years ago, I was told that I needed a full hip replacement. I was 46 years old and athletic, and had none of the precursors for the condition. I was devastated. The orthopedist who gave me my diagnosis, however, was not particularly sympathetic. He pointedly ignored my tears while presenting me with the hard facts, answering my questions—like, “How could this happen to me?”—with answers that were technically precise but emotionally detached. And, while he spoke, he didn’t make eye contact, reassure me, or make any other effort at acknowledging my pain and confusion. Needless to say, I didn’t choose him as my surgeon. Instead, I later found an or... posted on Nov 14 2015 (12,953 reads)

Kaufman and Julia Wise are a young couple living in Boston. Jeff is a software engineer at Google and Julia is a social worker. For the past few years they've been giving away nearly 60 percent of their after-tax income to charities working to reduce poverty and save lives in developing countries. Despite a combined income well into the six figures, they spend little more than $15,000/year on themselves. Since 2008 they've given away more than $250,000. That's a lot of money, and it sounds like a big sacrifice. But they insist that it isn't. In her blog, Julia writes, "The things we love most--spending time with family and friends, making music, dancing, cookin... posted on Dec 5 2015 (10,996 reads)

82-year-old artist Mary Frank traces her earliest debts to the prehistoric images in books that her mother kept around the house. Their shadows have reappeared throughout her sculptures, paintings, and photographs. But she knows none of their creators’ names; there is no address where she can send a royalty check. The best repayment she can offer is the work of her own hands. Those of us who came of age in the millennial period have learned to think about debt and credit quite otherwise. Debt does not motivate so much as it inhibits and stigmatizes. We accumulate it in order to have an education, to make a home, to pay for medical necessities. (Student debt, at upward of $1.3 tr... posted on Dec 7 2015 (8,942 reads)

times gone by, amidst widespread poverty, the flour mills realized that some women were using sacks to make clothes for their children. In response, the flour mills started using flowered fabric… With the introduction of this new cloth into the home, thrifty women everywhere began to reuse the cloth for a variety of home uses – dish towels, diapers, and more. The bags began to become very popular for clothing items. As the recycling trend looked like it was going to stay, the manufacturers began to print their cloth bags – or feedsacks – in an ever wider variety of patterns and colors. Some of the patterns they started using are shown below Ove... posted on Dec 11 2015 (37,941 reads)

lot of effort has been spent trying to get people to engage in healthier and more prosocial activities. We want people to take the stairs rather than the elevator, to eat fruits and vegetables rather than candy bars, and to help others rather than thinking only about themselves. Often, getting people to change their behavior is treated primarily as a marketing problem. If only people really understood how desirable and important it is for them to do the right thing, they would do it more often. In many cases, though, people are already aware of the right thing to do. People know that climbing the stairs helps them to get more exercise, but they simply don’t do it. A fascinating... posted on Dec 19 2015 (11,200 reads)

we muddle through our days, the quest for happiness looms large. In the U.S., citizens are granted three inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The kingdom of Bhutan created a national index to measure happiness. But what if searching for happiness actually prevents us from finding it? There’s reason to believe that the quest for happiness might be a recipe for misery. In a series of new studies led by psychologist Iris Mauss, the more value people placed on happiness, the less happy they became. I saw it happen to Tom, a savant who speaks half a dozen languages, from Chinese to Welsh. In college, Tom declared a major in computer science, but fou... posted on Dec 28 2015 (20,744 reads)

thousands of years, humans have marked the beginning of a new year with sacred festivals. January is named after the Roman god Janus, whose two faces looked to both the past and the future. As you consider the many days ahead in 2016, take some time to reflect on the past as well. Try these tips if you're searching for ways to make this year's New Year's celebration more meaningful. 1. Choose a word of the year. Choose one word that will set the tone for 2016. Think of it like a chapter heading for the book that is your life. Print this word out and place it in a part of your room that you will see every day. 2. Be grateful. YouTube As the year co... posted on Dec 31 2015 (57,308 reads)

Does a Grateful Brain Look Like? Evidence is mounting that A team at the University of Southern California has shed light on the neural nuts and bolts of gratitude in a new study, offering insights into the complexity of this social emotion and how it relates to other cognitive processes. “There seems to be a thread that runs through subtle acts of gratitude, such as holding a door for someone, all the way up to the big powerful stuff like when someone gives you a kidney,” says Glenn Fox, a postdoctoral researcher at USC and lead author of the study. “I designed this experiment to see what aspects of brain function are common to both these small feelings of a... posted on Jan 2 2016 (16,109 reads)

What are you doing?” I asked aghast. I had just walked into my daughter’s room as she was working on a science project. Normally, I would have been pleased at such a sight. But this time, her project involved sand. A lot of it. And, while she had put some plastic underneath her work area, it wasn’t nearly enough. The sand was spreading all over our newly renovated floors. My daughter, who immediately felt my displeasure, began to defend herself. “I used plastic!” she responded angrily. I responded more angrily, “But the sand is getting all over!” “Where else am I supposed to do it?” she yelled. Why won’t ... posted on Jan 4 2016 (44,106 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 (18,534 reads)

speaking, new year's resolutions are a losing game. A whopping 92 percent of people who set resolutions don't succeed, according to University of Scranton research. Still, that doesn't mean that the start of a new year isn't a good time to commit to working towards any goals or self-improvement projects that you've put on the back burner. Succeeding with your resolutions may simply be a matter of being smarter about them. If you are going to set some goals this year, maximize your chances of success by following some tried-and-true, science-backed guidelines. Here are six psychology-based insights to help you make better resolutions -- and to actual... posted on Jan 14 2016 (15,107 reads)

Padilla’s laugh cut through the air at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Fresh off an hour-long exhibit tour, she and 16 other friends sat in the zoo cafeteria, snacking on sugar cookies and mocking current bestsellers. The group could appear to be just another cluster of friends visiting the zoo. But they were there for another purpose, too: to provide joy as much as support. Part of a program called Momentia, more than half of the people in the group have dementia. The day was, in effect, an act of defiance for the 63-year-old Padilla, who was diagnosed with dementia two years ago. By living wholly in the present, Padilla is fighting a disease that threatens to rob her of h... posted on Jan 17 2016 (11,366 reads)

may have been the year of the "mindful revolution," but 2015 proved that mindfulness is here to stay. The more we learn about mindfulness -- the cultivation of a focused awareness on the present moment, most commonly through meditation -- the more health and well-being benefits we discover. This year, researchers delved further into the science of meditation and uncovered even more surprising evidence of the practice's powerful effects on the mind and body. Here are the five most incredible scientific findings on mindfulness of 2015. We figured out how mindfulness improves health. We know that mindfulness is linked to a number of physical and mental health ben... posted on Jan 25 2016 (22,972 reads)

excerpt is from the new book Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, by psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and HuffPost Senior Writer Carolyn Gregoire. One of Frida Kahlo’s most famous self-portraits depicts her in a hospital bed connected by a web of red veins to floating objects that include a snail, a flower, bones, and a fetus. Henry Ford Hospital, the 1932 surrealist painting, is a powerful artistic rendering of Kahlo’s second miscarriage. Kahlo wrote in her diaries that the painting “carries with it the message of pain.” The painter was known for channeling the experience of multiple miscarriages, childhood polio, and a num... posted on Jan 27 2016 (31,426 reads)

arrived at meditation teacher Gina Sharpe’s house prepared to talk about what it means to live a beautiful life and more: I wanted to find a good story. The bare facts of Sharpe’s life were promising. Born in Jamaica, Sharpe moved to New York when she was eleven. She studied philosophy at Barnard College, worked in movie production (on the iconic 1970s movies Little Big Man, Paper Lion, andAlice’s Restaurant), and later became a successful corporate lawyer. I knew there had to be adventures. Undoubtedly there were villains and mentors, dark times that gave way to light. Best, there was the promise of a moral: In the midst of all her worldly wanderings, Sharpe began to ... posted on Jan 30 2016 (19,447 reads)

Ricard, also known as ‘the world’s happiest man’, spent the best part of 25 years in the Himalayas with barely any contact with the Western world he was born into. At 26-years-old he left behind his molecular biology studies and settled into a life of serenity and spiritual training under his Buddhist teachers, high up in the heavens on the other side of the world. However, he is now very much back on the Western scene. When I ask Ricard why he returned, he sighs and says: “When I was in my hermitage I thought, if I can do something useful, maybe I should come down for a bit”. He seems to long for the mountains, but the continued success of his proje... posted on Feb 20 2016 (26,717 reads)

Reyes Dialogues, originates at KWMR in Point Reyes Station, California. Host Jacob Needleman explores the great questions of life and our current condition with eminent friends from the arts, science and spirituality, politics and public service. Jacob Needleman is an internationally renowned author and philosopher whose many distinguished books include A Sense of the Cosmos, The Heart of Philosophy, The American Soul and Money and the Meaning of Life. One of the central aims of these dialogues is to reawaken the art of conversation as a practice of non-egoistic listening and thinking together. Our premise is that new territories of collaboration and creativity open with the inne... posted on Feb 22 2016 (12,219 reads)

Davis and her sister Fania Davis were working for social justice before many of today’s activists were born. From their childhood in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, where their friends were victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, to their association with the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party, to their work countering the prison-industrial complex, their lives have centered on lifting up the rights of African Americans. In 1969, Angela Davis was fired from her teaching position at UCLA because of her membership in the Communist Party. She was later accused of playing a supporting role in a courtroom kidnapping that resulted in four deaths. The internation... posted on Feb 29 2016 (10,411 reads)

person’s identity,” Amin Maalouf wrote as he contemplated what he so poetically called the genes of the soul, “is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound.” And yet we are increasingly pressured to parcel ourselves out in various social contexts, lacerating the parchment of our identity in the process. As Courtney Martin observed in her insightful On Beingconversation with Parker Palmer and Krista Tippett,“It’s never been more asked of us to show up as only slices of ourselves in different places.” Today, as Whitman’... posted on Mar 7 2016 (16,826 reads)

our entire lives are spent in a quest to gain control, security and comfort in our lives. Unfortunately, we never really get it, so we keep trying, relentlessly. This is the main activity of our lives. What would happen if we stopped? We could be less restricted by fear, less anxious, less driven by the need for comfort … and more in love with life as it is. You might be surprised by how much we strive for control. The Ways We Try to Get Control The basic nature of life is that it is everchanging, uncontrollable. When we think we have stability in life, something comes up to remind us that no, we don’t. There is no stability, no matter how much we’... posted on Mar 10 2016 (15,656 reads)