Sunday, June 20, 2010 A Nonprofit Gym  In many low-income neighborhoods, obesity and diabetes are huge problems. Fear of crime and traffic keep many residents from exercising outdoors and indoor gyms are often too few and too expensive. Healthworks, a nonprofit fitness center in Boston, Massachusetts is working to change that. With membership fees based on income and no more than $30 a month, low-income communities now have a safe space to work up a sweat, shed pounds, and stay healthy. Bill Walczak, who helped make the gym possible, hopes to expand the community's access to gyms and health centers. "We're just at the tip of the iceberg," he says. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, June 19, 2010 Save Energy by Breathing  Every minute we breathe, the rise and fall of our lungs produces almost 1 watt of energy. Now, new technology can absorb our energy to generate electricity! Small devices fitted with piezoelectric (PE) crystals, are being installed under sidewalks, roads, sports stadiums and railways to recycle the energy produced by our daily actions! In the world of energy-harvesting, all vibrations are good vibrations. From sports fans cheering in the bleachers to commuters pounding the sidewalk pavement, micro-movements on any surface are being converted into clean energy! Read More >>
back to top Friday, June 18, 2010 The Suicide Saver  Don Ritchie lives across the street from the most famous suicide spot in Australia: A cliff know as "The Gap." Every week there, one person will leap to their death. While most people would move from such a foreboding place, Ritchie and his wife Moya view their life there as a blessing: "I think, 'Isn't it wonderful that we live here and can help people?'" Throughout their residence of almost 50 years, the Ritchies have saved an estimated 160 people from suicide. How do they do it? It's simple, really. Every morning, Ritchie wakes up and looks out the window for anyone standing alone too close to the precipice. If he sees someone who looks ready to jump, he walks over and strikes up a conversation. "I'm offering them an alternative, really," he says. "I always act in a friendly manner. I smile." And for a humble 84 year-old man battling cancer, Ritchie sure knows the value of being alive. Read More >>
back to top Thursday, June 17, 2010 The Benefits of Single-Tasking  Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process. In this article, a Harvard Business Review blogger Peter Bregman writes about his one-week experiment with single-tasking, where he committed to deeply engaging with whatever was in front of him. He shares six lessons from his experience.... Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, June 16, 2010 The Magic Flute  A pawnshop flute. That's how Marvin Sanders makes art out of uncertainty. From living on the streets to graduating college with a degree in music, Sanders recalls his incredible journey. And how it all started at a gas station: "I was in Denver, Colorado working at a gas station. Those were the days people would pull up and someone would walk out and pump your gas and wipe the windshield. I was working there in 1971-71 and, strangely, my mother--I was talking with her over the phone--she asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" [laughs]I mean, I'm twenty years old! I said, off the top of my head, "How about a flute?" She bought me a pawnshop flute. I visited her for Christmas and she gave it to me. Half the keys didn't even work, but I didn't know the difference. I took it back to Denver with me. I was working ten hours a day, six days a week then. But you know, at nineteen, twenty years old, you have all kinds of energy. I had a natural aptitude for it. I enjoyed playing it. That's how I started." Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Just Like Gravity  When hotel housekeeper Jeanne Mydil stumbled upon $6,000 left behind in a room she was cleaning, she immediately brought it to her supervisor. Little did she know, her honest act of kindness would explode exponentially! It turns out that the money had been fundraised by a missionary group on their way to assist in Haiti earthquake relief. After word spread of Mydil's good deed, the phones at Miami International Airport Hotel went haywire: everyone wanted to give her money. One anonymous individual insisted on donating $6,000! "It's a spiritual law of the universe," said the anonymous donor, "The way you receive is by sharing, and just like gravity, it affects everyone the same way." The humble and grateful housekeeper, who earns a little over minimum wage, plans to use the donations to pay off money she borrowed to bury her husband, who died suddenly on May 23 from diabetes complications. She will also send a portion to her sister, whose husband died in the Haiti earthquake on January 12. Read More >>
back to top Monday, June 14, 2010 How to Be Lucky  Why do some people seem to always encounter good fortune while others are constantly bombarded with a slew of bad days? Decades ago, psychologist Richard Wiseman set out to investigate luck. He found that although unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their fortune. What differentiates the lucky and the unlucky? How are lucky people able to encounter chance opportunities everywhere they go? According to Wiseman, lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles: They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. It seems luck may not be so much something that happens to you, but rather a result of how you focus your attention. Read More >>
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When people say, "Time is money," they usually don't mean it literally. But Maria Villacresses does. When the economy put a hitch in her wedding plans, she used "time dollars" on everything from a wedding-day makeover to an elaborate seven-layer cake. In a time bank, members get credit for services they provide to other members, from cooking to housekeeping to care rides to home repair. For each hour of work, one time dollar is deposited into a member's account, good for services offered by other members. Scores of time banks are being started in hard-hit communities around the nation, and thousands of devotees are helping each other survive tough financial times. "I'm enriched by it, not only from the services I receive, but by being able to contribute," says Joan Stevenson, who earns time dollars by writing for the Community Exchange in Allentown, PA. [ 
It keeps us up at night. Weighs our shoulders down. Hangs over us in clouds of doubt and furrowed eyebrows. Worry. There's nothing appealing about it, yet many of us find our minds entangled in self-doubt, uncertainty, and grappling with unknowns. But for Akaya Windwood, worry is a thing of the past. A few years ago, after her sister was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Windwood made the decision to stop worrying. "I began to understand that it was a habit of my mind... But it wasn't enough to just not worry; I needed to replace the habit of worry with something else, and I chose trust." Looking back, her decision not to worry has freed her to be an increasingly creative, inspired, and effective leader. With a clearer head, challenges become opportunities, and fear falls off the wayside. [ 
"Nothing stops a bullet like a job," says the motto of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the country. For the past 20 years, Rev. Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest who started Homeboy, has counseled more than 12,000 gang members who pass through Homeboy each year to learn job skills and attend therapy sessions on everything from alcohol abuse to anger management. Since leaving his position at the Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles to focus on Homeboy, Boyle has hired ex-gang members to work and run landscaping and plumbing businesses, a child-care center, and even a bakery visited by Prince Charles' business advisors! Though it hasn't been easy, running Homeboy has been an continual practice of humility and compassion. "I don't save people," Boyle says. "I point them in the right direction. I say, 'There's that door. I think if you walked through it, you'd be happier." [ 
The average Facebook user creates 70 pieces of content per month, virtually poking people, finding friends or updating their status on what they ate for dinner. But this social application means something else for Sherry Evans and Tim Foster. "I can't imagine my life right now without Facebook," says Evans. Twenty-three years ago, the two were classmates at Althoff Catholic High School. Through Facebook, they recently reconnected online, and Evans discovered that Foster was going through rough times. He had no job, no vehicle and no home. His family was forced to move into a cheap motel. "It just broke my heart when I saw them all in that hotel room," says Evans. With the click of a mouse, she went to work, creating a covert effort named "Operation Ten Smile." The class of '87 donated items: a washer and dryer, furniture, another did laundry, one found a van, and then, a place for the Fosters to call home. [ 
"On my first day in a class called 'Decision Analysis' at Stanford, I was shocked when Prof. Ron Howard said that you couldn't judge a decision from the outcome. I walked up to him after class and said, 'Professor, this is what I have read in spiritual texts - that we are only competent in the action, and the outcome is not in our hands. Your principle is ancient.' Prof. Howard replied, 'It may be, but these texts don't tell you how to apply this to financial decision-making, and we have worked out the details here.'" Somik Raha, a PhD in decision analysis, describes his exploration of a process for making good decisions, and how it helps bridge the material and spiritual. He then introduces six keys of decision quality, applicable by anyone in any decision situation. [ 
Jessica Herrera's parents lost their jobs at the beginning of her senior year in high school. Evicted from the homes they rented, the family split up: her father left town to look for work, her mother and sister moved in with relatives, and Jessica took refuge in a homeless shelter. But that didn't stop the 18-year-old from graduating high school. "There were times I came home and there was no food. I wanted to get a part-time job or something, but my mom told me to focus on school only." Following her parents' advice, Herrera graduated from her high school's International Baccalaureate program with a 5.5 GPA and received a full scholarship to attend Florida International University next fall. Despite all the obstacles, Herrera remains positive: "I don't feel sorry for myself. I do feel it has made me stronger." she reflects. "Anything is possible as long as you work hard enough for it." [ 
