Kindness Emotions, by David DiSalvo
Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts A psychologist probes how altruism, Darwinism and neurobiology mean that we can succeed by not being cutthroat. Why do people do good things? Is kindness hard-wired into the brain, or does this tendency arise via experience? Or is goodness some combination of nature and nurture? Dacher Keltner, director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, investigates these questions from multiple angles, and often generates results that are both surprising and challenging. In his new book, Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, Keltner weaves together scientific findings with personal narrative to uncover th... posted on Oct 19 2013 (26,987 reads)

Empathy Heroes: 5 People Who Changed the World By Taking Compassion to the Extreme, by Roman Krznaric
heard of “empathy marketing”? It’s the latest business buzzword. The idea is that if companies can look through their clients’ eyes and understand their desires, they will be better able to tailor their offerings and gain a competitive advantage. To me, this is stepping into someone else’s shoes just to sell them another pair. I believe that the best use of empathy is not in the commercial world but in the social one, where it allows us to challenge prejudices and create political change. And if you look through history, there are some extraordinary figures who have harnessed this power by engaging in what I think of as “experiential empa... posted on Jan 15 2015 (29,639 reads)

A Modern Elder Muses on Gratitude in Silicon Valley, by Chip Conley
of the unexpected pleasures of getting older is learning to cultivate and harvest gratitude more readily. Maybe it’s the fact that we recognize that wanting what we have (gratitude) creates more happiness than having what we want (gratification). After two dozen years running my own boutique hotel company, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, I sold it at the bottom of the Great Recession in 2010 and didn’t know what was next for me. I did appreciate having space in my life to experience “collective effervescence” at religious pilgrimages from the Hindu Maha Kumbh Mela in India to the Sufi Mevlana Whirling Dervish Festival in Turke... posted on Nov 14 2018 (6,300 reads)

All In On Love, by The Huffington Post
following speech was delivered on May 19, 2014 as part of the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good morning. And congratulations! Now I'll try to be brief this morning. As a musician, this is about 10 hours before I normally go to work, so I'm gonna need a nap soon. And you've got degrees to receive. And I also have a feeling some of you are already tired of me. The thing about pop radio in America, somehow they've scientifically determined that the public is only capable of liking the same 10 songs at any given time, so they simply play those songs over and over and over until you're fina... posted on Jun 29 2014 (30,188 reads)

5 Ways Science Says Kindness Will Change Your Life, by Birju Pandya
kindness just an old-fashioned value celebrated in kindergarten and then soon forgotten as one grows older and more ambitious --- or is there more to it? As increasing numbers of people look to live a purpose-driven life, research is beginning to reveal the tremendous rewards that come with living kindly. What follows are some of the most compelling recent studies on the topic of kindness, and the ramifications they hold for ourselves and our world. 1: Kindness rewires our minds for greater health: “The biggest news is that we’re able to change something physical about people’s health by increasing their daily diet of positive emotion, and that helps us get... posted on Sep 23 2014 (143,037 reads)

A Fun Way to Stop Buying Things You Don't Need, by Tracy Loeffelholz Dunn
few years ago, illustrator and editorial cartoonist Sarah Lazarovic felt like she was buying too much junk. So she stopped shopping for a year, then documented her withdrawals and, eventually, all the lessons and tips and tricks she learned about not buying things. Instead of buying the items she coveted, she made paintings of them. During that time, instead of buying the items she coveted, she made paintings of them. That led to the illustrated book calledA Bunch of Pretty Things I Did Not Buy. It also led to doing that same “covet counseling” for others. She calls her project the “Office of Divestment.” She will draw the thing you want to buy. You get t... posted on Sep 9 2016 (18,730 reads)

Lessons in Resilience: The Stories We Tell and Why They Matter, by Emily Rose Barr
you ever wondered what makes it easier for some to bounce back after a tragedy than others? Or why hundreds facing the same life-changing event wind up on drastically different paths? Imagine a young woman whose childhood was rife with trauma: perhaps she grew up in impoverished conditions, where she experienced chronic abuse, and lacked a proper support system. Now imagine this same young woman went on to earn an advanced degree and developed a nonprofit organization to help youth living in poverty. Though not often so cut and dried, stories like this are not uncommon. But unfortunately, neither are their counterparts. Imagine this woman had a sister, who began using drugs at an... posted on Mar 1 2018 (39,611 reads)

Pico Iyer Chooses Stillness, by Nathan Scolaro
SCOLARO: So I wanted to begin by asking you what thoughts you’ve been having lately. What’s been on your mind? PICO IYER: Well, after a very crowded and congested year, I’ve managed to steal the last two weeks in almost absolute silence here in Japan. So I suppose I’ve been thinking about the folly of knowing, the virtue of seeing how little we know, and the beauty of just taking a deep breath. Which I’ve written about before, but I haven’t always practised! I’m getting to spend just a few days reading, writing, taking long walks, playing ping-pong every day. And sitting on my terrace in the blazing November sunshine, usually with a cu... posted on May 11 2018 (12,342 reads)

The Only Real Antidote to Fear, by Maria Popova
is what love seeks,” Hannah Arendt wrote in her superb 1929 meditation on love and how to live with the fundamental fear of loss. “Such fearlessness exists only in the complete calm that can no longer be shaken by events expected of the future… Hence the only valid tense is the present, the Now.” Half a century before her, Leo Tolstoy — who befriended a Buddhist monk late in life and became deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy — echoed these ancient truths as he contemplated the paradoxical nature of love: “Future love does not exist. Love is a present activity only.” That in love and in life, freedo... posted on Apr 4 2021 (7,521 reads)

9 Steps to Achieving Flow in Your Work, by Leo Babauta
not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” - Buddha Have you ever lost yourself in your work, so much so that you lost track of time? Being consumed by a task like that, while it can be rare for most people, is a state of being called Flow. In my experience, it’s one of the keys to happiness at work, and a nice side benefit is that it not only reduces stress but increases your productivity. Not bad, huh? When I wrote about called The Magical Power of Focus, I promised to write more about how to achieve Flow, a concept that is very much in vogue right now and something mo... posted on Apr 30 2012 (34,671 reads)

Can Awe Buy You More Time and Happiness?, by Stacey Kennelly
plugged in and constantly juggling tasks at work and at home, many of us feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to do. But wouldn’t it be awesome to feel like you had more time? In fact, a new study suggests that experiencing awe—which psychologists define as the feeling we get when we come across something so strikingly vast in number, scope, or complexity that it alters the way we understand the world—could help us do just that. What’s more, awe might make us more generous with how we spend our time and improve our overall well-being. In one part of the study, researchers induced feelings of awe in pa... posted on Dec 3 2012 (14,442 reads)

Ready to Start Living? First, Consider Your Death, by Roman Krznaric
of the great tragedies of modern life is that we live in a culture of death denial. The advertising industry tells us we are forever young, and we retire elders away to care homes, out of sight and mind. As a Western culture, we’ve lost the connection with our mortality our forebears had, when dancing skeletons decorated medieval church walls and people wore skull brooch memento mori (Latin for ‘remember you must die’) as a reminder that death could take them at any moment.  We are constantly dying. The proximity of death propelled our ancestors to live with a radical aliveness that we can hardly imagine in our tech-saturated sedentary present, as we check o... posted on Sep 9 2017 (15,798 reads)

2000 Years of Kindness, by Maria Popova
kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now,” Jack Kerouac wrote in a beautiful 1957 letter to his first wife turned lifelong friend. “Kindness, kindness, kindness,” Susan Sontag resolved in her diary on New Year’s Day in 1972. Half a century later, the Dalai Lama placed a single exhortation at the center of his ethical and ecological philosophy: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Nothing broadens the soul more than the touch of kindness, given or received, and nothing shrivels it more than a flinch of unkindness, given or received — something we ha... posted on Mar 18 2023 (4,616 reads)

7 Guidelines for Healthy Social Connection, by Kiffer George Card
public health guidelines help stop loneliness? 7 tips that show how crucial social connection is to well-being United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently called loneliness an epidemic and issued a public health advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. The report warned of the considerable adverse effects of loneliness and social isolation — comparing it to other leading risk factors for premature death such as smoking, obesity, elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol. Loneliness and social isolation can be harmful In my work as a social and behavioural epidemiologist, I have studied how social and community connectedness s... posted on Jun 29 2023 (4,741 reads)

Creating a Compassionate Economy, by The Moon Magazine
Brown is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent book, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science (Bloomsbury), draws upon simple Buddhist ideas to argue for an economic system based on environmental stewardship, shared prosperity, and care for the human spirit. Brown measures economic progress by the well-being of all people, not Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or average national income. She advocates creating an economy that recognizes the interdependence of people with each other and the planet, and works toward achieving the goals of reduci... posted on Jun 22 2018 (9,136 reads)

David Whyte On Being At The Frontier Of Your Identity, by Tami Simon
Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge This week is a rebroadcast of one of my favorite episodes of Insights at the Edge, and one of the episodes that has received the most positive feedback from listeners: “Being at the Frontier of Your Identity” with David Whyte. David Whyte is a passionate speaker, poet, and the author of the Sounds True audio learning program, Clear Mind, Wild Heart, and a new program from Sounds True, What to Remember When Waking: The Disciplines of an Everyday Life. David is also a featured presenter at our 2013 Wake Up Festival: A Five-Day Experience of Transformation, August 14th-18th in Estes Park, CO. In this conversation, David and ... posted on Jul 7 2014 (40,643 reads)

Grit: The Power of Passion & Perseverance, by Knowledge@Wharton
is grit? Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences, says it is the capacity to work hard and stay focused. In her recent book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, she explains why grit is necessary in addition to talent, and why talent needs the drive that grit provides in order for one be successful. Duckworth, a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, discussed her ideas on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.) An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge@Wharton: Could you talk about g... posted on Nov 26 2016 (15,285 reads)

What Happens When Old and Young Connect, by Marc Freedman
essay is adapted from How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations (PublicAffairs, 2018, 224 pages). This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. has more people over 60 than under 18. That milestone has brought with it little celebration. Indeed, there are abundant concerns that America will soon be awash in a gray wave, spelling increased health care costs for an aging population, greater housing and transportation needs, and fewer young workers contributing to Social Security. Some fear a generational conflict over shrinking resources, a looming tension between kids and “canes.” Without discounting these very real challen... posted on Jul 14 2019 (7,063 reads)

How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness, by Rick Hanson
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 (148,563 reads)

Top 10 Insights from the Science of a Meaningful Life, by Kira M. Newman, Mariah Flynn, Jill Suttie, Jeremy Adam Smith
science, nothing can be taken for granted; even the most seemingly settled notion is a candidate for further testing and exploration. That’s part of what makes our work at Greater Good so exciting: We’re constantly uncovering research that looks at humanity in new ways, helping us all learn to be happier, more compassionate, and more resilient. This year’s top insights are a tribute to that spirit. They debunk things we thought we knew, like how many human emotions there are. They inject some questions into the popular discussion of mindfulness, which can at times be overenthusiastic. And they open up new horizons for us to consider, like the possibility of ... posted on Jun 21 2018 (19,009 reads)