by his realisations, Pete landed back in Perth. He was fired up about starting similar projects in his home city. The reaction? Settle down mate. He felt he owed it to the people who never had a chance to follow their passions to spread his own kind of magic. A trip through India cemented Pete’s belief in following his passion to spark connection through public acts. A movement is born “Everyone was like, that’s not going to work, don’t do it dude, Perth is a completely different vibe, just don’t do it, just settle down,” Pete recalls. But Pete wanted to test himself regardless. He’d come up with t... posted on Jun 3 2015 (24,342 reads)

the two elevation scenarios were a bit different - one involved coming to the aid of a physically injured person and one didn’t. In this case, the scenario involving physical injury is what caused the prefrontal cortex to light up, suggesting that the cortex may only selectively play a role in elevation. “Previous research has shown that when you see someone in pain, that part of the brain lights up - so that may explain it,” says Saturn. “There needs to be more work to see when the prefrontal cortex goes off and online in moral elevation.” What does this all mean? It appears that moral elevation inspires altruism because of a mixture of arousal a... posted on Jun 11 2015 (15,740 reads)

this guest blog, Felicity McLean from Ashoka introduces The Reader Organisation and how they're working to create a reading revolution, instilling and encouraging empathy and community cohesion in companies (and other groups) through reading aloud... Reading aloud is more than words on a page. Shared Reading interactive groups delivered by The Reader Organisation in health, care, criminal justice, education, corporate and community settings for wellbeing, personal development and community-building, can also be an invigorating team building exercise. It's a slow, almost meditative activity. Don't choose the obvious, says Jane Davis, Founder of The Reader Organi... posted on Jul 3 2015 (10,181 reads)

down the track at 200 MPH is just an icon of your desktop, why don't you step in front of it? And after you're gone, and your theory with you, we'll know that there's more to that train than just an icon. Well, I wouldn't step in front of that train for the same reason that I wouldn't carelessly drag that icon to the trash can: not because I take the icon literally -- the file is not literally blue or rectangular -- but I do take it seriously. I could lose weeks of work. Similarly, evolution has shaped us with perceptual symbols that are designed to keep us alive. We'd better take them seriously. If you see a snake, don't pick it up. If you see a cliff, ... posted on Jul 11 2015 (30,754 reads)

had dropped back down to where they were before the visit. This finding reminds us that no single activity is a panacea that can permanently alter happiness levels after just one attempt. Instead, gratitude practices and other happiness-inducing activities need to be practiced regularly over time, ideally with some variety to avoid hedonic adaptation. And because not every practice will feel right for everyone, it’s worth trying out as many practices as you can to find the ones that work best for you. The gratitude practices you’ll find on Greater Good in Action are as reliable a place to start as any. ... posted on Jul 27 2015 (49,928 reads)

induce? One poem can offer an outlet for healing. A distinct lyric can allow connection to occur. One poem can lead to the most unlikely friendship. A single stanza can change the fate of a forest. 2. I’m Jacqueline Suskin. The past four years I’ve performed Poem Store: a public project that consists of exchanging on-demand poetry about any subject, composed on a manual typewriter, in trade for any donation. I’ve done most of my work in Arcata at the Saturday Farmers Market. I’ve lived in and around this northern California coastal town for three years. The community embraced me and treated me as their unoffici... posted on Sep 8 2015 (16,189 reads)

native to their region. He argues this disconnect threatens our planet and the very future of humanity. “If sustainability depends on transforming the human relationship with nature,” he writes, “the present-day gap between kids and nature emerges as one of the greatest and most overlooked crises of our time.” Throughout his childhood, this forest became a playground and fantasy world, a stomping ground for him and his dog, a refuge where he and his best friend could work through their teenage angst, a challenge course as they burned off their testosterone-laden energy. Sampson’s career took him, like many Americans, through multiple long-distance moves, but... posted on Sep 3 2015 (17,612 reads)

to person, company to company, around the penthouse floor, these gifts are effectively removed from circulation. The circle of our world, the larger human community, is bereft of so many of these precious and necessary gifts. Because the gifts have stopped moving - blessing, healing and nourishing the entire circle of life - death, says the Urdu proverb, will surely come. At the same time, Roger had developed a parallel interest in the visual arts, and became an acclaimed painter whose works are collected in the Southwest and major cities around the world. Over decades, Roger would approach BFJ, each time inspired by some fresh, new passion or idea. Something beautiful, exciting and... posted on Sep 19 2015 (11,018 reads)

as the art of holding up a mirror to each other’s souls. Two millennia later, Emerson contemplated its two pillars of truth and tenderness. Another century later, C.S. Lewis wrote: “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.” But nowhere do the beauty, mystery, and soul-sustenance of friendship come more vibrantly alive than in the 1997 masterwork Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom (public library) by the late, great Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue (January 1, 1956–January 4, 2008), titled after the Gaelic for “... posted on Oct 21 2015 (21,473 reads)

did the study’s staff discover that the allegedly “normal” Godfrey was an intractable and unhappy hypochondriac. On the 10th anniversary of his joining the study, each man was given an A through E rating anticipating future personality stability. When it was Godfrey’s turn, he was assigned an “E.” But if Godfrey Camille was a disaster as a young man, by the time he was an old one he had become a star. His occupational success; measurable enjoyment of work, love, and play; his health; the depth and breadth of his social supports; the quality of his marriage and relationship to his children—all that and more combined to make him one of the mos... posted on Oct 25 2015 (30,558 reads)

explanations, our educated knowings. Why love? Why illness, why healing? Why grace, birth and death, beauty, color, music, kindness – all moments of mysterious ripenings of life, and time. Why does one portal open, and another simply close? What in us gives birth to the unimaginably astonishing? How do we refuse, hinder, obstruct the emergent miraculous, the ache of the sacred in human events? No single theory can fully explain it. So we awake each day, and we watch. We live, we work, we do what we can, we have mercy. Sometimes, at the end of the day, the virga will claim everything, before it can reach us. So when the air drinks the rain, and the world is full of thunder,... posted on Nov 21 2015 (18,013 reads)

pierces the heart of something I myself worry about daily as I witness the great tasks of human culture reduced to small-minded lists and unimaginative standards that measure all the wrong metrics of “productivity” and “progress.” Palmer urges: Take on big jobs worth doing — jobs like the spread of love, peace, and justice. That means refusing to be seduced by our cultural obsession with being effective as measured by short-term results. We all want our work to make a difference — but if we take on the big jobs and our only measure of success is next quarter’s bottom line, we’ll end up disappointed, dropping out, and in despair. ... posted on Nov 3 2015 (60,622 reads)

reduce the muck. Given the extraordinary complexity of this task, wouldn’t it be great to hand principals a “silver bullet” for building a learning environment in which everyone thrives? But alas, no silver bullet exists. For principals who aren’t sure where to start, the Greater Good Science Center’s new website,Greater Good in Action, offers many research-based practices that can easily be adapted for use in staff meetings and professional development workshops, and for developing principals’ own social and emotional capacities as they work with students and staff. Here are a few examples. If you want to help everyone slow down, you mig... posted on Nov 11 2015 (13,997 reads)

are sharks. And the reason that there are still sharks — hundreds of millions of years after the first sharks turned up — is that nothing has turned up that is better at being a shark than a shark is. Ebooks are absolutely fantastic at being several books and a newspaper; they’re really good portable bookshelves, that’s why they’re great on trains. But books are much better at being books… I can guarantee that copy of the first Sandman omnibus still works. But stories aren’t books — books are just one of the many storage mechanisms in which stories can be kept. And, obviously, people are one of the other storage mechanisms. Il... posted on Nov 18 2015 (14,625 reads)

people prefer to stay in the fight-or-flight mode, honing their “edge” and paying the price for it in physical fatigue and mental strain. I used to do that too. But even in the middle of the myriad demands to perform at your best, telling yourself “I have time” can provide a mini-break to the nervous system. It offers a moment of choice in spite of the fact that you have to finish the job. It reminds you to attend to your body-being as you press forward with your work, inviting you to release the tensions gathered at the back of your head, and let your thoughts latch onto your body movements. You can interrupt whatever you are doing for just a second to stretc... posted on Dec 3 2015 (22,064 reads)

into other people’s shoes has been a catalytic force for social change throughout human history. Credit: www.intentionalworkplace.com. All rights reserved. You can always tell when a good idea has come of age: people start criticising it. That’s certainly the case when it comes to empathy. Empathy is a more popular concept today than at any time since the eighteenth century, when Adam Smith argued that the basis of morality was our imaginative capacity for “changing places in fancy with the sufferer.” Neuroscientists, happiness gurus, education policy-makers and mediation experts have all been singing its praises. This has, of course, got the ... posted on Dec 14 2015 (12,527 reads)

enjoy the light. The bonus was that the windows faced hilly forestland that was raw and undeveloped. On the small balcony outside my window, bright red cardinals flitted from the railing to a bird feeder a neighbor had hung. Ingenious squirrels had figured out how to leap from the balcony railing onto the feeder, make withdrawals and time their dismounts from the swinging platform so as to land safely back on the railing. I had positioned a comfortable chair facing the window where I could work at any time of day or night. Birds, light, privacy. A lifetime making photographic images has engrained in me the habit of squinting at the world. It is my way of answering the question: Is t... posted on Dec 16 2015 (10,885 reads)

to you, May a flock of colours, Indigo, red, green, And azure blue, Come to awaken in you A meadow of delight. When the canvas frays In the currach of thought And a stain of ocean Blackens beneath you, May there come across the waters A path of yellow moonlight To bring you safely home. May the nourishment of the earth be yours, May the clarity of light be yours, May the fluency of the ocean be yours, May the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow Wind work these words Of love around you, An invisible cloak To mind your life. [Note: "Beannacht" is the Gaelic word for "blessing." A "currach" is a large boat use... posted on Jan 1 2016 (238,367 reads)

us.” In other words, gratitude isn’t merely about reward—and doesn’t just show up in the brain’s reward center. It involves morality, connecting with others, and taking their perspective. In further studies, Fox hopes to investigate what’s going on in the body as gratitude improves our health and well-being. “It’s really great to see all the benefits that gratitude can have, but we are not done yet. We still need to see exactly how it works, when it works, and what are the best ways to bring it out more,” he says. “Enhancing our knowledge of gratitude pulls us closer to our own human dignity and what we can do to benefi... posted on Jan 2 2016 (16,337 reads)

operating at five different locations, and a third vehicle is scheduled to launch in early 2016. A man who identified himself as Bobby said trying to get clean in the past has been a dirty, sometimes violent problem. He described his experience after his first shower in this video. "It was clean, it was quiet, I was not bothered … it was personal, I had enough time, people were courteous, they were kind, and I feel brand new," he said. Another guest named Ron, who worked as a painter before a fall off a ladder left him disabled and eventually homeless, seemed hopeful for the future after his visit. "Even in the shelters, some of the showers are really, rea... posted on Jan 6 2016 (11,698 reads)