Grateful Changemakers: Karma Kitchen, by The Gratefulness Team
a restaurant where there are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, we invite you to pay it forward for those who dine after you.” This restaurant exists, and it’s called Karma Kitchen, a self-described “volunteer-driven experiment in generosity.” Karma Kitchen was first opened in Berkeley, California in 2007 by volunteers inspired to seed the value of a gift economy. Karma Kitchen has served over 74,700 meals and generated over 60,300 volunteer hours in Berkeley alone, but ultimately, it’s impossible to measure all t... posted on Dec 24 2018 (8,235 reads)

Growing Through the Cracks: A Conversation with Sachi Maniar, by Richard Whittaker
the past ten years, Sachi Maniar has nurtured breathing spaces for young people in the midst of profound intensity. When she first stumbled into the company of youth in conflict with the law, with runaway, orphaned and abandoned children, Sachi felt herself inexplicably at home. The work that blossomed from that feeling would eventually turn into a full-fledged organization that has now touched thousands of young lives, across three facilities in Mumbai as well as 18 other facilities in India. At its core Sachi's work reminds us of each person's fundamental belonging, of the beauty inherent in wholeness, and the power and freedom that come... posted on Jan 9 2023 (2,526 reads)

Going Beyond Profit, by Somik Raha
crowded room listened to an intense man, strangely dressed in shorts, talk about marketing. Drawing parallels with Nike, this man pointed out that great brands don't talk about the details of their products, but celebrate the values they stand for. He went on to articulate the core value of his company, Apple: "To think differently." And so their ad campaign celebrated out-of-the-box visionaries, ranging from Einstein to Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. Every time I watch that classic Steve Jobs talk, I wonder what the secret is behind his legendary effectiveness in communication. Slick videos, minimalist slides and articulate delivery all play their part, but the most imp... posted on Aug 8 2011 (14,641 reads)

5 Must-Read Books on Error and the Science of Being Wrong, by Maria Popova
Ronald Reagan has to do with gorilla costumes, Shakespeare and fake pennies.   The intricate mechanisms of the human mind are endlessly fascinating. We’ve previously explored various facets of how the mind works — from how we decide towhat makes us happy to why music affects us so deeply — and today we’re turning to when it doesn’t: Here are five fantastic reads on why we err, what it means to be wrong, and how to make cognitive lemonade out of wrongness’s lemons. BEING WRONG The pleasure of being right is one of the most universal human addictions and most of us spend an extraordinary amount of effort on avoidi... posted on Nov 11 2011 (9,188 reads)

Ben Davis Keeps His Promise To Meemaw, by Tonic.com
van. One father. One son. Thirty-one cities. 30,724 pounds lost among 1,516 participants. 1,255,740 views on YouTube. When Ben Davis makes a promise to his Meemaw, he means business. It was Christmas Eve of 2008 when Ben’s grandmother expressed her concern for him simply by asking whether he was happy.    “I was 360 pounds,” Ben told me. “I was in a deep depression, I had lost a relationship as a direct result of the depression—I was, in no way, happy—and her inquisition that night … it pushed me to really examine my life and spurred me to get it together. To get a grip and get my life back on track.” Inspired, he... posted on Jan 4 2012 (11,948 reads)

10 Life-Changing Facts About Anger, by Gail Brenner, PhD
I was angry. And I was a little afraid. After all I’ve not been free in so long. But, when I felt that anger well up inside of me, I realized that if I hated them after I got outside that gate, then they would still have me. I wanted to be free so I let it go.” ~Nelson Mandela upon leaving prison after 27 years of confinement   Frustrated, impatient, raging…aaarrrrrrgh! Yes, it’s normal to feel angry – you are human, after all. But if anger causes problems in your life – if it interferes with your health and happiness – then consider these 10 life-changing facts. Get curious about anger, and you just might discover a... posted on Feb 16 2022 (206,386 reads)

The Gift that Matters, by Rachel Macy Stafford
a very young age, my oldest daughter has been a gift giver. Like most children, her offerings consisted of items that adults wouldn’t ordinarily classify as gifts. Broken seashells, traumatized frogs, dying weeds, and misshapen rocks were often presented in small, dirt-laden hands beneath a wide smile. In the past two years my child’s gift giving practices have moved up a notch. Gifts are no longer found in nature; they are found in our home. Yes, it’s re-gifting at its best—wrapping barely-used items and presenting them with great love.   I must be honest; I used to cringe at the sight of my child tearing through our (multiple) junk drawers looki... posted on Feb 9 2013 (26,131 reads)

7 Tips to Fight the Deadly Feeling of Boredom, by Gretchen Rubin
of the patron saints of my Happier at Home project, Samuel Johnson, wrote, “It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.” One “little thing” that can be a source of unhappiness is boredom. Waiting in traffic. Waiting for the subway. Doing the dishes. Waiting in a doctor’s office. Listening to your thirteen year old talk through her different clothing options for the day. Here are seven tips to re-frame the moment. Even if you can’t escape a situation, by re-framing your emotions about it, you can transform it. 1. Put the word ... posted on Apr 17 2013 (35,053 reads)

6 Ways To Find Work You Love, by Roman Krznaric
idea of fulfilling work—a job that reflects our passions, talents and values—is a modern invention. Open Dr. Johnson's celebrated Dictionary, published in 1755, and the word “fulfilment” doesn't even appear. But today our expectations are higher, which helps explain why job satisfaction has declined to a record low of 47 percent in the U.S., and is even lower in Europe. If you count yourself amongst those who are unhappy in their job, or at least have that occasional niggling feeling that your work and self are out of alignment, how are you supposed to go about finding a meaningful career? What does it take to overcome the fear of cha... posted on Aug 8 2013 (52,278 reads)

Are We Losing Our Focus?, by Jill Suttie
a new book, Daniel Goleman argues that focus leads to greater happiness, better relationships, and increased productivity. My teenage son does homework while watching sports games on his computer and Facebooking his friends. Of course, I understand the draw—homework can be boring and tedious. But, I wonder what kind of impact this multi-focused attention is having on his learning and social life, not to mention his future success. According to Daniel Goleman’s new book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, I should wonder. Goleman, renowned psychologist and author of the bestselling books,Social Intelligence and Emotional Intellig... posted on Dec 20 2013 (26,547 reads)

3 Resolutions For a Happier Year, by Christine Carter
want to lose weight. Get out of debt. Stop smoking. Eat more kale. Call your grandma more often. I do understand why people don’t like New Year’s resolutions: They can be a source of failure, year after year. Folks often pick resolutions that are inherently unrewarding, that necessitate relentless hard work, or that remind them of their mortality in a way that makes them feel small instead of grateful. I know because I’ve made all of those mistakes. But now? I love New Year’s resolutions. I use them to transform myself in small increments, taking turtle steps toward new habits. I begin slowly around the winter solstice, and inch myself toward a newer, be... posted on Jan 1 2014 (76,210 reads)

What I Learned From My 60 Deliberate Acts In 60 Days Kindness Birthday Challenge, by Glinda
my 60th birthday, I challenged myself to do 60 very deliberate acts of kindness for 60 consecutive days and write about my experiences each day. Now I am no stranger to going out and doing things, but this is the first time I have ever been focused and paid attention to 'Kindness Acts' to the degree that was required in coming up with what I was going to do each day, preparing for it when I needed to, and then writing about it for 60 days. Here is what I want to share. In my experience, there is no such thing as a 'kindness act' There is no separate 'act' that can be called Kindness. I believe our true nature IS kindness and that when we are not acting out o... posted on Feb 13 2015 (36,404 reads)

The Radical Power of Humility, by Nipun Mehta
is transcript of a talk, delivered to four thousand people gathered at the National Jain Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.  Prior to Nipun's talk, civil rights legends John Lewis and Andrew Young shared insights from their journey with Martin Luther King, Jr.] Thank you for this opportunity to speak to all of you.  What an honor to be here with all you today, and a special honor to get to follow John Lewis and Andrew Young. Today I’d like to surface an unpopular virtue. One that’s fallen out of favor in a time of selfies and relentless status updates. The virtue of humility. We live in an era that believes it can no longer afford to be humb... posted on Jul 7 2015 (117,003 reads)

We Can't Eat GDP: Global Trends on Alternative Indicators, by Lorenzo Fioramonti
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the best-known “number” in economic governance. It drives national policies, sets priorities in the social fields (e.g. there exists a ratio between GDP and how much spending in welfare is considered appropriate by many countries) and ultimately affects the societal landscape of a country (e.g. by determining labour-business relations, work-life balances and the type of consumption patterns adopted by citizens). The type of industrial model supported by GDP dominates physical and infrastructural â€‹geography, from the shape of cities and their relation with the countryside to the management of parks and natural resources. Marketing st... posted on Aug 22 2015 (13,371 reads)

The Joys of Giving Large, by Brad Hurley
Kaufman and Julia Wise are a young couple living in Boston. Jeff is a software engineer at Google and Julia is a social worker. For the past few years they've been giving away nearly 60 percent of their after-tax income to charities working to reduce poverty and save lives in developing countries. Despite a combined income well into the six figures, they spend little more than $15,000/year on themselves. Since 2008 they've given away more than $250,000. That's a lot of money, and it sounds like a big sacrifice. But they insist that it isn't. In her blog, Julia writes, "The things we love most--spending time with family and friends, making music, dancing, cookin... posted on Dec 5 2015 (11,051 reads)

Ani Choying: Gratitude and Service, by Nipun Mehta
Choying Drolma was a guest at a ServiceSpace Awakin Circle in Santa Clara on June 7, 2017. The following introduction was sent out in advance of her visit: Steve Tibbetts was meditating in a Nepali monastery, when he heard a nun singing sacred hymns. After requesting permission to record her on his cassette recorder, he was so mesmerized by her voice that he forgot to hit record! "There's a quality in her singing that cuts to the heart of what it's like to be human," the American guitarist said of the Buddhist nun's chants. "That quality, that tonality, just goes right to the center of your chest." Eventually he got a second chance and passed on... posted on Nov 20 2017 (10,631 reads)

From Big Data to Deep Data, by Otto Scharmer
the past ten months I have chaired and co-facilitated MIT’s IDEAS China program—a ten month innovation journey for a group of 30 or so senior Chinese business leaders. This year the IDEAS China program enrolled executives of a major state-owned Chinese bank. One goal of this team was to reinvent the future of their organization in the face of big data and other related disruptive changes, which provided me with a little more exposure to that aspect of the world economy. For example, Jack Ma, the visionary founder of Alibaba, says that “In five years, we anticipate that the human era will move from the information technology era to the data technology era.” But... posted on Oct 4 2017 (10,550 reads)

The Art of Cleaning, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
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 (25,628 reads)

Great Writers on the Letters of the Alphabet, by Maria Popova
by David Hockney A choral serenade to the building blocks of language starring Susan Sontag, Iris Murdoch, Ian McEwan, Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Amis, Doris Lessing, John Updike, and more titans of literature. In the final years of his life, the English poet, novelist, essayist, and social justice advocate Sir Stephen Spender undertook a playful and poignant labor of love — he asked artist David Hockney to draw each letter of the alphabet, then invited twenty-nine of the greatest writers in the English language to each contribute a short original text for one of the letters. The result was the 1991 out-of-print treasure Hockney’s Alphabet (public library) &m... posted on Dec 16 2017 (7,075 reads)

Less Work, More Living, by Juliet Schor
fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.     Millions of Americans have lost control over the basic rhythm of their daily lives. They work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel harried too much of the time. It’s a way of life that undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being—such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health.   Earn less, spend less, emit and degrade less. That's the formula. The more time a person has, the better his or her quality of l... posted on Jan 12 2012 (45,400 reads)