it tell us that even brief nature videos are a powerful way to feel awe, wonder, gratitude, and reverence—all positive emotions known to lead to increased well-being and physical health. Positive emotions have beneficial effects upon social processes, too—like increasing trust, cooperation, and closeness with others. Since viewing nature appears to trigger positive emotions, it follows that nature likely has favorable effects on our social well-being. Viewing nature in images and videos seems to shift our sense of self, diminishing the boundaries between self and others. This has been robustly confirmed in research on the benefits of living near green spaces. Mos... posted on Dec 7 2017 (16,566 reads)

following is an article based on an Awakin Call interview with Slobodan Dan Paich. You can listen to the full recording here. Slobodan Dan Paich is a man with a big heart, really connected to the inspiration behind life.  So much so that one of this summer’s Service Space interns remembers comparing Slobodan to Santa Claus as a young boy.  We had a chance to engage with Slobodan on last Saturday’s Awakin Call, where seemingly disparate aspects of his remarkable life softly emerged.  His voice trailed off at times, as he searched for words that could capture the wordless essence of his transcendent views. Slobodan is an artist, and harnesses his gif... posted on May 11 2017 (8,807 reads)

live in challenging and stressful times and may wonder how our children must be feeling when we are struggling ourselves. But, even as we try to shelter and protect them, we discover that kids are remarkably resilient and that the things that help us to cope in difficult situations are often the very things that make challenges more bearable for them as well. Moving from a sense of helplessness toward action, using our failures and struggles to reach out to others, and pushing ourselves against our limitations all make us stronger, more compassionate people. The same is true for our children-- often in remarkable ways. In this Daily Good Spotlight on Remarkable Kids, w... posted on May 26 2017 (10,067 reads)

was at the compost edge with two freshly picked red onions, washing dirt from their skins. At the time, my mind was wrangling with unpleasant thoughts, feeling wronged in a particular situation, reviewing how I was wronged. Not sure to whom I was stating my case. Not the red onions. As I peeled back the outer layer of one, the sun caught its redness, lit it up like a ruby, and I gasped at the startling beauty of it. Thoughts stilled, and the red glow absorbed my being in gratitude and awe. Suddenly I felt silly for what now seemed a petty absorption. Here I was surrounded in beauty, yet not receptive to it, letting myself be mired in thoughts not about now, not helpful, and an obstac... posted on May 29 2017 (13,465 reads)

run high. Sides are polarized. Even attempts at neutral, innocuous conversations seem stymied and fraught. How can we reestablish connection in our fractured communities? How can we reengage in conversation? How can we move forward together into our shared future? In this Daily Good Spotlight on Finding Common Ground, we take a look back into past features offering advice on how to come together and consider some stunning examples of people who have been able to overcome seemingly insurmountable differences to find common ground. Key to establishing connections among people and within communities are improving communication, focusing on common passions, and forgiving each other. ... posted on Jul 2 2017 (9,558 reads)

instructor of the world’s most popular MOOC explores how to change your life through the power of learning—and why you have more potential than you think. People around the world are hungry to learn. Instructor Barbara Oakley discovered this when her online course “Learning How to Learn”—filmed in her basement in front of a green screen—attracted more than 1.5 million students. Part of the goal of her course—and her new book, Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential—is to debunk some of the myths that get in the way of learning, like the belief that we’re bad at math or too old to change ... posted on Jul 4 2017 (16,133 reads)

distinguished in a Western sense that differs from an Eastern sensibility. The pictograph of Chinese origin that best expresses mindfulness is this: It consists of two parts, the top part meaning now; the bottom part meaning heart. In Japanese [the bottom part of the pictograph] is the word Kokoro, which includes feeling, emotion, mind, and spirit—the whole person. The word heartfulness may be closer to this meaning than the word mindfulness, which for some people may evoke images of the brain as detached from the heart. Though they mean different things for some people, to me they are similar, and I will use both words in this book. Biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn, perhaps the... posted on Aug 24 2017 (14,426 reads)

a teen, there were many days where I hovered across the kitchen counter, watching my mom make fresh roti (Indian bread), ready to grab one as soon as it fluffed on the open flame. Of course, she would snatch it right back to spread a little butter on top before giving it back. Like a half-starved child, I would plunge right into the soft bread like no one had fed me for days. There's nothing like your mom’s cooking. And my favorite was the round hot rotis with sabji (curried veggies), and thick Punjabi dal (lentils). Within minutes of me stepping in the door, there would be the inevitable question of “roti banawa?” Should I make roti? The sabji and the dal wer... posted on Nov 19 2017 (16,572 reads)

scientific — or pseudoscientific. And when I came to art, I came to art without apologies. And that gave me a great deal of freedom. Ms. Tippett: There’s even a way that you’ve described painting that evokes that for me, the craft of it, or even the way you understand what’s going on. You talked about — though, as an observer, we’d see painting as something that is happening on a surface with materials — you said, “in an interesting painting, images fight back, and their meanings play hide-and-go-seek with materials.” That is such an interesting — I mean that image is going to change the way I look at any painting from here ... posted on Nov 12 2017 (9,512 reads)

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 this scene worth a picture? Squinting allows me to see the most contrasting components of the... posted on May 19 2018 (1,215 reads)

Art of Cleaning, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart April 29, 2017 Girl Sweeping. William McGregor Paxton, 1912. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts In the busyness of our contemporary life we are drawn into ceaseless activity that often separates us from the deeper dimension of our self. With our smart phones and computer screens we often remain caught on the surface of our lives, amidst the noise and chatter that continually distract us, that stop us from being rooted in our true nature. Unaware, we are drowned deeper and deeper in a culture of soulless materialism. At this time I find it more and more important to have outer activities that can connect us to wh... posted on Nov 25 2017 (25,777 reads)

suggests that our brains may be wired for altruism, but there’s a catch—well, five of them, actually. Humans can be remarkably generous. Americans gave a record $390 billion to charitable organizations in 2016 through a combination of individual giving and philanthropy from estates, corporations, and foundations. And people give in myriad other ways as well, from everyday acts of kindness toward loved ones to volunteering to large acts of altruism, like donating a kidney to a stranger. This isn’t surprising, given how wired we appear to be for giving. But there are limits to our generosity—and many people want to be more generous th... posted on Jan 18 2018 (11,369 reads)

is so easy to stir the stew, to add your own spice and heat to it until it boils over rendering anything inside charred and devoid of nutrition. How much more difficult it is to soothe an angry temper, to see from another's point of view, to broker peace. In this Daily Good Spotlight on Peacemakers, we take a look back at features on remarkable people who have brought peace to tense situations and made peace a priority both in their own lives and in the world about them. Children Children are our hope for the future and also surprisingly powerful present-day agents of change. With their fresh eyes, they see problems and can propose solutions where adults may have lost their ... posted on Oct 18 2017 (10,323 reads)

the past decade, I have had the chance to ask thousands of teenagers what they think about school. I’ve found that the vast majority of them generally feel one of two ways: disengaged or incredibly pressured. One thing nearly all teens agree on is that most of what high school teaches them is irrelevant to their lives outside of school or their future careers. One study found that the most common feelings among high school students are fatigue and boredom. Another study concluded that 65 percent of the jobs that today’s high school graduates will have in their lifetime do not even exist yet. But we are still teaching them in the same way that we t... posted on Dec 12 2017 (47,363 reads)

following is an edited transcript of Preeta Bansal's share at an Awakin Circle in Santa Clara in December 2017] Just today, on the way down here, I received news that an old family friend had passed yesterday. On the topic of Small Graces, I'm reminded of her life and her story, and how much it influenced my and my family's journey. My parents came to the U.S. from India in the 1960s, along with the first wave of immigrants from India. My father came to Kansas, which is where he was getting his Ph.D. Six months later, my mother came with the three of us kids -- my sister, my brother, and me. We were just two, four and five years old. It was the very first ... posted on Mar 24 2018 (16,428 reads)

the dawn of each new year, we vow to make changes, usually little things--lose a few pounds, eat better, exercise more, be more patient. Sometimes those changes stick; sometimes by February we are wondering where our resolutions have gone. But what of the big changes--atoning for a life of crime, or giving up destructive or selfish pursuits, for instance? Are those sorts of big changes possible? Do we have the potential to stop in our tracks, consider our lives, and turn another way if we find ourselves far down the wrong path?  In this Daily Good Spotlight on Redemption we look back through old columns to revisit stories of people who have reversed a destructive course in favor of... posted on Jan 3 2018 (7,444 reads)

Life is capable of creating patterns and structures and organization all the time, without conscious rational direction, planning, or control, all of the things that many of us have grown up loving. This realization is having a profound impact on our beliefs about the nature of process in interpersonal relations, in business organizations, as well as in nature itself. In this article, I will focus on some of the recent shifts in our understanding of the way things change. Three images have changed my life -- one, a picture of a chemical reaction, another, a termite tower in Australia, and a third, an aspen grove in my new home state of Utah. Each image in its own way represe... posted on Jun 15 2018 (9,630 reads)

human-assisted extinctions of other species. Sometime later, I received an email about a “Remembrance Day for Lost Species” from a decidedly different publication, the Dark Mountain blog. I am all for remembering lost ones, like vanished ancestors I never knew. But it is abstract, not embodied, remembering. It’s an idea of grief more than lived grief, the kind that wracks the body and leaves indelible scars. The pair of essays conjure up spectral images of creatures coming and going (mostly going), back and forth across Rumi’s “doorsill where the two worlds touch”—or moving in and out of what evolutionary cosmologist Br... posted on Mar 15 2018 (19,456 reads)

at all. I’m grateful for what science has been able to give us. But so far science is limited to what the five senses can prove, and there is so much more out there. If we didn’t have Geiger counters we would never know about radioactivity, for example. If we didn’t have a television, we’d never know there were television wavelengths passing through the room with us.  If we didn’t have X-rays, or ultrasound, we wouldn’t have access to all kinds of images that are invisible to the naked eye. We know there are sound waves we can’t hear, but dogs can. We know there are parts of the light spectrum we can’t see, but we’ve developed... posted on Mar 28 2018 (17,225 reads)

crime or harm disrupts the balance -- in a community, among people, and within a family. Trying, convicting, and incarcerating the wrongdoer separates them from society but may do little to reclaim that lost balance and less still to improve the underlying conditions that led to the harm. Restorative justice takes a broader view with efforts that may include facilitating reconciliation between the victim and wrongdoer as well as addressing the underlying causes of crime and distress, potentially improving the broken community.  Restorative justice can be transformational for all concerned. In this Spotlight on Restorative Justice, we look back at Daily Good features that advocate for ... posted on Apr 26 2018 (9,142 reads)