The Top 10 Insights from the “Science of a Meaningful Life”

[Welles]

UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center is an academic research branch into areas such as positive emotion, empathy, gratitude etc, in short all those aspects of ourselves that have to to with personal and collective well-being. This is a rather long article that lists ten of the significant insights from their studies in 2013. There are links galore and many TEDTalk type videos that accompany the article. You could easily spend a couple of hours here.

The topics are:

1. A meaningful life is different—and healthier—than a happy one.
2. The emotional benefits of altruism might be a human universal.
3. Mindfulness meditation makes people more altruistic—even when confronted with barriers to compassionate action.
4. Meditation changes gene expression.
5. Mindfulness training improves teachers’ performance in the classroom.
6. There’s nothing simple about happiness.
7. Gratitude can save your life.
8. Employees are motivated by giving as well as getting.
9. Anyone can cultivate empathic skills—even psychopaths.
10. Subtle contextual factors influence our sense of right and wrong.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article ... fe_in_2013


Welles

[Sandy]

Thanks Welles!
I will take a look at the article and listen to some (Ted talks which are always good) in a little while. My landlord has asked me to clean out the gutters for him before he power washes the building so the day may fly past before I have a chance to read but it is a fascinating and most helpful series of topics.

Sandy