The Radical Act of Savoring Pleasant Moments, by Ari Honorvar
her talk, Ari Honarvar introduces the mindful practice of savoring intervention. Through her background in providing workshops for refugees, she explains how to incorporate savoring pleasant moments in order to improve our wellbeing, even in the toughest environments. Ari Honarvar is a writer, activist, and artist dedicated to building bridges between the arts, social justice, and well-being. She is a Musical Ambassador of Peace and conducts Resilience through Joy workshops on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and in Europe. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times, and elsewhere. She is the author of Rumi's Gift Oracle Cards and her critically ac... posted on Oct 8 2023 (3,916 reads)

Cooking Up Connection, by Shaylyn Romney Garrett
a Month-Long Challenge of Hosting Dinner Parties Taught Me About the Art and Importance of Social Gathering As of a month ago, I very rarely invited friends over to my house. It just felt like there was always a reason not to: I’m too busy. It’s too much work. I can’t afford to make a fancy meal. I’d have to find someone to watch my daughter. My house is a mess. But these “reasons” were actually just excuses—artificial barriers I’d constructed to keep my private life private, and to stave off the vulnerability of showing my friends what was behind the curtain of my less-than-perfect life. I was always game for meeting up for l... posted on Nov 8 2023 (3,119 reads)

Knowing Our Power in Tumultuous Times, by Lily Spencer
O’Shanassy, CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, spoke these words to me last year, during an interview for The reMAKERs podcast about climate change and what gives her hope. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had just issued their latest report, a Code Red for Humanity warning on the nature of things to come. I asked her how she’s able to get up and do this work every day, during a pandemic, knowing that the future for life on Earth is looking so grim.“The future is not a linear extension of the past,” she replied. I felt myself exhale.So who shapes the future?I’ve spent the better part of two decades working in activism an... posted on Apr 10 2024 (2,058 reads)

Dancing with the Enemy, by Rev. Charles "Chaz" Howard
good to see you all. It's an honor to be here on this holy ground with you holy people. ... Thank you for all that you're doing in the world. When I was a kid, I loved to dance. I danced freely without inhibition, not worried about who was looking. And, my parents, when we would have guests over after dinner, they would summon the entertainment, which was me. And I would come out and I would dance for our guests. I don't dance so much anymore. I think as I got older, I became a little more nervous about what people would think about me. My knees got bad. And I don't know, sometimes I fear I've lost the love - that I don't have it in me anymore.In 2005, a terrible hurricane, called Hur... posted on Apr 21 2024 (3,170 reads)

How Luck and Chance Shape Our Lives, by Bob McKinnon
the random road that led to you reading this article. At some point, someone introduced you to Greater Good magazine. Perhaps you received an email or saw a post on someone’s social media feed, or maybe Google did the job. At that precise moment of time, you had a few minutes to spare and decided to click on it. That, of course, was in your control. But before your click, someone—namely, me—had to write this article. An editor had to decide that I was a decent choice to write it. I had to accept—which I did mainly for one completely random reason: I had read the book in question and in fact had recently interviewed the author for my NPR podcast, Attribution.... posted on May 30 2024 (2,568 reads)

Sister Marilyn: To Come And See, by Sister Marilyn Lacey
many years ago, when I was 18 years old and first entered the convent, I had my heart set on being a teacher and being a mathematician and all of that. Our life was very structured from 5am to 10pm, every single day, except Sunday we had the afternoon off. Early on in that first year, one of the other novice nuns invited me to go to San Francisco with her to visit her uncle. I looked up from the book I was reading and said, "No, I don't really wanna do that." I didn't know her uncle and I barely knew her. So I went back to reading my book.  The next day, the novice director who was in charge of training and mentoring us called me into her office and recounted this incident.&nb... posted on Jun 24 2024 (3,014 reads)

The Solutionary Way: A Practical Way To Better The Future, by Zoe Weil
Role Will You Play in Bringing About a Better World? Some years ago, well before the pandemic and the escalating rates of youth anxiety and depression, I was invited to speak to 5th and 6th graders at a school in Connecticut. I asked them what they thought were the biggest problems in the world, and I wrote down what they said on a whiteboard until the board was full. Then, I asked them to raise their hands if they thought we could solve the problems they listed. Of the forty-five children, only five raised their hands. This was the most sobering moment in my then almost thirty-year career as a humane educator—someone who teaches about the interconnected issues of human rights, ... posted on Jun 27 2024 (2,338 reads)

The Whisper of Reverence, by Greta Matos
Found within the Quiet of the Herd The cold breath of dusk kissed my nose as I felt myself slowly emerging from my dream state. Through my cheek, which lay gently atop an extra fleece bundled into a makeshift pillow, I could feel the weight of the horses’ hooves landing on the soft soil. The herd was close; not only could I feel the slow, soft drumming of their hooves on the land, but the rhythmic sound of their chewing began to fill my ears. I sat up in my sleeping bag and scanned the dark valley before me. As my eyes adjusted, the shapes of seven dark figures emerged. The herd was grazing alongside me by the time I’d stuffed my bivy and sleeping bag back into my pa... posted on Jun 28 2024 (2,206 reads)

Not Your Grandfather's Retirement, by Editors
changing the world is for the young? Meet 10 people over 60 who are proving you wrong. Golfing, knitting, and rocking chairs? Not exactly.  The Purpose Prize honors people over 60 who combine their experience and passion for social good. This year's winners are standing up to coal companies, helping their neighbors fight foreclosure, and keeping polluting industries out of their communities.        Photo by Talking Eyes Media/Copyright Civic Ventures Inez Killingsworth Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People  Cleveland Inez Killingsworth’s neighbors didn’t answer knocks at the door. Phone numbers w... posted on Dec 5 2010 (6,115 reads)

How a Regular Guy Found Some Super Power, by Colin Beavan
a regular guy found some super power.   So many of us have good ideas for helping the world. But we tuck our ideas away. I did. I’d tell myself that if the idea were any good someone else would have already done it. That I’m not capable of making a difference. I’d sit on my ideas, get on with my “life,” and then feel angry at the world because the problems I cared about didn’t get solved. I had that fear of going first. Then I took my first hapless step into what I call accidental activism. In 2006, I started a project where I lived as environmentally as possible for a year—with my little family, on the ninth floor of an apart... posted on Sep 2 2011 (9,284 reads)

You Can’t Buy Empathy, by Jason Marsh
not what you know but who you know,” the saying goes, suggesting that social connections breed success. But it seems there’s at least one way that the rich are less socially connected: New research finds that upper class people have more trouble reading others’ emotions.   In a series of studies, researchers examined how well participants could judge the emotions that other people were feeling, a skill known as “empathic accuracy.” In each study, the researchers (including the GGSC’s Dacher Keltner) compared the empathic accuracy of people of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES). In one study, they showed 200 adul... posted on Jul 24 2011 (11,805 reads)

7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less, by Maria Popova
consumption, or what lunching ladies have to do with social web karma. Stuff. We all accumulate it and eventually form all kinds of emotional attachments to it. (Arguably, because the marketing machine of the 20th century has conditioned us to do so.) But digital platforms and cloud-based tools are making it increasingly easy to have all the things we want without actually owning them. Because, as Wired founder and notable futurist Kevin Kelly once put it, “access is better than ownership.” Here are seven services that help shrink your carbon footprint, lighten your economic load and generally liberate you from the shackles of stuff through the power of sharing. ... posted on Aug 11 2011 (92,176 reads)

Ways to Connect More Deeply, by Guy Kawasaki
... posted on Feb 1 2014 (90,432 reads)

Pick Up Artists: Driving Across America, Picking Up Garbage, by John R. Platt
most people see a fast-food bag fluttering on the corner of the highway, they probably shake their heads and keep on driving. The Pick Up Artists aren’t most people. These four young environmentalists are driving across America, conducting roadside cleanups and spreading the word about reducing waste. After just three months on the road, the Pick Up America project has already collected more than 37,000 pounds of garbage. And they’re only 340 miles into their 2-year, cross-country trip. The project began March 20 at Assateague Island, Md. They aim to arrive in their final destination, San Francisco Bay, Calif., around August 2011. The team knew what they were getting... posted on Jul 23 2011 (9,730 reads)

Why We Love: 5 Books on the Psychology of Love, by Maria Popova
Oscar Wilde has to do with Hippocrates and the neurochemistry of romance. It’s often said that every song, every poem, every novel, every painting ever created is in some way “about” love. What this really means is that love is a central theme, an underlying preoccupation, in humanity’s greatest works. But what exactly is love? How does its mechanism spur such poeticism, and how does it lodge itself in our minds, hearts and souls so completely, so stubbornly, as to permeate every aspect of the human imagination? Today, we turn to 5 essential books that are “about” love in a different way — they turn an inquisitive lens towards this grand ... posted on Jan 24 2012 (14,714 reads)

The Psychology of Choice: 5 Perspectives, by Maria Popova
psychology of spaghetti sauce and why too many jams make you lose your appetite. Why are you reading this? How did you decide to click the link, load the page and stay? How do we decide to do anything at all and, out of the myriad choices we face each day, what makes one option more preferable over another? This is one of the most fundamental questions of the social sciences, from consumer psychology to economic theory to behavioral science. Today, at the risk of meta-irony, we look at not one but five fantastic books and talks that explore the subject. Take your pick(s) — if you can, that is.   JONAH LEHRER HOW WE DECIDE Among other things, Jonah Lehrer writes the excell... posted on Oct 10 2011 (36,623 reads)

Fostering Virtue, by Kentaro Toyama
much as I liked Narasimha, my favorite mode of travel within India was the auto-rickshaw. The word "rickshaw" comes from "jin riki sha" (人力車), which means "human-powered vehicle" in Japanese. The word probably went to China and got picked up by the British, who then applied it to Indian rickshaws. Auto-rickshaws are thus the etymological equivalent of automobiles. Physically, though, they're a different beast. Auto-rickshaws are three-wheeled, covered, scooter-taxis that zip around in cities throughout India.  Elsewhere, they're called "tuk-tuks," "trishaws," or "mototaxis." They're small, light, nimble... posted on Jul 18 2011 (12,900 reads)

Sister Cyril's Compassionate Vision, by Ashoka.org
Cyril is showing how middle class schools can integrate the poor living around them into their educational mainstream, to their mutual benefit. This profile was prepared when Cyril Mooney was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 1990. The New Idea As principal of Loreto School in the Sealdah area of Calcutta, Sister Cyril has been able to realize many of her (and the National Policy Planners) dreams within its compounds: She has beaten the existing polarity in Indian education by bringing together children of "good schools" with those usually locked out of the charmed circle, to their mutual benefit. "The ripple effect" she's demonstrating – founded on the b... posted on Aug 7 2011 (7,886 reads)

How to Transform Negative Emotions, by Viral Mehta
was a cold night in a wooded area, extremely dark, with no moon in the sky. I must've strayed off of the path at some point. I shuffled my feet around, trying to feel for the smoothness of the trail. But there was just wet grass. The moment I realized I was lost, there was an immediate surge of fear. In situations like these, where we suddenly experience an intense emotion, we often find ourselves facing a storm of "what-if" scenarios: "What if I don't find the trail? What if I can't find my way back? What if I have to be outside in the freezing cold all night?" Before we know it, we are feeding these negative thoughts, which in turn strengthens the emotional response... posted on Sep 19 2011 (68,743 reads)

Becoming a Presence Activist, by Viral Mehta
friend of mine is visiting from out of town and staying in East Oakland, in an area that's infamous for its gang violence and unrest. This friend happens to be a monk. He shaves his head and dresses in the traditional brown robes of his monastic order -- not the kind of person who blends easily into the background. Having spent many years making compassion a conscious practice, his response to situations is to try to do his bit to spread goodness. So he went out for a walk, just to engage with the community. As he was walking up 35th Avenue, a couple of tough-looking street youth yelled out to him: "Hey man!" He turned around, looked at them and said, "Yes?" "... posted on Oct 18 2011 (22,824 reads)