Smith Listens, Strums a Bit, Then Helps Soldiers Write Their Song This story first appeared on the Christian Science Monitor. SongwritingWith:Soldiers provides a healthy emotional outlet. The songs help others facing similar challenges and build a bridge between military service and civilian life. By David Conrads BELTON, TEXAS — It’s a warm, clear morning just outside Temple, Texas. Darden Smith sits down after breakfast with his guitar and his laptop, as he often does, to write a song. In a career that spans nearly 30 years, the native Texan and longtime Austin, Texas, resident has written and co-written innumerable songs, recorded 14 albums, and performed ... posted on Aug 20 2014 (14,518 reads)

the patient you call Paul Bennett who was dying of terrible wounds from amputations that wouldn’t heal. You’d come to the end of what you could figure out to do for him. And you went out to the beach and walked there in the roar of the wind and waves praying for some help that you didn’t know how to find. And the very minute you were back at Laguna Honda you had a call from another physician who suggested a little-used treatment that actually worked and saved the man’s life. Victoria: That’s it. That happened all the time. It seemed accidental at first, and then I started thinking it was serendipitous, that there was a meaning to running into somebody at th... posted on Oct 8 2014 (22,099 reads)

The women’s lives had crossed briefly three years before, when they bonded at a wedding, both being pregnant. The woman knew then who she would give her key to. She wrote the definition of courage on a card and she and her husband drove across three states (460 milse) to be with the grieving family, and to pass along the small key engraved with the word “courage.” And so The Giving Keys go. A person purchases a key engraved with a word they feel may be lacking in their life. Faith. Hope. Courage. Fight. Dream. They wear the key, embrace the message, and when the moment has come that someone else seems to need the word more, they pass the key forward. And then they g... posted on Nov 30 2014 (19,002 reads)

if he was motivated or not. It didn’t matter if he was writing great jokes or not. It didn’t matter if what he was working on would ever make it into a show. All that mattered was “not breaking the chain.” And that’s one of the simple secrets behind Seinfeld’s remarkable productivity and consistency. For years, the comedian simply focused on “not breaking the chain.” Let’s talk about how you can use the Seinfeld Strategy in your life… How to Stop Procrastinating Top performers in every field — athletes, musicians, CEOs, artists — they are all more consistent than their peers. They show up and deliver ... posted on Dec 31 2014 (74,387 reads)

happens to seed affects the web of life." —Vandana Shiva Photo by: Ana Castilho "In every seed lie the components of all life the world has known from all time to now." —Sister Joan Chittister from "Seeds of a New Humanity" Photo by: Deana Holbova "The fact that we have to fight for something so essential to life as the integrity of seeds, speaks to the real drama of this present time: that we have to fight to preserve what is most fundamental and sacred to life." —Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee from "Seeds and the Story of the Soul" Photo by: Ana Castilh... posted on Jan 29 2015 (39,880 reads)

head on my arm I fall asleep easily. On my eyes a mother’s breath, from her mouth to my heart: sleep, child, and dream now the sun is gone. —Edith Sodergran The sun goes to sleep early, and so do I. I have a few weeks between ending one life-cycle and beginning the next. So I burrow into the present moment, until I touch the bright well of timelessness. Beyond sleeping, I walk, I read, and I write. I watch rain clouds scud overhead. I eat foods that are simple and wholesome. Beneath the rough surface of the thinking brain, I glimpse realities that are as rich and unexpected as geodes. I do use the computer, and watch movies. I have a dist... posted on Feb 6 2015 (26,174 reads)

the last few years, ‘empathy’ has taken over my life. The fascination with human understanding has become a deep running passion as the result of many long hours of research, countless exhilarating discussions, and increasing experimentations seeking new ways to apply empathy in business, education, social programs, and public policy. At first it was extremely challenging to grasp, with a holistic view of empathy covering fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy, biology, psychology and innovation (to name a few). Adding to my beginner’s confusion was a lack of coherent definition for empathy – the term has almost as many descri... posted on Feb 23 2015 (27,607 reads)

admit I do it as much as anyone else: see the cool things that others are doing and wish I were doing something cool like that too. You see great travel photos on Instagram and other social media — people living amazing lives, creating cool things, going on adventures. And instantly, there’s the thought that you should be living a better life. But this is the wrong habit. It leads to a feeling that your life isn’t good enough, that you aren’t good enough. And the habit doesn’t end: if you pursue a better life, you will always feel that you should be doing more, partying more, creating more, learning more, reading more, traveling more. You can&rs... posted on Mar 9 2015 (40,265 reads)

like the state of being. Languor settled in. Focused in the OR, the position of the clock’s hands might seem arbitrary, but never meaningless. Now the time of day meant nothing, the day of the week scarcely more so. Paul Kalanithi savors moments with his daughter, Cady. Verb conjugation became muddled. Which was correct? “I am a neurosurgeon,” “I was a neurosurgeon,” “I had been a neurosurgeon before and will be again”? Graham Greene felt life was lived in the first 20 years and the remainder was just reflection. What tense was I living in? Had I proceeded, like a burned-out Greene character, beyond the present tense and into the past ... posted on Mar 30 2015 (65,862 reads)

compulsive users of the drug. He let them use for fifty-seven days—if anything can hook you, it’s that. Then he took them out of isolation, and placed them in Rat Park. He wanted to know, if you fall into that state of addiction, is your brain hijacked, so you can’t recover? Do the drugs take you over? What happened is—again—striking. The rats seemed to have a few twitches of withdrawal, but they soon stopped their heavy use, and went back to having a normal life. The good cage saved them. When I first learned about this, I was puzzled. How can this be? This new theory is such a radical assault on what we have been told that it felt like it could not b... posted on Mar 24 2015 (27,686 reads)

favorite part of the day?” I continued. Without missing a beat, she looked up at me and replied in total seriousness: “Anytime I’m not pulling water.” 2. The Danger of Walking for Water Eastern Uganda is how I imagine Hawaii in the early 1970s: a less-modern kind of paradise. Lush hills thick with green. Fruit stands packed with pineapple, mango, watermelon, and avocado. It’s beautiful, and just the right amount of hot. But it’s an eerie contrast to life in a rural community without clean water. Women here walk up to six miles along dense, marshy paths to reach a polluted lake that’s home to snakes and crocodiles. Every person in the villag... posted on Apr 7 2015 (18,950 reads)

hustle of family life -- work, school, appointments, practice, homework, dinner, bed -- is constant. We move in and out of activities and commitments with ferocity. Some days, I'm certain all I really say to my children, in one way or another, is "move." As in, let's go -- now! And I know that we move with purpose, balancing meaningful work with practical considerations, valuing studies, deliberately selecting activities that matter. In our world, food, family even and free play have a firm place, often touted as sacred and protected ground. And since our life is designed to fully embrace living it, we have to be mindful of all the pieces that might creep in and occupy ... posted on Apr 17 2015 (17,568 reads)

So I thought long and hard, and I stood here two days ago, and I had my test run, and I had my cards and my clicker in my hands and my pictures were on the screen, and I had my three lessons, and I started presenting them, and I had this very odd out-of-body experience. I sort of looked at myself standing there, going, "Oh, Jimmy, this is complete loads of codswallop. All these people sitting here, they've had more of these talks, they've heard more lessons in their life. Who are you to tell them what you've learned? Who are you to guide them and who are you to show them what is right, what is wrong, what these people have to say?" And I had a little bit... posted on Jun 28 2015 (23,594 reads)

container that would allow an egg to survive a drop from a water tower. I won, but was disappointed that the victory wasn't trumpeted in the next morning's school-wide announcements. That led me to introspect, and I found that: 1) I was unconsciously seeking public accolades for my ingenuity; 2) I felt immature doing so; yet 3) I couldn't think myself out of the desire. I see that moment as the beginning of my conscious adulthood, as well as the defining crux of my life. It has been with me ever since, despite having tried a lot of things to grow beyond it. The only way to let it go, it seems to me now, is a single-minded pursuit of the aspiration until I'm ... posted on Aug 12 2015 (14,050 reads)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the best-known “number” in economic governance. It drives national policies, sets priorities in the social fields (e.g. there exists a ratio between GDP and how much spending in welfare is considered appropriate by many countries) and ultimately affects the societal landscape of a country (e.g. by determining labour-business relations, work-life balances and the type of consumption patterns adopted by citizens). The type of industrial model supported by GDP dominates physical and infrastructural â€‹geography, from the shape of cities and their relation with the countryside to the management of parks and natural resources. Marketing st... posted on Aug 22 2015 (13,136 reads)

to people about some big happiness boost that they had achieved, or more often a big happiness challenge that they were facing, very often they were pointing to something that, at its core, involved a habit. Somebody would say, “Oh, I’m just exhausted all the time. That’s what’s dragging me down,” which is really about the habit of getting enough sleep. I became increasingly interested in the role that habits play in a happier, healthier and more productive life. Also the question of how we can change our habits, because sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t…. Mogilner: You emphasize that an important step in changing your habits is kno... posted on Sep 6 2015 (19,983 reads)

we muddle through, we don’t feel so alone. Fortunately, this isn’t just wishful thinking about another self-help approach. In fact, there’s now an impressive and growing body of research demonstrating that relating to ourselves in a kind, friendly manner is essential for emotional wellbeing. Not only does it help us avoid the inevitable consequences of harsh self-judgment—depression, anxiety, and stress—it also engenders a happier and more hopeful approach to life. More pointedly, research proves false many of the common myths about self-compassion that keep us trapped in the prison of relentless self-criticism. Here are five of them. 1. Self-compassion... posted on Oct 19 2015 (29,085 reads)

the desert offers no tangible riches, as there is nothing to see or hear in the desert,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his exquisite memoir of what the Sahara Desert taught him about the meaning of life, “one is compelled to acknowledge, since the inner life, far from falling asleep, is fortified, that man is first animated by invisible solicitations.” No one captures this invisible animation of inner life more bewitchingly thanEdward Abbey in Desert Solitaire (public library) — a miraculously beautiful book, originally published in 1968, which I discovered through a passing mention by the wonderful Cheryl Strayed. (How right Laurence Sterne was t... posted on Nov 25 2015 (11,399 reads)

they've given away more than $250,000. That's a lot of money, and it sounds like a big sacrifice. But they insist that it isn't. In her blog, Julia writes, "The things we love most--spending time with family and friends, making music, dancing, cooking, reading--are all things we can do on a small budget. If we gave less, we would spend more on ourselves but probably wouldn't be noticeably happier." She says that giving is one of the most important things in her life, and she does it because she believes that "people--all people, even far-away people--should not have to suffer and die needlessly." I share that belief. My giving is a drop in the b... posted on Dec 5 2015 (10,810 reads)

Ricard, also known as ‘the world’s happiest man’, spent the best part of 25 years in the Himalayas with barely any contact with the Western world he was born into. At 26-years-old he left behind his molecular biology studies and settled into a life of serenity and spiritual training under his Buddhist teachers, high up in the heavens on the other side of the world. However, he is now very much back on the Western scene. When I ask Ricard why he returned, he sighs and says: “When I was in my hermitage I thought, if I can do something useful, maybe I should come down for a bit”. He seems to long for the mountains, but the continued success of his proje... posted on Feb 20 2016 (26,376 reads)