Why Gratitude is Good, by Robert A. Emmons
more than a decade, I’ve been studying the effects of gratitude on physical health, on psychological well-being, and on our relationships with others. digitalskillet In a series of studies, my colleagues and I have helped people systematically cultivate gratitude, usually by keeping a “gratitude journal” in which they regularly record the things for which they’re grateful. (For a description of this and other ways to cultivate gratitude, click here.) Gratitude journals and other gratitude practices often seem so simple and basic; in our studies, we often have people keep gratitude journals for just three weeks. And yet the results have been overwhelmi... posted on Jun 20 2011 (77,726 reads)

What Will The Theme Of Your Life Be In 2017?, by Kira M. Newman
your life were a movie, where would the plot be headed right now? You may not be immortalized in film anytime soon, but your life is still a story. According to psychologists, we all have an internalized narrative that explains how we became the person we are today and where we are headed tomorrow. Like any Hollywood blockbuster, this narrative has settings, scenes, a plot, characters, and themes. As we ponder resolutions for the coming year, New Year’s can also be a time to reflect on our life story—and to figure out how everything fits together. Incorporating our goals into the larger narrative of our life can give us more energy to pursue them, and to become the ... posted on Jan 1 2017 (20,857 reads)

Viktor Frankl and the Search for Meaning: A Conversation with Alexander Vesely and Mary Cimiluca, by Fran Grace
we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” --Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Few books of the last century have had a greater impact on our quest for meaning than Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This all-time bestseller was written by a Jewish man who had just lost everything in the Holocaust.  When Frankl, emaciated from concentration camps, returned to his beloved Vi... posted on Apr 14 2017 (58,071 reads)

Edmund Benson: Constructive Aging, Positivity Cards and More, by Awakin Call Editors
businessman Edmund F. Benson, together with his wife Susan, declined to rest on their laurels when their well-earned retirement began.  Instead, the energetic and service-committed couple in some ways just began (again) their service journeys during their golden years.  They devoted their retirement to establishing the ARISE Foundation in 1986, a global skills-teaching program for at-risk youth.  The Foundation has had a remarkable history and impact, from its initial focus on environmental education for young people to now addressing a range of needs for the young, the elderly, and many populations in between. What follows is the edited transcript of an Awakin Call in... posted on Nov 1 2017 (8,362 reads)

Vandana Shiva: For Love of Mother Earth, by Patrick Pittman
Pittman on Vandana Shiva There are forces of nature, and then there is Vandana Shiva. Hers is a name close to the lips of anybody engaged in questions of sustainable agriculture, of social justice, of globalisation, of any of the great sociocultural fights of the past couple of decades. Wherever there is a pulpit, where there is land and tradition to protect, she’ll be there. She is loved or she is loathed, depending on who you talk to, but she is clearly a woman with a mission—to fight the rise of Big Agriculture, and the end of biodiversity. Born in 1952 in India’s Dehradun Valley, in the Uttarakhand state at the foothills of the Himalayas, Vandana didn&r... posted on Aug 23 2021 (4,825 reads)

What It Really Means to Live Our Mission, by Maria Popova
beautiful meditation on how we learn to stand at the gates of hope in troubled times. “How are we so optimistic, so careful not to trip and yet do trip, and then get up and say OK?”Maira Kalman asked in pondering happiness and existence. What is it that propels us to get up after loss, after heartbreak, after failure? What is that immutable rope that pulls us out of our own depths — depths we hardly knowuntil that moment when the light of the surface vanishes completely and unreachably? That’s precisely what the Reverend Victoria Safford explores in a gorgeous essay titled“The Small Work in the Great Work” fromThe Impossible Will Take a Little Whil... posted on Dec 15 2014 (23,242 reads)

Mister Roger's Message of Love, by Richard Gunderman
release of the Mister Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? calls to mind the essential message of Rogers’ long-running children’s program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred McFeely Rogers, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to millions of children what his faith’s General Assembly referred to as “unconditional love.” In preaching love, Rogers wasn’t just attending to the moral character of his youthful audience. He believed that he was also promoting their health. As he said in 1979, “My whole ap... posted on Jul 19 2018 (20,588 reads)

Paying It Forward: An Interview with Nipun Mehta, by Nathan Scolaro
March, I interviewed Nipun for our magazine, Dumbo Feather -- and I left so energized by our chat! It left a deep impression and we locally got active in trying to create an Awakin Circle in Melbourne, we've published another article on "multiple forms of capital", our founders are coming out for a ServiceSpace retreat, and most recently we've been doing some kindness experiments too. I feel so grateful to know ServiceSpace, and look forward to supporting the "ripples". The photo-essay looks gorgeous in the print magazine, but below is a snapshot with some interspersed photos by the talented Ramin Rahimian. Hope you enjoy! For more than 2... posted on Nov 19 2019 (7,773 reads)

Gratitude, Grief and Finding Your Yes, by Terry Patten
one can say with certainty how our civilizational crisis will play out. We don’t know exactly how much suffering and destruction—human and nonhuman—might lie in store for us, or how soon. But we do know, with increasing certainty, that the actions of human beings have created horrific disasters and an existential predicament; and we also know that the actions of human beings—for good or for ill—will determine the future of our great grandchildren and the great grandchildren of thousands of other living beings. The stakes could scarcely be higher. We cannot wait to “see what happens” before we act on this awareness. Rather, we are obliged right now... posted on Feb 3 2020 (8,923 reads)

Epilogue: OUT OF THE BOX, by Alicia Doyle
boxing career doesn’t have the typical fairy tale ending. I quit after my first and only professional match. I never won a world title or a championship belt in the pros. The crescendo of my story doesn’t end with my arm raised victorious in the ring. My wins came after I left the roped-off square, when I had a chance to contemplate the lessons I learned in the fight game. These lessons, which transcended into epiphanies, are my greatest reward. Now, into middle age, I know I will never be able to capture or mimic the elation I felt inside the boxing ring, the natural high I felt after a win, the adrenaline that rushed through my veins in a fight, the adoration that fed my ... posted on Feb 8 2022 (2,696 reads)

Caverly Morgan: The Heart of Who We Are, by Tami Simon
follows is the transcript of a Sounds True/Insights at the Edge interview between Tami Simon and Caverly Morgan. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here. Tami Simon: This episode of Insights at the Edge features my guest, Caverly Morgan. Caverly is a meditation teacher, author, and a nonprofit leader. She’s the founder of Peace in Schools, a nonprofit which has created the first for-credit mindfulness class. It’s called Mindful Studies that’s offered in public high schools, and we’re going to be talking quite a bit about that, the introduction of mindfulness and compassion practices for teens right in the high school system. Sh... posted on Jan 17 2023 (3,027 reads)

Be A Blessing, by On Being
by Ariel Burger What follows is a transcript syndicated from On Being, of an interview between Krista Tippett and Ariel Burger. You can listen to the audio of this interview here. Transcript Krista Tippett, host: I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Ariel Burger is a rabbi, as well as an artist and teacher. He’s the author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom. I love this description he gives of Wiesel’s face: “It looks like a map of the world, if the world had been wounded but still managed to laugh.” Ariel Burger’s own religious sensibility was formed in part by the contrast between the two home... posted on Feb 25 2021 (6,392 reads)

My Antidote to Overwhelm, by Shannon Hayes
Hayes: People ask me, “How do you do it all?” The answer is, I don’t … and there’s a good reason for that. Yesterday morning, when I finished writing for the day, I signed on to check my email. From the sea of unread messages, one stood out. The subject line, written in all caps, read: HOW DO YOU DO IT ALL? The more I write, the more I speak, the more I hear this question. It’s understandable. I paint my life as a dreamy blend of farming, cooking, home schooling, canning, lacto-fermenting, music-making, soap-making, crafting, writing, occasional travel for speaking engagements or research and, believe it or not, I even find time to knit. I&rsq... posted on Jul 26 2011 (10,435 reads)

29 Lessons From Travelling the World, by Benny Lewis
416 weeks, or almost 3,000 days. This is the amount of time that I have not had a fixed home; moving to a new country, culture and language every few months and taking absolutely everything I own with me. It has been a significant percentage of my life, and it’s still long from over. I had actually done some travelling before - a couple of summers in the states, and an entire month already in Spain. But about this time back in 2003, on the week of my 21st birthday, I left Ireland for good. I had graduated university a few days before, and knew that I’d only be coming back “home” for visits (I’ve n... posted on Jul 17 2011 (62,673 reads)

Seven Tips for Fostering Generosity, by Jeremy Adam Smith
all know gift giving is an essential, ritualized part of the holidays. But what about the rest of the year? There’s good reason to practice generosity even after you’ve greeted the New Year. As we’ve reported in the past, giving activates parts of the brain associated with pleasure and social connection; releases endorphins in the brain, producing a “helper’s high”; and provides many long-term health benefits. But we aren’t always as giving as we could be. Fortunately, Greater Good has published dozens of articles on how to foster generosity in children, institutions, society—and within ourselves. Here are seven top tips, culled from ... posted on Dec 25 2011 (12,495 reads)

What are the Secrets to a Happy Life?, by George E. Vaillant
19 years old, Godfrey Minot Camille was a tall redheaded boy with a charming manner who planned to enter medicine or the ministry. In 1938, Camille enrolled in a study that would follow him for the rest of his life, along with 267 other Harvard College sophomores deemed by recruiters as likely to lead “successful” lives. This essay is adapted from Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study Only gradually 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 pers... posted on Oct 23 2013 (66,896 reads)

The History of Simple Living, by Roman Krznaric
might history teach us about living more simple, less consumerist lifestyles? The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes took simple living to the extreme, and lived in an old wine barrel. Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, used courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. When the recently elected Pope Francis assumed office, he shocked his minders by turning his back on a luxury Vatican palace and opting instead to live in a small guest house. He has also become known for taking the bus rather than riding in the papal limousine. The Argentinian pontiff is not alone in seeing the virtues of a simpler, less materialistic approach to the art of living. In fact, simple livi... posted on Mar 14 2014 (43,526 reads)

Trying Not To Try: Cultivating the Art of Spontaneity, by Maria Popova
modern conception of human excellence is too often impoverished, cold, and bloodless. Success does not always come from thinking more rigorously or striving harder.” “The best way to get approval is not to need it,”Hugh MacLeod memorably counseled. We now know that perfectionism kills creativity and excessive goal-setting limits our success rather than begetting it — all different manifestations of the same deeper paradox of the human condition, at once disconcerting and comforting, which Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian Studies and Embodied Cognition at the University of British Columbia and a renowned scholar of Chinese thought, explore... posted on Jun 3 2014 (14,030 reads)

A Classroom With Love At The Center, by Peggy Sia
world may sound slightly dismal from certain vantage points. In the United States, a large amount of money is devoted to incarceration compared to education. California spends $47,421 per inmate, as opposed to $11,420 per student. The latest report from Alliance for Excellent Education states, “The nation could save as much as $18.5 billion in annual crime costs if the high school male graduation rate increased by only 5 percentage points.” But I would like to invite you to our little world in a suburban city within the Los Angeles County. We are like a community within a community. This is our public school adventure…. Wisdom from 10-Year-Olds I am someo... posted on Feb 27 2015 (19,564 reads)

Just One Thing: Grow a Key Inner Strength, by Rick Hanson
deal life's challenges, we need resources. Rick Hanson explains how to find the ones that lie inside yourself. We're pleased to bring you another installment of Rick Hanson's Just One Thing (JOT) newsletter, which each week offers a simple practice designed to bring you more joy and more fulfilling relationships. We all have issues—including demands upon us, stresses, illnesses, losses, vulnerabilities, and pain. (As Alan Watts put it: “Life is wiggly.”) Of course, many of our issues—in the broad sense I’m using the word here—are related to important sources of fulfillment, such as starting a business or raising a f... posted on May 20 2015 (16,468 reads)