angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” Then, when you’ve done this, try one of the practices below. Empathy Practice. The first step in cultivating compassion is to develop empathy for your fellow human beings. Many of us believe that we have empathy, and on some level nearly all of us do. But many times we are centered on ourselves (I’m no exception) and we let our sense of empathy get rusty. Try this practice: Imagine that a loved one is suffering. Something terrible has happened to him or her. Now try to imagine the pain they are going through. Imagine the suffering in as much detail as possible. After doing this practic... posted on Aug 2 2011 (48,832 reads)

perspective we have inherited—the zero sum game that ensures someone loses and that locks us in defensive and assertive postures. Let’s cultivate tales that celebrate reconciliation, integration and interdependence instead. Let’s compost the myths that the shortest distance between two points is a line and that our brains alone can think our way through—the myth that being busy is better or necessary or makes us more valuable or trumps self-care or being with those we love. Let’s shed the notion that the sole options for addressing conflict are fight or flight. Cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien suggests we’re shifting from an either/or to a both/a... posted on Oct 2 2011 (11,906 reads)

murals that are just that — absolutely wonderful. Today, these inspired murals can be found in more than 60 libraries across the five boroughs, featuring the work of designers and illustrators cherry-picked by the Pentagram team — from a series of photographic portraits by Dorothy Kresz, to a visual interpretation of words through silhouettes by Rafael Esquer, to books hidden in images in the iconic illustration style of Christoph Niemann. Needless to say, we love the idea. Design is only as valuable as the change it ignites — in our understanding of beauty and truth, our conceptual and aesthetic literacy, yes, but also in our greater social sensibil... posted on Dec 11 2011 (8,684 reads)

thrives on the creative energy of feedback from experiences real or fictional. You can synthesize experience; literally create it in your own imagination. The human brain cannot tell the difference between an "actual" experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail. This discovery is what enabled Albert Einstein to create his thought experiments with imaginary scenarios that led to his revolutionary ideas about space and time. One day, for example, he imagined falling in love. Then he imagined meeting the woman he fell in love with two weeks after he fell in love. This led to his theory of acausality. The same process of synthesizing experience allowed Walt Disney to ... posted on Jan 18 2012 (60,107 reads)

he says. “I had the feeling in my gut that I had to go see this dog.”   The whole family made the two-hour trip to meet Juno, who was being held at an east Tennessee shelter. “She was emaciated, and was days away from being euthanized,” Chester says. “She had been surrendered to the shelter because her previous owners didn’t understand the Belgian Malinois.”   Fortunately, Chester did. He’d gotten to know and love the breed while working as a law enforcement officer years earlier.   “I used to help with the training of police K-9s, and our dogs were Belgian Malinoises,” he says. &l... posted on Feb 8 2012 (47,929 reads)

regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationship... posted on Feb 23 2012 (260,438 reads)

for food — whether it's ferreting rare mushrooms in the woods,picking abundant lemons from an overlooked tree, or gathering berries from an abandoned lot — is all the rage among the culinary crowd and the D.I.Y. set, who share their finds with fellow food lovers in fancy restaurant meals or humble home suppers. But an old-fashioned concept — gleaning for the greater good by harvesting unwanted or leftover produce from farms or family gardens — is also making a comeback during these continued lean economic times. In cities, rural communities, and suburbs across the country, volunteer pickers join forces to collect bags a... posted on May 12 2012 (11,919 reads)

from a 10-year-old boy born to a drug-addicted mother, with an Individualized Education Plan thicker than an encyclopedia—a boy with permanent scars along the side of his left arm from a beating with an extension cord when he was three. Kyle [*name changed] taught me the one and only thing I really needed to know about loving a child through the challenges of life. This is my story …   It had been a difficult move. I left my family and friends and the beloved mid-western state where I’d lived most of my life. My new home was thousands of miles away from anything I knew. It was hot—all the time. There were no seasons and teaching jobs were... posted on Sep 5 2012 (47,590 reads)

the anger will stop controlling you.   3. Perfectionists are angry.   Are you a perfectionist? Then take an honest look at what you are saying to yourself. You will undoubtedly find a repetitive loop playing in your mind that is harsher than you might imagine.   Don’t kid yourself – this is anger. If you don’t want to be a slave to your perfectionist tendencies, then go to the root of the problem and learn to meet your anger with love.   4. Stories sustain anger.   Angry stories barrel through our minds like an out-of-control train careening down the tracks. To find freedom from anger, you must recogn... posted on Feb 16 2022 (204,947 reads)

this great line by Ani Tenzin Palmo, an English woman who spent 12 years in a cave in Tibet: “We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” gobyg It’s true. The amount of knowledge we have about the brain has doubled in the last 20 years. Yet there’s still a lot we don’t know. In recent years, though, we have started to better understand the neural bases of states like happiness, gratitude, resilience, love, compassion, and so forth. And better understanding them means we can skillfully stimulate the neural substrates of those states—which, in turn, means we can strengthen them. Because as the... posted on Sep 15 2012 (147,555 reads)

to things she had bought a few flowers on the way back from church which were in a vase on the table. Somehow, over the hours spent painting what she was actually doing was standing witness to the situation I was in. In the hours spent in silence she was letting me know that she was there for me even if I didn’t want to talk. She was screaming ‘I UNDERSTAND’ without saying a word. After a long spell of time away from home, I experienced the unconditional, mindful, total love that only a parent can provide. And in that experience my life was transformed. 5 days on I was talking possibilities and after a good sob, feeling much more optimistic about the future. I of... posted on Sep 23 2012 (23,345 reads)

Doctor-esque style, the musician belted out a catchy tune called, “I Love My Mom.” It was impossible not to laugh or stand still as he amused the huge crowd that congregated around him. Suddenly a woman approached us and said, “Excuse me. I couldn’t help but notice these two little girls.” She smiled at my daughters who couldn’t tear their eyes away from the most original live entertainment they had seen in their life. “I just love how they are appreciating the musician and clearly enjoying themselves. It is just a beautiful sight.” What is the point in being alive if you cease to delight in life’s simple jo... posted on Oct 8 2012 (67,147 reads)

13th is World Kindness Day! In honor of this, we've compiled 10 diverse and heart-warming pieces honoring extraordinary acts of kindness, love and compassion by ordinary people. These stories include bus-drivers, bakers, basketball players, canine heroes and much more...reminding us of just how universal and essential the spirit of kindness is in our world. Read on and be inspired to do an act of kindness of your own today. 1. The Angel of Queens: Jorge Munoz is a school bus driver by day and an angel by night. Every night for more than 5 years, he has gone home and cooked food for hundreds of people on his old stove. He then goes to a street corner in Quee... posted on Nov 13 2014 (226,983 reads)

aspects of business, especially during certain times and in certain industries. So, I think that like everything else, to be a good writer you need to be a good writer in an abstract sense and to have a passionate and real connection with the subject matter that you're writing about. Useem: If business and business writers can benefit from having at least some contact with the world of poetry, you've also written somewhat colorfully about keeping your early writing a secret. And I love the story about how you used to grab the 5 copies of The New Yorker that would arrive in the company store before any of your colleagues could buy one. That was quite a while ago, better than fif... posted on Jan 28 2013 (14,585 reads)

the naysayers. To pessimists and the procrastinators. Here’s to the ones who believe in Away. And Going. And Newness within Newness. And a world made to wash us and move us and sculpt us and change us. And the courage it takes to believe in all those things. Here’s to the ones who have uncovered the recovery from darkness. Who have cried on bathroom floors. Who have found pockets of strength in cracks in the sidewalk. Who have declared new days and brighter days and lovelier days than this. Here’s the ones who say, “I’ve moved on” and “I’m stronger now” and “You never completed me. No, that never happened.”... posted on Feb 6 2013 (24,181 reads)

the same story…or one a lot like it. I used to be too embarrassed to tell this story….but I am not anymore. This is a human story that everyone needs to hear, I truly believe this. I hope you will stay with it, it’s kinda long. As we move along…I want you to think about some of the big signs with big messages that I bet you wish you could wear around your neck sometimes so that people would be more gentle, or even that you could put around the neck of someone you love -- so that you didn’t have to go into a big long story to defend yourself or someone else-- so that people would just stop judging and and just be kind. I need to start this story ... posted on Mar 19 2013 (74,207 reads)

think there's definitely an idea in our culture that if it's that simple, it's simplistic or lacking sophistication, or not really going to take you all the way, or something like that. How would you respond to that? JC: I would say 3 million people have worked with the tools, and that must mean that they're not gullible. TS: Strong response. Now, one of the metaphors you use, Julia, that I find really interesting—and maybe it's because I've loved the radio my whole life—is the human being as a type of radio that can receive transmissions. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that, about this metaphor of the radio and what it... posted on May 7 2013 (26,355 reads)

thoughts slip away with the winter that never came. Clean. Your room. Your car. Your pocketbook. You’ll feel lighter. You will find that you don’t need all of it. Get rid of the things that hold you down. Back. Standing still in a spot that expired two years ago. If it is too hard to let go, then throw a Going Away Party. Pack all the memories in a box and whisper lies to them, “You are just going on a vacation. You’ll come back soon.” Love notes without the lovers. Old shirts without the arms to wrap them in. Make room for new love notes. New shirts. New arms. Buy new doormats. New can openers. Take time on people, as if it were the only thing you had... posted on May 28 2013 (35,965 reads)

words have been exchanged; Now at last let me see some deeds! ...What does not happen today, will not be done tomorrow. - Goethe I can almost pinpoint the moment when I decided to save the world. It was sometime after my Mom died—my Mom who was the secret solar center of my life; whose letters always ended in exuberant sign-offs (lovelovelove, three exclamation points); who’d insisted, despite her terminal diagnosis, that I not cancel my book tour because the subject—compassion—was, for her, life’s indispensable thread. I’d begun writing my book The Compassionate Life to blow the dust off my bodhisattva vows, little suspectin... posted on Apr 13 2014 (13,181 reads)

space for quite some time, imploring for donations. This could have been another trivial occurrence of the day, another detail soon forgotten, except the person standing there — that was me . . . As a development executive at a film studio, I am fortunate to work at a great company, surrounded by incredibly talented individuals. We make movies. Movies that everyone in the world wants to see (or at least, that’s the goal). My life has a paycheck, a house, nice car, and people who love me and I can count on in any circumstance. My biggest fear is that I lose my ability to see, to connect, to be in touch with the world around me. If this were to happen, I would not be able to... posted on Aug 4 2013 (43,701 reads)