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.
This Texas village gives the homeless a permanent home and a sense of community
The world looks a little brighter from the front porch of your own home. It’s a sight more than 200 formerly homeless people are waking up to each morning at the Community First! Village – a planned suburbia in Austin, Texas which provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive Read More...
Every Sunday in Colombia’s capital is car-free—and people love it
Cars may be the champion of travel on rural roads, but they are a pain in the ass in cities, creating congested streets and polluted air that pedestrians have to travel through. This is especially the case in the buzzing capital of Colombia, which is home to more than 1,600,000 private cars. Read More...
Football is reuniting the Paradise community one year after fatal Camp Fire
Few things can invigorate a community like sport. A true testament to the community-building power of sport comes from Paradise, California, where firefighters finally extinguished the Camp Fire that all but destroyed the town one year ago. Although hardly anything in Paradise has been rebuilt, Read More...
These former gang rivals are helping Dallas youth escape gang violence
Antong Lucky and Def D had nearly identical childhoods: both were raised in underprivileged neighborhoods in Dallas, both experienced gang violence at an early age, and both had family members who were in gangs. There was, however, one notable difference: they were raised one mile apart, in Read More...
Boost your local wildlife by rewilding your lawn or just mowing it less
Removing the lawn from your home and allowing it to grow wild with flowers and native hedges can do wonders for local wildlife and pollinators. But if you’re not ready to remove your lawn or your neighborhood doesn’t allow it, consider this: In a new study, researchers found that even a modest Read More...
You must see this powerful image of black med students at a former plantation
"I don't think as a kid I ever saw a minority physician.” These are the words of Russel J. Ledet, a second-year medical student at Tulane University School of Medicine. Ledet is an African American, and like many of his peers, he grew up in a community where he rarely saw black people in Read More...
How to beat burnout before the New Year begins
New Year’s resolutions are supposed to give you a motivation boost as you enter the new year, but these extra goals can easily start to feel like just another obligation on top of your already busy days—inadvertently causing more stress. While there’s nothing wrong with having a goal for the Read More...
Charisma is good, but what your public speaking really needs is ‘presence’
Charisma is what we usually attribute to certain actors or politicians, who seem able to magnetize us from simply speaking. A charismatic person seems to intuitively draw people to like them - but there is a catch to this. After all, you have to remind yourself that your task as a speaker is to get Read More...
OPTIMIST VIEW: Circles of Compassion, an exclusive look at The Way of the Rose
“We as a species have got to learn how to surrender to the miraculous and the magical.” - Perdita Finn INTERVIEW By Kristy Jansen I was raised by parents who had rejected their childhood faiths long before I was born, so I never did receive much in the way of religious education. If Read More...
How to make this year’s holiday gifts more environmentally conscious
With all the wholesomeness and magic it brings, the holiday season is also putting significant strain on the environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, American household waste increases 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day – equating to 1 million tons each Read More...