had a stroke. JBT: Absolutely. It’s given me a whole new perspective of life. It’s made me an evangelist for a balanced brain. I want people to use both of their hemispheres. And I want them to recognize that they have more power over what’s going on between their ears than they ever had any idea. I think that’s important. I think the more responsibility we take for what’s going on inside of our brains, then the happier we are going to be. I am an advocate for joy. DK: Why do you suppose so many people don’t choose happiness? JBT: I think a lot of them don’t know that they can. I think that they experience their emotions and experience the... posted on Aug 21 2013 (44,265 reads)

I started going to every brothel,” she laughs. “And in every brothel, I found some person or another who was waiting to love you.”  After getting off work, she and a couple friends would simply spend their evenings talking with the women and learning their stories-- where they came from and how their lives brought them to G.B. Road.  “I mean, there used to be beautiful chats between the women, talking about everything... I started enjoying that time. I didn't want to go during the afternoon time, when I was expected to go and ask certain questions [for my job].”  The tension between her daytime role as a health ... posted on Dec 12 2014 (41,931 reads)

of you would like to join you’re more than welcome. This is funky Friday, let’s get funky.” The sounds of a dance tune blast through the carriage and the man erupts into dance. Half smiles, awkward glances. But then one lady gets up and joins him. A man joins them. Others stand up, hesitantly at first but then exploding into uninhibited dance. Soon virtually everyone is up dancing. Smiles shine out as strangers dance through the train. Barriers drop, fears evaporate and joy emanates. Video footage of this rare moment of public connection went viral across the internet, attracting more than 23 million views. The man responsible for this act is Peter Sharp of ... posted on Jun 3 2015 (24,011 reads)

words that I think would resonate with people. PD:  Can you say a little something about the physical training that is necessary to do sho? For example, what do you need to do to get your hand and your muscle to the point where the can fluidly execute a work? RN:  Well, like anything else—practice, practice, practice. There’s no secret to this thing. I don’t know if one should have determination, but one should just keep on practicing. There’s a joy in just the process of doing itself, and the longer one does it—the more familiar one becomes, the more comfortable one is—the more one will want to do it. So it’s just simply pr... posted on Feb 22 2017 (7,917 reads)

though the color is not nearly so white. We do that more than most cultures... But I don't know how to look at this through other cultures, since I'm in this culture, too. This is where we get to relativity, in terms of judgement.      We don't assign color to spaces easily, as a pilot does. That's very different. You do get involved in these colors of sky, and the sky does darken as you go up in altitude. There's no doubt of that. And that's a great joy to see that. You get different intensities of sky right here at 7000 feet. RW:  I'm glad you mentioned that word "joy" because, certainly for me, there can be a great deal of... posted on Mar 26 2017 (14,809 reads)

and social justice. His career includes work on nearly every continent. He is the author of The Gentle Art of Blessing: A Simple Practice That Will Transform You and Your World, in which he posits that making the conscious choice to bless every person or being around you can truly make a world of difference in yourself and in others around you. Drawing from his own personally transformative experience while engaged in international development work, through which he converted to joy his own resentment (that “was literally eating me up”) by consciously blessing his detractors, Pierre shows that the practice of blessing has the power to create more than just a renew... posted on Apr 7 2017 (15,759 reads)

and numerous alternative healing modalities -- modalities that allowed her to uncover buried issues including the sexual abuse she experienced as a child.  Now booming startup founder and dedicated community servant. Technology entrepreneur Thu Nguyen has transformed her life into one of service -- on "the other side of deprivation and need."  Through remarkable resourcefulness, resilience, and a dedication to re-learning the "art of living", Thu has found joy on the other side of suffering.  "You can't really experience joy without the suffering," she has written. "It's a priceless memory you will never forget, as op... posted on Apr 20 2017 (13,352 reads)

on for years So keep giving, of your stuff and yourself Until your ego, has done nothing but melted Be wary of the impact that you wanna make instead make sure you are impacted each day have your eye on the sky, but still see the ants for the small things are the foundation of all that will last We move on As time passes by Lets just hope we move from Darkness to light When we reach the top And we look back, I Hope you cry, Filled with tears of joy, satisfied Be careful not to accumulate too many things Because you may just end up with a pot full of greed And doing,  likewise can also be deceiving So I encourage you all ... posted on May 4 2017 (27,077 reads)

to survive. works:  Yes. How are you feeling about suiseki today? Janet:  I fell in love with suiseki when I first saw them. I was introduced to it by an American, Felix Rivera, who broke off from the San Francisco group to establish an English-speaking group to spread it among English speakers. And just like with bonsai, I can’t tell you in explicit words why I fell in love with it. It’s partially that love of stone itself; you pick up stones wherever you go and enjoy them. People have been doing that for many thousands of years. works: Do you have any further reflections about the love of stones and rocks? I know it very well in myself. Janet:  I do... posted on Dec 4 2017 (25,994 reads)

order to be pushing together. How are you breathing each day? Who are you breathing with? Because ... when executive orders and news of violence hits our bodies hard, sometimes less than a minute apart, it feels like dying.In those moments, my son places his hand on my cheek and says, "Dance time, mommy?" And we dance. In the darkness, we breathe and we dance. Our family becomes a pocket of revolutionary love. Our joy is an act of moral resistance. How are you protecting your joy each day? Because in joy we see even darkness with new eyes. And so the mother in me asks, what if this darkness is... posted on Mar 31 2018 (2,091 reads)

love more, because she holds up a mirror to the deepest parts of our humanity—highlighting life’s nuances to make us taste, touch and feel the moment. Growing up in New York City the daughter of two photographers, Sarah was encouraged to “always look for the light.” Every day at school as a child, she would open up her lunchbox to a poem among her snacks, a small gift from her parents that taught her to pay attention to the world and find joy in it. At age 14, her heart bursting with poetry and chutzpah, she performed at the famous Bowery Poetry Club, uncertain of the work but compelled to share it anyway. It was a defin... posted on Jun 17 2018 (10,656 reads)

amazing things about her. Then in that moment they’d really get to know her, and she became a human to them rather than a collection of failing body parts. And after that they had a different view of disability as well. Because disability isn’t a deficit within a person, it’s a deficit in a culture that doesn’t accept or enable a person for who they are. Evie had such magnetism as a tiny human. I could see how she would draw people in, how her fragility and pure joy disarmed people and softened them, and encouraged them to see beyond her disability. She helped bring perspective and healing to people in very meaningful ways. And I had the sense that this was h... posted on Aug 27 2018 (8,901 reads)

shouted to encourage her. “Push! Push!” Wubetu, the second born, cried when he was old enough to join them outside the house to cheer for his siblings’ births. Grandma Lemlem Ambawu, Wubetu’s paternal grandmother, toothless, smiling and regal in garb that signifies her position as an elderly spiritual leader in the community’s Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was present for Wubetu’s birth, and she named him. Wubetu. He who brings joy and happiness. And handsome. Wubetu Shimelash ('20) was born the second of nine children in Argin, a village in the highlands of Ethiopia. He was born in 1995 at an auspicious time &mdas... posted on Nov 13 2018 (19,562 reads)

see this sky as an image of my inner movements. Hesse’s love of nature received much criticism even from his friends in a time when the speed of trains and cars and then airplanes brought a fascination and even an obsession with the machine, with the rapidly progressing technologies promising to deliver a tangible utopia and final liberation from the unwelcome constraints nature places upon us: My friends and foes know this about me and scold me for not sharing their pride and joy and their faith in technology so dominant in our times. I do not believe in the idea of progress, I do not believe in the glory and greatness of our world today or any of the leading ideologies, b... posted on Jun 9 2019 (8,590 reads)

as the whole world goes brown.  I knelt just off the path, lifting up Jack’s hood.  Women with wet shoes and rain-splattered pants began to exclaim and ask to “see closer.”   They began to move aside for others and draw my attention to other blossoms.  Now other voices joined in.  It seems this group had two trained botanists, Sharon and Susan, who were awakening little drawers in their memory to pull out Latin and common names.  The shared joy right there in that spot made me realize that Debby had been right almost a year ago.   This amazing ball of energy and optimism, Debby Stewart, is an avid birder and reader of good b... posted on Jul 22 2019 (4,987 reads)

to deny what’s happening or run from it — we can’t. There is no use wallowing in despair — we mustn’t. What we can and must do is be attentive to our souls in the midst of our work for better days. This is where “Spirit Bathing” comes in. It is a form of soul care. Spirit Bathing invites the worried and beleaguered into the flowing waters of grace and reassurance. It cleanses and soothes and refreshes our souls with goodness that is still with us, joy that is still in us, and laughter that bubbles up against all efforts to stamp it out. Spirit Bathing is highly individual in practice, but certain universal forms draw us in. One, of course, i... posted on Dec 6 2019 (7,086 reads)

getting a lot of freedom to do what you really want to do” says Venkat. Venkat’s story is of mass-scale tangible impact, yet it’s also an equally powerful invisible story of ripple effect of being-the-change - his life has deeply inspired many to adopt a life of greater generosity. Venkat deeply cares about social impact and at the same time, he sees giving as its own reward and has actually turned down many prestigious awards and is not driven by milestones, but deeply enjoys the journey each day, each moment. He says “Give till it Hurts” and he has, but yet in his last 25 years of service he has never regretted one single act of giving. His life is a beau... posted on Jul 28 2020 (5,395 reads)

in a book about a historic epidemic, published during a historic pandemic, Farmer writes about where we go from here, in the thick of COVID-19 and ongoing, extreme health inequities across the world. “I think the big story,” Farmer said, “is that we have to keep pushing forward health system strengthening, whether we're talking about Sierra Leone or the United States.” In the interview below, Farmer provides an inside look at the book and talks about grief, joy, history, and the role of proximity in global health. This is an expansive work—you take us through the 2014 crisis as well as an in-depth history of West Africa. And perhaps one of the m... posted on Dec 16 2020 (3,680 reads)

through, lands like kind of a relief; like, “Oh, that’s something we could do. That’s something we could learn. That’s something we could do together.” Burger:That word has great dignity. And I think that’s signaling that we need to honor our grief. And it’s one of the many things I think we run away from. One of the things we’re taught to run away from is grief. There are other things, too; I think we’re taught to run away from great joy, also. And I’m a follower of a great Hasidic master, named Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, who passed away in 1810 and lived in the Ukraine. And he really emphasized the softening of the heart, th... posted on Feb 25 2021 (6,342 reads)

natural state of the mind is like calm, still water, teaches Michael Singer. The practice of spiritual surrender—to “relax and release” our resistance to whatever arises in our experience—is the pathway to enjoying serenity of mind no matter what the universe throws your way. In this podcast, Michael Singer uses the analogy of an aquatic bird maintaining its balance on rough water to illustrate what to do and what not to do if we want to stay poised and upright when life gets turbulent. [You can listen to the audio of this podcast here.] TAMI SIMON: Welcome to the Michael Singer Podcast. Michael Singer is the author of two widely influential New ... posted on Dec 31 1969 (129 reads)