Schaefer / shutterstock Watching starling murmurations as the birds swoop, dive and wheel through the sky is one of the great pleasures of a dusky winter’s evening. From Naples to Newcastle these flocks of agile birds are all doing the same incredible acrobatic display, moving in perfect synchrony. But how do they do it? Why don’t they crash? And what is the point? Back in the 1930s one leading scientist suggested that birds must have psychic powers to operate together in a flock. Fortunately, modern science is starting to find some better answers. To understand what the starlings are doing, we begin back in 1987 when the pioneering computer scientist Craig... posted on Feb 18 2022 (5,323 reads)

more than a decade, I’ve been studying the effects of gratitude on physical health, on psychological well-being, and on our relationships with others. digitalskillet In a series of studies, my colleagues and I have helped people systematically cultivate gratitude, usually by keeping a “gratitude journal” in which they regularly record the things for which they’re grateful. (For a description of this and other ways to cultivate gratitude, click here.) Gratitude journals and other gratitude practices often seem so simple and basic; in our studies, we often have people keep gratitude journals for just three weeks. And yet the results have been overwhelmi... posted on Jun 20 2011 (78,772 reads)

prestige is the enemy of passion, or how to master the balance of setting boundaries and making friends. “Find something more important than you are,” philosopher Dan Dennett once said in discussing the secret of happiness,“and dedicate your life to it.” But how, exactly, do we find that? Surely, it isn’t by luck. I myself am a firm believer in the power of curiosity and choice as the engine of fulfillment, but precisely how you arrive at your true calling is an intricate and highly individual dance of discovery. Still, there are certain factors — certain choices — that make it easier. Gathered here are insights fr... posted on Apr 22 2012 (56,768 reads)

the social stigma around late risers, or what Einstein has to do with teens’ risk for smoking. “Six hours’ sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool,” Napoleon famously prescribed. (He would have scoffed at Einstein, then, who was known to require ten hours of sleep for optimal performance.) This perceived superiority of those who can get by on less sleep isn’t just something Napoleon shared with dictators like Hitler and Stalin, it’s an enduring attitude woven into our social norms and expectations, from proverbs about early birds to the basic scheduling structure of education and the workplace. But in Internal Time: C... posted on May 20 2012 (18,320 reads)

Persian and then translated into English by somebody else—then you turn it into a Coleman Barks translation. Can you tell us how that process goes for you? CB: Well, it's a little mysterious. I go into a kind of a trance, reading the poem in its scholarly translation, and try to—well, [there's] nothing marvelous about it, it's just kind of a trance that any reading involves—where I try to feel what spiritual information is trying to come through Rumi's images and then I try to put that into an American free-verse poem in the tradition of Walt Whitman and many others. So that's the general liniments of the process. TS: Do you ever have a ... posted on Dec 29 2013 (36,170 reads)

Tippett, host: Sherry Turkle founded and directs the intriguingly titled MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She made waves with her book Alone Together; it was widely reviewed as a call to "unplug" our digital gadgets. But as I've read her and listened to her speak, I hear Sherry Turkle saying something more thought-provoking: that we can lead examined lives with our technology. That each of us, in our everyday interactions, can choose between letting technology shape us and shaping it towards human purposes, even towards honoring what we hold dear. Engaging Sherry Turkle on this is full of usable ideas — from how to declare email bankruptcy to teachi... posted on Jul 1 2013 (29,608 reads)

is challenging to define, despite the huge role it plays in our everyday lives. Steve Jobs called it, for instance, "more powerful than intellect." But however we put it into words, we all, well, intuitively know just what it is. Pretty much everyone has experienced a gut feeling -- that unconscious reasoning that propels us to do something without telling us why or how. But the nature of intuition has long eluded us, and has inspired centuries' worth of research and inquiry in the fields of philosophy and psychology. "I define intuition as the subtle knowing without ever having any idea why you know it," Sophy Burnham, bestselling author of The Ar... posted on Apr 30 2014 (137,849 reads)

people. The flashfloods this month have absorbed villages, ravaged homes, and left thousands displaced. New Delhi-based NGO Goonj provides relief aid to those affected by such natural calamities. Goonj has been on the forefront to bring relief items to the families of Uttarkhand as evacuations and rescue efforts continue. Last year, David reported on Goonj for the Fixes column in the NYTimes. Given the recent events, we’re reprinting that column this weekend. But, first, here are some images from the relief efforts at Goonj’s base in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. Bridging the Clothing Divide by David Bornstein, NYTimes The sign on the rickshaw caught the attention ... posted on Oct 23 2014 (13,842 reads)

strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery.” “Our human definition of ‘everything’ gives us, at best, a tiny penlight to help us with our wanderings,” Benjamen Walker offered in an episode of his excellent Theory of Everythingpodcast as we shared a conversation about illumination and the art of discovery. Thirty years earlier, Carl Sagan had captured this idea in his masterwork Varieties of Scientific Experience, where he asserted: “If we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.” This mu... posted on Mar 16 2015 (18,834 reads)

beginning of another new year is the perfect time to reflect, as a family, on memorable moments of togetherness and inspiration from the year gone by and to express gratitude for all that it offered. It is also an opportunity to plant seeds for the intentions you want to cultivate at both a personal level with your families and, more broadly, to plant seeds of goodness for the change you wish to see in the world in 2017. Our team of volunteer editors hopes you enjoy our personal selection of the Top 10 Kindful Kids of 2016 here below! We are grateful to this entire community for nourishing children's journeys in the beautiful ways that you do and we look forward to seeing all of the ... posted on Jan 10 2017 (10,734 reads)

photography. It took me several years before I got a job, so I did my own work while waiting to get clients. Because I was doing work close to my heart, it really propelled my advance in photography. Then, I began getting commercial work and became pretty successful at it. I shot covers for 50 romance novels. Eventually, I asked myself, “Is this really what I dropped out of dentistry for?” That's when I decided to do a project in Tibet on the Tibetan people. That project put my images in galleries across the country and in Europe. I didn't have to do commercial work anymore. And I started doing work centering on human rights issues that people, especially in the developi... posted on Apr 25 2017 (17,136 reads)

as well as its devastation have prevented development and tourism and an endless stream of visitors from further altering the Hawaiian legacy of earth, stone, and ancestral voices. Mua Ha‘i KÅ«pana, Kaho‘olawe, Hawai‘i In the early period of attempting to make photographs of this unusual, reverberating landscape, I sensed the need to listen, to learn, to step back and get to know the island as intimately as possible. I felt at least the possibility of making images that integrated in a single gesture the massive destruction and underlying feeling of sacredness, of something very real and special that I couldn’t quite grasp, which remained elusive to... posted on Oct 5 2017 (9,790 reads)

and Saints Don't Collect: A Conversation with Larry Brilliant at Awakin Circle by Richard Whittaker, Oct 20, 2016   It's been my good fortune for many years now to be acquainted with ServiceSpace's weekly Awakin Circle. The original circle began almost 20 years ago and has inspired many others around the world. Generally, the circles facilitate a rich quality of shared experience among the people in attendance, but from time to time a featured guest may show up and present his or her story and enter into an exchange with those in attendance.      Over the years, remarkable people have regularly appeared in the living room where these circle... posted on Nov 8 2017 (16,024 reads)

introduction by Maria Jain Earlier this year, I sat in an airplane waiting to take off from New York. The sun was setting beyond the edge of the tarmac. In the distance, the Manhattan skyline stood like a row of tiny charred matchsticks against the burning horizon. For a moment, I admired this instant art. Then, I shifted my gaze to the book on my lap: “That Bird Has My Wings” written by Jarvis Jay Masters, a Buddhist practitioner on Death Row in California. As I opened the first page, graceful italics shot Masters’ resounding dedication straight into my heart: To all those who who have lost someone by an act of violence, to the memory of those who... posted on Sep 28 2017 (13,448 reads)

rip-off Have you or any of your loved ones experienced our health care system lately? If so, how was that experience for you? Were you pleased with your care? Were you able to access the system easily? Did it treat you with dignity, respect, and competence? Did you feel well after your engagement with the system? And were you satisfied afterward that you got what you paid for? Or did you feel like the system failed you? That it addressed your acute illness but not your overall health? That it moved you around like a cog in a vast machine? That it never met your unique need? And ransacked your pocketbook in the process? According to a study by Fidelity Investments, a m... posted on Aug 25 2018 (9,681 reads)

month, Nickelodeon, in partnership with KidsRights Foundation, launched #KidsCan, an international campaign that spotlights the stories of nine International Children's Peace Prize winners and nominees from around the globe who are creating positive change in their communities.  Says Bradley Archer-Haynes, a vice president, at Nickelodeon International, “Kids everywhere have the power to make a difference, regardless of age or location. We wanted to provide a platform to help amplify their stories, while pointing to resources that help young people remember they can do anything.”  From Kehkashan's efforts for environmental sustainability to Fahima's wor... posted on Apr 3 2018 (8,937 reads)

What a great joy to be with you on this special day. Thank you, Dr. Carmen Valdes, Miss Ana Lim, distinguished staff and colleagues, and the larger Assumption family. And to you, the graduating class of 2018 -- congratulations! Assumption College might be the only place where two alumni have gone on to become president of the country, many alumni go on to become pioneering entrepreneurs, and numerous alumni go on to become nuns!  What an honor to be here in a space that encourages such a wide spectrum of value for society. Now, usually, commencement addresses are meant to affirm that you have the grit to conquer the world. But that's not sufficient for a class that chose its mot... posted on Jun 11 2018 (15,611 reads)

children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.” —Kahil Gibran Parents today are overwhelmed with demands on how to raise their kids. We want the very best for our kids. We want them to be smart, athletic, healthy, kind, happy, polite, disciplined, creative and more. We want to give them everything! And before everything, we focus on getting them into good schools so that they can have the best possible education. Kids on the other hand, are growing up bombarded by technology, needing to compete in every way, comparing themselves with others, trying to be perfect and please their parents, wanting to fit in... posted on Oct 15 2018 (40,743 reads)

a restaurant where there are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, we invite you to pay it forward for those who dine after you.” This restaurant exists, and it’s called Karma Kitchen, a self-described “volunteer-driven experiment in generosity.” Karma Kitchen was first opened in Berkeley, California in 2007 by volunteers inspired to seed the value of a gift economy. Karma Kitchen has served over 74,700 meals and generated over 60,300 volunteer hours in Berkeley alone, but ultimately, it’s impossible to measure all t... posted on Dec 24 2018 (8,364 reads)

need hopeful news. Research suggests that people who consume negative news regularly “tend to have less trust in political leaders, lower evaluations of other people and communities, and more psychological problems,” as Jill Suttie reported this year in Greater Good.  Hearing good news has the opposite effect: People become more generous, politically active, and mentally and physically healthy. “Journalists will always have to report on inherently negative issues,” says media researcher Karen McIntyre of Virginia Commonwealth University. “But reporting in a constructive way would hopefully help people have a more realistic picture of th... posted on Jan 27 2019 (9,168 reads)