Natalie Audelo

A website is a container that shapes our work; a space where we can cultivate our own garden, planting seeds of ideas and watching unexpected connections bloom. This approach introduces friction – a quality Brown sees as necessary for meaningful creation: “More often than not, I find that what I need is some friction, some labor, the effort to work... See more

This reorientation toward meaning over materialism is beginning to take root elsewhere, too.

She is a maestro of self-determination, of writing her own story

A bunch of studies show that when we witness acts of kindness and pro-social cooperation by others we experience something called “moral elevation” - we are lifted into optimism and altruism and feel inclined to spread kindness onwards. I referred to the way awe works to connect us into our humanity a few chapters back. A global study showed that 9... See more

. Neuroscience experiments by my lab show that when people intentionally build social ties at work, their performance improves. A Google study similarly found that managers who “express interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being” outperform others in the quality and quantity of their work.

In recent years, I've begun to suspect that a life consumed by ideas will not bring me closer to the divine. The freedom I seek, it seems, doesn't lie in my laying about, steeped in my own brain, but rather in the stillness I've found in the more mundane moments of my life. In these moments, there is no euphoria, nor even any active reflection on g... See more