Money can buy anything, except meaning, by Jurriaan Kamp with Jacob Needleman
philosopher Jacob Needleman has written about ethics, religion and leadership, but he is perhaps best known for his book Money and the Meaning of Life. The book links our relationship with money to the ways in which we find out what matters most in our lives. When it comes to personal finance, Needleman argues, we come to a greater understanding of ourselves by understanding the true meaning of money. When Money and the Meaning of Life came out in 1994, it was regarded as a warning: If we continue to treat money in such an unbalanced way, we’re doomed. What’s happened since then? “If that book was a warning, the warning was not heeded. We&rs... posted on Feb 7 2012 (27,893 reads)

The Power of Self-Compassion, by Jason Marsh
you your own worst critic? It’s common to beat ourselves up for faults big and small. But according to psychologist Kristin Neff, that self-criticism comes at a price: It makes us anxious, dissatisfied with our life, and even depressed. Kristin Neff For the last decade, Neff has been a pioneer in the study of “self-compassion,” the revolutionary idea that you can actually be kind to yourself, accept your own faults—and enjoy deep emotional benefits as a result. Last year, she distilled the results of her research in the popular book Self-Compassion.  Neff, an associate professor in human development and culture at the University of Tex... posted on Apr 7 2012 (75,262 reads)

Staying Sober through Service, by Jill Suttie
M. was only 13 years old when his troubles with alcohol began. He stole bottles of hard liquor from his neighbor’s garage, enjoying how alcohol made him feel. Soon, he was drinking every day and using drugs, too. Shortly after turning 21, he crashed a car during an alcohol-induced blackout. A judge ordered him to attend Alcohol Anonymous (AA) meetings, where recovering alcoholics encourage each other to become (and stay) sober by sharing personal stories and following AA’s famous 12-step model. When Victor attended his first AA meeting, he was terrified. "I didn't say anything," he says. "I just stared at the floor the whole time and left as soon ... posted on May 16 2012 (11,545 reads)

Global Warming: A Case for Inner Change, by Deepak Chopra
data and warnings about climate change have been with us for twenty years. The issue has morphed into something like a low-level toothache. The public is numbed by all the bad news, and in place of sensible solutions, we witness the folly of political polarization. You can't believe in climate change and be a good conservative. This departure from fact-based reality is only part of the problem. China and the U.S., who produce 40% of the world's harmful emissions, block measures to reverse the trend toward global warming for purely selfish reasons - two rich economies want to preserve the status quo. One can react to this situation in various ways, leading to a choice... posted on Aug 17 2012 (18,118 reads)

Untrack: Letting Go of the Stress of Measuring, by Leo Babauta
are a few old management adages that seem to run like a current through our society, powering our work and personal lives: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” and “You are what you measure” and “You get what you measure”. And I’ve fallen for it myself. At various times, I’ve tracked workouts, miles run, everything I’ve eaten, every single work task I complete, progress towards goals, my weight, my body fat percentage, how many days I’ve done a habit in a month, words written each day, books I’ve read, expenses, earnings, debt, website visitors, ad clicks, tweets, followers, and on and on. Sometim... posted on Nov 20 2012 (17,313 reads)

What Will Be Your Legacy?, by Robin Scott
are you going to be remembered for? Will people talk about the relationships you had with friends and family? The once-a-year dish everyone looked forward to? The impact you made on a company and its employees? How is a legacy created and cultivated, and what can you do to build your own legacy? These are all huge questions with small and critical answers. Here's the story of my legacy, and a few pointers on how to build yours. *The beginning will have twists and turns.* I started college wanting to be a doctor. I wanted to help people. After taking a few courses in molecular and cellular biology, I became interested in research. ... posted on Jan 16 2013 (37,269 reads)

5 Delightful Ways To Live What You Already Know, by Gail Brenner
let’s get serious. I know that you know, even if you don’t admit it to yourself. How could you not? In your heart of hearts, in the deepest place within yourself, you know the truth. The truth of living from love, of being free of whatever holds you back, of fullness, well-being, and contentment. Why pretend you don’t know any longer? You might be afraid to acknowledge and live this knowing. You might be diverted by thinking your life doesn’t measure up or you’ve been dealt a bad hand or you’re a prisoner to your to-do list. But if you go within and tell the truth, you will find this seed of possibility and turn it into the living flesh-... posted on Apr 14 2013 (24,409 reads)

Seven Paths to a Meaningful Life, by Philip Zimbardo
Paths to a Meaningful Life The following is adapted from a commencement address Philip G. Zimbardo delivered at the University of Puget Sound earlier this month. Dr. Zimbardo, a giant in the field of social psychology, is now a professor at Palo Alto University, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and the president of the Heroic Imagination Project. In the text of his talk below, we have embedded links to research supporting his advice to graduates. As I now complete my 55th year of teaching psychology, I am ever more grateful for the unique opportunity we teachers each have to learn from and share in the youthful exuberance of our students. Teachers who inspire their... posted on Jul 25 2013 (120,495 reads)

Five Ways to Ease Your Envy, by Juliana Breines
is full of reminders of what we lack. There is always someone who is more successful, more talented, more attractive, or more advanced in meeting milestones than we are. We encounter these people every day—in fact, they are often our friends, family members, and colleagues. Sometimes these encounters can leave us with a bitter taste in our mouths and a green glow in our eyes. Envy is a state of desiring something that someone else possesses. It’s a vicious emotion that can crush self-esteem, inspire efforts to undermine others’ successes, or even cause people to lash out violently. It also just feels horrible. So what can we do to disarm th... posted on Oct 13 2013 (28,761 reads)

What Is Empathy?, by http://greatergood.berkeley.edu
term “empathy” is used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Contemporary researchers often differentiate between two types of empathy: “Affective empathy” refers to the sensations and feelings we get in response to others’ emotions; this can include mirroring what that person is feeling, or just feeling stressed when we detect another’s fear or anxiety. “Cognitive empathy,” sometimes called “perspective taking,” refers to our ability to iden... posted on Feb 5 2014 (58,802 reads)

Chai and Love, by Soma Basu
is extremely reluctant to even put on a shirt for the photograph. I point out to the hole in his vest. “That’s me,” he says bluntly. I spot the frown on his face. He doesn’t like talking about himself, his family or the work he does. Extremely reticent, he sticks to his schedule of opening his tea shop on the Ponmeni Narayanan Street in S.S.Colony at 4.30 a.m. sharp and serves the day’s first round of steaming chai to about two-dozen watchmen who do night duty in the area. He runs the shop till 11 p.m. selling over 300 cups of tea, coffee and milk besides biscuits, cakes, laddus, murukkus and other savouries. Communication with customers... posted on Feb 15 2014 (27,982 reads)

The Million Dollar Scholar from Southside Chicago, by Rich Polt
Quarles is a “million dollar scholar” from the south-side of Chicago. It’s a rare juxtaposition, but simply uttering those words makes you realize that Derrius is a rare individual. Still in his early 20s, Derrius is proud to relate his “hero’s journey” (a journey he is still very much on), and hopes that his many experiences will inspire others who face their own uphill climbs. From his bio: “As a product of the Illinois foster care system and the south side of Chicago; higher education did not seem like a feasible possibility for him. More accessible were the fleeting opportunities of the urban streets.” When Derrius was four y... posted on Dec 28 2013 (27,252 reads)

How Emotionally Intelligent Are You?, by Carolyn Gregoire
makes some people more successful in work and life than others? IQ and work ethic are important, but they don't tell the whole story. Our emotional intelligence -- the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others -- can play a critical role in determining our happiness and success. Plato said that all learning has some emotional basis, and he may be right. The way we interact with and regulate our emotions has repercussions in nearly every aspect of our lives. To put it in colloquial terms, emotional intelligence (EQ) is like "street smarts," as opposed to "book smarts," and it's what accounts for a great deal of one's ability to navigate l... posted on May 1 2014 (114,995 reads)

10 Life Lessons Kids Can Teach Us, by Jocelyn Kelley
do children know that adults seem to have forgotten? Children are more confident, more courageous and enjoy life far more intensely than adults. Sometimes it feels that we spend our entire lives trying to return to who we were as children. Here's what we can learn from our younger selves to bring more clarity and joy into adulthood. 1. Every day is a fresh start. "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" - L.M. Montgomery. Wasn't it always amazing how the end of a school day always felt so final, so finished? The break between June and September seemed like a lifetime. Because when you are young, every day feels li... posted on Jul 25 2014 (75,167 reads)

Big Questions From Little People, by Maria Popova
we cry, how we know we aren’t dreaming right now, where the universe ends, what books are for, and more answers to deceptively simple yet profound questions. In 2012, I wrote about a lovely book titled Big Questions from Little People & Simple Answers from Great Minds, in which some of today’s greatest scientists, writers, and philosophers answer kids’ most urgent questions, deceptively simple yet profound. It went on to become one of the year’s best books and among readers’ favorites. A few months later, Gemma Elwin Harris, the editor who had envisioned the project, reached out to invite me to participate in the book’s 2013 edition by... posted on Sep 1 2014 (15,452 reads)

Father Rocky's Safe Haven For Street Children, by MICHELLE BURWELL
Destined for the Streets, Philippine Children at Tuloy are Bound for the Ballet and Culinary Contracts in Dubai. When Alain Ducasse, a world-renowned chef who was born in France but now holds naturalized citizenship in Monaco, visited Tuloy sa Don Bosco School in Manila, Philippines, he had one thing in mind: to raise money to create scholarships for Tuloy students interested in pursuing culinary careers. Ducasse has made guest appearances on MasterChef and is one of only two chefs to have received a total of 21 Michelin stars for his restaurants. His celebrity helped to raise enough funds for ten students to receive two-month scholarships; and it could be the two months that trans... posted on Oct 12 2014 (10,979 reads)

Trash Into Treasure: 6 Cool Things Made From Sea Plastic, by Liz Pleasant
courtesy of Studio Swine's "Sea Chair". A recent study released by The Geological Society of America reveals that ocean pollution has already left a permanent mark in the planet’s geological record. The study announced the “appearance of a new ‘stone’ formed through intermingling of melted plastic, beach sediment, basaltic lava fragments, and organic debris.” This substance was found on Kamilo Beach in Hawai’i, an area hit hard by marine debris due to wind and tide patterns. Discoveries like these clearly prove the gigantic effect single-use plastics (which make up about 90 percent of ocean garbage) have on our... posted on Oct 29 2014 (19,881 reads)

The Art of Stillness, by Pico Iyer
place that travel writer Pico Iyer would most like to go? Nowhere. In a counterintuitive and lyrical meditation, Iyer takes a look at the incredible insight that comes with taking time for stillness. In our world of constant movement and distraction, he teases out strategies we all can use to take back a few minutes out of every day, or a few days out of every season. It’s the talk for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the demands for our world. Transcript I'm a lifelong traveler. Even as a little kid, I was actually working out that it would be cheaper to go to boarding school in England than just to the best school down the road from my parents' house in Calif... posted on Feb 25 2015 (39,017 reads)

Three Benefits To Mindfulness at Work, by Jeremy Adam Smith
new studies point toward three benefits to cultivating moment-to-moment awareness in the workplace. Research says mindfulness works for individuals. But does it work in the bottom-line-driven workplace, or is it just a frivolous feel-good program? This is the question tackled in a growing number of studies. Here are three ways, based on four recent studies, that cultivating moment-to-moment awareness might improve workplaces. Meditation might build self-confidence in leaders Our Mindful Mondays series provides ongoing coverage of the exploding field of mindfulness research. A.D. Amar and colleagues at the University of Westminster measured the self-perception of leadershi... posted on Jan 16 2015 (28,469 reads)

Replace the Gospel of Money: An Interview With David Korten, by Dean Paton
if we measured wealth in terms of life, and how well we serve it? David Korten began his professional life as a professor at the Harvard Business School on a mission to lift struggling people in Third World nations out of poverty by sharing the secrets of U.S. business success. Yet, after a couple of decades in which he applied his organizational development strategies in places as far-flung as Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, Korten underwent a change of heart. In 1995, he wrote the bestseller When Corporations Rule the World, followed by a series of books that helped birth the movement known as the New Economy, a call to replace transnational corporate domination w... posted on Mar 31 2015 (18,212 reads)