…researchers discovered that awe brought on “a reduced sense of self-importance relative to something larger and more powerful that they felt connected to,” and that “a naturalistic induction of awe in which participants stood in a grove of towering trees enhanced prosocial helping behavior and decreased entitlement compared to participants in a control condition.”
Category: Inner Peace
Coping with Unpleasant Realities
When faced with an unpleasant reality, like being told I have an incurable rare cancer, I first take 10 deep breaths. But there’s more to it than… Read more “Coping with Unpleasant Realities”
When I Sit Among the Trees
Aspens, their leaves
graceful in the wind,
flitter about
reasons to smile,
reasons to dance,
reasons to make each
moment matter.
Joy! It’s Healthy. It’s Contagious.
Joy is always found in the beauty of a sunflower, the song of the sea, and the glory of trees rising toward the sun. Nature is joy’s greatest harbinger.
5 Ways to Pull Out of Life’s Riptides
We can’t stop a rip current. But we can heed the warnings, and we should learn how to get ourselves out of a rip current if we are sucked into one. And so it goes with our personal efforts at finding peace. A sudden world event can pull our peace away. Once caught in the current, we may become another casualty.
When We Reach the Y in the Road
Do the kings and prince’s of Saudi Arabia spend time with the aborigines of Australia? Do the captains of industry in the western world hang with the indigenous of the American continents? Do the Russian oligarchs hang with the Aleuts and Inuits of the Arctic regions? And so on. Probably not.
Wealth and power can put heroin addiction to shame.
Wealth and power can correct social and planetary imbalances, or tip the balance to unsustainable levels.
Words that Sear — Walk Away
While a conveyor of human kindness prevails, there are those who fall prey to a provocateur with a whip that cracks through space and burns with words… Read more “Words that Sear — Walk Away”
The Well-Being of Leaving Tribalism Behind
This time last year I wanted to gather my own tribe around my dining room table. I craved their ways of thinking, experiences, wisdom, crafts and talents. But the problem with “my tribe” is we are not very tribal and gathering these folks at one time is akin to herding feral cats — which is why I love this weakly defined tribe.So, instead, I hiked the desert, wandered through the forests, listened to the rivers and ocean, bought mounds of books to read and ponder, and took to what I’ve always done at challenged life moments — threw words on paper in hopes of sorting it all out.
The Goddess Seeks Tea from the Garden
Alas, I’m not goddess of the world. I wander through my own idiocy, bloviate when the opportunity arises, and I would do well to observe a flower from bud to full blossom — all of which brings me to tea time. How is that?
The Muse Pallet 