Sangha of Auspicious Companions

August 2, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

7 Practices to Cultivate Compassion

Scientific studies suggest that there are physical benefits to practicing compassion — people who practice it produce 100 percent more DHEA, which is a hormone that counteracts the aging process, and 23 percent less cortisol — the “stress hormone.” According to this guide, the key to developing compassion is to make it a daily practice, and it offers 7 different ways to incorporate it into everyday life. It also supports the practice of compassion not only to ease the suffering of those we love and meet, but even those who mistreat us. { read more }

Be The Change

Try out one of the seven compassion practices today.

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August 1, 2011

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The Power of Feedback Loops

The premise of a feedback loop is simple: provide people with information about their actions in real time, then give them a chance to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors. Why does putting our own data in front of us somehow compel us to act? In part, it’s that feedback taps into something core to the human experience, even to our biological origins. Like any organism, humans are self-regulating creatures, and feedback loops are how we learn, whether we call it trial and error or course correction. In so many areas of life, we succeed when we have some sense of where we stand and some evaluation of our progress. As Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura puts it, “People are proactive, aspiring organisms,” and feedback taps into those aspirations. This Wired Magazine article explores emerging tools that harness the power of feedback loops. { read more }

Be The Change

In this short passage, Alan Watts reflects on our internal feedback system — “the self-awareness that makes human experience resonant.” { more }

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July 31, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Sidewalks: The Way They See It

Every Tuesday volunteers serve more than 100 Chicago homeless people with food from fine dining restuarants — all with dignity and grace. Here they are not faceless and referred to as “Guests,” and sometimes even as “Artists:” for the last eight years, some of them have received inexpensive disposable cameras and have gone about the adventure of capturing their lives. This work culminates with a one-night-only exhibition, “After Supper: Visions of My Life.” The photos sell for $100, with $75 of that going to the photographers, some of whom have used the money to buy their own cameras. And perhaps most importantly, as the founders of this project say, “They are proud of their work. They share their joy.” { read more }

Be The Change

Share a compassionate moment with the next homeless person you come across.

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July 30, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Lighting the Way in Slums

Plastic bottles jut from the roofs in a Manila slum neighborhood. But these bottles have an important purpose: they contain bleach and water and are placed snugly into a purpose-built hole in the roof. Designed by students at MIT, they reflect sunlight, spreading 360 degrees of 55-watt-light through the room beneath. Using the simplest of technologies, these bottles brighten dim and dreary shanties, emitting clear light for about five years. The invention is part of a project called “Isang Litrong Liwanag,” which means A Litre of Light, and helps some of the poorest Philippines residents save money and live better — in a renewable way. { read more }

Submitted by: j

Be The Change

Check out the website for the project, which aims to bring these Solar Bottle Bulbs to communities around the Phillipines. { more }

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July 29, 2011

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Using Soccer to Turn it Around

Lisa Wrightsman used soccer to turn her life around, and now she’s using it to help others do the same. Wrightsman was in a semipro league, but later succumbed to drugs, alcohol, homelessness and jail. Last year, however, she entered a Volunteers of America recovery program and discovered their street soccer program. With soccer as her pivot, she made a big shift in her own life, and then saw the potential of street soccer as a movement to help others also get off the street. “I saw she changed. I wanted what worked for her to work for me,” said Christina Sanchez, 31, who is now part of the team. With Wrightman’s leadership, for the first time, Sacramento will send a women’s Mohawks homeless soccer team to the national tournament this summer. { read more }

Be The Change

Consider challenges you’ve gone through which position you uniquely to serve others.

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July 28, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard?

“Why do I squander so much mental energy on the mundane purchases of everyday life? I think I’ve found a good answer. Although I know that every floss will work well enough, sometimes I still can’t help waste an embarrassing amount of time on the decision. What I believe happens is that instead of realizing that picking a floss is an easy decision, I confuse the array of options and excess of information with importance, which then leads my brain to conclude that this decision is worth lots of time and attention. Call it the drug store heuristic: A cluttered store shelf leads us to automatically assume that a choice must really matter, even if it doesn’t.” Jonah Lehrer, the author of “How We Decide” further describes some clever experiments that expose the cognitive illusion of seemingly important choices. { read more }

Be The Change

Observe your own decision making today. What factors contribute to hard decisions? What factors contribute to easy ones?

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July 27, 2011

a project of CharityFocus

Living Plastic Free

Three years ago, Beth Terry, like many other Americans chose double plastic bags, threw the plastic bottles in the trash and ate frozen dinners — generating about 100 lbs of plastic waste a year. But after seeing a photo of the sea being filled with plastic products, she resolved to live a plastic free life. From January to November 2010, she generated less than 2 pounds of plastic waste. And she went further. Beth discovered that Clorox’s US Brita water filters are recycled in Europe. 7 months, 16,000 signatures and 600 filters later, Beth successfully petitioned Clorox. Beth asks, “What difference can one person make?” Most of all, one person who reduces their plastic waste is motivated to drive for systemic change. As Beth states in this TEDx video, “We have the power to change the menu that’s offered to us.” { read more }

Be The Change

Apply these 5 strategies for reducing plastic’s environmental impact, and check out the 7 misconceptions about plastic recycling. { more }

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