relationship between words and their meaning is a fascinating one, and linguists have spent countless years deconstructing it, taking it apart letter by letter, and trying to figure out why there are so many feelings and ideas that we cannot even put words to, and that our languages cannot identify. The idea that words cannot always say everything has been written about extensively -- as Friedrich Nietzsche said, "Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon the absolute truth." No doubt the best book we’ve read that covers the subject is ‘Through The Language Glass’ by Guy Deutscher, which... posted on Aug 31 2013 (168,553 reads)

sourced solutions for girls’ access to education. In our recent digital action campaign, World Pulse asked our community to share their testimonies on the obstacles that stand in the way of girls' dreams. Grassroots voices from all over the world chimed in with lived experiences that illuminate the disturbing statistics: There are currently 66 million girls in the world that should be in school, but are not. Thirteen girls under age 18 will be married in the next 30 seconds. The number one cause of death for girls aged 15-19 is childbirth. Out of more than 350 submissions from over 60 countries, an alternative vision for the future emerged: Global legions of gi... posted on Nov 15 2013 (23,147 reads)

Laura Lavigne, life holds the magic of a treasure hunt. A keeper of small moments, a spreader of joy, a mother, a dreamer, a doer, not to mention a French baker, Laura is a bright splash of color on any canvas. And she’s walked down quite a multifaceted road along the way. In this Awakin Call conversation with Afreen, she shares stories and lessons from her experiences working as a make-up artist to turning down corporate sponsorship, tossing out her well-rehearsed TEDx speech for spontaneity’s sake, and, time and time again, meeting strangers from the heart. Afreen: What drives you? Laura: I think it started when I was really little. I remember telling my parent... posted on Jan 11 2014 (28,903 reads)

visual catalog of the culturally-conditioned imagination. “Children help us to mediate between the ideal and the real,” MoMA curator Juliet Kinchin wrote in her fantastic design history of childhood. Largely responsible for this singular capacity are children’sremarkably metaphor-ready mindswhich transform toys into triggers for imaginative play, imbuing those seemingly simple plastic artifacts and synthetic-furred beings with life and meaning — a hallmark of childhood that cuts across cultural differences, geographies, and socioeconomic status. That’s precisely what photojournalistGabriele Galimberti explores in Toy Stories: Photos of Children from Around ... posted on May 21 2014 (17,121 reads)

we cry, how we know we aren’t dreaming right now, where the universe ends, what books are for, and more answers to deceptively simple yet profound questions. In 2012, I wrote about a lovely book titled Big Questions from Little People & Simple Answers from Great Minds, in which some of today’s greatest scientists, writers, and philosophers answer kids’ most urgent questions, deceptively simple yet profound. It went on to become one of the year’s best books and among readers’ favorites. A few months later, Gemma Elwin Harris, the editor who had envisioned the project, reached out to invite me to participate in the book’s 2013 edition by... posted on Sep 1 2014 (15,596 reads)

hospital to hospital, a 45-minute ride completed in 13 crazy minutes. A few weeks ago, Chennai traffic came to a standstill to allow a donor heart to reach a dying young woman for an urgent transplant. As families, doctors and cops waited with bated breath, this is what went down inside that wailing ambulance. In some ways, it was surprising that any good could ever come of a cadaver, a heart failure and a vehicle with a live heart in its trunk tearing through a crowded city. That it did on June 16, 2014 in Chennai, and that more than 50 people coordinated the whole thing with surreal precision to save a life, could tempt one to use words like ‘miracle’ or ‘... posted on Aug 11 2014 (16,420 reads)

year Maptia.com published a blog post titled ‘11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures’ with illustrations by Ella Sanders, who was interning with them last summer in Morocco. The next morning they woke to a torrent of emails and tweets from thousands upon thousands of people who had commented, shared, or volunteered more suggestions for these untranslatables. We’ll let Ella share the story of what happened next... JONNY (co-founder at Maptia): Hi Ella! Wow, where to even begin... 400 days ago you were interning with us out in Morocco and today you are are holding your very own book that has just been published with Random House, 48 hours before you... posted on May 10 2021 (48,279 reads)

the grace of redefining ourselves and redefining okayness when life throws us its merciless curveballs. “Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion wrote in her magnificent meditation on the subject. But oftentimes, grief doesn’t exactly come — not with the single-mindedness and unity of action the word implies. Rather, it creeps up — through the backdoor of the psyche, slowly, in quiet baby steps, until it blindsides the heart with a giant’s stomp. And yet it is possible to find between the floorboards a soft light that awakens those parts of us that go half-asleep through the autopilot of life. That’s precisely ... posted on Dec 30 2014 (37,804 reads)

America’s federally-recognized tribes. Matika Wilbur, Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta (Tulalip), 2014. Inkjet print 16 x 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Images of Native Americans made by non-Natives have a problematic history. During the 19th and early 20th centu­ries, ethnographers often used photos to document and romanticize the last traces of the New World’s “dying cul­tures.” Native Americans survived, but the tradition lives on: Posed images and media stereotypes continue to reduce indigenous peoples to vessels for the American imagination. Photographer Matika Wilbur, a member of the Tulalip and Swinom­ish tribes, aims to ch... posted on Sep 11 2015 (14,933 reads)

care of human life and happiness…is the only legitimate object of good government,” —Thomas Jefferson, 1809. Everyone wants to be happy, and increasingly, countries around the world are looking at happiness as an indicator of national well-being and considering happiness in policy making. As this year’s World Happiness Report states, “Happiness is increasingly considered a proper measure of social progress and a goal of public policy.” But what makes people happy, and which countries have the highest levels of happiness? For the World Happiness Report, researchers ranked countries based on factors including healthy life e... posted on Jul 8 2015 (71,476 reads)

2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is simply to put your mind to it.   What is happiness, and how can we achieve it? Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks. Matthieu Ricard, left, quit his career as a cellular geneticist nearly 40 years ago to study Buddhism. He is the French translator for the Dalai Lama, right. Photo by Pagoda Phat... posted on Oct 20 2009 (19,318 reads)

research shows that many animals are very intelligent and have sensory and motor abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles; and bats, dolphins, whales, frogs, and various rodents use high-frequency sounds to find food, communicate with others, and navigate. Many animals also display wide-ranging emotions, including joy, happiness, empathy, compassion, grief, and even resentment and embarrassment. It&rsquo... posted on May 17 2011 (34,924 reads)

an excerpt from his new book, psychologist Louis Cozolino applies the lessons of social neuroscience to the classroom. The human brain wasn’t designed for industrial education. It was shaped over millions of years of sequential adaptation in response to ever-changing environmental demands. Over time, brains grew in size and complexity; old structures were conserved and new structures emerged. As we evolved into social beings, our brains became incredibly sensitive to our social worlds. This mixture of conservation, adaptation, and innovation has resulted in an amazingly complex brain, capable of everything from monitoring respiration to creating culture. This added com... posted on Jun 2 2013 (149,347 reads)

like discriminating taste, grows on its use. You more likely act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.” One of the greatest preoccupations not only of our culture but of our civilization is the question of what creativity is, dating back to the dawn of recorded thought. But it wasn’t until the advent of modern psychology in the early twentieth century that our answers to the question began to take the shape of something more structured and systematic than metaphysical hunches — there’s Graham Wallace’s model of the four stages of the creative process from 1926, a five-step “technique for producing ideas” from 1939, ... posted on Jul 31 2014 (21,565 reads)

matter what your age or your life path … it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.” “Art is not a thing — it is a way,” Elbert Hubbard wrote in 1908. But the question ofwhat that way is, where exactly it leads, and how to best follow it is something artists have been grappling with since the dawn of recorded time and psychologists have spent decades trying to decode, outlining the stages of creativity, its essential conditions, and the best technique for producing ideas. In 1978, a few months after she stopped drinking, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, composer, and journalist Jul... posted on Sep 3 2014 (25,425 reads)

the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.” Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used Christian social ethics and the New Testament concept of “love” heavily in his writings and speeches, he was as influenced by Eastern spiritual traditions, Gandhi’s political writings, Buddhism’s notion of the interconnectedness of all beings, and Ancient Greek philosophy. His enduring ethos, at its core, is nonreligious — rather, it champions a set of moral, spiritual, and civic responsibilities that fortify our hum... posted on Jul 20 2015 (22,691 reads)

many ways, 2016 was a banner year for books related to our themes of compassion, kindness, empathy, happiness, and mindfulness. Judging from the number of books to arrive at our office, the science of a meaningful life is hitting its full stride, with more and more people recognizing how to apply new insights to our daily lives. Yet, while the number of books was encouraging, many of them seemed to repeat old themes and research, without offering much new in the way of insight. That’s why many of our favorite books of 2016 do something a little bit extra: They take our science to a new level, looking at how schools, organizations, and society at large can appl... posted on Dec 23 2016 (30,141 reads)

year KindSpring shares a selection of the most powerful stories they've received over the last twelve months. In the spirit of anonymity these real-life stories are often posted by people who choose to use a "Kindness alias". Some of the stories are about children and teenagers who have stumbled on creative ways to flex their kindness muscles, others are about adults of different ages, nationalities and backgrounds who regularly go out of their way to make our world a kinder, brighter place. Whether the stories describe a small act that made someone's day, or a gesture that forever altered the trajectory of a life, they all share one thing in common: a very big heart.... posted on Jan 4 2017 (19,600 reads)

a recent trip to India, I was deeply inspired by one school’s efforts to use some of the GGSC’s research-based practices to encourage well-being amongst its students. Similar to students in the U.S., Indian students often struggle with intense academic pressure, high parental expectations, and, for too many, extreme social and economic barriers. Indeed, suicide rates of 15-29 year olds in India are among the highest in the world. But a pre-K-12 Seth M. R. Jaipuria School in Lucknow, under the leadership of Anjali Jaipuria, is helping to counter the impact of these challenges by encouraging students to tap into their own and others’ hum... posted on Apr 9 2018 (16,994 reads)

Haixa talks of his symbiotic relationship with his friend Jia Wenqi, a double amputee -- “I am his hands. He is my eyes.” The pair work together to plant trees in Yeli village, just outside of Shijiazhuang city, northern China. Losing his sight in one eye to congenital cataracts, and later his right eye in a work-related accident, Jia Haixa is completely blind. The friends approached the local government and leased a 7.5 acre stretch of land along the riverbank. They hope to transform it by planting 1,000 trees every year, and have done that for a decade. Jia Wenqi guides his blind friend with one sleeve of his coat across a bridge over a channel on t... posted on Oct 26 2017 (23,886 reads)