M. was only 13 years old when his troubles with alcohol began. He stole bottles of hard liquor from his neighbor’s garage, enjoying how alcohol made him feel. Soon, he was drinking every day and using drugs, too. Shortly after turning 21, he crashed a car during an alcohol-induced blackout. A judge ordered him to attend Alcohol Anonymous (AA) meetings, where recovering alcoholics encourage each other to become (and stay) sober by sharing personal stories and following AA’s famous 12-step model. When Victor attended his first AA meeting, he was terrified. "I didn't say anything," he says. "I just stared at the floor the whole time and left as soon ... posted on May 16 2012 (11,654 reads)

recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of scientific research revealing precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments. This has made happiness pretty trendy. The science of happiness made the covers of Time, Oprah, and even The Economist, and it has spawned a small industry of motivational speakers, psychotherapists, and research enterprises. This website,Greater Good, features roughly 400 articles about happiness, and its parenting... posted on May 24 2012 (22,315 reads)

humans have begun to explore the mysteries of outer space, both by sending unmanned probes and physically traveling beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, a vast number of amazing pictures have been collected. Often photographs of outer space are recorded for the purposes of science, but are also often breathtakingly beautiful images revealing the wonders of the universe. This post brings together 20 of the most astounding pictures of space ever created. 1. Planet Earth This beautiful image was originally dubbed ‘The Blue Marble’ by the astronauts aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft who took it, since at the time, with the sun behind them and the whole of the visible plan... posted on Nov 9 2015 (385,429 reads)

short of a new level of worldwide leadership and commitment for sustainable and  equitable change will suffice to create a better world today and for future generations. For the first time technologies and resources exist to transform   our   situation and generate lasting results. The choice is ours.   Hundreds  of transformational leaders are producing results in 60 countries on every continent. I currently focus on 40 of these courageous leaders around the world. My journey over 20 years has been profound, walking alongside many courageous and compassionate leaders -— leaders walking different, yet similar, paths! Their profile: women... posted on Jul 20 2012 (17,767 reads)

September 15, 2011, at over 60 locations worldwide, people handed out their own money to complete strangers, two coins or notes at a time, asking recipients to pass half on to someone else. Here are our reflections on the event, including why and how it happened. Life Beyond Economic Growth Most of the world’s transactions do not involve finance. From parenting, caregiving, growing and sharing food, volunteering, and borrowing library items to doing household chores and exchanging ideas on the Internet, aspects of the informal economy are familiar to us all. A brief historical look also reminds us that our current monetary systems aren’t all we’ve ever kno... posted on Sep 14 2012 (14,352 reads)

this great line by Ani Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibet: “We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” gobyg It’s true. The amount of knowledge we have about the brain has doubled in the last 20 years. Yet there’s still a lot we don’t know. In recent years, though, we have started to better understand the neural bases of states like happiness, gratitude, resilience, love, compassion, and so forth. And better understanding them means we can skillfully stimulate the neural substrates of those states—which, in turn, means we can strengthen them. Because as the... posted on Sep 15 2012 (148,944 reads)

images: First, as a 6-year-old boy growing up in New York City, I am walking with my father on a crowded midtown street. The rush of pedestrians suddenly backs up before me as people narrow into a single lane to avoid a large object on the sidewalk. To my astonishment, the object turns out to be a human being lying unconscious against a building. My father quickly points to a bottle in a paper bag next to him. Not one of the passing herd seems to actually notice the man -- certainly, none make eye contact -- as they robotically follow the makeshift detour. My father, who I look up to as a model loving, caring man, explains that the poor soul on the sidewalk "just needs to sleep i... posted on Sep 18 2012 (18,497 reads)

mornings are the busiest days of the week at D-Town Farm. That’s when up to 30 volunteers from across Detroit come out to till the earth and tend the crops at the seven-acre mini-farm on the city’s west side. They sow, hoe, prune, compost, trap pest animals, build paths and fences, and harvest­—all the activities necessary to grow healthy organic fruits and vegetables to nurture the community. There is a 1.5-acre vegetable garden, a 150-square-foot garlic plot, a small apple orchard, numerous beds of salad greens in a couple of hoop houses, a small apiary, and a plot of medicinal herbs such as purslane, burdock, and white thistle. “One of our goals ... posted on Oct 25 2012 (10,698 reads)

I struggle to understand the world, I often remember that all I really need to learn I can learn from children. I can learn from the wonder with which they see the world, from their ability to live completely in any given moment, from the way they can both laugh and cry freely, from their unconditional love, trust and belief. I often wonder why and how and when we lose those things that we know to be natural and right when we are children. Most of what I have learned about greed, and its opposite charity, I have learned from the children in my life. In the early days of Akanksha, I remember organizing a party for our children at a club. There was much excitem... posted on Dec 16 2012 (21,871 reads)

Leon was the first runner to cross the finish line at the Gusher Marathon in Beaumont, Texas on Saturday with a time of 3:07:35. But Leon, who has brain cancer, insists that his 6-year-old daughter was technically the winner -- he pushed her in a stroller the entire 26-mile race. "Here sore, reflecting and grateful, I still can’t believe that I won a marathon. Well, I came in second behind Kiana," Leon wrote on his blog. Leon, now 32, was diagnosed with a Grade 2 Diffuse Astrocytoma in Nov. 2010, shortly after his 30th birthday. "Life goes downhill fast after you turn 30,” he joked in an interview with The Huffington ... posted on Mar 18 2013 (13,460 reads)

100 guests comprising an eclectic background—from professionals to slum children. Although they had anticipated serving about 60-70 patrons, the participation of a dozen-plus volunteers from the city came as a bonus and helped them enhance the scale of hospitality by a notch.  However, for Sthalekar, opening more cafés is just the means to the end: The day when people will make giving a way of life and these spaces will become redundant. It is hard to believe that the images of Sthalekar Google juxtaposes are of the same person: One clad in a loose khadi kurta, sporting a French beard and wearing a hearty smile; the other a snapshot of him in the CNBC show. Ask him... posted on Apr 29 2013 (31,471 reads)

has been touted to be a cure for nearly everything in life, from depression, to memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and more. At the same time, similar to the topic of sleep, I found myself having very little specific and scientific knowledge about what exercise really does to our bodies and our brains. “Yes, yes, I know all about it, that’s the thing with the endorphins, that makes you feel good and why we should exercise and stuff, right?” is what I can hear myself say to someone bringing this up. I would pick up things here and there, yet really digging into the connection of exercise and how it effects us has never been something I... posted on Aug 27 2013 (59,346 reads)

things seem more American than the pursuit of happiness, but are we going about it all wrong? That’s one of the questions raised by The Myths of Happiness, the new book by Sonja Lyubomirsky. Lyubomirsky is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the leading researchers in the field of positive psychology. Her previous, best-selling book, The How of Happiness, published in 2008, is chock full of the best research-based practices for increasing happiness. The Myths of Happiness follows up on that work by explaining how our assumptions about what will and won’t bring us happiness are often flat-out wrong. Und... posted on Jun 12 2013 (27,482 reads)

renowned spiritual teacher on getting stuck in the future and saving the planet. To the uninitiated, Eckhart Tolle might be mistaken for a nature photographer. His persona—a soft German-accented voice, a boyish visage, his love of vests—doesn’t exactly scream, “guru!” Yet Tolle is one of the world’s most popular spiritual teachers and a literary powerhouse whose best-selling books The Power of Now and A New Earth have influenced millions. Born in Germany, educated at the universities of London and Cambridge, and now a resident of Vancouver, Canada, Tolle writes and lectures on the evolution of human consciousness. His work syn... posted on Jun 23 2013 (84,659 reads)

human beings are seekers. We seek love, wealth, security, power, happiness, and recognition. We also seek knowledge. Aristotle said, “All people by nature desire to know.” The desire to know can be very ambitious, like that of the scientists who sought to solve the structure of the DNA molecule, or rather modest. It can be enormously satisfying to know and understand things. What does it take to have intellectual success—to come to know and understand something challenging? Well, you need some raw intelligence and memory, and you need to work hard and persevere when it doesn’t come easily. You’ll be better off if you’re surrounded by learned people ... posted on Jul 10 2013 (35,002 reads)

making tacos one evening several years ago, I heard the pitter-patter of my son’s toddler toes scampering toward me, paired with a hearty, mischievous giggle. I remember thinking, “I wonder what’s so funny… He’s been so quiet, playing all by himself.” A quiet toddler? Playing by himself? For 30 minutes? I should have known better: rookie mistake. I turned to greet my then-16-month-old and was shocked to see a sticky, drippy and bronzed version of him stumbling toward me—one chubby hand reaching out for me, the other white-knuckling an empty 16-ounce jar of molasses that he had five-fingered from the pantry while I had been cooking. I... posted on Jun 29 2013 (17,715 reads)

don’t mean love, when I say patriotism,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin in her classic 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. “I mean fear. The fear of the other. And its expressions are political, not poetical: hate, rivalry, aggression.” In some corners, patriotism has a bad name. “Patriot” is mildly defined in my desktop dictionary as a “supporter of one’s own country”—and yet my thesaurus suggests the word “patriotism” can be synonymous with jingoism, chauvinism, nativism, and xenophobia. Particularly during times of war, patriotism does indeed seem to go hand-in-hand with dehumanization of outsid... posted on Jul 4 2013 (20,591 reads)

a Sand County Almanac essay called The Great Gavilan, Aldo Leopold wrote: There are men charged with the duty of examining the construction of the plants, animals, and soils which are the instruments of the great orchestra. These men are called professors. Each selects one instrument and spends his life taking it apart and describing its strings and sounding boards. This process of dismemberment is called research. The place for dismemberment is called a university. A professor may pluck the strings of his own instrument, but never that of another, and if he listens for music he must never admit it to his fellows or to his students. For all are restrained by an ironbound taboo whi... posted on Jul 26 2013 (21,762 reads)

stunningly graceful, elegant creatures. They've been living on Midway for four million years and never had a predator. So they know no fear. You can walk right up and get so close that if they wanted to, they could peck at your face with their beaks. I got to witness and film babies hatching. And as I went and witnessed this, I realized there was an environmental tragedy happening there, and it was wrapped up in this envelope of exquisite beauty and joy and grace.  LB: Your images of the baby birds are heartbreaking, though. What impact have you seen them have on children?  CJ: That might be the most inspiring part of the whole process for me. I learned that... posted on Jul 29 2013 (83,644 reads)

the old saying goes, “There’s no time like the present.”  In a rural corner of Pennsylvania, Elaine Newkirk has made that saying a way of life. When she was 23, her 14-year-old sister moved in. Shortly after, her sister’s two friends moved in as well. To keep the girls there, she became a foster mom. Since then, she has opened up her home to over 60 foster children, their friends, siblings, and community members. Then, when a young mother was unable to care for her two infants, she immediately took them in as her own—in addition to caring for her own infant. Today, a single mother of 5 teenagers— 4 of whom are adopte... posted on Jul 30 2013 (28,704 reads)