Every era has its brand of conformity. In the Information Age, where measurement is rampant and media are omnipresent, a prescriptive society has grown up that offers—through every conceivable channel, expert, pseudo-expert, and convert—a barrage of instructions for how to live each day like Steve Austin, the Bionic Man: “better, stronger, faster.” We’re told the number of steps to take each day, the number of glasses of water, vitamins, and supplements to take, glasses of wine and cups of coffee to drink or not drink, what exercises to do, what to eat and not eat for what results, the desired size and shape of feces, and yes, how often and how long to meditate....

It’s time once again for our favorite year-end ritual here at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center: Our annual list of the top scientific insights produced by the study of happiness, altruism, mindfulness, gratitude—what we call “the science of a meaningful life.” We found that this year, the science of a meaningful life yielded many new insights about the relationship between our inner and outer lives. Cultivating mindfulness can make us more aware of knee-jerk prejudice against people who are different from us; believing that empathy is a skill helps overcome barriers to taking another person’s perspective; concern for others, even for animals, can move people to action for the greater good more quickly than focusing on ourselves....

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. To learn more about ’em, click here. Our cute Tic Tac Toe boards were designed by Messes to Memories. These to do lists are editable so that you can customize them yourself and use them again and again! Why Make A To Do List? Why Make A To Do List? The other day I was listening to Brad Upton’s Honey Do List Dry Bar Comedy set....

Running Date Invite Running Date Invite We created this colorful invite to inspire your spouse to go running with you! Simply print it out, cut around the adorable shoe, and surprise them with it! We recommend printing on a heavier paper like this cardstock for all your printables, especially since you’ll be using some of them outside. Running Schedule for Beginners Running Schedule for Beginners Are you ready to start running?...

Now, for this final installment of the “Self-Care in Politically Charged Times” Series, we’re going to start looking at self-care as a societal movement that we must champion. Take a moment to imagine the power of a self-care movement—a wave of kind care connecting communities, healing our bodies and minds, sustaining our energy and momentum, and helping us all live healthier, happier, and more balanced lives. That’s pretty awesome. So how do we make self-care a cornerstone practice, bringing it into our social groups, homes, and offices?...