Why Leaders Need to Grow Authentic Self Esteem, by Homaira Kabir
the years, we’ve had a love-hate relationship with self-esteem, writes Homaira Kabir. There was a time when we believed self-esteem to be the royal road to flourishing. We had Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live provide us with Daily Affirmations to make us feel special. We tried to reinforce it in our children by letting them know how exceptional they were when they failed. However, later studies showed that such increases in self-esteem did little for our happiness or performance, but ample for our egos. Professor Roy Baumeister’s work with self-esteem showed that we’d been raising a generation of narcissists who went on to wreck havoc in their lives and in thei... posted on Oct 18 2016 (16,740 reads)

Two Words That Can Change a Life, by Cheryl Rice
it possible that two words can change someone’s day, someone’s life? What if those same two words could change the world? Well, I’m on a quest to find out – and, with your help, this quest will be a success. This quest inadvertently began last November in a grocery store. I was standing in the checkout line behind a woman who looked to be in her 60s. When it was her turn to pay, the cashier greeted her by name and asked her how she was doing. The woman looked down, shook her head and said, “Not so good. My husband just lost his job and my son is up to his old tricks again. The truth is, I don’t know how I’m going to get through the holida... posted on Nov 10 2020 (106,531 reads)

Quiet Justice, by Charles Halpern
I tell people that I teach a class in law and meditation at UC Berkeley’s law school, I often hear snorts of disbelief. “It’s easier to imagine a kindergarten class sitting in silence for half an hour,” a friend said to me, “than two lawyers sitting together in silence for five minutes.” Charles Halpern (left, foreground) leads a Qigong exercise at a retreat for 75 lawyers at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California.Richard Boswell But the class is no joke. In fact, it’s part of a ground-breaking movement that has quietly been taking hold in the legal profession over the past two decades: a movement to bring mindfulness—a medi... posted on Jan 27 2017 (12,582 reads)

Inner Beauty, by Narendra Kini
beauty always reflects on the outside. This is something we have all heard time and again. But then, do we spend less time in front of the mirror? Do we still pay attention to outward appearances and draw a lot of conclusions based on those? We have not stopped making external appearances a topic of conversation at most social gatherings – business or otherwise. We still spend a lot of time getting ready for an event, office, function or a party. Roald Dahl wrote, “You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”  Thi... posted on Jan 28 2017 (24,656 reads)

Three Stories of Healing + Transformation, by ServiceSpace Volunteers
April of 2017, volunteers from ServiceSpace convened a special circle on Healing + Transformation in Berkeley. Below are three stories that were shared in the circle. A Lesson in Service from an Art Store What inspired me to become a physician was watching my twin cousins suffer through Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, which is a very severe, debilitating and mostly seen in boys. They grew up with that. As a child, I just saw how their mother would care for her two children, and it really propelled me to go out and really help people who needed it. In my third year of med school, my uncle contracted glioblastoma, very severe brain tumor. As I entered my clinical years, I w... posted on Aug 3 2017 (11,080 reads)

The CEO Who Gave 90% of His Salary To His Staff, by Lee Williams
you give away 90 per cent of your salary? Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, did just that and shared it among his staff. It’s a commendable move but will it pave the way for wider pay equality? In April the CEO of a US tech company did something with barely any precedents in the modern business world. He gave away 90 per cent of his own pay to raise the salaries of his employees to a minimum $70,000 a year. Dan Price, CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments, recalls the moment when he announced the decision to his 120 staff: “There was a moment of stunned silence. Some people were looking around at each other, a few jaws had dropped, and then someone actually asked me... posted on Jun 5 2017 (34,555 reads)

One Man Single-Handedly Plants Forest Bigger Than Central Park, by Zi-Ann Lum
did it to save his home. In the middle of a braided river tucked in a remote northeastern region of India, one man planted a forest that has now outgrown the size of New York City’s Central Park. As a teenager in the 1970s, Jadav Payeng noticed a rush of snakes washing ashore, dead. Erosion had scrubbed away vegetation from Majuli island sandbars, stripping away grassy cover and ultimately forcing many native species to flee. Floodwaters transformed some parts into barren landscapes. Its shorelines receded with every monsoon rain. The island, Payeng’s birthplace, was rapidly shrinking. Home to approximately 170,000 people, Majuli is one of the world’s lar... posted on Jul 31 2017 (13,861 reads)

One Activist's Oath: First, Vow Not to Burn Out, by MJ Vieweg
Patricia Ikeda is  a teacher, an artist and an activist. She's a published poet. She's worked tirelessly for the upliftment of the marginalized, whether that's in education through inspiration or otherwise. She's received an honorary doctorate in sacred theology. She's been the subject of multiple award-winning films on the topic of poetry in spirit-based activism.   She’s  been a single mother.  She’s earned an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa.  She underwent monastic training in her spiritual lineage, Korean Zen Buddhism.  And for the past eleven years, she's  been one of the senior leaders of East Bay... posted on Nov 15 2017 (11,132 reads)

How Gratitude Motivates Us to Become Better People, by Christina N. Armenta, Sonja Lyubomirsky
has become a hot topic in recent years. Celebrities from Oprah to James Taylorto Ariana Huffington have promoted an “attitude of gratitude,” and gratitude journals, hashtags, and challenges have become immensely popular. Much of this enthusiasm has been fueled by research linking gratitude to happiness, health, and stronger relationships. Yet there has been a backlash. Some critics and skeptics have charged that gratitude breeds self-satisfaction and acceptance of the status quo. Several articles, including a New York Times essay by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, have recen... posted on Aug 30 2017 (10,180 reads)

Delayed Gratification, by Alanda Green
GREENE uses her experience of planting seeds to discuss the idea of not expecting anything from the work we do. LESSONS FROM THE GARDEN In my Educational Psychology class, I learned about delayed gratification, the ability to wait for a desired result, to postpone an immediate reward for a greater one later. A study of preschool children had been conducted to determine their capacity for delayed gratification. Each student was offered one marshmallow now with the promise of another marshmallow as well if able to wait fifteen minutes without eating the first one. Some gobbled up the marshmallow immediately, others struggled and finally succumbed before the time was up, ... posted on Jul 22 2017 (10,394 reads)

VIDEO: Localization for People and the Earth, by Kosmos Journal
movement for localization is growing rapidly, worldwide. These international voices from ISEC’s 2014 Economics of Happiness conference in Bangalore, India, succinctly tell us why globalization is so damaging, why localization is the most strategic antidote, and what we can do to help make the shift from global to local. Watch this 7 minute, eye-opening video: Localization for People and the Earth     ... posted on Aug 8 2017 (2,295 reads)

The Beautiful Story Of An Artist With Down Syndrome Who Never Spoke A Word, by Priscilla Frank
Scott’s sculptures look like oversized cocoons or nests. They begin with regular objects -- a chair, a wire hanger, an umbrella, or even a shopping cart -- which are swallowed up whole by thread, yarn, cloth and twine, swathed as frenetically as a spider mummifies its prey. The resulting pieces are tightly wound bundles of texture, color and shape -- abstract and yet so intensely corporeal in their presence and power. They suggest an alternate way of seeing the world, not based on knowing but on touching, taking, loving, nurturing and eating whole. Like a wildly wrapped package, the sculptures seem to possess some secret or meaning that can’t be ac... posted on Sep 21 2017 (11,592 reads)

The Three Sacred Tasks: A Climate Scientist & Father Reflects, by Peter Kalmus
following is an excerpt from Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution Our ecological predicament challenges us for many reasons, not least of which is that it calls us to examine how we live. It calls us to recognize that we are part of the miraculous biosphere, not outside of it or above it; to accept, deeply, that we will die, and that death is also part of this miracle. Our bodies arise from this spinning, burning biosphere, and we mix back into it when we die. There is nothing to hold on to, and nothing to be afraid of. In my darkest moments, when faced with the uncompromising reality of global warming in all of its surreal truth, I come back to my body. I fee... posted on Aug 19 2017 (9,430 reads)

The Science of Stress and How Our Emotions Affect Our Susceptibility to Burnout and Disease, by Maria Popova
your memories impact your immune system, why moving is one of the most stressful life-events, and what your parents have to do with your predisposition to PTSD. I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning — odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life — too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself wi... posted on Oct 8 2017 (30,296 reads)

Empathy Is a Clock That Ticks in the Consciousness of Another: The Science of How Our Social Interactions Shape Our Experience of Time, by Maria Popova
may be born alone, but childhood ends with a synchrony of clocks, as we lend ourselves fully to the contagion of time.” When I was growing up, my father — a kind man of quick intellect and encyclopedic knowledge about esoteric subjects — had, and still has, one habit that never failed to make other people uneasy and to infuriate my mother: In conversation, the interval of time that elapses between the other person’s sentiment or question and my father’s response greatly exceeds the average, a lapse swelling with Kierkegaard’s assertion that “the moment is not properly an atom of time but an atom of eternity.” At first, one ... posted on Feb 9 2018 (6,694 reads)

Re-inventing Work: An Interview with Matthew Fox, by Leslee Goodman
Episcopalian priest and theologian, Matthew Fox began his career as a member of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church but was expelled in 1993 by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Among Fox’s teachings the Catholic hierarchy found most objectionable was his belief in “original blessing,” which became the title of one of his most popular books. The concept was in direct contravention of the Roman Catholic doctrine that people are born into “original sin.” Fox was also criticized for his embrace of the divine feminine and his acceptance of homosexuality. An early and influential proponent of “Creation Spirituality,” whi... posted on Nov 12 2020 (28,849 reads)

For 11 Years She Taught 250 Kids For Free, by Sanket Jain
Koli, a resident of Laximinagar basti in Lat, a village in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, has become a symbol of hope in the village thanks to her exemplary efforts in the field of education. A passionate believer in the importance of the education, Sushila noticed that there was no Anganwadi in the vicinity, and because of this, young children, who would have otherwise attended pre-school, had to abandon the hopes of receiving an education and would instead go to help in the fields. Sushila decided to do something about this and opened an Anganwadi in the basti. However, no one was willing to help her, and there was very little government support as well. So, she s... posted on Dec 10 2018 (6,336 reads)

David Whyte on Welcoming Humiliation , by Lindy Alexander
ALEXANDER: I have to say, I find starting conversations the hardest part. What about you? What’s the hardest part about conversations for you? DAVID WHYTE: I think the hardest part of any conversation is paying attention to something other than yourself, creating a real-life frontier. The hardest part is giving up the name you are going under, the story you’re a part of—giving up your idea of where the conversation is going. That’s the crux of it: the listening ear. I certainly went through this giving up early on in my twenties when I worked as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands. I got to those islands in freshly-minted scientific arrogance where ... posted on May 23 2018 (22,083 reads)

Servant Leadership in Business: An Interview with Jose Juan Martinez, by Joserra G.
note: I met José Juan in 2013. I had just returned to Spain from India and was participating in a 21-Day Kindness Challenge. During a 21 day period 5000 people from all over the world performed an act of kindness every day, totalling almost 11,000 transformative actions! The first day of the challenge I decided to buy a cake and gift it to someone random on the street. I wanted it to be anonymous so I needed to enlist a partner in kindness. The first person I met was José Juan! He gave away the cake and since then we have been connected in many adventures of service and generosity, including community experiments like Awakin Circles (which we started in his ... posted on Sep 2 2018 (15,298 reads)

Ten True Things About Gratefulness, by Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health
not only changes your life, but also extends beyond your intimate sphere. It gives rise to compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and empathy, and thus informs how we treat others and how we act in the larger world. ~ Kristi Nelson The benefits of gratitude range from deeper sleep and better health to higher self-esteem and enhanced stress resilience. Gratitude has also been shown to enhance our relationships. And, if that’s not enough, gratitude makes us happier. As Brother David Steindl-Rast writes, “The root of joy is gratefulness … For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” Kripalu p... posted on Oct 17 2018 (22,778 reads)