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.
How to set boundaries that actually work
At a time when our homes are serving as our offices, gyms, and places of rest, creating boundaries can be very difficult. Various aspects of our lives have become intertwined and muddied. On our Optimist Daily Update, our team leaders Kristy Jansen and Summers McKay often discuss the difficulties Read More...
Americans are finally starting to embrace the bidet
Bidet sales are up in America! Editorial confession: We’ve been hoping to write something like that for a long time. If you don’t know what a bidet is, it’s typically a small bathtub-like fixture situated next to the toilet, with taps on one end. Its tub is filled with water, and the user Read More...
Just 8 weeks of a fruit and vegetable-rich diet can improve heart health
An apple a day isn’t guaranteed to keep the doctor away, but following this philosophy is a good strategy for overall heart health. That’s according to a recently published research article from the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The observational study looked at the data of people Read More...
The Optimist View: Cultivating a Circular Economy
“There is a great need for the introduction of new values in our society, where bigger is not necessarily better, where slower can be faster, and where less can be more.” – Gaylord Nelson On one of our regular family Zoom calls, my aunt asked me “what habits have you adopted during Read More...
Teams need a devil’s advocate. Here’s how to play the role productively
A good team has a diverse set of members who have different perspectives, experiences, points of view, and styles. This prevents blind spots and groupthink that can lead the team down dangerous paths and to poor performance. But one of the key roles that teams often get wrong is that of the Read More...
How to deal with parental stress as the summer looms closer
If you are a parent, it’s been a challenging few months, to say the least. Life has asked you to play many roles: Full-time parent, full-time teacher, and perhaps full-time employee, too. Now summer is looming—and while some parts of the world are opening up, there is a good chance you will be Read More...
Researchers find regular exercise improves memory
Researchers have pondered the connection between exercise and brain health for years. While it seems clear the two are related, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have now identified a concrete connection between aerobic exercise and memory. Aerobic exercise Read More...
How to turn all those scraps of food into a delicious vegetable broth
Food waste is a major dilemma in today’s world and throwing out even vegetable scraps contributes to the problem. As the people over at Inhabitat reminded us over the weekend, there's a great way to make use of all your food scraps: create a delicious broth. It’s surprisingly easy to make Read More...
This is what happens when you give emergency cash to gig workers
What happens when you give gig workers no-strings-attached emergency cash grants of up to $1,000? In a new study, researchers found they were able to get back to work quicker after an emergency, felt less stressed, and, in some instances, got on track toward new financial goals, like saving to be Read More...
Cycling and walking to your work can help you live longer
As governments around the world are actively encouraging citizens to skip public transit and instead cycle and walk more during the pandemic, the findings of a massive recent study may actually sway people to do so even after the pandemic. Coming from Imperial College London, the research tapped Read More...