Community

Is Avoiding Other People’s Suffering Good for Your Mental Health?

An international study finds that people who turn away from compassion have felt more depressed and anxious during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 ricocheted around the globe, millions of us sought shelter in retreat. Not only were we quarantining at home, we were putting up internal walls against the suffering we saw in the world. For more than a year, it’s been easy to justify an inward focus rather than an outward one.

About The Author

Greater Good Science Center

This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.

Based at the University of California, Berkeley, the GGSC is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: Not only do we sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives. Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life. And we have been without peer in our award-winning efforts to translate and disseminate this science to the public.

Mindfulness While Waiting in Line

What Are You Waiting For?

Waiting is an unavoidable fact of life.

Often when we’re waiting—in traffic, at the DMV, for our food to arrive—we grow impatient or frustrated.

We focus entirely on getting to the front of the line and completing the task.

In these moments when you have nothing to do but wait, you have a perfect opportunity to practice and encourage mindfulness.

About The Author

evox Television

evox provides an integrated entertainment experience that inspires positive changes in the way people live and work. We celebrate the good things about you, your family, your community, and your world. The network delivers a unique blend of evocative HD video programming, online community interaction, and related product shopping, to help people live a better life, grow as individuals, and in so doing, contribute to a better world.

Insights On An Awesome Water Drinking Community

It all started on Dec 4, 2011 when Jon Drinks Water made his first upload on the internet with his YouTube account. The upload consisted of a video of him simply opening a water bottle and drinking the contents. That's it. He has been doing this simple yet smart upload almost every day for the past nine years. He is currently on day #3335 of drinking water, has finished 9,881 bottles, and from what I can tell he’s not stopping anytime soon.

About The Author

Aaron Skelton

Aaron Skelton is an entrepreneur, electronic tech, editor, and author that works with the evox.Life platform. He is a simple person that has a very genuine personality. He likes to go outside, explore, and travel but also likes to be in bed and sleep all day. His favorite thing to do to pass the time is to hang out with his family and friends. He is a person that loves taking in knowledge to better himself and tries his best to prepare himself with that knowledge for whatever life throws at him.

Before You Can Be With Others First Learn to Be Alone

In 1840, Edgar Allan Poe described the ‘mad energy’ of an ageing man who roved the streets of London from dusk till dawn. His excruciating despair could be temporarily relieved only by immersing himself in a tumultuous throng of city-dwellers. ‘He refuses to be alone,’ Poe wrote. He ‘is the type and the genius of deep crime … He is the man of the crowd.’

About The Author

Aeon

Aeon is a digital magazine of ideas and culture. Since September 2012 they have been publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. They ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science, philosophy, society, and the arts. Aeon was founded in London by Paul and Brigid Hains. It now has offices in London, Melbourne, and New York. Aeon is a not-for-profit and operated by Aeon Media Group Ltd., committed to big ideas, serious enquiry, and a humane worldview. That’s it.

Do We Have an Instinctive Urge to be Kind?

When someone needs help, what is your first impulse?

Has “ethics [become] a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases”?

About The Author

Greater Good Science Center

This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.

How to Take Care of Our Veterans

There comes a time when a country has to debate when, if, and whether it should go to war. When it eventually happens, and the war is on, some men and women put their lives on the line to protect the integrity of the country by serving in the military. Talking of war, the United States has had a fair share of the same, since the founding of the nation through rebellion.

About The Author

Jim Hughes

Jim Hughes is a content marketer who has significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business topics for about 3 years. He likes to share all the insight and knowledge he has.

Royal Watching for Inspiration

I’m always fascinated by the frenzy of following every movement or breath of famous folks.

Royal Watching has become quite the national and international pastime and ramps up to a frenzy when the family members of Britain’s Queen get married or bring a new baby into the world.

We tune in or pick up the grocery store checkout line mags to assess (criticize?) dresses and clothes and baby pictures and pronouncements. Are we comparing ourselves? Fantasizing what it must be like to be royalty? Waiting for some weird schadenfreude moment when someone trips and falls?

About The Author

Andrew Mersmann

Andrew is the author of Frommer's global guide to volunteer vacations, "500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference" (Gold Medal Winner from Society of American Travel Writers: Best Guide Book 2010). He spent more than a decade on the editorial team of PASSPORT Magazine. He has volunteered and led teams on service projects around the world, and is honored to be on the boards of directors for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation (AARBF.org) and Mentor Artists Playwrights Project (mentorartists.org). Mersmann has been a featured speaker, interview guest, or moderator on several travel talks, from the New York Times Travel Show, Smithsonian Associates, and the 92nd Street Y-TriBeCa to Oprah and Friends, Animal House, and The Focus Group on satellite radio as well as on NY1 television. Past participant at the Clinton Global Initiative and judge for Condé Nast World Changers Conference, he blogs about volunteering and service travel at www.ChangeByDoing.com. As part of the evox television team, he is dedicated to audience engagement, so if you're not engaged, he needs to be thumped on the head (gently)...or at least told (nicely). Twitter: /ChangeByDoing

Your Start to a Safer Community

Creating a Safer Community

About The Author

Jade Pulman

Jade is a full-time mother of three children she adores. She graduated with her bachelors degree in Family Studies and Nutrition and works hard to implement her learning into her family life. When not writing, you can find her in the outdoors or exploring museums and aquariums with her loving husband and children.

Beyond Originality and Creativity: Perspectives on the Elements of Art

One of the most fundamental aspects of aesthetics is to make you see, hear, feel, touch, and smell something that makes you know and sense you are fully alive.

About The Author

Henry Cross

Henry Cross grew up in sunny Miami, Florida. Upon graduating high school, he moved to the politicized Washington, D.C. and double majored in History and Politics at the Catholic University. He served as a social studies teacher in Prince George’s County Public School in 2008-2009. In the fall of 2009, he moved to New York City to continue and grow his work in education and service.

He joined Hosh Yoga in 2011 as a teacher and Program Director. And since 2013, he founded and expanded programming for the organization with Hosh Kids and Hosh Seniors. Henry's entrepreneurial spirit helped developed the organizational, program, and financial capacity of the nonprofit to deliver self-sustaining and self-supporting health and wellness services to over 3,000 children, adults, and seniors every month in a cost-effective and fairly-priced way. And from 2014 to 2016, he participated in a philanthropic role by expanding the programming, policy, and public advocacy efforts of the Sonima Foundation as Community Relations Director.

His work has been featured by the Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, Blog Talk Radio, The NYC Social Innovation Festival, Social Venture Institute, and multiple Brooklyn and Queens newspapers. He is an appointed New York City official of Community Board 5 in Queens, serves on a Department of Youth and Community Development Neighborhood Advisory Board, and on the board of directors of the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association. And in 2015, Henry was selected as an etsy.org business fellow and awarded Top 40 Under 40 Nonprofit Rising Star. He finds joy in his community work service everyday and loves ballroom dancing!

Creating Community

The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic, or hospital. ~Mark Hyman

Over the five years I lived with my Mom’s cancer diagnosis, I became very skilled at “creating community.” i.e., reaching out to people to tell the truth about how I was feeling and asking for support. It wasn’t easy at first, but it got easier and easier as time went on.

About The Author

Jen Coken

Jen Coken is an author, life coach, and comedian who wants to live in a world where you’re free to be yourself and achieve your soul’s purpose—a vision that has driven her work as a Coach, Speaker, Author, Comedian for more than 20 years.

Drawing on three decades of experience as a non-profit leader and grassroots organizer, Jen helps CEOs and entrepreneurs overcome their self-made limitations and do their heart’s work.

But Jen’s impact doesn’t end there: She spent six years on the Denver stand-up comedy circuit and brings a sense of humor to every topic she addresses, including the experience of coping with her mother's diagnosis and death from ovarian cancer.

Jen’s book, "When I Die, Take My Panties: Turning Your Darkest Moments into Your Greatest Gifts" chronicles that experience and shares Jen’s core message that everything that comes our way is meant to teach us about ourselves.

When she’s not crafting bestselling books or speaking to audiences around the country, you can find Jen eating Nutella by the spoonful in the nearest grocery aisle. www.jencoken.com

Sunset silhouette of a person alone at the edge of a lake.

Is Avoiding Other People’s Suffering Good for Your Mental Health?

10/20/2021

Greater Good Science Center

An international study finds that people who turn away from compassion have felt more depressed and anxious during the COVID-19 pandemic. As COVID-19 ricocheted around the globe, millions of us... read more

Silhouette of many people waiting in line.

Mindfulness While Waiting in Line

10/06/2021

evox Television

What Are You Waiting For? Waiting is an unavoidable fact of life. Often when we’re waiting—in traffic, at the DMV, for our food to arrive—we grow impatient or frustrated. We focus entirely... read more

Insights On An Awesome Water Drinking Community

02/02/2021

Aaron Skelton

Before You Can Be With Others First Learn to Be Alone

04/03/2020

Aeon

Do We Have an Instinctive Urge to be Kind?

01/08/2020

Greater Good Science Center

When someone needs help, what is your first impulse? Has “ethics [become] a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases”? This is one of the implications that John M. Darley and C. Daniel... read more

Silhouette of soldier saluting huge American flag.

How to Take Care of Our Veterans

10/30/2019

Jim Hughes

Royal Watching for Inspiration

09/26/2019

Andrew Mersmann

I’m always fascinated by the frenzy of following every movement or breath of famous folks. Royal Watching has become quite the national and international pastime and ramps up to a frenzy when the... read more

Golden sunlit neighborhood with dog in street.

Your Start to a Safer Community

06/19/2019

Jade Pulman

Creating a Safer Community With the amount of crime going on today, it is imperative to ensure that you and your family stay safe. The moment when you don't even feel secure in your own home is... read more

Young man looks at statue busts in museum

Beyond Originality and Creativity: Perspectives on the Elements of Art

04/24/2019

Henry Cross

One of the most fundamental aspects of aesthetics is to make you see, hear, feel, touch, and smell something that makes you know and sense you are fully alive. But what are the elements that... read more