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Total number of posts: 23741
Garden Exchange and Social Connections
When my friend and I set out on a walk through her neighborhood, we never imagined we’d stumble upon an inspiring and heartwarming event along the journey; but, that’s one of the greatest things about life and its myriad potentials unfolding. Some blocks into our excursion, we came across a Read More...
Where Do You Find Meaning?
In an online kindness class I facilitated not too long ago, I asked this question of the participants: Where do you find meaning? I gave them a little exercise to help, too, which was to choose a relatively small, personal object and place it somewhere so they’d encounter it each morning. I asked Read More...
Invest in Trees
My daughter was making her first journey to Appalachia! And knowing we would not see each other that Christmas I leapt at the chance to create a holiday with her in October. Fortunately Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year, upon which I could readily build, with vast support Read More...
Peacespeak
One of the tenets of Buddhism is Right Speech. In his book on the subject, Bhikkhu Bodhi writes, “Speech can break lives, create enemies, and start wars, or it can give wisdom, heal divisions, and create peace.” I believe the first tenet of peacespeak is silence. Getting to silence within Read More...
Find Your Rhythm and Balance
Do you know what supports your rhythm, allowing you to be your healthiest, happiest and most radiant self? Seasons circle ‘round, and here in the Northern Hemisphere the shift into fall is bringing forth bright festive foliage, the need for warm layers and a shift toward indoor activities. Read More...
Use your stress for good
For years we’ve come to believe that if we’re stressed, we’re unhealthy. We spend money on vacations and are constantly searching for ways to avoid stress. But new information is showing us that, when used correctly, stress can be beneficial to health. In a recent TED talk, “How to make Read More...
What is nonduality, and how does it connect people?
Photo credit: Emily Goodman Often, we focus on ourselves as separate individuals. We concentrate on our own problems and desires and make them the center of our world. We look out for number one. It’s simple to act as individuals—our society values taking care of ourselves before others and Read More...
Growing agricultural investment
Photo: Africa Renewal Since little commercial lending goes to agriculture, the African continent is unable to feed its malnourished population of 200 million. Agricultural investment is seen as a risk, mostly due to the lack of data lenders have to work with when weighing the risks and benefits. Read More...
Pollyanna was not an optimist and why optimism is the best strategy
All that most people know about Pollyanna is that calling someone that name is not a good thing. It is an effective way to discourage someone from undertaking something overly optimistic. The reference dismisses optimism as a way to support health and happiness and build success. But few people Read More...
How should we measure the happiness of a country?
It’s tough enough to assess how happy one person is, let alone a whole country. There are some things we know aren’t correlated — money, objects — and others that show just part of the picture. Typically, researchers resort to questionnaires: how do you rate yourself on a scale from one to Read More...