We found a lovely, simple way to reframe those big existential questions everyone seems to ask themselves about whether they are enough…
Read More10 Ways to Deepen Conversation + the Crap Advice You Should Forget (Celeste Headlee)
We’ve found employing Celeste Headlee’s 10 principles for having a better conversation really DO take the conversation farther. Here they are, including the Crap Advice she advises you forget.
Read MoreOpened at Random: ‘Devotions’ by Mary Oliver
This morning, we opened Mary Oliver’s Devotions to this…
Read MoreJulia Child’s Life Lessons (On Live TV, 1963)
In this short clip, Julia Child attempts flipping a potato pancake — “a rather daring thing to do”— and imparts extraordinary life wisdom when she flubs it.
Read MoreShout What You Love (Jessica’s Daily Affirmation)
In this great video, we see a little kid’s unique method of daily affirmations. So we tried it ourselves. It’s both uplifting and energizing.
Read MoreIkigai: What is Your Reason For Being?
When a friend sent us a VENN diagram of the Japanese concept of Ikigai last week, we found we couldn’t get its big fat question out of our mind.
Read MoreSlow Thinking is a Revolutionary Act
During a week away where we forgot to check into Improvised Life’s many social media platforms, we discovered “slow thinking”. It is indeed a radical and transformative act.
Read MorePracticing Martin Luther King Jr’s 6 Principles of Nonviolence
We’ve often wondered at Dr. Martin Luther King ability to maintain his non-violent stance in the face of numerous threats and arrests. Was he born with it, or was it driven by his powerful faith, or was it something he had to work at daily, a practice?
Read MoreAn Antidote to the Difficulties and Terrors We Face
We were stunned by this image of Mohammed Mohiedin Anis listening to music amidst the dust and debris, fallen-in windows and crumbling walls of his bedroom in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. It holds an essential lesson and reminder.
Read MoreWoodie Guthrie’s New Year’s Resolutions That We’ll Take For Our Own
We love Woodie Guthrie’s 33 New Year’s “Rulins”, hand written 1943 in a notebook with tiny illustrations along side. These six are dazzlers.
Read MoreZach Lieberman’s Poetry of Code + A Six Year Old’s Astonishing Words to Live By
Every minute of Zach Lieberman’s AIGA talk is full of amazement. We excerpted our favorite two minutes: the book his stepdaughter River made when she was six year old, called I Am Art.
Read MoreHow to Signal ‘Angry’ Without Blowing Your Top
Wise woman Mira Keras recently mentioned a unique strategy she came up for dealing with situations when either she, her husband or her young daughter Gogo are angry, inevitable in any close relationship.
Read MoreIrving Penn’s Lesson in Setting Boundaries
When I worked with legendary photographer Irving Penn years ago, he gave me a tangible lesson in setting boundaries to maintain the flow of his work.
Read MoreSage Advice from Moondog
Listening to Spotify while I was working, suddenly…Moondog came on, singing Do Your Thing, a sublimely 70′ song, curiously packed with wisdom. He was an original, who lived his advice
Read More2 Minute Lessons from Therapy from Really Creative People
Shrink is a compelling series of videos in which really smart, creative people tell what they learned in therapy in under two minutes. Natasha Lyonne’s is our favorite, perfect with this Galway Kinnell poem.
Read MoreTo Bend To Not Break (Cecile Belmont)
Cecile Belmont’s art work message is a particularly potent reminder of a way to be daily, hourly, minute by minute, as many forces may seem to try to break us. Trisha Brown’s foot prints sum it up.
Read MoreBlind Master Card Magician Richard Turner: Play the Cards You’re Dealt
Richard Turner is considered the world’s greatest card sharp. His prowess at card magic is astonishing, all the more so because he is blind. Here are his principles for overcoming obstacles.
Read MoreA Lost Computer’s Lesson in YES
When her laptop got marooned for a week in Grand Central Station’s Lost Luggage Department, book editor and writer Harriet Bell discovered what it is like to live without it.
Read MoreHow to Unhook from Email Paranoia
Thought Catalog’s 10 Ways You’re Making Your Life Harder Than It Has Top Be did a great job of identifying some really common disruptive thought patterns I share with about a million other people. One in particular really hit home.
Read MoreLongevity + Life Advice from an 105-Year-Old MD
Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, an expert on longevity, died recently at age 105. He imposed few inviolable health rules, though he did recommend some essential guidelines.
Read More