9, 2020 As we grapple with the first global pandemic lockdown of our lifetime, our daily routines have been upended, and it’s difficult to keep up with new changes. Many of us are overwhelmed by the precarious nature of our health, our loved ones’ well-being, and our financial security. But in the midst of uncertainty and fear, inspiring videos are emerging from the countries most affected by coronavirus—Iranian doctors and nurses dancing in hospitals and Italian residents singing from their balconies. This footage not only uplifts the spirit of those in close proximity, it also brightens the mood of people watching from around the world.  ... posted on Apr 18 2023 (25,759 reads)

Foundation for Embodied Medicine to bring this wisdom to patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. She also teaches embodiment to the Bay Area Young Survivors Group of the Cancer Help Program at Commonweal, co-founded by Michael Lerner, who is a longtime friend and elder to the ServiceSpace community. On a personal note, Deb is a dear friend and a member of Mysteria [laughs], an intimate group of four of us docs who explore intuition and other more expansive realms beyond which science can currently measure. Dr. Deborah Cohan, thank you for being with us today. Deborah: It is such an honor. Thank you, Cynthia. Thank you, Kristin. Thank you, Preeta. Thank you to all t... posted on Apr 21 2023 (3,648 reads)

swimming, sloping, elusive something about the dark-bluish tint of the iris which seemed still to retain the shadows it had absorbed of ancient, fabulous forests where there were more birds than tigers and more fruit than thorns, and where, in some dappled depth, man’s mind had been born.–Vladimir Nabakov In grocery stores iris buds are bundled together, like perfectly sharpened purple-pointed pencils, like slender indigo-edged spears, like a quiver of Spring arrows poised to unbend unhappy bents of mind. Take a sheaf home, place it in a glass vase and by morning, from poised purple-tipped silence, spill sepals and petals frothy with filaments and ruffles, loquaciou... posted on Apr 24 2023 (2,980 reads)

a good cut to the earth voice. But if I bring that ridiculous kind of version of that voice into how I talk every day, this is how my earth voice sounds. And it has a kind of gravitas. Right? It's good for projecting authority. It's good for getting grounded. This is the Om. [Barbara chants "Om"]. It can just calm your whole system. And it's also good for connecting you to your gut instinct, that animal part of us that gets pushed away. And now science knows what grandma always knew, which is we have another brain in our guts. And if we're spinning out in our neocortex all the time, we may miss the message from our animal intelligence. S... posted on Apr 28 2023 (2,485 reads)

from The Counter 11.08.2018 A conversation with Leah Penniman, author of the new book Farming While Black. Near the end of a five-hour delivery run, Lytisha Wyatt rings an apartment in Albany, New York’s South End. A little girl answers the door, furtively accepting the box of organic produce. It’s one of 97 being delivered throughout the area, and the last of the season, courtesy of Soul Fire Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. As Wyatt walks away, the girl’s mother leans out the second floor window. “Thank you so much! Thank you for everything! Is this the last week? Thank you!” Every week during harvest... posted on May 13 2023 (1,697 reads)

Brown, bestselling author, researcher, and University of Houston professor, was surrounded by creativity as a child. “I grew up in a pink stucco house in New Orleans where my mom was always a maker. All the curtains in our house were homemade, all the art in our house was from us kids. I had dresses that matched my mom’s that matched my dolls’.”  “I never thought about creativity as an act separate from self,” says Brown, who has spent the last two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. “To be human is to be creative.” Brown’s environment changed abruptly, however, when her family move... posted on May 29 2023 (3,084 reads)

heating up. We can end up being burned alive, without realizing it. That has certainly been my experience working in the big, complex institutions of our modern era. Fresh on the heels of America’s successful Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the educational institutions for my Generation X – beginning in elementary school, at least in the conventional system – encouraged us to think big and shoot for the stars – we were taught to believe in the power of reason, science, and the analytical mind to break down, debate, and solve massive problems. It was an overwhelming belief in the power of the mind – an abiding faith that we can think our way through an... posted on May 30 2023 (2,736 reads)

Tippett, host:It has ever and always been true, as David Whyte reminds us, that so much of human experience is a conversation between loss and celebration. This “conversational nature of reality” — indeed, this drama of vitality  — is something we have all been shown, willing or unwilling, in these years. Many have turned to David Whyte for his gorgeous, life-giving poetry and his wisdom at the interplay of theology, psychology, and leadership, his insistence on the power of a “beautiful question” and of everyday words amidst the drama of work, as well as the drama of life. The notion of “frontier” — inner frontiers, oute... posted on Jun 18 2023 (4,157 reads)

is much more interested in is much more disruptive. "A lot of the things that I'm celebrating, like babies. music and donkeys, are really beautiful confusers of certainty." A graduate of the University of Iowa's MFA program, Amy currently resides in Bozeman, Montana, where she is a creative writing and nonfiction instructor at Montana State University. Rumor has it (and if it doesn't it should) that in this role she primarily instructs her lucky students on the art and science of liberating their pens from instruction. "I grew up in a church that taught you all the rules. How to go to heaven, here's what to follow -- and it's all dogmatic," says Am... posted on Jun 21 2023 (1,932 reads)

we keep getting it wrong, miscalibrating the optimal distance, miscalibrating our own capacity for love. But getting it wrong might be precisely what keeps us trying, keeps us hoping, keeps us living. After meeting a woman who was diagnosed with cancer at sixteen and survived to be vivacious at ninety-six, Rose marvels: How can that be — that someone with cancer since she was sixteen exudes well-being at ninety-six? Could it be because she has lived sceptically? Sceptical equally of science and of faith, of politics and of love? She has certainly not lived a perfected life. She has not been exceptional. She has not loved herself or others unconditionally. She has been able to go ... posted on Jul 14 2023 (2,403 reads)

rather than the grounded instincts and awareness that nuanced fear brings to us. It’s the same with anxiety: when we think of it, we tend to think of intense, gut-wrenching anxiety rather than the focused, task-completion abilities that nuanced anxiety brings to us. So let’s bring nuance to this important emotion, and let’s approach anxiety empathically so that we can uncover its gifts. ANXIETY (or Worry): Focus & Completion GIFTS: Foresight ~ Focus ~ Conscience ~ Task-completion ~ Procrastination alert! ACTION REQUIRED: Anxiety helps you organize, plan for, and complete your tasks – it’s related to fear, but it helps you orient to the ... posted on Oct 5 2023 (19,054 reads)

at the bottom, what wisdom can guide us into a new tomorrow? Duane Elgin | I think the most foundational wisdom we require is an understanding that indigenous cultures held close for thousands of years. Indigenous wisdom says there is life everywhere and in everything. Therefore, everything we do can connect with a deeper aliveness — the great spirit that permeates and sustains everything. Although this wisdom has been largely neglected in our rush for material development, science and spirituality are now beginning to find common ground. There is an emerging realization that the universe is not a collection of dead matter and empty space; instead, the universe is a livi... posted on Jan 6 2021 (5,219 reads)

follows is the transcript of an Insights at the Edge interview between Tami Simon and Deb Dana. You can listen to the audio version of the interview here. Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge, produced by Sounds True. My name is Tami Simon. I’m the founder of Sounds True. And I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformational education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools, such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical chall... posted on Nov 12 2023 (5,158 reads)

He saw no toolshed and no beam; instead, framed by the cranny at the top of the door, there were green leaves moving on the branches of the tree outside. When seeing this simple distinction Lewis realized that we get one experience of a thing when we “look along it” and another when we “look at it.” Which is the “true” or “valid” experience? he asks. This “either/or” dichotomy, whether in the toolshed, the flesh/visceral view of science “looking at,” or the world beyond, the spirit/cerebral man of religion “looking along,” was eventually reconciled for him via a perception, or law, shared by his essenc... posted on Nov 22 2023 (2,382 reads)

is a transcript of a podcast conversation between Adam Grant and Susan David.]Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant. Welcome back to ReThinking, my podcast on the science of what makes us tick. I'm an organizational psychologist, and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking. My guest today is psychologist Susan David, an expert on emotional agility. Her popular TED Talk and bestselling book on the subject offer poignant insights and practical tools for getting better at managing our moods and feelings. Susan grew up in South Africa, teaches at Harvard Medical School, co-founded the Institute of Coaching and regularly shares ideas ... posted on Mar 28 2024 (249 reads)

knowing that even the universe is dying, do we bear our lives? Most readily, through friendship, through connection, through co-creating the world we want to live in for the brief time we have together on this lonely, perfect planet. The seventh annual Universe in Verse — a many-hearted labor of love, celebrating the wonder of reality through science and poetry — occasioned a joyous collaboration with Australian musician and writer Nick Cave and Brazilian artist and filmmaker Daniel Bruson on an animated poem reckoning with this central question of being alive. BUT WE HAD MUSICby Maria Popova Right this minute across time zones and opi... posted on Apr 13 2024 (4,841 reads)

think of a better quote to celebrate Zen Pencils 100th comic. I’ve been wanting to adapt it since I started the website, but I knew I needed a decent amount of time to do it justice. Luckily, my recent two week break over the holidays allowed me the time to get a start on it. And I couldn’t think of a better person to feature. Carl Sagan is someone I admire greatly. More than any other writer, Sagan opened my eyes to the wonders of the universe, the beauty of science and the incredible achievements of humanity. This is a double celebration because besides being the 100th comic, it’s also (kind of) Zen Pencils one-year anniversary... posted on Apr 15 2014 (22,889 reads)

for justice. But they didn't have much about spirituality. They didn't talk about it. They didn't have meditation classes. They didn't have, we had prayer of course, but they didn't really have any kind of emphasis upon the contemplative life or the spiritual life.And after we wrote about spiritual literacy, we found a lot of people came to us to talk about spirituality, because the ministers weren't doing that. And at that time, we discovered Rumi. And for a person who had been a political science major, I never understood poetry until I found Rumi. And then it just totally touched my heart. I got it, I understood what he was saying.  Kabir and Camille Kaminski were offering a work... posted on May 5 2024 (2,557 reads)

and analyses of the movement with the concepts of general systems theory. Equally insightful regarding theory and practice are observations offered more recently by scholars such as George Bond and Sallie King, who interpret Sarvodaya both historically and through the lens of engaged Buddhism in order to understand what can and cannot be seen (Bond, 2003; King, 2006). SHIFTING PARADIGMS, CROSSING DISCIPLINES A different set of lenses may also be employed to affirm Sarvodaya’s prescience. In the 1980s and 1990s, for example, psychologists and youth development specialists deservedly trumpeted the findings of breakthrough studies on resil- iency and protective factors, painstak... posted on Dec 31 1969 (34 reads)

come back. Animals on the brink of extinction can be given another chance. My next reason for hope, the biggest difference between us and other animals, is this explosive development of our intellect. Yes, other animals are far more intelligent and sentient than used to be believed. We’ve designed a rocket that went up to planet Mars with a robot that took photos. And so, our hope of finding a planet where life could continue, a kind of life we know, was doomed. Fortunately, today, science is coming out with innovative solutions like capturing carbon from the atmosphere and renewable energy. This is a big step forward. I wish more people were talking about this type of technolog... posted on May 10 2024 (2,646 reads)