but that it’s very hard to reach. It goes against natural mechanisms that make us favor our own group—our family, our company, our ethnic group, etc. So, the first step is to overcome that tendency and to become more accepting of and caring toward a wider circle of people. Caring for everyone is the final step, and I don’t think many people can get there. But we can all take a step closer. JS: It sounds like many of the Dalai Lama’s suggestions are aspirational in nature. DG: The Dalai Lama often talks to people with great aspirations, and, after he’s gotten them all roused up, he says, “Don’t just talk about it, do something.” That&r... posted on Jul 9 2015 (20,730 reads)

finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.” In contemplating the shortness of life, Seneca considered what it takes to live wide rather than long. Over the two millennia between his age and ours — one in which, caught in the cult of productivity, we continually forget that “how we spend our days is … how we spend our lives” — we’ve continued to tussle with the eternal question of how to fill life with more aliveness. And in a world awash with information but increasingly vacant of wisdom, navigating the maze of the human experience in the hope of ar... posted on Aug 3 2015 (12,499 reads)

and different. 12:41    Here's what we really need: connection and love, fourth need. We all want it; most settle for connection, love's too scary. Who here has been hurt in an intimate relationship? If you don't raise your hand, you've had other shit, too. And you're going to get hurt again. Aren't you glad you came to this positive visit? Here's what's true: we need it. We can do it through intimacy, friendship, prayer, through walking in nature. If nothing else works for you, don't get a cat, get a dog, because if you leave for two minutes, it's like you've been gone six months, when you come back 5 minutes later. 13:12... posted on Aug 4 2015 (17,862 reads)

each mobility solution will be an instance: It is created for this particular user’s specific context, and the next solution that is generated will likely be different. Similarly, solutions for a meal, a training course, a medical treatment, or the design of a 3D-printed personalized chair or shoe can be generated once, and not necessarily be repeated. Already, the economy is a world of constant and rapid change, and the trend towards contextual solutions will reinforce the fluid nature of services and designs. As customers we will expect much greater flexibility in the solutions that we are offered. Conversely, as companies and as suppliers, we will meet a greater demand for ... posted on Sep 1 2015 (12,874 reads)

monk whose efforts in peace and reconciliation inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. In addition to his experiential insight, science continues to confirm the extensive influence of mindfulness to reduce rumination, anxiety, and stress. Mindfulness inspires us to be compassionate and altruistic “It is in giving that we receive.” Saint Francis of Assisi as well as other wisdom teachings across the ages have described nature’s abundance in giving. Today, a growing body of research agrees: we are hardwired to be kind. Cultivating a mindfulness practice helps quiet various voices of the mind, enabling us to dro... posted on Aug 18 2015 (26,875 reads)

of working in a wi-fi enabled tree, TreeXOffice is designed to give back to the tree and the surrounding green space. “The profits from the tree are spent in the interest of the tree," artist, engineer, and New York University professor Natalie Jeremijenko, who designed TreeXOffice told Fast Company. "By making it specifically about the tree, and the kind of revenue that the tree can generate, we're really exploring a larger political discussion of what are the rights of nature.” Trees have important jobs such as improving air quality and sequestering carbon, but there is not much value placed on them, or returned to them. With TreeXOffice, Jeremijenko can ch... posted on Aug 29 2015 (10,913 reads)

but that it’s very hard to reach. It goes against natural mechanisms that make us favor our own group—our family, our company, our ethnic group, etc. So, the first step is to overcome that tendency and to become more accepting of and caring toward a wider circle of people. Caring for everyone is the final step, and I don’t think many people can get there. But we can all take a step closer. JS: It sounds like many of the Dalai Lama’s suggestions are aspirational in nature. DG: The Dalai Lama often talks to people with great aspirations, and, after he’s gotten them all roused up, he says, “Don’t just talk about it, do something.” That&r... posted on Sep 4 2015 (16,322 reads)

day, after a talk I had given on altruism, a person in the audience got up and said in an irritated tone: “What are you hoping for by encouraging us to cultivate altruism? Look at the history of humanity! It’s always the same thing! An uninterrupted succession of wars and suffering. That’s human nature, you can’t change anything about that!” But is this truly the case? We have seen that cultures can evolve. For example, we have gone from regarding torture as an entirely acceptable public spectacle and war as noble and glorious, to tolerating violence less and less, and increasingly regarding war as immoral and barbaric. But can the individual change? ... posted on Sep 9 2015 (16,011 reads)

of nature is a yearning for service: The cloud serves, and the wind, and the furrow. Where there is a tree to plant, you be the one. Where there is a mistake to undo, let it be you. You be the one to remove the rock from the field, The hate from human hearts, And the difficulties from the problem. There is joy in being wise and just, But above all there is the beautiful, The immense happiness of serving. How sad the world would be if all was already done. If there was no rosebush to plant, No enterprise to undertake. Do not limit yourself to easy tasks. It's so beautiful to do what others dodge. But don't fall prey to the error that only Great tasks done... posted on Aug 31 2015 (15,415 reads)

and safety, and often gaining a sense of empowerment and purpose. Researchers who study forgiveness have found that it provides many health benefits to those who practice it, alleviating “everything from high blood pressure and heart problems to pain and mood disorders.” And while one may think that forgiveness is something only the very highly evolved can accomplish, experts have found that “forgiveness may be just as inherent, just as evolutionarily hardwired into human nature, as aggression and revenge.” In other words, anyone can forgive, if given the right encouragement, though Bettencourt emphasizes that nobody should be pushed into forgiveness, either, ... posted on Sep 16 2015 (14,519 reads)

the piece I’m creating.” It is this relationship among fear, individual, and artist that drives the project forward, making fear acceptable and tangible. The Fear of the Unknown Elman isn’t sure what makes fear so compelling. On a personal level, she says she wants to avoid dwelling in the negative and believes that fear’s universality, in contrast to the lengths we go to conceal it from others, dictates many of our choices. Ironically, still a worrier by nature, Elman understands that finding ways to push through beats the bleak alternative: “Sitting at home, curled up in a ball, avoiding that very thing that scares us most.” Fear, she ... posted on Sep 17 2015 (9,939 reads)

most acute manifestation of how memory modulates stress is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. For striking evidence of how memory encodes past experience into triggers, which then catalyze present experience, Sternberg points to research by psychologist Rachel Yehuda, who found both Holocaust survivors and their first-degree relatives — that is, children and siblings — exhibited a similar hormonal stress response. This, Sternberg points out, could be a combination of nature and nurture — the survivors, as young parents for whom the trauma was still fresh, may well have subconsciously taught their children a common style of stress-responsiveness; but it&rsquo... posted on Sep 28 2015 (17,796 reads)

sentiment Pico Iyer would come to echo more than half a century later in his excellent treatise on the art of stillness, Pieper adds: Leisure is a form of that stillness that is necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear. Such stillness is not mere soundlessness or a dead muteness; it means, rather, that the soul’s power, as real, of responding to the real — a co-respondence, eternally established in nature — has not yet descended into words. Leisure is the disposition of perceptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion — in the real. But there is something else... posted on Oct 15 2015 (11,360 reads)

because it hurts. “Wow, that was pretty humiliating, I’m so sorry. It’s okay though, these things happen.” There’s solid research for the idea that self-compassion helps us in good times and bad. Mark Leary and colleagues at Wake Forest University conducted a study that asked participants to make a video that introduced and described themselves. For instance, “Hi, I’m John, an environmental sciences major. I love to go fishing and spend time in nature. I want to work for the National Park Service when I graduate,” and so on. They were told that someone would watch their tape and then rate them on a seven-point scale in terms of how war... posted on Oct 19 2015 (29,667 reads)

we miss the good things that are outside of the spotlight. Something else happens as well: When we focus on bad things, we’re triggering the stress response, often below conscious awareness. If you think of the Stanford Prison experiment as a kind of model of real life—if you conceive of yourself as living in the equivalent of that basement—then you’re going to be stressed. What is stress? As another Stanford professor, Robert Sapolsky, likes to say, stress is a tool nature gave us to survive lion attacks. Of course, you’re not a primate on the African savannah menaced by lions. You’re a modern human who, for example, might be caught in a traffi... posted on Oct 24 2015 (15,346 reads)

reactivity,” or how one responds to perceived negative interactions with others. Kirch praises this work on mindfulness and is enthusiastic about its broader applications. He also points to other ways that medical schools are trying to increase physician self-reflection, including classes like the one he taught at Penn State’s medical college called “Patients, Physicians, and Society,” which had small groups do selected readings and reflect on the nature of suffering in illness—how it impacts stress in patients and their caregivers. “The course laid the groundwork to help students be better prepared for the stress they would enco... posted on Nov 14 2015 (13,196 reads)

me of a couple—graphic designer Ellen Davidson and sometime house-painter Tarak Kauff—who live in a small house just outside Woodstock, New York. It’s a place I’ve come to know over the years because of the gatherings and retreats they host for activists. To an unusual degree, I can attest that guests there feel license to act as if they were at home—to peck at the piano keys, to warm some milk and whirl it into foam. Perhaps this has something to do with the nature of its owners’ underlying debts. When they were looking for a place to live, Davidson and Kauff could’ve gotten a bank loan, but as longtime activists against corporate overreach... posted on Dec 7 2015 (9,090 reads)

the natural outcome of complex systems and improves natural healing. In other words, presence improves both relationality and enzymes, and integration is the linkage of differentiated parts.” In his psychiatric practice Siegel aims for development through secure attachment, mindfulness meditation, and effective psychotherapy, explaining that they impact a similar neural mechanism that is proven to promote wellbeing. “Imagine immersing yourself in a systematic exploration of the nature of mind that gives you a new way to experience life,” he writes in a recent blog on his website, drdansiegel.com. “And then consider that you can ‘integrate consciousness&rsqu... posted on Dec 10 2015 (25,852 reads)

“So, are you on chemo?” She felt like a human and responded with “Yes, thank you for asking, you are the first person to actually acknowledge that fact.” She gave him some “gag” business cards which listed her title as the “Supreme Commander of the Universe.” This was followed by many sweet encounters every time he came by, and he always addressed her with that title. Many years went by and she moved offices, but she never forgot his genuine nature. (More) They Got This Instead of the Bill She went out to a Sushi restaurant with two of her friends. They had a great time catching up, laughing, and enjoying each other’s comp... posted on Jan 5 2016 (36,131 reads)

than a decade after Greater Good first started reporting on the science of compassion, generosity, happiness—what we call “the science of a meaningful life”—the research in our field is acquiring ever more nuance and sophistication. New studies build on and even re-interpret findings from previous years, particularly as their authors use more exacting methods, with bigger and broader data sets, and consider additional factors to explain prior results. These nuances are clearly reflected in this year’s list of our Top 10 Insights from the Science of a Meaningful Life—the fourth such list compiled by Greater Good’s editors. Indeed, many of this... posted on Jan 7 2016 (18,769 reads)