The Myth Of Creative Inspiration
When we read the masterpieces of authors such as Maya Angelou, James Chabon, or Franz Kafka - we assume that it is their creative genius which helps the words to flow. But, what if creativity were more a matter of habit, than these often elusive moments of inspiration? Franz Kafka, for example, worked tirelessly through the night. While Maya Angelou rented a room to create during the day. In each ... posted on Oct 13 2014, 21,683 reads

Father Rocky's Safe Haven For Street Children
What is the link between a Catholic priest and at-risk youth in the Phillippines? Hope for the future. In 1997, Father Marciano "Rocky" G. Evangelista, known as Father Rocky, founded the Tuloy sa Don Bosco School. Since its inception, the Don Bosco School has functioned as a refuge for thousands of teenagers and street children who could otherwise have become absorbed into the prevailing system of... posted on Oct 12 2014, 10,546 reads

1000 Cranes For 1000 Strangers
The world can seem like a cold place sometimes -- a place where you are completely disconnected from the people around you, even if you are sitting across from them on a bus. Designer and artist Marielle Coppes believes you have a tremendous power within you to do good. And once you discover this power, there are no boundaries. Watch this short, sweet video of how Coppes decided to brighten people... posted on Oct 11 2014, 4,214 reads

Hoop Dreams: Teaching Values Through Basketball in Congo
"You come here, you play hard, you work hard,"shares Dario Merlo. He was just 11-years-old when his family fled their home in Goma, to escape the horrors of the Rwandan massacre. Returning in 2005, Dario pledged to make a difference. He created the Promo Jeune Basket (Promote Youth Basketball), an organization working to empower the youth of Africa. But, this is a league unlike any other -- in tha... posted on Oct 10 2014, 14,306 reads

The Relationship Between Self-Compassion & Procrastination
What causes us to procrastinate, and how can we change our relationship with this tricky habit? Beyond "just getting started," consultant and life coach Linda Graham suggests that self-compassion may be the key to addressing procrastination and its cycle of negativity.... posted on Oct 09 2014, 59,671 reads

Slow Medicine: An Interview With Victoria Sweet
Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco was, as far as anyone knows, the last almshouse, or Hotel-Dieu, in this country -- a hospital for the sick and poor. Dr. Victoria Sweet took a position there, a place where she and other physicians could practice a different kind of medicine -- an intimate, intuitive, deeply skilled medicine focused on continuing care and observation of the patient, minus com... posted on Oct 08 2014, 22,072 reads

SolePower: Putting a Charge In Your Step
Matthew Stanton is the co-founder of SolePower, and his invention can possibly transform a problem that affects over a billion people worldwide: The lack of access to electricity. Check out this game-changing video that shows you how a basic shoe insert allows a user to convert energy into electrical power simply by walking, and then use that energy to charge electronics like cellphones.... posted on Oct 07 2014, 19,544 reads

New York's Pop Up Repair Shop
Your lamp broke? Oh well, buy a new one. Your toaster oven broke? Again, just buy a new one. Are you one of those people who are more apt to throw out older, broken household items and just buy new replacements -- instead of perhaps thinking about giving it a chance to be fixed? Well, for Sandra Goldmark and her husband Michael Banta, they finally wanted to try and create a solution that "aimed at... posted on Oct 06 2014, 14,076 reads

A Humanitarian's 4 Decades Long Adventure In Africa
When 24-year-old Molly Melching traveled to Senegal as an exchange student, she felt so at home that she decided to stay on after her program ended. Over the next forty years, Molly founded and continues to run Tostan, a non-profit organization turning the traditional model of social development on its head. Rather than short-term, top-down approaches, Tostan uses a holistic three-year, non-formal... posted on Oct 05 2014, 28,480 reads

Reading, Writing, Empathy: The Rise Of Social Emotional Learning
There's a lot of focus these days on how to improve subject learning in schools, but what about the emotional development of our children? In 2005, researchers at Yale developed a training program called RULER to help teachers integrate emotional literacy into their everyday curriculum. Studies are now showing that students in RULER classrooms aren't just expressing themselves more effectively -- ... posted on Oct 04 2014, 23,410 reads