Mental Health
Here you can read the latest news and research studies covering mental health. This is also the place to find out about different strategies on how you can reduce stress and boost happiness, and many other ways to look after your mental wellbeing.
An effective treatment for gaming and internet addiction in teens
Everyone loves playing games. Whether that be a physical sport, board games, or video games, there is something innately human about wanting to play them. But for some, these hobbies can become addictive. The World Health Organization now recognizes being addicted to video games as a disease. Read More...
Stop comparing yourself to others. Try this instead
As the old saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy—and humans love joy! So, why is it that we so often suffer from the tenacious tendency to compare ourselves to others? This impulse to compare is called “social comparison,” and there are two ways in which we engage with it. Upward Read More...
What is validation and why do we need it in relationships?
Validation is crucial for building healthy relationships. This word encompasses the simple act of listening and understanding another person, which communicates that you “get” what they might be going through. In other words, validation is reflecting what another person might be feeling, and Read More...
Do long weekend walks make up for daily ones? Here’s what the experts say
It’s no secret that regular exercise is good for our health—physical, mental, and emotional. However, during the week our schedules can get pretty hectic, which leaves us hunched over our desks, visualizing all the work that’s piling up in our minds, all the while talking ourselves out of the Read More...
Plant-based pleasure—why vegans have better sex
It’s common knowledge in the emoji world that fruits and veggies (peaches and eggplants) have a sexy rep—but could the sexiness of plant-based foods translate to real life? The answer is yes. We’ve shared many stories about how eating more plants is better for the planet and our bodies, Read More...
These urban playgrounds might be why Scandinavians are so happy
We’ve written a good deal about “what makes people the happiest” at The Optimist Daily. We’ve enjoyed examining the lifestyle aspects of the Blue Zone countries or the joyous aspects of Finnish culture. While looking into Scandinavia, though, it’s important to check out their notion of Read More...
How to train your own resilience as if it were a muscle
Resilience is like a muscle—we have to target it and actively build on it for it to grow. We have to be able to recognize that life isn’t always rosy and adapt with a stronger mindset that will ultimately lead to a happier life. In order to help foster more resilience within you, here are Read More...
5 brain types and what make them happy, according to a neuroscientist
Over the past couple of years, there have been perceptible shifts in our collective vision of what our lives should look like. The Pandemic has exposed the weak points in our current systems and the inequities they perpetuate, causing us to seriously reconsider the track that we’re on. There Read More...
Researchers find companionship may reduce risk of Alzheimer's
Here at The Optimist Daily, we’ve written a great deal about the contributing factors to Alzheimer's disease and what you can do to help avoid it yourself. Exercise, proper diet, even knitting, and nifty nasal sprays can improve your chances, but recent findings suggest that just keeping in Read More...
Stop being so hard on yourself, monkeys choke under pressure too
We’ve all been there: stepped up to do an important presentation or phone call and the words come bumbling out of our mouths in the wrong order or sometimes not at all. These situations can leave us embarrassed and cringing, even though everyone experiences them. New research, from Georgia Read More...