People need connections with others to thrive. A support squad or care crew can help you be your BEST. Build skills: problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and social-emotional awareness. Engagement: people get inspired to learn when interacting with others. Strong connections:…

The use of gamification to make learning more engaging fascinates me. Changing or establishing habits is hard, and any tools that might help are very valuable. Two TED talks by authors have explored the idea of gamifying some of the…

Learning is the way to aquire the skills needed to handle the challenges of life. But apathy, anxiety, and the desire for comfort can prevent us from learning. The learning zone is where we develop skills, improve, and grow. The…

When life seems to be a chaos of confusion we want to move to a place of understanding and harmony. A state of coherence, the feeling that life makes sense, is one of the elements of meaning. What is life,…

Often the biggest challenges we face are the obstacles that we create ourselves to avoid discomfort. This is a striking truth I uncovered while perusing TED talks to discover a unified theory of meaning. Setting goals in the pursuit of…

The skill of emotional intelligence is so important for connecting with others and making a meaningful life. Learn about developing emotional intelligence with the following books and TED talks. Links to the TED talks can be found at the Emotional…

Arthur Brooks has studied and shared information about happiness for quite awhile. He describes what he calls the Happiness equation: happiness = meaning + enjoyment + satisfaction. His book “The Happiness Files,” is a curated collection from his “How to…

How can we make a meaningful life? The answer to this question is outlined in a TED talk by Joshua Hicks: A scientific approach to a meaningful life. He describes four pillars of meaning: mattering, experiential appreciation, purpose, and seeking…

Change is a part of life, and that is a truth often resisted. It can take courage to face change. FLARES that can light the way and help us as we navigate change: • Focus with awareness • Look for…