One attitude that has served me well is recognizing that everything I do is by choice... Even if appearances may seem like I don't always have a choice, I really do.
- By U. Chicago
While the happiness we feel after an activity diminishes each time we experience it, a phenomenon known as hedonic adaptation, giving to others may be the exception to this rule.
- By El Collie
The spiritual journey is full of unexpected and wondrous inner shifts. I recently realized that a change has gradually occurred in my outlook. I am appreciating the moment-by-moment experiences in my life in a happier way than I have since childhood...
Cynicism seems to have a lot going for it in the modern world. I know that I didn’t give up cynicism until it utterly failed me as a means of self-protection. As I began to understand the psychological roots of my physical collapse, it became clear that my cynical, stressful attitudes toward life had delivered me into this catastrophic condition.
- By Denise Linn
Each fear is like a small subpersonality inside of you demanding to be heard. One 'fear-being' might chatter, 'Don't go outside. It's raining. You'll catch a cold.' Another might be constantly whimpering in your ear, 'Don't fall in love. You know you'll get hurt!' We hold our fears captive and even justify them...
“I really should be taking better care of myself.” Who hasn’t thought that at least once in the past year? And maybe you’ve made a few health resolutions for 2019 — to cut back on the junk food, up the daily exercise, start meditating or get more sleep?
- By Jeff Inglis
Sometime in the political frenzy of the past year, I realized I had to stop scanning Twitter. I had become used to taking the pulse of online society, but was no longer confident that the tweets I was reading were accurate portrayals of the authentic views of real humans.
- By J.M. Opal
When Americans study their 19th-century history, they tend to look at its great conflicts, especially the epic clash over slavery. They are less likely to recall its broad areas of agreement.
- By Tom van Laer
Every holiday season, you have new worlds at your fingertips. Reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching films and TV shows can help you break away from the frenzy of everyday life, and journey into other possible worlds.
It being the holiday season, it seems appropriate to review the emotion of love, since that is what the season is supposed to be about.
Think of a closed vessel that is continually heated. Eventually the pressure will build up and cause the vessel to explode. If the vessel is vented, however, when the pressure gets too great, steam or gas can escape a little at a time and keep an explosion from happening.
We may expect great transformations throughout human culture, as mankind becomes more responsible for its knowledge, and thus its deeds.
Detached observation is observing with unconditional love the activities of the world around you "as if you were not a part of that world". You witness and observe without judging or labeling anything good or bad...
At some point we begin to realize that violence begets violence, and that the human race is in a vicious cycle of aggression, often unable to find a way out. Yet we must, if we are to achieve what every true human being yearns for: peace.
- By Eric Stann
Previous studies on workload and productivity include physical aspects, such as how much a person walks or carries, but they do not take into account a person’s state of mind.
- By Matt Swayne
People who met and became acquainted with at least one gay person were more likely to later change their minds about marriage equality and become more accepting of gay and lesbian people in general, research shows.
Around this time each year, many children have made a Christmas wish list that includes items like toys, games, crafts and electronics.
In a variety of teachings, unconditional love is the heart and soul of the spiritual life and the ultimate aim of the spiritual path – and by love is meant love in action of course (be it meditation or feeding the hungry), not discourses about love.
How many times have you sat down to watch TV or a movie, only to immediately shift your attention to your smartphone or tablet? Known as “media multitasking”, this phenomenon is so common that an estimated 178m US adults regularly use another device while watching TV.
The love of reading is one of the greatest gifts an adult can give to a child. Pragmatically, reading proficiently helps with school work. But it also widens children’s horizons. It can help readers to understand their own world better, and to explore other worlds.
- By Sam Keen
Sometimes what looks like a fight is only the fierceness of love. We have moved from a condition of silent hostility, buried resentment, and covert low-intensity warfare to open conflict. We are wrestling together, changing roles in the hay, engaging in honest intercourse, yessing and k(no)wing each other. And contact is the first condition of love.
It’s a question that’s reverberated through the ages – are humans, though imperfect, essentially kind, sensible, good-natured creatures?
Shortlisted for the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2018 word of the year, “gaslighting” has well and truly found its way into contemporary thought and vernacular.