Lifestyle
Alongside taking care of other people and the planet, make sure you take good care of yourself. The Lifestyle section at the Optimist Daily has solutions for everyday wellbeing on topics like food, beauty, fashion, and the latest trends. Curious about caring for houseplants, eating plant-based, or parenting tips? It’s all in there.
Tweet tweet! Study finds birds are linked to happiness levels
If you find yourself happier around singing birds, you’re not alone. A new study from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research indicates being around greater bird biodiversity is actually linked to greater happiness levels amongst people. To come to this conclusion, the Read More...
How to manage social anxiety in a pandemic
Among its many impacts on mental health, the pandemic is driving an increase in social anxiety. Cognitive behavior therapist Jennifer Guttman, PsyD, writes for mindbodygreen that she is seeing a noticeable increase in social anxiety among her patients. Social anxiety is defined as "marked and Read More...
Foggy windshields? Here’s how to defog them in no time
For all the cozy things we associate with wintertime, there are some particularly frustrating aspects as well. Foggy car windshields in the morning are one of them! The fog that forms on a windshield is actually condensation. It’s created when water vapor in the air near the glass falls below Read More...
7 ways to professionally decline an unnecessary Zoom meeting
Back in April, we wrote a story about how to deal with Zoom fatigue—the phenomenon of feeling exhausted after a day full of virtual meetings. Today, we want to help you minimize Zoom fatigue with a lesson on how to professionally decline an unnecessary Zoom meeting. You see, video calls can be Read More...
Bank of America officially says no to financing Arctic drilling
One word: Finally. Bank of America has just become the last major US financial institution to declare that they will no longer finance any oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. The decision, which was announced to Bloomberg News on Monday, comes after Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Wells Read More...
Study: Speaking with infants may change their brains
If a baby isn’t capable of taking part in complex conversations, is there any point for parents to talk to them? A new study out of Stanford University suggests there are potential brain benefits for infants who are spoken to. In the study, scientists found engaging in “conversations” with Read More...
Early bird gets the worm, so here’s how to become a “morning person”
Your chronotype describes your body’s natural circadian rhythm trends. Are you an early bird or more of a night owl? Although this predisposition to waking and sleeping at a certain hour is, in fact, partially genetic, you can change your body’s natural behavior with some easy tricks. Here’s Read More...
The Optimist View: A holiday solutions guide for the strangest year ever
The Norweigian city of Tromsø sits 200 miles north of the Arctic circle, yet for the large part, the residents don’t experience the sort of seasonal depression you might expect with so many months of darkness. A big part of this successful wintertime living is what psychologist Kari Leibowitz Read More...
How to let your intuition guide your exercise habits
If you want to make consistent exercise a part of your life, then you should consider the practice of intuitive exercise. The idea behind the intuitive exercise is that the tendency for people to work out simply because they want their bodies to look good or ideal is actually damaging to both Read More...
A guide to mailing homemade treats this holiday season
In our guide to more socially distanced holidays, we recommended sending care packages with homemade treats to relatives you can’t see in person. Today, we’re diving deeper into how you can safely prepare and mail those goods. First things first, it’s important that the food is being Read More...