This is Joe's World

Hiking in nature is not only good for our bodies, it’s good for our moods, our minds, and our relationships, too.

By Jill Suttie


I’m a hiker—“born to hike,” as my husband likes to joke. It does my heart and soul good to strap on a pack and head out on a trail, especially when I’m alone and can let my mind wander where it will.

The experience of hiking is unique, research suggests, conveying benefits beyond what you receive from typical exercise. Not only does it oxygenate your heart, it helps keep your mind sharper, your body calmer, your creativity more alive, and your relationships happier. And, if you’re like me and happen to live in a place where nearby woods allow for hiking among trees, all the better: Evidence suggests that being around trees may provide extra benefits, perhaps because of certain organic compounds that trees exude that boost our mood and our overall psychological well-being.

Hiking in nature is so powerful for our health and well-being that some doctors have begun …

Have you ever felt an emotion you didn’t have the words for? This is where the beauty of other languages can step in. When it comes to love, there are a lot of feelings that English sometimes can’t quite express, but other languages have captured that magic!

Have you ever felt something that you just didn’t have the words for? Well, what if those words were out there, they were just in another language? Let’s explore this beautiful world of words, shall we?

By Liesl Ulrich-Verderber


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Arranged marriages can often throw up surprises. Out of the shadows of Uma Preman's traumatic youth and unhappy marriage she crafted a life that has touched thousands of others -- her difficulties forged within her both the skills and motivation to help disadvantaged Indians gain access to medical treatment.



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"Love Letters from la Pineta" by DailyGood volunteer Jane Jackson is more than a book -- it is a living gesture of love that wings its way between the visible and invisible world. A book that embodies hospitality in its deepest sense. For to truly welcome love and all its bright gifts we are required to keep our hearts open when grief's shadow descends. And that is exactly what Jane does in this book letter by heartfelt letter. Written in the years following her beloved husband Blyden's passing, the letters are addressed to him, and to Jasmine their granddaughter who arrived on this Earth after he had "changed address." She writes them from Mornese -- the Italian town she and Blyden had dreamed of visiting together, and that Jane pilgrimaged bravely to alone after his transition. She finds miraculously waiting for her there in a community of less than a 1000 people-- a deep sense of home, and a sense of belonging." Read an excerpt here.


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Young children and teenagers have very different needs.

By Christine Carter


“Wow. Ugh. That’s amazing!”

This is the usual wide-eyed response when people hear that I have four teenagers. Sometimes people grimace, like the mere thought of it is a bitter pill. They are thinking, I know, that teenagers are hard, which, of course, they can be. Everyone assumes I must be insanely busy, or maybe just a little insane, and that raising four teenagers must be nearly impossible.

These thoughts occur because many teenagers tend to be either terribly disorganized, requiring constant nagging, or tightly wound, perfectionistic, and in need of constant therapy. There’s also all that new neuroscience showing, unfortunately, that the brain regions that help humans make wise choices don’t mature until kids are in their mid 20s, and that many potentially life-threatening risks become more appealing during adolescence while the normal fear of danger is temporarily suppressed. Knowing these things can make it …

Paul Fleischman is the author of numerous books, and has been honored by the American Psychiatric Association for his unique contributions to psychiatry and religion. He points to our sense of wonder as the apparatus by which we experience the intelligence of the universe within. "The wonder of the universe is wondering in us, he writes. And, To live with wonder one must persevere in unknowing, re-encountering and participating. More in this excerpt from his book: Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant


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Being silly with your partner may have some serious benefits.

By Kira M. Newman


I live with a hip-wiggler. When we’re in an elevator, Fred shakes to the muzak. If we’re pushing a cart though the grocery store and B. B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” comes through the speakers, Fred starts shimmying—and watching for my reaction. My role in this bit is to survey the scene in mock disapproval, one eyebrow raised, trying not to giggle.

My partner is playful and I try to join in, in my introverted way. And that’s good because research suggests that couples who are playful together have closer and more satisfying relationships.

Unfortunately, we humans tend to become less playful as we get older. After all, play requires a bit of freedom and space; by definition, it’s not a productive activity. The schedules and stresses of life can impinge on our relationship and suck the playfulness out of it. There may come a day when Fred bops less to the beat.

That’s a bigger loss than we might realize. Scien…

A new study suggests that a grateful partner can help heal the wounds of an insecure attachment style.

By Jill Suttie


As Valentine’s Day approaches, not everyone looks forward to this holiday of romance. For people with “attachment anxiety”—who yearn to be closer to their partners but never seem to get close enough—the day can be one of disappointment and feeling unloved.

Attachment anxiety is the belief that you are not worthy of love and that your partner is likely to reject or abandon you. Adults who didn’t experience the care and safety of a loving parental relationship—whether due to neglect, abuse, emotional coldness, or inconsistent attention to their basic needs as a child—tend to be emotionally overreactive and in need of constant reassurance from others. This can interfere with their mental health and lead to more conflicts in their relationships.

What can help someone feel less afraid of abandonment? A new study suggests that having a grateful partner may be key.

Researchers ana…

There’s a little piece of history sitting right on top of the to-go cup of coffee you grabbed today. The coffee cup lid may seem like a humble piece of human innovation, but it’s got a secret history!

How do you take your coffee in the morning? I don’t mean with cream or sugar— I mean, what do you carry it in? Are you the sit-down type, with your favorite mug? Or are you an on-the-go person, grabbing a cup at your local coffee shop or gas station? Well, if you’re in the latter group, almost every day you are getting the opportunity to interact with a remarkable piece of human ingenuity!

By Liesl Ulrich-Verderber


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What can some of the world’s funniest people do when they open up about mental health? Comedians like Sarah Silverman, Wayne Brady, Chris Gethard, and Rainn Wilson are helping us better support the ones we love and ourselves!

What can some of the world’s funniest people teach us about one of the hardest subject to talk about? In the face of many of their colleague’s deaths by suicide, eleven of the funniest people in comedy today, from Sarah Silverman, Wayne Brady, to Chris Gethard, are here to let us in on their own experiences with anxiety and depression. Their perspective could help change your life or the life of a loved one, too!

By Sam Burns


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"I had all three of my sons, plus three of their friends. This was the first time in over five years that my oldest son, Lee, 18 years old, came along. His special needs had evolved to where he no longer enjoyed leaving home very much or being outside in nature. Most recently, he did not want to leave our 3 beloved cats--especially his handsome tuxedo cat Norman Ruffles." A summer trip with teenagers hits a series of bumps in the road-- and leads unexpectedly to inspiration. Sue Cochrane shares more in this moving piece.


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Hannah Gadsby skewers the straight world's dismissal and outright hostility toward the LGBTQ community in her stand-up sets, stage performances and television shows. Her groundbreaking special "Nanette" broke comedy. In this 2019 TED Talk about truth and purpose, she shares three ideas and three contradictions. Or not.


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This powerful video takes us inside San Quentin Prison to witness 32 men in one circle who reclaim who they really are over the course of 52 weeks in the GRIP Program (Guiding Rage Into Power). GRIP transforms these men who have committed violent crimes into non-violent Peacemakers as they learn to change their own behavior and to further become agents of change so that they can diffuse conflict around them. It is a story of healing, forgiveness and hope.


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"Christian Conte, PhD, is a mental health specialist and leading authority on anger management. With Sounds True, Christian has published Walking Through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon talks with Christian about his Yield Theory of emotional management, focusing on the process of listen, validate, explore options. Christian explains the events that led to his interest in anger management, as well as the origins of Yield Theory. He emphasizes the importance of meeting others where they are, giving them the opportunity to drain anger's charge from their limbic system. Christian and Tami discuss why it's necessary to cultivate humility and how Yield Theory might be applied to our currently divisive culture. Finally, they speak on the cartoon world that angry responses often create, as well as the importance of watching what we add to our minds."


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In 1963, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) became a medical concern, and the death rate was two to three babies per 1,000 live births in most Western nations. Epidemiological research in the ‘70s and ‘80s identified factors that co-occurred with SIDS, especially stomach sleeping and sleeping with adults. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics took their cue, and all pediatricians recommended that babies be put to sleep on their backs, separately from adults. The SIDS rates began to decline.

At the same time, researchers observed that SIDS is lowest in cultures where cosleeping is most common. During the vulnerable age of two to three months when voluntary breathing comes online (and SIDS peaks), the close supervision and presence of the adult may be especially important if the baby has a glitch in the development of her breathing mechanics.

What to do? Research over the last 30 years revealed that the risk of bedsharing can be managed when it is done safely—when the infant is placed on he…

The decision whether to cosleep with your baby is extremely controversial—and there are two sides to the story.

By Diana Divecha


Few parenting conversations in early childhood elicit as much angst and judgment as the one about our children’s sleep: Where should they sleep, and how do we get them to sleep through the night? We label newborn babies as “good,” or not, depending on how much they disturb us in the nighttime, or we believe babies’ sleep is a reflection of our parenting competence.

But our beliefs and decisions about children’s sleep are more a reflection of the culture we live in than the scientific evidence for what’s best for children, says anthropologist James J. McKenna, in many of his 150 scientific articles on children’s sleep. McKenna is director emeritus of the Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, and author of Safe Infant Sleep: Expert Answers to Your Cosleeping Questions. He has devoted his career to understanding what happens to b…