... posted on Oct 6, 1945 reads

Beyond 5 Sense Based Humanity?
Neuroscientist David Eagleman expertly "decodes the mysteries of the tangled web of neurons and electricity that make our minds tick -- and also make us human. 'Our experience of reality,' says Eagleman, 'is constrained by our biology.' His research into our brain processes has led him to create new interfaces to take in previously unseen information about the world around us. Read this overview o... posted on Dec 28, 5479 reads

Rethinking the Bucket List
How would you live every day as if it were your last? Go skydiving? Attempt to ride a bull for 2.7 seconds? Kathleen Taylor has spent over 20 years as a counselor and community engagement facilitator for the dying and has found that in the last chapter of their lives, most people become their authentic selves. They become courageous - they change their minds, apologize, forgive... they find joy i... posted on Oct 15, 11660 reads

Bruce Lee's Never-Before-Seen Affirmations
"Although Bruce Lee is best known for his legendary legacy in martial arts and film, he was also one of the most underappreciated philosophers of the twentieth century, instrumental in introducing Eastern traditions to Western audiences. A philosophy major in college, he fused ancient ideas with his own singular ethos informed by the intersection of physical and psychological discipline, the most ... posted on Oct 19, 15511 reads

Gabriel Meyer: Stretching Identity
"It's simple. The deepest stuff is the simplest stuff. You don't have to be complicated to be deep. You have to be simple to be deep. That's when you really connect. There are no intermediates in the neural reality. There's nobody. There's not like an agent between you and God. There are no booking agents for that. That's direct, you know?" Through his music, storytelling and more, sacred activist... posted on Oct 20, 2450 reads

Life in the Time of Cholera: Lessons on a Pandemic
"As sirens fill the streets of London, George Prochnik recalls a revolutionary poets account of the 1832 cholera pandemic that unfolded in Paris. While watching history repeat itself in devastating refrain, George wonders: What is hysteria? What is necessary passion and courage? How can we respond both lucidly and compassionately?"... posted on Oct 23, 4484 reads

Creating Magic from Fragments
For all of us who have ever gathered a collections of fragments, scraps and bits; formed them into little beings and spent precious magical moments with these friends we've formed. This bittersweet little gem is for us.... posted on Oct 30, 3192 reads

What Is Solidarity?: Reflections on Justice
"Etymologically, solidarity comes from the Latin word solidus, a unit of account in ancient Rome. It then merged into French to become solidaire referring to interdependence, and then into English, in which its current definition is an agreement between, and support for, a group, an individual, an idea. It is essentially a bond of unity or agreement between people united around common cause. True ... posted on Nov 1, 6700 reads

What Is Compassion?
"Compassion literally means to suffer together. Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with anothers suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering." We are living in a time where a deep understanding of, and value for, compassion is more critical than ever. More from Dachner Keltner on the evolutionary roots of compassion here.... posted on Nov 8, 7446 reads

Re-Inventing Work: An Interview with Matthew Fox
An Episcopalian priest and theologian, Matthew Fox began his career as a member of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church but was expelled in 1993 by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Among Foxs teachings the Catholic hierarchy found most objectionable was his belief in original blessing, which became the title of one of his most popular books. The concept was in direct c... posted on Nov 12, 29189 reads

What is Time and Does it Always Move Forward?
"While we take for granted that time has a given direction, physicists don't: most natural laws are time reversible which means they would work just as well if time was defined as running backwards. So why does time always move forward? And will it always do so?"... posted on Apr 7, 7616 reads

The Hero/Heroine's Journey: Responding to the Call of Our Times
"I believe we have entered a sacred and very difficult time, a time in which the Hero/Heroines Journey is for all of humanity, not just individuals. How will we engage the forces of destruction the whole world faces?"John Kinyon has dedicated his life to the work of conflict resolution and nonviolent mediation. Here he shares more about the call of our times.... posted on Dec 10, 6243 reads

Lydia Fairhall Amplifies Love
"Lydia Fairhall has lived many lives in this one life. She is a Worimi woman, born on Bundjalung country, now living between the Kulin nations and Gubbi Gubbi country. From experiencing trauma in early life to an art-filled, soulful adult life as a mother, producer, executive, singer/songwriter and custodian of ancient wisdom, Lydia is the embodiment of compassionate resilience." More in this inte... posted on Dec 19, 4415 reads

When Love Rescued Christmas
At the tail-end of a year full of disasters, Laura Grace Weldon experienced a breakdown moment as she considered her children's empty Christmas stockings. Read on to hear how her 11-year-old daughter's heartfelt and hilarious response restored her perspective, and inspired a beautiful, anonymous act of generosity towards another family in crisis.... posted on Dec 25, 6464 reads

Art for the Sky
Daniel Dancer is an art-activist who creates and films gigantic living paintings made of people that only make sense from the sky. Why? To bring people together, often young students, to create flashes of beauty that teach tangibly about the power of unity, the importance of nature, and the impermanence of just about everything. Listen as Dancer elaborates on the many lessons that the community ca... posted on Dec 26, 2449 reads

what is unveiled? the founding wound (poem/directive)
"a body is always a body
individual or collective
(whole or in many pieces)
alive or, later, dead
a body is aways vulnerable"
So begins this electric poem/directive by writer adrienne maree brown, that brings an unflinching gaze, open heart and clear voice to the realities of our times, and to the possibilities of healing.... posted on Jan 14, 6879 reads

Musicians on Kindness
What if kindness was a form of music, with its own rhythm, its own flow, its own song?" This engaging video points out the give and take of the whole human experience through highlighting music, with its reciprocal energy which inspires both the musicians and their audiences. The featured street musicians reflect on the power of music to make kindness contagious.... posted on Jan 15, 2755 reads

Kiss the Ground: The Soil Story
"Science meets inspiration in this tale of nature's best hidden innovation: soil. 'The Soil Story,'made by Kiss the Ground, is a five-minute film that shares the importance of healthy soil for a healthy planet. Learn how we can "sequester" (store) carbon from our atmosphere, where it is harmful, and pull it back into the earth, where it belongs, through regenerative agriculture, composting, and ot... posted on Jan 22, 5884 reads

Contact with the Sacred
With spectacular visual images, this film reminds us of the necessity of connecting with the sacred in everyday life. It honors the sacred through sensory feelings of connection, with both the vast expanses such as mountain tops and waterfalls, and with the single dandelion sending its seeds into the future. This connection is further enhanced by the peaceful music that accompanies the images, pro... posted on Jan 29, 4149 reads

Tea, Ink, Life's Mystery
"Amidst the hectic streets of San Francisco,
an elderly man, a small calming dot of black in a fast-moving wave, is momentarily glimpsed on the streets then reappears translucently through glass. He is visible only to those that take the time to see. What is singular about the man is his mesmerizing slowness. Silent Crescendo,
directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee for The Global Oneness P... posted on Jun 6, 2870 reads

Barrio De Paz: Peace Town
"Everything in society tells us to distrust others. I think it's the other way around. We need to profoundly trust in those around us, in their potential and in who they are," the grandmotherly Nelsa Curbelo Cora says. In 1999, she walked into the violence infested city of Guayaquil, Ecuador to BE peace. Through her grassroots work, many of Guayaquil's most dangerous gangs have disarmed, agreed to... posted on Feb 18, 2206 reads

The Caribou Guardians
High on a forested mountain in northern British Columbia, in the traditional territory of the West Moberly Dunne-za First Nations (WMFN) and Saulteau First Nations (SFN), Starr Gauthier is on patrol with a twelve-gauge shotgun slung over her shoulder and a laptop bag in hand. Starr is a Caribou Guardian charged with tending to the Klinse-za Caribou Maternity Pen built by these First Nations, as pa... posted on Feb 28, 3157 reads