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

Untrack: Letting Go of the Stress of Measuring
"There are a few old management adages that seem to run like a current through our society, powering our work and personal lives: "You can't manage what you don't measure" and "You are what you measure" and "You get what you measure". And I've fallen for it myself. At various times, I've tracked workouts, miles run, everything I've eaten, every single work task I complete, progress towards goals, ... posted on Nov 20, 17371 reads

What The Outside Can Do For The Inside
"The balancing, breathing, and centering of yoga bring immediate results to prisoners, according to Natalie Smith, executive director of Yoga Behind Bars, a nonprofit that promotes yoga to help soothe the rage, anxiety, and hopelessness of life in prison. " Incarceration is an ineffective band-aid for many other problems -- homelessness, mental health issues, drug addictions. Antisocial behaviors ... posted on Jul 19, 12086 reads

Creativity Blossoms in Beijing
"Dandelion, what an appropriate word to name a school that serves the children of migrant workers! The dandelion's seeds, feathery and light, drift with the wind to wherever they land. The tenacity of the plant helps it endure, put down roots, and live on. It is a perfect symbol of the situation tolerated by many migrant families, driven to wherever they can find jobs. Unassuming but tenacious, th... posted on Jan 20, 8854 reads

Curry Without Worry: Food from the Heart
"The founder of Curry Without Worry, Shrawan Nepali, has shoulder length salt and pepper hair, brown eyes that sparkle like he's about to break into a smile, and a lightness to him, as if he seems to defy gravity...They feed approximately 250 people in San Francisco, and 300 in Katmandu, Nepal every Tuesday night. Kerry Adams, a man waiting in line, told me, "Not only is the food here healthy and ... posted on Jan 12, 13996 reads

Are You Building Your Legacy?
"What are you going to be remembered for? Will people talk about the relationships you had with friends and family? The once-a-year dish everyone looked forward to? The impact you made on a company and its employees? How is a legacy created and cultivated, and what can you do to build your own legacy? These are all huge questions with small and critical answers. Here's the story of my legacy, and ... posted on Jan 16, 37350 reads

Stop Focusing On Your Performance
"The night before our wedding, Eleanor and I stood awkwardly in the center of a large room, surrounded by our family and our closest friends. There was no particular reason to be uncomfortable; this was just a rehearsal. Still, we were in the spotlight and things weren't going smoothly... It had taken us 11 years -- and a lot of work -- to get to this point. Eleanor is Episcopalian, the daughter o... posted on Feb 10, 29299 reads

Rebranding Valentine's Day
"I never thought I would create a day. And yet, two years ago, with a few friends, I did. It all started back in 2008 on a cold December evening like any other. I was in the New York City subway rushing home. A man I'd seen many times on the train was asking for money to help the homeless. He had a warm smile and an open demeanor, and was wearing a hat that said he was a Vietnam vet. Like everyone... posted on Feb 14, 19533 reads

The Library Cat Who Touched The World
"Vicki Myron, the former director of the Spencer, Iowa, public library, tells the true story of the tiny, frozen kitten she found pushed through the book-return slot one bitter-cold January morning in 1988. She and her staff revived him -- and decided to keep him. They named him Dewey (naturally) and he lived the rest of his 19-plus years in Spencer's library. Dewey greeted patrons when they arriv... posted on Mar 11, 7811 reads

Life On A Farm
"Yes, we are part of the world, and the world is within us as we are within an alive and enormous network of being that looks back at us. To perceive this is at once so profound and also simple. It begins with the most obvious everyday things around you." Luanne Armstrong has been living on the same farm for sixty years. Wandering this land each day, she has come to realize that the more she knows... posted on May 9, 17247 reads

Six Ways to Become A Wise Leader
There are two kinds of leaders, according to Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou, the authors of a new book called "From Smart to Wise." Smart leaders "tend to look at the world through colored lenses that skew or limit their perspective, which affects their decisions and actions, while wise leaders "are able to continually reframe and reinterpret events through integration and find new meanings within a... posted on Apr 2, 40520 reads

Snail Mail My Email
"Snail mail fascinates me," says Ivan Cash. "There's something warm and fuzzy about coming home and checking the mail and getting a letter from a friend. It's such an intimate for of communication, especially in today's world." But when he noticed his letter correspondence was dwindling as text and Facebook messages were growing, he decided something needed to change. The 25 year old, quit his ... posted on Apr 13, 5837 reads

Owner of the World's Friendliest Restaurant
"As anyone who's ever made a habit of eating out can tell you, restaurant service can be unpredictable, unnerving and off-putting. The food can be late. Servers can be rude and management can sometimes seem indifferent to your complaints and needs. This isn't the case at Tim's Place in Albuquerque, N.M., where every meal is accompanied by a hug from owner Tim Harris, who has Down syndrome.At Tim's... posted on Apr 27, 6028 reads

A Poet's Take on The Mystery of Existence
"When I start to write, I'm not a guide or teacher; I'm not even a poet. I'm a person far out at sea, and the poem is a raft made of whatever floats past in the water. Those almost accidental rescuing pieces are words, rhythms, musics, ideas, the memory that is mine and the memory that is all of ours and the memory that is held in language itself. The experience of writing, for me at least, isn't ... posted on May 23, 17180 reads

The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination
"A recent early morning hike in Malibu, California, led me to a beach, where I sat on a rock and watched surfers. I marveled at these courageous men and women who woke before dawn, endured freezing water, paddled through barreling waves, and even risked shark attacks, all for the sake of, maybe, catching an epic ride. After about 15 minutes, it was easy to tell the surfers apart by their style o... posted on Jun 13, 37077 reads

Recipes for Recovery
With a tagline that reads, "Where hitting the bottom, begins the climb to new heights," the Delancey Street Foundation is a residential education center for drug addicts and ex-convicts. It currently operates a few facilities across the US, bringing hope and empowerment in communities where people are breaking out of cycles of incarceration and drug abuse . Their mission is rooted in showing resi... posted on May 24, 11542 reads

A Midwife to the Dying
"In having been in the field of dying for many years, I have frequently encountered the tragic limitations of dying in America. Our lives are an ongoing opportunity for us to realize compassion in the world and to really be a benefit to others. How extraordinary at the moment of death we have this opportunity to unify with our basic nature." Joan Halifax, a "midwife to the dying", has spent over 3... posted on Jun 5, 25707 reads

What To Do When You've Angered Someone
"I was running late. My wife Eleanor and I had agreed to meet at the restaurant at seven o'clock and it was already half past. I had a good excuse in the form of a client meeting that ran over and I wasted no time getting to the dinner as fast as possible. When I arrived at the restaurant, I apologized and told her I didn't mean to be late. She answered: "You never mean to be late." Uh oh, she wa... posted on May 22, 341307 reads

A Delicious Revolution
"Until we see how we feed ourselves as just as important--and maybe more important than--all the other activities of mankind, there is going to be a huge hole in our consciousness. If we don't care about food, then the environment will always be something outside of ourselves. And yet the environment can be something that actually affects you in the most intimate -- and literally visceral -- way. ... posted on Sep 23, 25971 reads

Turning the Tables on Success
"Two of the defining qualities of great leaders are the ability to make others better and the willingness to put the group's interests first. The employees with the greatest potential to excel and rise will be those whose success reverberates to benefit those around them." So, what does it take to be a great leader? In this piece, Wharton Business School professor Adam Grant describes givers, matc... posted on Oct 14, 8621 reads

Food for Your Soul: An Interview with Satish Kumar
"Food brings people together and nourishes not just their body but their soul, their mind and their spirit... That is why it is so important what kind of food you are eating. If you eat food that is tasteless, sprayed with chemicals and wrapped in plastic then your soul and spirit will not be nourished. We should eat wholesome food for a wholesome life." These are the words of Satish Kumar, founde... posted on Nov 30, 13754 reads

Teens Deliver 33,000 Burritos to the Homeless
In a world where the younger generation is pulled toward the newest gadgets and accumulating more of them, a father responded to his son's ambitious Christmas wish list with a simple act of service. In an attempt to have his son realize how much they already have and to feel gratitude for it, they made breakfast burritos and drove out to share them with the local homeless people on the street. T... posted on Aug 22, 40068 reads

How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
Daniel Goleman, author of "Emotional Intelligence" and "Social Intelligence", and Tara Bennett-Goleman, psychotherapist and author of "Emotional Alchemy," explain the science behind "mind whispering" - a technique for overcoming self-defeating habits of mind. Mind whispering is an integration of Eastern and Western psychologies and draws on mindfulness, cognitive therapy, and Buddhist psychology t... posted on Oct 6, 31143 reads

A Tea Shop Making A Difference
Sometimes the issues ailing our world seem so huge, and our ability to resolve them so small. The story of Katrell Christie, however, and her ability to react with a sincere generosity in the face of a seemingly challenging social issue, gives hope and inspiration. After listening to the story of three orphaned girls on a trip to India, she promised to return and help -- and though she did not k... posted on Nov 24, 8953 reads

The Morality of Meditation
Meditation is a hot trend in the arena of mind-improvement. Mounting evidence that the practice can boost memory, creativity and IQ has attracted mainstream attention. "But gaining competitive advantage on exams and increasing creativity in business weren't of the utmost concern to Buddha and other early meditation teachers. As Buddha himself said, "I teach one thing and one only: that is, sufferi... posted on Jul 7, 39694 reads

Balancing the Brain Toward Joy
You might call her an "evangelist for a balanced brain": Twelve years ago, at the age of 37, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist and spokeswoman for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, had a stroke that traumatized her left hemisphere. After eight years of recovery, she recounts her experience of losing a former life and opening up to another of deep presence and laughter... posted on Aug 21, 44500 reads

Death Cafe: Talking Tea and Mortality
"'Do you have a death wish?" is not a question normally bandied about in seriousness. But have you ever actually asked whether a parent, partner or friend has a wish, or wishes, concerning their death? Burial or cremation? Where would they like to die? It's not easy to do." For the past few years, "death cafes" have cropped up organically in Great Britain, providing a safe and open space for peopl... posted on Oct 5, 4671 reads

How To Focus A Wandering Mind
"A recent study by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert sampled over 2,000 adults during their day-to-day activities, and found that 47 percent of the time, their minds were not focused on what they were currently doing. Even more striking, when people's minds were wandering, they reported being less happy. This suggests it might be good to find ways to reduce these mental distractions and im... posted on Sep 16, 0 reads

The Poetry of Childhood
Richard Lewis shares the poetry of children to illustrate how their imagination creates an incandescent moment. Children are at ease with both the visible and invisible, what we know and don't know -- the pure sense of expectation and delight in the mystery of what is happening and about to happen, and they sometimes express it in poetry. Read some of their poems and join in their delight.... posted on Aug 20, 12476 reads

21 Blessings in Disguise
"It's easy to give thanks for the blessings that we do have. Love, family, friends, bounty. These are the hugs and warmth and praises analogous to a soothing back rub or an aromatic cup of tea. For these, we are thankful daily. They make us feel good and we expect and receive them with little to no toll." But then there are the things that do take a toll -- like our insecurities, flaws, sadness, a... posted on Nov 18, 62292 reads

The Man in the Red Bandana: A 9/11 Hero
Welles Crowther began carrying a red bandana when he was 6 years old. It soon became his signature, and a link between father (his dad carried a blue one) and son. When Welles turned 16, he signed up as a junior firefighter at the local fire station -- Empire Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1. On September 11, 2001, Welles was working as an equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the Worl... posted on Sep 11, 5835 reads

An Awesome Way To Help Kids Be Less Self-Absorbed
Malala Yousufzai, Craig Kielburger, and Ryan Hreljac are some of the many young people in the world who are trying to transform the world in positive ways. However, research suggests that a large percentage of youth are becoming less empathic and more disconnected from others. Getting children and young adults to be less self-absorbed has also been a subject of research, and as Dacher Keltner expl... posted on Dec 19, 109058 reads

7 Lessons For Leaders In Systems Change
Creating systemic change is increasingly imperative in our times as we seek ways to improve the way that we live and relate to each other and to the earth. This large-scale thinking recognizes that, "Individual things - like plants, people, schools, communities, and watersheds - are all systems of interrelated elements. At the same time, they can't be fully understood apart from the larger systems... posted on Dec 12, 33191 reads

Kitchen of Cheer
"Food is just a means of getting closer to people." Watching a child rummage in the garbage to drink melted ice from a discarded plastic sack spurred Mavis Ching to do something. Touch A Life prepares lunches for local kids and Saturday deliveries to their families in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Mother Teresa said: "The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved." Touch A Life a... posted on Oct 21, 4849 reads

How Sleep Makes You Smart
About one-third of our lives are spent in reverie, and yet little is known about how sleep is linked to intellectual and emotional intelligence. Researchers are unravelling this mystery and are finding that sleep - especially deep sleep - confers emotional balance, opens us to learning, cements memory, and strengthens our ability to make meaning of facts and experiences. Sleep, as it turns out, is... posted on Dec 24, 70869 reads

Beauty Feeds A Different Kind of Hunger
A fifth-generation Mormon and author of numerous books whose subjects span activism, family, and meditations on place, Terry Williams writes of women, relationships, faith, and environment, and how they are inextricably linked. In her own words, "I believe the first time I found my voice was when I crossed the line at the Nevada Test Site in 1988. It was one year after my mother died. It was one ... posted on Mar 22, 6210 reads

The Million Dollar Scholar From Southside Chicago
When Derrius Quarles was four years old, his father was murdered. The following year, he was taken away from his mother's custody. Growing up in the Illinois foster care system for nine years and in the south side of Chicago, higher education seemed far out of reach for Derrius, and the challenges of inner-city life almost led him down a path of crime and fast money. Everything changed one morning... posted on Dec 28, 27326 reads

How Emotionally Intelligent Are You?
"What makes some people more successful in work and life than others? IQ and work ethic are important, but they don't tell the whole story. Our emotional intelligence -- the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others -- can play a critical role in determining our happiness and success...The five components of emotional intelligence, as defined by Daniel Goleman, are self-awareness, s... posted on May 1, 115155 reads

10 Scientific Insights That Could Change Your Year!
The tide of psychology, which has traditionally probed into the dysfunctions of the human mind, has been shifting to a rigorous examination of its virtuous aspects. The "positive psychology" movement is unraveling universal human behaviours and experiences such as altruism, empathy, meaning, and happiness. For instance, in the past several years, researchers have found that a meaningful life is he... posted on Jan 23, 128906 reads

10 Scientific Insights That Could Change Your Year!
The tide of psychology, which has traditionally probed into the dysfunctions of the human mind, has been shifting to a rigorous examination of its virtuous aspects. The "positive psychology" movement is unraveling universal human behaviours and experiences such as altruism, empathy, meaning, and happiness. For instance, in the past several years, researchers have found that a meaningful life is he... posted on Feb 4, 0 reads

Pamela Sukhum & The Beautiful Project
Pamela Sukham's warmth and openheartedness invites us all to find the artist within and to experience life and all it's infinite possibilities on a path for beauty and truth. In this conversation, Pamela shares her journey from one captivating story to the next, beginning with a life-changing realization that she needed to leave a stable career to trust an inspiration...to paint. Read here how her... posted on Apr 9, 26405 reads

The Calling of Delight: On Gangs, Service, Kinship
Father Gregory Boyle is no ordinary priest --he exuberantly pushes boundaries; not only does he reframe the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount and draw from the wisdom of the Dalai Lama, Cesar Chavez and Dorothy Day in his work, he's also utterly dedicated his life to something higher than himself: the unreserved service of humanity. There is perhaps no better place for a priest like Boyle to work... posted on May 4, 20787 reads

6 Mindfulness Practices For Leaders (And Everyone, Really)
As Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it, mindfulness "wakes us up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments." If we're not fully present for those moments, we may miss what's most valuable in our lives, both personally and professionally. Simply put, mindfulness is about not living in your head all the time and is about paying attention to where you are, what you're doing, or who you're talking to so th... posted on Jun 1, 144004 reads

Calling Out The Delusions Of A Techno-Industrial Society
Stories about the human colonization of other worlds were popular in the 1950s, with a promise of material abundance, and much of the population of the Western world excited about the possibilities offered by new technologies and a beneficial, authoritative science. That humans could extend their reach to other worlds seemed inevitable progress. Today, the popular faith in science and technology h... posted on Jul 27, 14402 reads

Balancing The Brain And The Power of Choice
Where do the left brain and right brain meet, and what purposes do they each have to serve? Tami Simon of Insights at the Edge interviews Harvard-trained neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, who in 1996 experienced a severe brain hemorrhage that shut down her left brain and its constituent centers of language, movement and memory. Dr. Jill shares her reflections on this experience and its implica... posted on Aug 24, 35909 reads

From Sharing Economy To Gift Ecology
Technology advances and a consumer-based world have created a 'sharing economy', where it becomes easy to commoditize things that were typically offered as gifts. Consider the difference between offering your neighbor a lift to the airport, and using Uber to find a stranger who will pay you for a ride. When society focuses all its energy on monetary pursuits, what happens to the spirit of voluntee... posted on Jan 22, 21799 reads

New York's Pop Up Repair Shop
Your lamp broke? Oh well, buy a new one. Your toaster oven broke? Again, just buy a new one. Are you one of those people who are more apt to throw out older, broken household items and just buy new replacements -- instead of perhaps thinking about giving it a chance to be fixed? Well, for Sandra Goldmark and her husband Michael Banta, they finally wanted to try and create a solution that "aimed at... posted on Oct 6, 14510 reads

Sarah Van Gelder: Unity In Diversity
Growing up under conditions of privilege in India, Sarah Van Gelder developed an interest in the underlying causes of poverty and suffering from a young age. Driven by her quest to find answers and solutions, she established Yes!Magazine, a publication that focuses on positive and uplifting initiatives by individuals and groups to foster social justice and equality around the world. Read further f... posted on Dec 7, 2998 reads

The Healing Power Of Joy
Laughter is a natural medicine - it lifts our spirits and makes us feel happy. Laughter is contagious. It brings people together and helps us feel more alive and empowered. Laughter therapy aims to use the natural physiological process of laughter to help relieve physical or emotional stresses or discomfort. There are over 70 organizations committed to the healing power of laughter around the worl... posted on Nov 4, 3889 reads

How One Doctor And His Menagerie Transformed A Nursing Home
When Bill Thomas became medical director of a nursing home he decided to attack what he termed the Three Plagues of nursing home existence -- boredom, loneliness and helplessness -- by bringing in some life. Cats, dogs, birds and green plants in every room, and visiting children after school, triggered unexpected transformations. Some medication doses were lowered, residents were invigorated in bo... posted on Dec 21, 11246 reads