A Second Look at First Impressions
Why do we admire, envy, or disparage certain social groups and people? Why hire Kurt instead of Kyra? How do students choose study partners? "Within less than a second, using facial features, people make what are called 'spontaneous trait inferences,'" says social psychologist Amy Cuddy. Through investigating perceptions of warmth and competence, Cuddy explains how men and women rise to the top- o... posted on Dec 14, 7555 reads

Not Your Grandfather's Retirement
Retirement: Golf, knitting, rocking chairs, ...and changing the world? While notions of retirement have traditionally conjured up images of relaxing, traveling, and enjoying leisure time and recreation, more and more people at the age of retirement are committing the second half of their lives to projects that serve society. This year's recipients of the Purpose Prize, an award that honors people ... posted on Dec 5, 6114 reads

A Blessing from A Homeless Man
On the way back from work every evening, a homeless man would often be at the exit of the freeway. His eyes were brown and had a sparkle, like an inside light beaming out of his eyes. He always waved at every car, he was always happy and smiling and sometimes almost dancing. A feeling of joy would come over me every time I saw him, as I came off the ramp. He had that effect. Then one day, I w... posted on Dec 10, 7002 reads

A Biologist's Solution For A Troubled City
To many residents Binghamton, New York, appears to be on the decline. The once thriving community was struck hard by the economic downturn. It now has a shrinking population, rising crime rates and increasing drug use among youth. But recently, the city's quality of life got a boost from an unusual source: an evolutionary biologist who has studied microbes, zooplankton, and birds. Professor David ... posted on Jun 2, 11655 reads

30 Years of Work Bears Fruit
Thanks to decades-long effort, the variety of fruit-bearing shrubs and trees in Wattles' common areas is staggering: bananas, mangos, papayas, nectarines, apples, guavas, key lime, dwarf tangerines, olive, figs, Oro Blanco grapefruit, Washington navel oranges, blood oranges, persimmons, pomegranates, Chinese pear, cherimoya, peach, apricot. The list of multicultural delights goes on and on. As hea... posted on May 2, 2797 reads

Costumed Crusaders Taking it to the Streets
Crusaders costumed in tights, capes, cowls and other accoutrements are turning up with surprising regularity in American cities to fight what they consider their biggest enemy: public apathy. They call themselves Real Life Superheroes and, with names like Dark Guardian, Red Dragon, and Viper, they might be right at home on the pages of comic books. But unlike their ink-and-paper counterparts, they... posted on Mar 15, 3350 reads

5 Ways Laughter is Good For Health
Ever felt lighter after a good laugh? Physiologically speaking, that's no coincidence. Laughter is shown to increase blood flow, strengthen immune system, reduce muscle pain, lower blood sugar and shed calories. Along similar lines, singing or listening to music can improve the brain's auditory and language processing functions, and decrease insomnia, stress and stroke. Regular grounding practices... posted on Apr 21, 5480 reads

Pedaling For Peace
"I grew up in Lancaster, PA, joined the Navy and ended up on an aircraft carrier doing intelligence work in Japan, got married to my first wife in the Czech Republic, sold health club memberships (got to hang out with Magic Johnson almost everyday for a few months :)), started a screenplay competition, made a million in real estate and let it go in my second divorce, was a lifeguard in Australia a... posted on Apr 5, 7850 reads

Connecting for Good: Social Networks in 2015
New networks are emerging everywhere. It's exciting, and daunting. What is this new network-centric world? What could it mean for community and social change? A new report by the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute explores how an increasingly connected world - where social networks are proliferating on and off-line- will affect the way people push for social change by 2015. Drawing from more ... posted on Apr 14, 5126 reads

The Sharing Economy Emerges
Peer to peer exchange of goods and services has skyrocketed way beyond craigslist.org and Couch Surfing. Now, access to goods and skills is becoming more important than ownership of them. And that has sparked a "Sharing Economy". Gartner Group researchers estimate that the peer-to-peer financial-lending market will reach $5 billion by 2013. Botsman says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market wil... posted on Apr 22, 3909 reads

10 Worst Listening Habits -- and Their Cure
We spend up to 80% of our waking hours in some form of communication, and 45% of that time is spent listening. And yet, it is the skill in which we have the least training. It isn't surprising, then, that studies show how poor and inefficient we can be as listeners. Apart from lack of explicit training, other reasons factor in. To start with, we think faster than we speak or listen, leaving us wit... posted on Jun 3, 50904 reads

Alone But Not Lonely
An emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone can be good for us. Just as regular exercise and healthy eating make our minds and bodies work better, solitude, experts say, so can being alone. Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, makes the case for people to mindfully set aside time everyday when they are not engaged in so-called "social snacki... posted on Aug 5, 5413 reads

Making a Case for Mindfulness
Growing numbers of attorneys are embracing some form of practice to achieve mindfulness. Their reasons for doing so are varied, but chief among them are stress management and improved mental and physical health. This is a hopeful shift, given the well-known Johns Hopkins study which found that lawyers are more prone to depression than members of any other profession. In the most recent study, Har... posted on May 28, 4149 reads

Family Finds $45K -- And Returns It
Josh Ferrin picked up the keys to his family's first home last week, and as he opened the attic door hatch and climbed up, he saw a box that looked like a WWII ammunition case. Then he found seven more, all stuffed full with tightly wound rolls of cash -- about $45,000 in all. Ferrin thought about how such a large sum of money could go a long way, pay bills, buy things he never thought he could af... posted on May 21, 7329 reads

Global Trends in Social Good
There is a rising consciousness to do good in a world recovering from recession and facing global challenges. But what does social good mean? Traditionally, it is a good or service that benefits the largest number of people in the largest possible way. As more and more organizations and individuals wake up to the groundswell of social good, the realm is expanding. Many innovations are emerging, wh... posted on Jul 15, 4348 reads

A Low Electron Diet
Author Shannon Hayes turns her computer off every morning around 9 am, once her workday is complete. Then she tunes out the rest of the world and tunes into her family, home, and farm. Very often the telephone gets turned off, too. So does the radio. "I shut out the wide world to tend to my immediate world." Hayes continues: "Radical homemakers are not one-person wonders, single-handedly capable o... posted on Jul 26, 10524 reads

Attention as an Art Form
185 billion bits of information. In an average lifetime, this is what the human brain is capable of processing. With any limited resource, the fact that it's in short supply can quickly create a feeling of scarcity. But it can also motivate wiser use of our attention, one of the fundamental building blocks of human experience. This article breaks attention down into four key aspects: Awareness, th... posted on Aug 22, 24393 reads

How Nature Affects the Brain
"For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Todd Braver is not wearing his watch. "I forgot," he says. It is a small thing, the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Braver and his companions, these moments lead to a question: What is happening to our brains? Braver, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis,... posted on Aug 27, 13826 reads

Blooming in the Whirlwhind
"'Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.' Strange message in a stranger place. I don't know who said it, but this pronouncement suddenly appeared on a huge wall of the 59th St. subway tunnel connecting the Lexington Avenue trains to the N and R lines. For many months I'd passed the area, which was roped off and covered over with heavy paper -- reconstruction in progress. Wha... posted on Sep 15, 2993 reads

The Flip Side of Your Signature Strength
"As an executive coach interested in exploring what drives people to successes and failures, I have worked with hundreds of ambitious people including business executives, sports legends and Nobel laureates. One key discovery I made repeatedly over the last fifteen years is that there is a common driver to the successes and failures of the people I studied. I call this driver, the 'Signature Stren... posted on Sep 25, 12373 reads

Reflections from a Five Day Walk
"I recently walked about 60 miles over 5 days, from Oakland to Santa Clara. This certainly isn't anything unique. In a way, I was imitating many inspirations that came before, and probably many iterations will come after. Still, 'we love to make music of this puzzle' of our artful work of life. For me, the walk was many things. It was an expression of wandering. It was a pilgrimage [...] It was a ... posted on Oct 28, 8798 reads

The Potential for Design
"Design is an inescapable dimension of human activity. To adapt one of my favorite quotes by Reyner Banham, like the weather it is always there, but we speak about it only when it is exceptionally bad or exceptionally good. Design is also a powerful political tool, as pharaohs, queens, presidents, and dictators throughout history have taught us. It comes not only in very visible and traditional ap... posted on Nov 2, 4138 reads

Multivariate Bridges and Metaphysical Mangoes
"Last weekend, my friend Nimo came to the group with a problem. On the main pathway between a slum and the nonprofit Manav Sadhna (MS), a stream had built up due to the persistent rain we've been getting lately. The issue was that kids from the slum trying to get to MS had to cross the stream daily or more with no proper way to walk, and between the water's filthiness and the pressure it was rushi... posted on Nov 18, 5873 reads

A 14-yr-old's Clothing Closet for All
Like many 14-year-olds, Katelyn Eystad has a lot of clothes in her closet -- but hers are to give away. In 2009, Katelyn founded a Clothing Closet to provide clothing, diapers, deodorant and more to people in need in her community. With the help of her sisters and mother, she has already served 1,500 families. "What a blessing this child has been to many. Katelyn is always volunteering and giving ... posted on Nov 25, 9080 reads

What a 10-Year-Old Did for the Tar Sands
10-yr-old Ta'Kaiya Blaney stood outside Enbridge Northern Gateway's office on July 6, waiting for officials to grant her access to the building. She thought she could hand deliver an envelope containing an important message about the company's pipeline construction. But the doors remained locked. "I don't know what they find so scary about me," she said, as she was ushered off the property by secu... posted on Dec 10, 8094 reads

Stepping Out of the "Should" Trap
"'I should make more money. I should lose weight. I should volunteer more often.' In saying 'should' so often, I found myself feeling trapped by a sense of obligation and expectation. I felt this vague pressure to conform to external standards, to be someone or do something. It felt like just being me wasn't okay. I felt pushed to follow a particular path, behave in specific ways, and believe cert... posted on Dec 14, 39504 reads

4 Misconceptions About the Simple Life
"It is important to recognize inaccurate stereotypes about the simple life because they make it seem impractical and ill suited for responding to increasingly critical breakdowns in world systems. Four misconceptions about the simple life are so common they deserve special attention. These are, equating simplicity with: poverty, rural living, living without beauty and economic stagnation. A centra... posted on Dec 24, 32330 reads

How Vulnerability Can Be a Strength
The word vulnerable itself comes from the Latin 'vulnerare' which means 'to wound', and so at the root of vulnerability is our own sense of wounded-ness. To be authentic in a moment in which we feel wounded, we have to honestly acknowledge the places where we feel hurt and then muster up the strength to just be with the pain. If we can embrace this vulnerability, we can fully accept the discomfort... posted on Jan 13, 30277 reads

Inside Tim Tebow's World of Kindness
"I've come to believe in Tim Tebow for what he does off a football field, which is represent the best parts of us, the parts I want to be and so rarely am. Who among us is this selfless? Every week, Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is dying, or who is injured." He flies these people and their families to the Broncos game, and gives them a treat of a lifetime. This ESPN article shar... posted on Jan 25, 18063 reads

Vinny Ferraro: The Heartful Dodger
One bitter night, in the rough end of New Haven, fifteen-year-old Vinny Ferraro and his gang were hanging out as usual by the projects when a chance encounter with a homeless man (who they were assaulting) changed the course of the rest of his life. "I didn't know what compassion meant when I was fifteen. But I knew that that homeless guy had seen my heart. And that was scary. I had done my best t... posted on Feb 2, 16478 reads

A Survivor's Sunrise Ritual
No two sunrises are ever the same. Debbie Wagner knows this better than almost anyone else. With earnest devotion, she has risen in the darkness more than 2,200 times so she could observe and paint the sunrise. She's rarely missed a morning since December 2005; for Wagner, the daily ritual is sustaining. "As a brain-tumor survivor, I lost so many of the loves I had, like reading and writing and ma... posted on Feb 6, 5006 reads

The Sweet Spot between Doing and Being
Activity balanced with rest: it's the way all of nature works, a beautiful reminder that everything is in ebb and flow. Our own bodies follow natural patterns, recuperating every night and preparing for the next day's action. With music as well, the structure imposed by notes inherently depends on the unstructured space supporting it. As a culture, though, we give more importance to creating notes... posted on Feb 28, 30173 reads

Cat Saves Owner's Life Hours After Adoption
Amy Jung and her son Ethan stopped into The Humane Society near their home in Wisconsin to play with the cats, but one feline -- a 21-pound cat named Pudding -- stood out to the pair. They made an impulsive decision to adopt him and his friend Wimsy. That same night, Jung, who has had diabetes since childhood, started having a diabetic seizure in her sleep. That's when Pudding sprang into action. ... posted on Feb 27, 26065 reads

Designing for Generosity
What would the world look like if we designed for generosity? Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations were built around our deepest motivations? A recent TEDx talk explores this question and introduces the concept of Giftivism: the practice of radically generous acts that change the world. The video is charged with stories o... posted on Mar 2, 5853 reads

Love and Play: a Conversation w/ Chaz
"When he speaks, you can sense a depth of earnest care in his voice. When you hear his stories, you know you're in the presence of a sacred soul. And it sort of sneaks up on you that he's served in hospices and with the homeless, that he spends his days mentoring college students as UPenn's University Chaplain. From gentle stories about his daughters to lessons from his "knucklehead punk" youth da... posted on Apr 29, 5065 reads

15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy
"We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering -- and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy -- we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go." Dana Sauvic, a student of the arts, economics and spiri... posted on May 10, 564429 reads

Intelligence Is Overrated: What It Really Takes to Succeed
Albert Einstein's was estimated at 160, Madonna's is 140, and John F. Kennedy's was only 119, but as it turns out, IQ score aren't everything when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement. IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. But by itself, a high IQ does not guarantee standing out. This article, originally appearing in ... posted on May 5, 79230 reads

Gleaning for the Greater Good
"An old-fashioned concept -- gleaning for the greater good by harvesting unwanted or leftover produce from farms or family gardens -- is making a comeback during these continued lean economic times. In cities, rural communities, and suburbs across the country, volunteer pickers join forces to collect bags and boxes of fruits and vegetables that find their way to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, a... posted on May 12, 12266 reads

Carl Sagan on Balancing Skepticism & Openness
"Seven years ago this week, David Foster Wallace argued that "learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think." Yet in an age of ceaseless sensationalism, pseudoscience, and a relentless race for shortcuts, quick answers, and silver bullets, knowing what to think seems increasingly challenging. The art of thinking critically is a habit that requ... posted on May 28, 19081 reads

Meet The New Boss: You
"What do coffee growers in Ethiopia, hardware store owners in America, and Basque entrepreneurs have in common? For one thing, many of them belong to cooperatives. By pooling their money and resources, and voting democratically on how those resources will be used, they can compete in business and reinvest the benefits in their communities. The United Nations has named 2012 as the International Yea... posted on May 30, 9657 reads

America's First Public Food Forest
Imagine a 7 acre plot of land in a large American city, with hundreds of different kinds of edibles: walnut and chestnut trees; blueberry and raspberry bushes; fruit trees, including apples and pears; exotics like pineapple, yuzu citrus, guava, persimmons, honeyberries, and lingonberries; herbs; and more. The best part? All will be available for public plucking to anyone who wanders into Seattle's... posted on Jun 8, 35356 reads

5 Principles for Inner Transformation at Work
"People go to work to sustain themselves and produce value in the world. Yet work environments can also be stressful, filled with challenging responsibilities and personalities, and feel misaligned with our most deeply cherished values. Instead of sustaining us, the workplace can sometimes feel simply draining, and at worst, unwholesome for both ourselves and the world...is there a path for heart ... posted on Jul 5, 13681 reads

Barbara Kingsolver On How to Be Hopeful
"The arc of history is longer than human vision. It bends. We abolished slavery, we granted universal suffrage. We have done hard things before. And every time it took a terrible fight between people who could not imagine changing the rules, and those who said, "We already did. We have made the world new." The hardest part will be to convince yourself of the possibilities, and hang on. If you run ... posted on Oct 24, 31573 reads

Business Lessons from a Quiet Gardener
William Rosenzweig is a strong voice in the field of ethical business. Much of his inspiration in the corporate world comes from a seemingly unlikely place -- the garden. "A gardener sees the world as a system of interdependent parts - where healthy, sustaining relationships are essential to the vitality of the whole. In business this has translated for me into the importance of developing agreeme... posted on Sep 7, 4172 reads

Somebody Tagged Me!
"'What is it?' Sabrina asked. One glance inside and my suspicion was confirmed. Lying inside were 2 tupperware containers. I could not see their contents from my bird's eye view but I could see a fresh mango and a bag of chocolates peeking from the corner of the bag. And the incredible aroma had already permeated the front office area. 'Someone has tagged me with an anonymous act of kindness!' I r... posted on Sep 26, 8278 reads

The Science of Compassion
"As human beings, we will inevitably encounter suffering at some point in our lives. However, we also have evolved very specific social mechanisms to relieve that pain: altruism and compassion. It is not just receiving compassion that relieves our pain...The act of experiencing compassion and helping others actually leads to tremendous mental and physical well-being for us as well. It is our abili... posted on Oct 23, 35526 reads

9 Simple Steps to Improve Your Health
"Ask a centenarian the secret ingredients to a long and healthy life and you aren't likely to hear "doctors, drugs, and fad diets." We all know that there's more to our overall well-being than treating symptoms or the occasional replacement of a part. The good news is that scientists in various fields are discovering ever more ways we can keep ourselves healthy without expensive medication and com... posted on Oct 5, 71131 reads

What The Fire Could Not Destory
"Ben and Norma Shapiro spent Thanksgiving week in New York City. They went to two jazz clubs, one comedy club, two movies, six plays and five museums. They had packed clothes to take them to those events, plus casual walking. And those are all the clothes they have left. On their last night in NYC, Nov. 30, they went to a jazz club and returned to their hotel. The manager met them as they entered ... posted on Nov 19, 6493 reads

Peace Artist: 6000 Miles of Art & Humanity
It all began with gratitude...And maybe some sneakers and paint. He goes by the name Peace Artist, and he spent the past year running 6,000 miles from Seattle, Washington to Savannah, Georgia. He ran until given shelter and fasted until given food. He carried no money with him, only art supplies, with which to create original works of art that he gifted along the way. He never asked for anything o... posted on Oct 12, 38426 reads

When I Walk: A Filmmaker's Journey with MS
30-year-old Jason DaSilva has worked as a filmmaker for ten years. His work has been screened at Sundance, on PBS, HBO, and came close to receiving an Academy Award nomination. Currently Jason is the director and star of an unusual documentary titled, "When I Walk". The film documents his journey with Multiple Sclerosis. In Jason's own words it,"provides information and inspiration to those affec... posted on Oct 30, 15640 reads