children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.” —Kahil Gibran Parents today are overwhelmed with demands on how to raise their kids. We want the very best for our kids. We want them to be smart, athletic, healthy, kind, happy, polite, disciplined, creative and more. We want to give them everything! And before everything, we focus on getting them into good schools so that they can have the best possible education. Kids on the other hand, are growing up bombarded by technology, needing to compete in every way, comparing themselves with others, trying to be perfect and please their parents, wanting to fit in... posted on Oct 15 2018 (40,221 reads)

bear could change her life and how she approached her career. But looking back, she realizes that that’s when it all started. Corbett, a professional campaigner for causes and charities, was preparing to board a train from London to Glasgow to give yet another workshop on training people as activists. But she was exhausted, stressed, and burning out. With a five-hour journey ahead of her, she couldn’t work because it made her travel sick. Feeling a hankering to do something creative, she picked up the tiny cross-stitch kit. As she took her seat and began to work, she immediately noticed something. “Separating the threads, you have to go slowly so that it doesn&r... posted on Jan 10 2019 (11,179 reads)

I'm going to find the courage and do that, because I am not going to have regrets." TS: That's very powerful. I mean, I can see why your articulation of these top five regrets has been such a viral phenomenon. Now, the second regret that you list is, "I wish I hadn't worked so hard." I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to really ponder this one." So really, this is what people say, even when they have jobs that they love and jobs that are creative? "I wish I didn't work so hard"? BW: Absolutely. In my experience, absolutely. And it ' about not loving the work they did. It was wonderful when I came across peopl... posted on Aug 12 2019 (13,166 reads)

take conscious individuals making deliberate choices based on the best information available—people presuming responsibility to make a difference. Nothing could be more honorable and worthwhile. The word “activist” conjures images of sit- ins, people circulating petitions and raising money and marching and organizing and meeting and getting people to the polls. But it also means doing research, starting businesses, making loans, and changing one’s diet. When people creatively act on their moral intuition, all kinds of things happen. The world of activism is very big, diverse, and dynamic. And it requires—and helps us along in—transcending the collect... posted on Feb 3 2020 (8,714 reads)

silent force that has shaped our social interactions. Waiting isn’t a hurdle keeping us from intimacy and from living our lives to our fullest. Instead, waiting is essential to how we connect as humans through the messages we send. Waiting shapes our social lives in many ways, and waiting is something that can benefit us. Waiting can be fruitful. If we lose it, we will lose the ways that waiting shapes vital elements of our lives like social intimacy, the production of knowledge, and the creative practices that depend on the gaps formed by waiting. […] An embrace of the moments when waiting becomes visible can remind us not of the time we are losing but of the ways we can... posted on Apr 7 2020 (7,028 reads)

meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, says Rhonda Magee, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of belonging and community for those who experience and fight racism in our everyday lives. For more than 20 years, Magee has worked to address issues of race, racism, and identity-based conflict while teaching law at the University of San Francisco. Over the years teaching hundreds of students about the many ways that racism affects law and justice, she came to realize that we can’t just think our way out of racism or other biases—we need to go de... posted on Jun 10 2020 (9,917 reads)

philosophers and ancient scriptures, but finally it was J Krishnamurti’s words which changed his life. In the attempts of paying forward his gratitude and carry forward JK’s vision, Kiran after finishing graduation joined Rajghat Besant School, in Varanasi, as a teacher. In those 4 years, he taught who he was, with no sense of hierarchy and found himself learning and evolving in the process.   Parents’ illness brought him back to Mumbai, and with his natural creative gifts in writing and storytelling, he joined the advertising industry. A few years later, he co-founded and continues to lead a brand consulting firm “chlorophyll” which has worke... posted on Sep 25 2020 (4,294 reads)

Sharon Blackie is an international teacher and renowned writer whose work weaves together psychology, mythology, and ecology to reveal how our cultural myths have led us to the individual and collective social and environmental problems we face today and how reconnection with our more ancient mythology would better serve our relationship with the Earth, our souls, and the cosmos. With a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from the University of London, as well as master’s degrees in creative writing and Celtic studies, she is the author of the novel, The Long Delirious Burning Blue, the nonfiction, If Women Rose Rooted, and The Enchanted Life: Unlocking t... posted on Oct 17 2020 (7,610 reads)

shots, and a sprinkling of other miscellaneous moments frozen in time – a sleeping dog, a smiling baby, a chalkboard scroll, a board game – the assignments I’d come to savor became more specific: take a snapshot of your bare feet in the grass; of your shadow; of your hands on your heart. Take a picture of yourself holding a favorite mug. The mystery of their conception only drew me in further, my artistic eye free to wander from the constraints of intention and outcome. My creative spirit burst at the seams as I experimented with color, composition, and perspective. My outer world was a magical realm, where I had intimate exchanges with caterpillars, ladybugs, and prayi... posted on Feb 14 2021 (7,069 reads)

ways feels like another world. But it was at the Jewish Futures Conference. I found this teaching that you did on — and so one of the things you say about Elie Wiesel, it sounds like you all talked a lot about “moral madness” — and boy, does that sound like an apt way to talk about the world at this part, in this century, right now — and that the way to meet that is not necessarily a kind of straightforward sanity. I kept thinking of Heschel and his idea of creative maladjustment. [laughs] And I even just recently was thinking about that, because I came across — do you know the sermon that Martin Luther King, Jr., preached at Temple Israel Hollywoo... posted on Feb 25 2021 (6,306 reads)

I receive a gift, I am conscious of both the gift and the giver. Gratitude suffuses me. This gratitude often transforms into a wish to give something back to my generous giver. We are conscious of this desire to give back when it comes to people who are givers. Places are givers, too. And we can give back to them. When we do, we become more courageous, more creative—and certainly more grateful! ~ Trebbe Johnson Here in our feature “Grateful Changemakers,” we celebrate programs and projects that serve as beacons of gratefulness. These efforts elevate the values of grateful living and illuminate their potential to transform both individuals and communities. Join u... posted on Apr 26 2021 (4,922 reads)

to figure out how to embed them. My new memoir, Poet Warrior, which will be out in September, it’s similar but different. And it certainly — it’s coming from a different point of view, from being much older and looking back, because when we come through that doorway, when we take on breath or inspire spirit, we take on the spirit of here, and we’re young, we are close to that door of knowing everything — you know, the door of eternity. And we’re so creative. And artists of any sort are always trying to replicate or be in that kind of space. And then, when you get older — when you cross the 50-year mark, you know [laughs] you’re start... posted on May 24 2021 (5,592 reads)

burnout is on the rise, according to several surveys. People are feeling emotionally exhausted, detached from their work and colleagues, and less productive and efficacious. This makes them more likely to suffer health consequences, need sick days, and quit their jobs. Not too surprisingly, burnout has become even more prevalent during the pandemic, particularly among health care professionals, causing widespread concern. But, while many employers recognize the problem, they often don’t recognize the solutions, says journalist Jennifer Moss, author of the new book The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It. ... posted on Nov 22 2021 (5,137 reads)

you willing to believe that you are wrong about something? I was attending a lecture called “Civil Conversation in an Angry Age” by philosopher David Smith, and he offered a prescription for bridging divides that began with this question. “Is it safe to assume all 63 of us are wrong about something right now?” Smith asked the virtual, pandemic-era class. In Zoom squares on my screen, heads considered, then nodded. “I think so, because we’ve been wrong about so many things before,” he continued. But there’s a problem: We don’t know what we’re wrong about. “That simple observation, ‘I’m wrong, I ju... posted on Apr 30 2022 (8,650 reads)

a hummingbird be able to be a plaintiff in court? According to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, the answer is yes. In her new book, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility, the distinguished professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago offers a new theory of animal justice that is meant to inform our law and policy. Her theory is based on the “capabilities approach,” which looks not only at the harm done to animals, but whether we’re infringing on their freedom to live full lives. Granting animals the rights, under the law, that they deserve has never been so urgent, Nussbaum contends. Animals are being threatened as a direct ... posted on Jan 18 2023 (2,482 reads)

So part of the idea, if the society is going to be a butterfly, we have to actually have good judgment, good discernment, and good, in a certain way, relationships with trust to say, “Who could lead this forward?” People who create, first create music, not anything else. And if we look at the historical creation of music in this country, we will see the butterfly. We will see the butterfly, what Black people have been giving, as sensitivity for the whole culture to trust the creative acts that have been maturing. And it’s not that it’s any overthrow of any power of authority in any case. It’s saying we could add to the beautification of the world. We can... posted on Jul 3 2023 (2,085 reads)

certain dreams in life just don’t pan out, like if all you wanted growing up was to fly, but fate saw fit to furnish you with bad eyes, complete with a shot of red-green color-blindness—the sum of which can disqualify you from becoming a pilot. Grounded by such shortcomings, you may find yourself commiserating with the ratites, a motley clan of birds that includes the emu and the kiwi and the cassowary, most born sans a keel bone upon which to hang their aerial ambitions. Unlike them, you can flunk your vision test and still be cleared for takeoff; all that is required is a statement attesting to your demonstrated abilities to soundly operate an aircraft. But ... posted on Jul 10 2023 (2,626 reads)

act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly misunderstood, reduced to a withering weed. Candor and clarity go a long way in fertilizing the soil, but in the end there is always a degree of unpredictability in the climate of communication — even the warmest intention can be met with frost. Yet something impels us to hold these possibilities in both hands and go on surrendering to the beauty and terror of conversation, that ancient ... posted on Nov 13 2023 (2,974 reads)

Tanenhaus is worried about the future of his hometown. As a fourth generation resident of Binghamton, New York, and executive director of Binghamton’s housing authority, he’s watched his city of 50,000 residents transform from a thriving upstate New York community with a strong manufacturing base to one with a shrinking population and rising crime rates. Like other towns around the U.S. hit by the current economic downturn, Binghamton is experiencing an increase in drug use and delinquency among its youth, which troubles Tanenhaus. “The neighborhoods are deteriorating,” he says. “There are a lot of people working hard to improve the quality of life here. B... posted on Jun 2 2011 (11,325 reads)

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 (76,870 reads)