“One of my clients had candles spread all over her house, in every room,” Diane Button, an end-of-life doula, writes in her book What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living.
“They were on nightstands and dressers, surrounding her bathtub, and even along the walkway of the woodsy entrance into her house,” Diane notes.
“There were dozens of them, and they were beautiful, but not one … continue reading
1: Imagine two groups of bike riders that are getting ready to ride through the countryside.
“The first group,” Rachel Barr writes in How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, “are instructed to take notice of the delightful things they experience along the way, to savor each sensation, like a brush of warm sun, or the pastoral charm of cows eyeing them with mild suspicion.”
The second group … continue reading
1: Researchers at Harvard and MIT analyzed the moods and behaviors of 28,000 smartphone users.
What did they learn?
“When people felt down,” Rachel Barr writes in How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend, “they tended to seek out activities that promised instant gratification, like watching TV or drinking wine.”
When the participants were in a good mood, however, “they leaned toward more productive activities,” Rachel notes, “that … continue reading
1: We’re all likely familiar with the “marshmallow experiments.”
“Social psychologist Walter Mischel and his colleagues presented children with a single marshmallow and offered them a choice: They could eat it, or wait alone in the room with it for ten minutes, in which case they’d get one more,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts… continue reading
1: It’s the late ’90s. John Ortberg “was working at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, one of the most influential churches in the world,” John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
“John himself is a well-known teacher and best-selling author—the kind of guy you figure pretty much has apprenticeship to Jesus down,” John Mark notes, “But behind the scenes he felt like he was getting … continue reading
1: “It’s a Sunday night, 10 p.m. Head up against the glass of an Uber, too tired to even sit up straight. I taught six times today—yes, six. The church I pastor just added another gathering,” John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
“That’s what you do, right? Make room for people?” he asks.
“I made it until about talk number four; I don’t remember anything … continue reading
1: Our work can become all-consuming.
“Where one’s identity in prior generations might come from being the son of so-and-so or living in a particular part of town or being a member of a church or club,” Timothy Keller writes in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, “today young people are seeking to define themselves by the status of their work.”
Which can become dangerous.… continue reading
