Now, you used two interesting terms. You said, “Gratitude for the mercies that have been extended to us” and “protections.” Can you say a little bit about what you mean about both of those terms? AA: Sure. In many cultures, there’s a lot of practice of gratitude when someone has extended compassion or kindnesses or unexpected forgiveness or mercy toward us; or the practice of gratitude also cultivates our own compassion and kindness and forgiveness work, and the mercies that we might extend to other people. And all the cultures of the world have what are called anointment rituals, or prayers of protection, or invocation for protections of home, ... posted on Sep 17 2012 (30,571 reads)

spite of current ads and slogans, the world doesn't change one person at a time.  It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what's possible.  This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future.  Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections.  We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits.  Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage, and commitment that lead to broad-based change.  But networks are... posted on Sep 2 2013 (35,504 reads)

Tippett, host: Most of us were born into a twentieth century which aspired to solve every problem. That never succeeded, in part because it's just not the way life works, for individuals or societies, even at the best of times. You solve one problem and new ones emerge. Even sustainability implies a confidence that balance can finally be achieved. Andrew Zolli is thought leader and curator of a new idea, "resilience thinking," which is galvanizing scientists, governments, and social innovators. Resilience asks how to support people and create systems that know how to recover, persist, and even to thrive in the face of change. In our age, disruption is around ... posted on Dec 5 2013 (23,132 reads)

that we experience of not good enough. You know, I always say that shame drives two primary tapes: not good enough, and who do you think you are? So to me, it's a very formidable emotion. Its survival is based on us not talking about it, so it's done everything it can do to make it unspeakable. Ms. Tippett: So vulnerability is this other word you use a lot that our culture is almost allergic to. [Laugh] Ms. Tippett: And I think it's really interesting how your work on vulnerability came out of your attempt to kind of put this shame learning into a positive context, right? To figure out what were the ingredients of the lives that you saw as wholehearted. And... posted on Mar 21 2014 (33,769 reads)

Woolf wrote in her diary. Few writers have come to write about it — and to it — more directly than the novelist, poet, and environmental activist Wendell Berry, who describes himself as “a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts.” In his wonderful and wonderfully titled essay collection What Are People For? (public library), Berry addresses with great elegance our neophilic tendencies and why innovation for the sake of novelty sells short the true value of creative work. Novelty-fetishism, Berry suggests, is an act of vanity that serves neither the creator nor those created for: Works of pride, by self-called creators, with their premium on... posted on Feb 1 2015 (27,925 reads)

out there, ready to derail even the most talented of people, “showing up” regularly offers undeniable benefits. Some of these perks often go overlooked. For those excited to make progress this year, let’s keep in mind all of the advantages at our disposal when we have an enviable attendance record: Consistency begets consistency. A person in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by a Netflix binge session. The creative mind is much like machinery. Too much work and you overload it, too little and a decrepit state of rusty thinking awaits you. Keep the process humming by allowing the steady flow of work to never let the mental cobwebs settle. When you... posted on Apr 23 2015 (168,989 reads)

until we came. And there’s room for us to grow. Right now we’re kindergarten to sixth. But we have classrooms for grades seven and eight. After that we hope to have other schools; we’re prototyping to have many more urban public charters that are Waldorf inspired. But they’re always going to be small schools. So this building is perfect because it’s just the right size. RW: You’ve made it quite wonderful. So this is a public school; how does that work? Ida: Yes, it’s a public school and totally free for our children. That means I have to work very hard on fundraising. The state (in other words, our tax dollars) pays a fixed amount pe... posted on Aug 24 2015 (7,716 reads)

met Peter Kalmus at a ServiceSpace gathering in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley. All of us had introduced ourselves in a circle and something about the way Peter described his work as a scientist in environmental studies stood out. Immediately I wanted to know more about him and his work and fortunately, he was able to make some time for an interview. We started at the beginning. Richard Whittaker: So you grew up in Illinois? Peter Kalmus: Yes, outside of Chicago. I remember in high school, I went for a walk. I was going to a friend's house and I was walking past all these houses; it was the evening, sort of dark. In every house, there were blue flickering lights goin... posted on Oct 11 2020 (18,248 reads)

he’s running an errand. MS. TIPPETT: And she’s visiting, right? She’s just visiting for six weeks. DR. DOTY: Exactly. Just there for the summer. MS. TIPPETT: Yeah. There’s so much that’s so amazing about this story, but there’s a passage that really struck me where she’s — and I think maybe it was that very first day that you wandered in, and she said to you — or you were having a discussion with her about, why do magic tricks work? And there you were talking about the traditional magic tricks. And she said to you, “The brain, as busy as it can be, is actually very lazy.” That this is why magic tricks work. &ldq... posted on Apr 17 2016 (32,427 reads)

inspired by Charles Darwin, who wrote in 1872 The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, where he had really described how our emotions are mammalian. They aren't just humans, they aren't just Victorian, they are mammalian. Darwin drew upon his observations of his babies and his dog and chimpanzees at the London Zoo and other kinds of data to arrive at this notion that we have these mammalian emotions. Paul Ekman came along and really presented the science, this way of doing that work, of coding facial muscle movements. What happens when you do that science, is you learn this coding system. It really changes your life, and it certainly changed mine. It takes about 100 hours... posted on Nov 4 2016 (31,541 reads)

boring rather than kind of Hogwarts-y, and I prefer to keep it Hogwarts-y because I feel like the only realm in our lives where it’s safe and actually beneficial to have magical thinking is in the realm of creativity. 3. Make something, do something, do anything. If you have a creative mind, it’s a little bit like owning a border collie. You have to give it something to do or it will find something to do, and you will not like the thing it finds to do. So if you go to work and you leave your border collie unattended and unexercised in your apartment, you’re going to come home and find out that that border collie gave itself a job, and the job that it gave its... posted on Jan 11 2017 (29,240 reads)

appropriate behavior by employees and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.” Culture tells us what is acceptable and unacceptable. It alerts us to whether it is okay to show up a little late for a meeting, how we should be dressed when we arrive, and whether bringing up difficult issues in the room will be viewed favorably. It influences how we treat each other, talk to each other, and is a factor in the way we view and interact with our coworkers and customers. Culture shows up as a similarity in the way people behave at work, regardless of their rank, title, or serial number. As Margaret J. Wheatley writes in Leadership a... posted on Oct 22 2017 (12,292 reads)

is more to life than increasing its speed. – Mahatma Gandhi It’s the status symbol no one talks about, woven into our work, play, homes, and family lives. It takes up space on our calendars, to-do lists, and endless roster of appointments and meetings. It can leave us exhausted or invigorated, constantly tugging at our drive to do more, give back, and leave our mark. It can be a source of increased stress and frequent complaints one minute, and unbridled joy the next. Busyness is the new currency by which we measure our success, our fulfillment, and ultimately, the richness of our lives. “In certain cultures, spending your time relaxing, spending your ti... posted on Dec 26 2017 (21,296 reads)

around and people are exposed to positive news, see acts of kindness and learn of human goodness?  This was the question that Dr. David Fryburg asked himself after experiencing what he calls a “sort of news-induced depression”. He learned of studies suggesting the negative physiological effects that negative news could cause, and he began wondering about the importance of balance. So David, a physician and research scientist, as well as a keen photographer with published works and solo exhibits – together with his oldest son Jesse in 2014 – started a non-profit to promote kindness, compassion, and empathy. The organization, Envision Kindness, brings t... posted on Feb 27 2018 (15,175 reads)

you recognize that we all got issues. [laughter] MS. TIPPETT: I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zöe Keating] MS. TIPPETT: This conversation unfolded at the 2018 On Being Gathering at the 1440 Multiversity, among the redwoods of Scotts Valley, California. MS. TIPPETT: So we have an hour now with Rami Nashashibi and Lucas Johnson. Rami is the founder and leader of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, known as IMAN. It is, I would say, a holistic approach to presence and healing in the inner city, through the lens, through the approach of working with — initially, when you started at a ... posted on Aug 19 2018 (5,541 reads)

hole in my stomach… I didn’t know what to call it, but I was not happy. I ended up diagnosing myself as an emotional analphabet -- I was emotionally illiterate. I have always been a curious man so I decided to do more research to better understand what was happening to me. I read somewhere that my symptoms matched what was called: “The Unhappy Successful Man Syndrome”. And this syndrome was so common that it had been catalogued. Many people around the world are working hard in big companies, climbing the ladder with a lot of sacrifice and dedication and when they arrive to the top of that ladder they realize they have put the ladder on the wrong wall. A stro... posted on Sep 2 2018 (15,497 reads)

and a renewed, grateful interest in life. What sparked the founding of Inner Strength Foundation? How is ISF distinct from other school-based mindfulness programs? In 2014, I moved to Philadelphia, the poorest of America’s ten largest cities. I brought with me 35 years of in-depth contemplative practice. I wanted to see if there was a way to share the fruits of what I’d experienced more broadly and have a positive impact on the culture around me. The opportunity to work with teens came about somewhat serendipitously, and I found that it was perfect for a number of reasons. Teens are at that age where they are contemplating the purpose of their lives, what they w... posted on Mar 11 2019 (6,268 reads)

following is based on the July 8th, 2017 Awakin Call with Thom Bond. Thom Bond brings 27 years of study and training experience in human potential to his work as a writer, speaker and workshop leader. His passion and knowledge of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) combine to create a practical, understandable, humorous, and potentially profound approach for learning and integrating skills that help us experience more compassion and understanding. Thom is a founder and the Director of Education for The New York Center for Nonviolent Communication. He is best known as the creator and leader of The Compassion Course, a comprehensive online NVC-based training, Since 2011, more than 14,00... posted on Jul 11 2020 (8,201 reads)

was really just coming into its own. And so I just — I wonder how you would start to tell the story of — in your lifetime, the emergence of — the difference between what you thought you were going into when you, I guess, decided, maybe — what was it? — that you wanted to study psychiatry, and how you’ve watched that develop; what’s been fascinating to you to be part of, about that. Dr. Yehuda:Well, it was fascinating from the very beginning. My work in graduate school was focused on stress hormones, and there was a great deal of interest in understanding the biologic response to stress. And then, in the ’70s… Ms. Tippett:Was ... posted on Jul 25 2020 (6,957 reads)

Gaia Mandala Global Healing Community is a growing circle of people from around the world who are hearing the call of the Earth to wake up and engage with the great work of our time: to participate in restoring balance and harmony to the web of life. The Earth Treasure Vase Global Healing Project lies at the heart of this community – planting clay vases filled with offerings of protection and healing around the world. The project’s Gaia Mandala Sangha — a spiritual community grounded in Buddhist tradition but open to all — exists as an in-person and online community with regular meditation and retreat offerings, including a monthly full moon meditation and oppo... posted on Aug 2 2020 (8,835 reads)