Seinfeld is one of the most successful comedians of all-time. He is regarded as one of the “Top 100 Comedians of All–Time” by Comedy Central. He was also the co–creator and co–writer of Seinfeld, the long–running sitcom which has received numerous awards and was claimed to have the “Top TV Episode of All–Time” as rated by TV Guide. According to Forbes magazine, Seinfeld reached his peak in earnings when he made $267 million dollars in 1998. (Yes, that was in one year. No, that’s not a typo.) A full 10 years later, in 2008, Seinfeld was still pulling in a cool $85 million per year. By almost any measure of wealth, popu... posted on Dec 31 2014 (75,309 reads)

how the happiness levels of students in our online course vary depending on where they live. To what extent is happiness related to where you live? Which countries have the most—and least—happy residents? Are residents of wealthier countries happier? These are some of the questions we considered when analyzing data from the survey we presented to the 112,000 students who registered for our online course, “The Science of Happiness.” So far, more than 40,000 students, hailing from over 200 countries and areas of sovereignty around the world, have taken the survey. Previously, we reported on how students’ happiness levels relate to factors like age an... posted on Jan 9 2015 (35,584 reads)

do you do when you have too many ideas and not enough time? Or similarly, what about when you have too many tasks and not enough energy? As an entrepreneur, I feel like I’ve been battling this issue for awhile. There is always another opportunity to chase or a new product idea that sounds exciting. For a long time, I felt guilty about ignoring good ideas that came my way and so I kept adding more to my to-do list. However, during a recent conversation with Travis Dommert, I learned about a new strategy for dealing with the issue of having too many ideas and projects. It all comes down to treating your life like a rose bush. Let me explain what Travis taught me… ... posted on Dec 11 2014 (29,709 reads)

Children, I know that this world must often seem confusing to you. It's noisy, dirty and filled with adults scurrying about their busy lives without noticing you all that much sometimes. It's filled with rules and people telling you what to do, mostly without asking what you want to do. It's also a world where adults teach you about all of the dangers around you, but not as much about the wonderful, beautiful things. You see, things weren't quite like this when we were kids. We had our rules and dangers, to be sure, but nothing like the ones you face today. Back then (which is not really that long ago), people talked to each other more, neighbors knew one... posted on Dec 14 2014 (24,146 reads)

all experienced that moment when something shifts. Often times it’s triggered by the smallest of things. A smile that disarms. A friendly greeting. A grateful pause before a meal. An unexpected compliment, surprise gift, thank-you card, or phone call from an out-of-touch friend.  These micro-moments of lived intention-- small exchanges of kindness, tiny catalysts of gratitude, or brief seconds of mindful attention-- hold incredible potential to transform the trajectory of a day, week, year, or even a life. We notice this a lot around New Years. Whether it’s weight loss, giving up smoking, deepening mindfulness, or any other personal goal, each January 1s... posted on Dec 19 2014 (27,371 reads)

new studies point toward three benefits to cultivating moment-to-moment awareness in the workplace. Research says mindfulness works for individuals. But does it work in the bottom-line-driven workplace, or is it just a frivolous feel-good program? This is the question tackled in a growing number of studies. Here are three ways, based on four recent studies, that cultivating moment-to-moment awareness might improve workplaces. Meditation might build self-confidence in leaders Our Mindful Mondays series provides ongoing coverage of the exploding field of mindfulness research. A.D. Amar and colleagues at the University of Westminster measured the self-perception of leadershi... posted on Jan 16 2015 (28,602 reads)

a homeless man offered a college student in England all the money he had so she'd be able to get home safely, the woman is paying it forward -- in a massive way. Throughout the past few days, Dominique Harrison-Bentzen has raised almost $50,000 for the good Samaritan and for other homeless individuals in her community.  The story begins in early December. It was about 3 a.m. and Harrison-Bentzen was panicking. “I came out after a student night out … [and] realized I didn’t have any battery on my phone, I’d lost my friends,” the 22-year-old told BBC Radio 5. She’d also lost her bank card, she discovered, and she had no money. “How ... posted on Dec 24 2014 (23,422 reads)

simplicity has a long history, we are now entering radically changing times—ecological, social, economic, and psycho-spiritual—and we should expect the worldly expressions of simplicity to evolve and grow in response. For more than thirty years I’ve explored the “simple life” and I’ve found that simplicity is not simple. I’ve encountered such a diversity of expressions of the simple life that I find the most accurate way of describing this approach to living is with the metaphor of a garden. A Garden of Simplicity To portray the richness of simplicity, here are ten different flowerings of expression that I see growing in the “gar... posted on Jan 5 2015 (72,443 reads)

all these abusers and batterers and child molesters up and put them behind bars." He thought this was hilarious. He pats my knee. He’s, "Okay, okay, you just meditate."  Immediately after leaving him, within the next few weeks went and sat a ten-day Vipassana Course, the Goenkaji Style Vippasana Course, and it was the hardest and best thing I had ever done in my life.  That body-based experience of feeling in my body where my anger resides, healing when images and memories of the terrible things that had been done to me came to my mind. That Vipassana scanning, that body scanning, was incredibly powerful for me to really be able to dissect where in m... posted on Jan 27 2015 (45,136 reads)

child psychiatrist and trauma specialist uses brain science to transform public education in high-poverty schools cross America. Watch a video about Dr. Pamela Cantor A few weeks after September 11, 2001, Pamela Cantor, then 53, received a call from the New York City Board of Education asking her to lead a team to assess the emotional impact of the attacks on the city’s public school children. As a child psychiatrist specializing in trauma for nearly two decades, she welcomed the opportunity. However, what she discovered from her team’s assessment surprised her. “From lower Manhattan to the Bronx, most of the children I met were traumatized less ... posted on Feb 4 2015 (38,643 reads)

way to lead a joyful life is not to pursue happiness for ourselves, argues Christine Carter, but to pursue it for others “Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” –Helen Keller Money doesn’t buy happiness. Obvious, right? On some abstract level, we know that money and other outward signs of success won’t ultimately make us happy—perhaps because we know wealthy or famous or powerful people who are deeply unhappy—but on another level, we don’t really believe it… or at least we don’t belie... posted on Feb 5 2015 (37,074 reads)

been more than a decade since I started exploring the intersection between excellence in leadership and contemplative practices like meditation. The leaders I worked with, first as vice-president of a Fortune 200 company, and then in my work as executive director of the Institute for Mindful Leadership, came from different cultures, professions and backgrounds. They were influencers in small and large organizations, teams, community groups and even their own families. Despite their differences, they had some things in common. They had bright minds, warm hearts and were drawn to leadership roles because they wanted to make a difference. They were also often overbooked, overw... posted on Feb 18 2015 (28,459 reads)

a telecom exec, he has created a global network of therapeutic riding centers serving children with disabilities – free of charge. Watch a video about Charles Fletcher: Two tumultuous decades in the telecommunications industry took a toll on Charles Fletcher’s income and his spirit. When he retired in the 1990s at the age of 58, he found some peace of mind through volunteering at a Dallas-area equine therapy center for children with disabilities. The special connection he witnessed between the children and horses was both restorative and intimately familiar, as he had been around horses since he was five. But Fletcher thought the program was falling short. It... posted on Feb 19 2015 (25,421 reads)

if we measured wealth in terms of life, and how well we serve it? David Korten began his professional life as a professor at the Harvard Business School on a mission to lift struggling people in Third World nations out of poverty by sharing the secrets of U.S. business success. Yet, after a couple of decades in which he applied his organizational development strategies in places as far-flung as Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, Korten underwent a change of heart. In 1995, he wrote the bestseller When Corporations Rule the World, followed by a series of books that helped birth the movement known as the New Economy, a call to replace transnational corporate domination w... posted on Mar 31 2015 (18,374 reads)

TIPPETT, HOST: Mary Oliver is one of our greatest living poets, beloved and often quoted by people across ages and backgrounds. She rarely gives interviews or speaks about the life behind her writing. But she's with us, this hour. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoe Keating] MARY OLIVER: "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things." Lord knows when I started writing poetry, it was rotten. MS. TIPPETT: The poetry was rotten? MS. OLIVER: Sure. I was 10, 11, 12 years old, but I... posted on Mar 18 2015 (29,538 reads)

you want to see the brave, look to those who can return love for hatred. If you want to see the heroic, look to those who can forgive.” - The Bhagavad-Gita It was an amazing act of forgiveness, an expression of human greatness in the realm of the heart. It occurred in a courtroom in Mobile Alabama. When I read the story I wept, and set out to write a song from the inspiration I felt. Here is the story, and a link to the song it inspired—offered freely as a tribute to this unassuming mother and the beauty of forgiveness. When I read the story I wept. I felt I was in the presence of greatness, a quiet greatness of the heart. It occurred in 1981 in... posted on Mar 26 2015 (18,692 reads)

if your job didn’t control your life? Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler practices a radical form of corporate democracy, rethinking everything from board meetings to how workers report their vacation days (they don’t have to). It’s a vision that rewards the wisdom of workers, promotes work-life balance — and leads to some deep insight on what work, and life, is really all about. Bonus question: What if schools were like this too? On Mondays and Thursdays, I learn how to die. I call them my terminal days. My wife Fernanda doesn't like the term, but a lot of people in my family died of melanoma cancer and my parents and grandparents had it. And I kept thinking, o... posted on Apr 15 2015 (31,461 reads)

Suttie knows the benefits of mindfulness, but she still doesn't practice it. What holds her back? I can’t say I’m not informed about the benefits of mindfulness. Our Mindful Mondays series provides ongoing coverage of the exploding field of mindfulness research. As a writer for Greater Good, I’ve read countless books on mindfulness and have been lucky tointerview some of the leading scientists in the world who study it. I’ve written articles about mindfulness improving health and wellbeing for kids,teachers, pregnant women, and parents. And I’ve covered its positive effects on over-eating and sexual dysfunction. I know that it’s a powerfu... posted on Apr 13 2015 (31,716 reads)

new book applies science to figuring out how to build a place where people actually look forward to work. Many of my friends really dread their jobs. They complain about employers who treat them like machinery—there to churn out whatever is required of them, regardless of the cost to their motivation, creativity or personal health. Their bosses seem to expect that they work long hours and stay glued to cell phones at night, but then show little appreciation or, worse, micromanage them. No one likes it; but what alternatives are there when employers have deadlines to meet or products to develop? Perigree, 2014, 352 pages Plenty, according to psychologist Ron... posted on Apr 21 2015 (193,224 reads)

deal life's challenges, we need resources. Rick Hanson explains how to find the ones that lie inside yourself. We're pleased to bring you another installment of Rick Hanson's Just One Thing (JOT) newsletter, which each week offers a simple practice designed to bring you more joy and more fulfilling relationships. We all have issues—including demands upon us, stresses, illnesses, losses, vulnerabilities, and pain. (As Alan Watts put it: “Life is wiggly.”) Of course, many of our issues—in the broad sense I’m using the word here—are related to important sources of fulfillment, such as starting a business or raising a f... posted on May 20 2015 (16,611 reads)