Mending The World: Coming Together To Overcome The Darkness

The future, with all its upheavals, may seem cha­otic and threatening, but it is also in our hands. We create the future—each one of us—in how we live our lives and with the choices we make. With hope and inspiration as a catalyst, we can act to help mend, restore, and transform our world.

I want you to throw away your preconceived notions of fear, along with any particular opinions of anxiety and its causes. In doing so, in opening your mind and your spirit to what might be an entirely new way of thinking and of being, you will embark upon the most challenging, illuminating, and richly satisfying journey of your life.

Love and fear or like and dislike, a pair of opposites, are mutually essential components of the faculty of feeling, for who does not fear neither loves nor feels. But note the term original fear. Man’s difficulty is that his fear is seldom original; it is once or many times removed from originality, being not just simple fear but the fear of being afraid.

In recent years LGBT+ rights have improved dramatically. Same-sex marriage is now legally performed and recognised in 28 countries. 

As long as we choose to see certain events as the measuring stick for our lives, we have no real chance of changing. As long as we view it this way, we will be trapped by our perceptions of the past, and our lives will endlessly repeat the same types of things over and over again until...

You'll never have good self-esteem if you have negative thoughts about yourself. Self-esteem is merely feeling good about yourself, and when you do so, you develop confidence. Confidence then builds self-esteem -- each step feeds upon the other...

The ability to manifest your vision for ultimate health and happiness is one of the most overlooked tools in creating permanent change. Most of us stopped using our imaginations a long time ago and have become ignorant to the power that lies within us, the power to shape our reality.

Just because some inner voice in your head tells you that you are unworthy, unlovable, a loser, or whatever mean “sandbox name” it wants to call you, it doesn’t mean that it’s a fact or even based in reality. You have the power to challenge and change a negative thought always, as harsh or brutal as it may be.

If we’re the kind of people who care both about not being racist, and also about basing our beliefs on the evidence that we have, then the world presents us with a challenge.

New Zealand will release its first well-being budget this week, based on a suite of measures that track how New Zealanders are doing, including how happy they are.

What happens when you bring a group of older residents to mix with young children in childcare?

Never has there been a time that our light is more needed than now. Our voices, actions and intentions will inspire and heal so many. No longer can we sit by and just visualize... we must combine our spiritual practices with uplifting words and positive action.

Many people say they cannot enjoy today because of something that happened in the past. By holding on to the past, no matter what it was or how awful it was, we are only hurting ourselves by refusing to live in this moment to the fullest...

We stand at the precipice of a remarkable adventure—the adventure of human evolution. We may have been here before but never in recorded history and never exactly like this. By simply being alive during these potent times, we have become the chosen ones to steward an entirely new way of being.

We keep compulsively trying to control everything all around us to protect our fragile biological bodies…too often without the slightest sense of awareness that there exists within us a vast, subjective realm of eternal wisdom, filled with boundless creative capacity, that longs to...

To just say, “You have to open your heart!” can be perceived by many people as overly simplistic, naïve, and disconnected from reality. It can be interpreted as a feel-good-warm-and-fuzzy approach that has no substance. And it can give the impression that you are in denial of the magnitude of what is happening.

Work hard, become successful, then you’ll be happy. At least, that’s what many of us were taught by our parents, teachers and peers.

Following is a list of tips, bits of advice, and wise sayings or excerpts, including fragments of spiritual knowledge, spiritual laws, and laws of fate.

When is the last time your life worked out the way you planned and expected it to? And if by chance a segment of it did happen to go as planned, did you feel how you expected you would? And if you did feel how you expected to, did it last forever?

One hears a lot about nurturing... nurturing one's self, nurturing loved ones, children, etc. I have been advised many times in my life to pay more attention to myself, and to nurture myself. Not feeling  too clear at one time about what that meant (since I had never learned how to nurture myself), I asked...

Would you like to experience your personal best? To feel confident, secure, competent, poised and self-assured? Would you perhaps like to work at a fulfilling job? Would you like to control your own future? Most of us would answer a resounding "Yes!" to at least some of the above questions.

The physical body is a biological robot. This biological robot is under the control of the Computer Brain. There is absolutely nothing that is outside of our actions and our thoughts that is outside the relationship between the biological computer and your body. Your body does everything your brain commands it to do.

Aka Manai explains that there are two kinds of people in the world: simata and sikerei.

Within a 20-minute walk from Notre Dame Cathedral, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, is the oldest house in the city: the house of Nicolas Flamel.

Challenges are a fact of life. Whether it’s a high-tech company figuring out how to shrink its carbon footprint, or a local community trying to identify new revenue sources, people are continually dealing with problems

Have you had a less-than-stellar performance review lately? Do you daydream, or are you making bad decisions?

Travelling offers new experiences and can open people’s minds. It allows you to get out of your daily groove – of work, commuting, housework and cooking – to think about the things that really matter and enjoy some quality time in a different place.

When I ask clients who face a difficult situation, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” they usually have a well-prepared list of possible dark outcomes. When I ask, “What’s the best thing that could happen?” they usually take a while to think of an answer. They are so practiced in pessimism that optimism hasn’t crossed their mind.

When we were children, the summer holidays seemed to last forever, and the wait between Christmases felt like an eternity. So why is that when we get older, the time just seems to zip by, with weeks, months and entire seasons disappearing from a blurred calendar at dizzying speed?

Two dormant chemicals in the same container can co-exist uneventfully, then when a third property is added, this third chemical acts as a catalyst for creating a reaction when shaken or stirred. So it goes with self-improvement...

A powerful antidote to the fear and anxiety sometimes stirred up by a health condition is joy. And sometimes joy can feel in short supply when dealing with health challenges. If we want joy, we have to actively reach for it. We’ll explore some ways to do that.

Happiness is big business, with sales of self-help books in the UK reaching record levels in the past year. Perhaps that’s because happiness is no longer the birthright of the elite.

Eckhart discusses spiritual awakening as it relates to two aspects of life: the acquisition of things, and the activities we engage in.

Oftentimes, in our life, we have doubts about the outcome of a situation... whether the doubt has to do with our own capabilities, or someone else's. Yet faith in ourselves is an integral part in succeeding... When we give up believing in ourselves, we give up trying.

Realistic hope enables us to believe that we can cope with what lies ahead and gives us the courage to step into the unknown. Without being prepared to take a risk, we don’t make new discoveries about ourselves or what it means to be a human being, nor can we find the fulfillment and happiness we long for.

This is the career I expected to have. This is the way I expected my nation to progress. This is the friend I expected you to be. This is how a book proposal or business plan should look. This is how a pop song or a concerto should sound. This is the way it’s supposed to be…

Every day is a new day. That is an indisputable fact. By accepting each new day with a fresh, enthusiastic attitude, we can empower our life and make it more joyful. What could be blocking our...

My childhood perceptions were part of a narrative I call the Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology: to conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society.

The bummer about 'shoulds' is that when we are dominated by them, we are also dominated by the fear of being rejected or abandoned in some way, because that's the core emotional fear that activates many of them. These ongoing fears leave many of us drained and exhausted...

The results can often be dramatic when people start to love themselves, give up pretending, and really learn how to relax. Two processes can happen spontaneously even when you are not having professional treatment: catharsis and abreaction. It can be a little alarming, but you will feel better as a result of it.

Dare to make eye contact with another. As the adage says, "The eyes are the window to the soul." Making eye contact is one of the most basic ways to share our inner light with another. Daring to communicate with someone in this simple way is...

Set in a fictional firm in New York, the TV series Suits glamorises the life of lawyers working in a modern corporate firm

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for death globally and has reached the status of a global pandemic — a definition that is usually associated with infectious diseases like influenza.

Think of the last time you had something to celebrate. If you toasted the happy occasion, your drink was probably alcoholic – and bubbly.

Companies moving to a pay-for-performance process may lead to an increase the number of employees taking anxiety and depression medication, according to a new study.

Seeking solitude—for the right reasons—can be good for first-year college students, research suggests.

Smiling really can make you feel happier, report researchers. The paper looked at nearly 50 years of data testing whether posing facial expressions can lead people to feel the emotions related to those expressions.

It is no accident that you are working in your present organization or that you are working with and for the people you do. All of this has been arranged by you -- by your Higher Self -- to give you as many opportunities as possible to learn and to grow spiritually.

Choosing to forget something might take more mental effort than trying to remember it, according to new research.

Notice the strong correlation between our expectations and our experience? Everything that happens to us is related to our beliefs about who we are, what we deserve, and what the universe is capable of supplying. The game is...

The yearning that so many of us feel for a “return to the earth” can be seen as acknowledgment that something is lacking in our daily lives, and the fact that crucial elements of life are missing from mainstream culture.

Ask yourself, "Who do I pretend to be?" Sometimes we become so immersed in who we think we are -- or who others imagine us to be -- that we begin to identify with the mask that we wear as we weave our way through the world.If we come to believe that we are our mask, then...

Perhaps you’re feeling a little chaotic in your mind — or worrying about everything and losing sight of what is important and what isn’t. Hands up then, everyone! It is a very likely state for a lot of us as we can often feel that a lot of demands are put on us.

During my own transformation, I came face-to-face with all my needs, wants, patterns and beliefs and I learned to see them all, to dissect them, to untangle their root causes, and to weed my garden of life. It was during this time that I also experienced the difference between Joy and Happiness.

Interest is surging in tiny homes – livable dwelling units that typically measure under 400 square feet. Much of this interest is driven by media coverage that claims that living in tiny homes is good for the planet.

Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” can be read in many ways: as a political memoir, as a story of being black and aspiring in America or as a Cinderella story that transports an ambitious black girl

The Nordic countries are consistently ranked as the happiest countries in the world according to World Happiness Reports published since 2012.

Taking pictures for the purpose of sharing can detract from the enjoyment of the experience, according to new research.

Social media and screens are omnipresent. Many are concerned about the amount of time we – and our children – spend on devices.

Herding behavior can make us “individually smarter, but collectively dumber,” according to new research on how people make forecasts in a group.

If you have contradictory desire streams -- desires for two opposing things at the same time -- it becomes much more difficult for Nature to fulfill your desires. For example, you might think that you desire an ideal relationship, but if part of your brain is thinking, "Hah, you don't deserve that. It's never worked before.."

You can turn negative situations on their head. This isn’t to say that bad or negative things don’t happen; rather that, if it does, you can look at what you can do about it by viewing things differently and looking for alternative meanings.

When our three children were living with us, we had a family dinner each night. As we were eating, we always asked, “Tell us something good that happened to you today.” We all took turns telling something good that had happened. We wanted our children to focus first on the good in life.

Personal Power comes from within, from a strong and healthy sense of self. Your personal power includes several components: your self-esteem, how good you feel about yourself; your independence, how well you can decide on your own what is right for you to do; and your initiative...

Emotions cause trouble or create feelings of discomfort, but now is the time to find ways to work with emotions constructively, especially those that cause the most trouble. Many people cope with working with difficult emotions or emotional patterns by repressing them. 

The number of single-person households in Canada has never been higher. It appears Canada is catching up to the rest of the Western world.

With this body, I’ve discovered I’m able to deliver into this world a virtually infinite spectrum of creative energy – from love, joy, creativity, beauty, sensuality, passion, intimacy; to sorrow, fear, pain, horror, despair and suffering. The choice of what to deliver is ever mine.

Everything is energy. Energy in its pure form is neutral. It’s not good or bad, right or wrong, positive or negative. What gives energy a particular quality is how we engage with it and how we use it.

There is no one meaning of life but rather a multitude of subjective life meanings, and there is no one purpose to life but rather a multitude of subjective life purposes. Each person must sort out her life purposes and life meanings, and proceed to make value-based meaning...

In my past experience as an academic adviser, it was difficult to explain to a disappointed family why their child did not make an admissions cut-off when the student’s overall high school average was over 80 per cent.

Does happiness arise by attaining a certain status, or by finding the love of your life? If you chase happiness in the things of this world, you will become disillusioned. No matter how much stuff you acquire, how much you are admired...

“Why can’t you just relax into it?” is a question many of us have asked in frustration with ourselves or others – be it on the dance floor, the sporting field or in rather more private circumstances.

Viktor E. Frankl, in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, recounts his experiences in a concentration camp during World War II. He maintains that though he remained a prisoner, his inner self would always be free. He always had the freedom to think whatever he wanted to think; a freedom no one could take from him.

Kindness towards people means being considerate, friendly and generous. The opposite to kindness is intentionally causing harm. The Process rewards us for deeds of kindness, and corrects us for deeds of harm. There are always consequences for our actions.

Shambhala training is based on developing gentleness and genuineness so that we can help ourselves and develop tenderness in our hearts. We no longer wrap ourselves in the sleeping bag of our cocoon. We feel responsible for ourselves, and we feel good taking responsibility.

Bubble-wrapping children doesn’t work. They need to experience mild adversity, to know how to overcome it when they inevitably face it in life.

Love them or hate them, traffic laws exist to keep people safe and to help vehicles flow smoothly. And while they aren’t legally enforceable, pedestrian traffic also tends to follow its own set of unwritten rules.

The most powerful influence on the human mind is our core beliefs about our identity, who we think we are. If you have a core belief that you are lazy or that the world is out to get you, no matter how much you try to be more productive or to feel safer in this world, you will sabotage your efforts to align with your core belief.

Funky moods obscure our experience for hours, days, weeks, or even longer. Left unattended, they shape our personalities and determine the quality of our lives. We think that we have no control over our moods but the truth is quite the contrary.

What happens if you decide to jump in, Escape to the Country-style, and flee the city rat race?

We’ll never have enough time. Paradoxically, understanding that concept allows us the potential to enjoy the time we have. Treat time as a resource – don’t waste it feeling sorry for yourself.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a thought that makes us act in a way that brings about the expected outcome. In other words, because we expect something to happen, we act in ways that bring about what we expect, and that outcome in turn seems to prove that our expectation was correct.

Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life – money, power, jobs, university admission – should be distributed according to skill and effort.

In the first year of training, which was mainly inpatient psychiatry, learning to treat patients, attending daily lectures, and having individual supervision, we also had a weekly group therapy session for all the trainees. This included residents from all the years of training, so it was a pretty big group, run by two psychiatrists.

Danes are some of the happiest people in the world, and they also happen to have a lot of cool words for ways to be happy.

Have any of you noticed that sometimes when you try to create something, certain obstacles will come up which question exactly what you're trying to create? I've wondered if this is some kind of test, you know, to see how bad I really want the creation.

After 25 years of working with a large corporation, I have decided to leave. Why? I discovered that living in the "corporate" world has been living in a culture that is not unlike a battlefield...

Before smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices, people used to work hard at their jobs, but then come home to relax. Workaholism has always existed, but now in the communication age, people can now work from anywhere, night or day...

We’re more likely to have positive feelings about transitioning from one stage of life to the next if we have a “well-rounded ending,” one with a sense of closure, according to new research.

Self-doubters tend to dismiss compliments and embrace criticisms. They focus — even highlight — their weaknesses, ensuring that others see their shortcomings as clearly as they do. Eleanor Roosevelt's clever one-liner "No one can make you feel inadequate without your permission" says it all.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you could make a real contribution to the world but aren’t sure you have any really meaningful talents, perhaps you should look at how you play computer games.

Someone once said to me they didn't feel that being happy was a choice. They felt that no one decides to have a bad day. That everyone starts the day choosing to be happy, but that things happened along the way that were out of their control. While I agree that things do happen that are out of our control...

The soundtrack of our lives and the visual landscapes of our cities are multilingual. Languages, in their plurality, enrich our experience of the world and our creative potential.

So you’re depressed. You know this because a health professional has told you so, or you’ve been depressed before and there is no mistaking the symptoms.

Which is better for a teen who can’t get the recommended amount of rest: just 6.5 hours of sleep at night, or 5 hours at night plus a nap in the afternoon?

How a focus on peace is helping this Central American country top the Happy Planet Index.

The pursuit of happiness and health is a popular endeavour, as the preponderance of self-help books would attest.

‘Freedom’ is a powerful word. We all respond positively to it, and under its banner revolutions have been started, wars have been fought, and political campaigns are continually being waged.

I always found spirituality, the disciplines of meditation and silence, very simple. My challenge was between activity and stillness. I always got off on the adrenaline trip of being active. That's why I've traveled around so much.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are loaded with pictures of people going to exotic places, looking like they are about to be on the cover of Vogue, and otherwise living a fairy-tale existence.