purpose

How Pixar’s “Soul” met the Science of Awe

by

Five years ago, I (Dacher) received a call from Pixar writer and direc­tor Pete Doc­ter to talk about his new film. The last time I said yes to such a request, I served as a sci­en­tif­ic con­sul­tant for his film Inside Out. So, I was intrigued.

Before my vis­it, Pete offered a brief sketch of the film. The main char­ac­ter, Joe, is a mid­dle-aged jazz pianist in a rut as a mid­dle school band teacher in Queens. Just before his break­through show with a famous quar­tet, he falls into a man­hole and dies, enter­ing into anoth­er realm of con­scious­ness. There he encoun­ters “The Great Beyond”—but escapes to a pre-life realm, the “Great Before,” where he befriends a cyn­i­cal “new soul” named 22. The sto­ry is about their respec­tive quests: for 22 to find her rea­son for liv­ing, and for Joe to get back to life in his body for a once-in-a-life­time gig. [Read more…] about How Pixar’s “Soul” met the Sci­ence of Awe

Forget the Oscars — the Greater Goodies honor Ten Films that Highlight the Growth Mindset, Resilience, Purpose and more

by

___

Every­one’s talk­ing about yes­ter­day’s Acad­e­my Awards—and so we thought we’d give out our own ver­sion of the Oscars, the Greater Goodies.

Where­as the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences rec­og­nizes achieve­ments in act­ing, direct­ing, edit­ing, and so on, the Greater Good staff picked our win­ners for their abil­i­ty to illus­trate spe­cif­ic keys to human well-being, such as growth mind­set, resilience, pur­pose, and for­give­ness.

Some of the movies are action-filled block­busters, like Won­der Woman or Star Wars: The Last Jedi; oth­ers are qui­et inde­pen­dent films like The Flori­da Project and Lady Bird. We hope the Greater Good­ies help you see all of these films in a new light—and per­haps you can apply their insights to your own life.  [Read more…] about For­get the Oscars — the Greater Good­ies hon­or Ten Films that High­light the Growth Mind­set, Resilience, Pur­pose and more

10 ways in which Yoga Meditation helps nourish Body, Brain and Mind

by

holdingbrain—

An easy, low cost, nat­ur­al prac­tice can help us boost our brain pow­er, be health­i­er and more spir­i­tu­al­ly attuned as we age, and improve our qual­i­ty of life and hap­pi­ness. It could also reduce some of the stag­ger­ing health care costs seen today.

Curi­ous about what that prac­tice is? [Read more…] about 10 ways in which Yoga Med­i­ta­tion helps nour­ish Body, Brain and Mind

12 Ways Yoga Meditation Helps Nourish The Body, Brain and Mind

by

An easy, low cost, nat­ur­al prac­tice can help us boost our brain pow­er, be health­i­er and more spir­i­tu­al­ly attuned as we age, and improve our qual­i­ty of life and hap­pi­ness. It could also reduce some of the stag­ger­ing health care costs seen today.

Curi­ous about what that prac­tice is?

Recent­ly The Alzheimer’s Research and Pre­ven­tion Foun­da­tion (ARPF), of which I’m the found­ing pres­i­dent and med­ical direc­tor, pre­sent­ed a sum­ma­ry of [Read more…] about 12 Ways Yoga Med­i­ta­tion Helps Nour­ish The Body, Brain and Mind

Understanding, and Nurturing, Resilience and Adaptability

by

Over and over again—in nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, after the SARS epi­dem­ic, fol­low­ing the loss of a child or spouse—Bonanno’s lon­gi­tu­di­nal stud­ies on loss and trau­ma revealed the exact same pat­tern at the pop­u­la­tion lev­el. No mat­ter how bad the trau­ma, rates of PTSD nev­er exceed­ed one-third, and rates of resilience were always found in at least one-third and nev­er more than two-thirds of the population.

“This pat­tern of response is so ubiq­ui­tous, and so con­sis­tent, it begs the ques­tion: Why are we, as a species, designed this way?” asks Bonanno.

One pos­si­ble answer is that the design ensures that there is always at least a siz­able minor­i­ty, or even a major­i­ty, to take care of those deeply affect­ed by a trau­ma. [Read more…] about Under­stand­ing, and Nur­tur­ing, Resilience and Adaptability

MetLife Mature Market Institute: Meaning, Purpose and Cognitive Health for a Lifelong Good Life

by

Increased longevi­ty has gen­er­at­ed many ques­tions and much inter­est in healthy aging and retire­ment lifestyles over the recent decades. As Amer­i­cans become edu­cat­ed regard­ing lifestyle choic­es that con­tribute to both phys­i­cal and men­tal health, the def­i­n­i­tion of healthy aging has expand­ed to include brain health.

The notion of retire­ment as a time of with­draw­al from soci­ety, to be spent on rest and repose reflect­ed the think­ing of a pre­vi­ous era when peo­ple expect­ed short­er life spans. It is now known that the human brain ben­e­fits from envi­ron­ments rich in nov­el and com­plex stim­uli, and that by active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in soci­ety and tak­ing on per­son­al­ly rel­e­vant roles, peo­ple find mean­ing and pur­pose, which gives them a rea­son to get up in the morn­ing and pur­sue new challenges.

This year, the MetLife Mature Mar­ket Insti­tute pub­lished a research study titled Dis­cov­er­ing What Mat­ters: Bal­anc­ing Mon­ey, Med­i­cine and Mean­ing. The study explored how peo­ple rebal­ance their pri­or­i­ties over time and jug­gle var­i­ous com­pet­ing aspects of life includ­ing mon­ey, med­i­cine (a metaphor for health) and mean­ing, in order to live the Good Life.  Hav­ing pur­pose was found to [Read more…] about MetLife Mature Mar­ket Insti­tute: Mean­ing, Pur­pose and Cog­ni­tive Health for a Life­long Good Life