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.
Study: For anxiety, mindfulness meditation works
A clinical trial backed by the National Institutes of Health has provided new evidence that mindfulness meditation effectively fights anxiety. Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry worked with 89 patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders to Read More...
Study: A “psychological vaccine” inoculates against the dangers of fake news
This would be funny if fake news wouldn’t be a serious issue. Psychologists have found that a type of “psychological vaccine” could stop the spread of a piece of fake news by exposing people to weakened forms of it—just as vaccines immunize people by exposing them to a weakened version of a Read More...
No walls: More people than ever traveled around the world in 2016
We increasingly live in a global village and that’s not going to change. Despite all the talk of borders and walls, more people than ever traveled around the world in 2016. There was a record of 1.23 billion international tourist arrivals last year. Europe was the top destination with 620 million Read More...
Self-propelled lifesaving buoy zips out and retrieves drowning swimmers
Here's a nifty lifesaving idea from Noras Performance out of Portugal. U-Safe is a lifesaving buoy that can drive itself around in the water by remote control, meaning it can reach a victim quickly, and transport them to safety if need be. The U-shaped U-safe is a battery powered device you can Read More...
Oscars 2017: This year's nominees tell a different story
After two consecutive seasons, the whiteout plaguing the Academy Awards has ended. Tuesday dawned in Hollywood with diversity at center stage, as this year’s Oscar nominations recognized a range of stories and faces that for two years had been conspicuously absent. People of color punctuated Read More...
Can empathy bridge political divides?
The unprecedented level of political division in the United States has been worrisome to many Americans, but bridging that gap is not an impossible task, according to a Stanford sociologist. Robb Willer, a professor of sociology, has studied the rising polarization in the United States for several Read More...
This Swedish billboard coughs when a smoker walks by
Will it help people to quit smoking? That remains to be seen, but it is surely a creative way to remind people of their new year’s resolution to quit. The ad uses a TV screen and a smoke detector to perform its advertising trick. At first, it looks like a regular photograph on a billboard, but Read More...
Transcendental meditation is a great way to reduce trauma: Study
Practicing transcendental meditation technique for 20 minutes twice a day can significantly reduce trauma symptoms such as unwanted thoughts and help female prisoners find inner peace, a study has found. Transcendental meditation is a technique for detaching oneself from anxiety and promoting Read More...
Hundreds of coffins to be restored in Egyptian conservation project
Egypt will restore hundreds of coffins dating back thousands of years to the time of the pharaohs as part of an American-Egyptian project to preserve and document one of the world’s oldest civilisations, a director of the project said. The conservation effort, funded by a US grant, will Read More...
How are you going to spend the time that the self-driving car will give you?
Talking about self-driving cars… What are you going to do with all the time they will give back? First, you don’t need to pay attention to traffic while you commute. But you will also gain much time as self-driving cars will be more efficient and produce fewer traffic jams. Americans spend some Read More...