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.
What it's like to meditate with Deepak Chopra
I’m not one for meditating. It’s not that I don’t believe in the virtues and benefits of the practice, but my mind tends to wander and instead of coming out of a session feeling zen, I instead emerge worried about my next deadline or the mysterious cough my 4-year-old daughter might have. Oh, Read More...
Central banks explore blockchain to create digital currencies
“If you can’t beat them, join them,” could well be the mantra for the world’s central bankers. Having watched as bitcoin went from obscure experiment in digital money to a currency with a market value of almost $10bn, they themselves are now experimenting with digital Read More...
Venezuelans are turning to bitcoin as the bolívar crumbles
Venezuela’s currency has lost so much of its value that people have given up on counting the notes—they just weigh piles of cash. So far this year, the bolívar has lost nearly half its value compared to the dollar, while inflation has shot up as much as 15 times. That’s Read More...
Pope Francis joins celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation
Five hundred years Christianity experienced a painful schism when the Protestant Reformation was born. Catholicism and Protestantism have been struggling ever since and its leaders—more often than not—have been unable to present a joint spiritual leadership to the masses. So it’s remarkable Read More...
What Silicon Valley can learn from Buddha’s diet
As we walk, Dan Zigmond pulls on a black baseball cap. The sun is high, and the trees give little shade. It’s a big park—stretching across a good nine acres of grass, mulch, shrubs, and gravel paths—but from where we are, it looks much bigger. Beyond the nine acres, all we can see are more Read More...
Fire, the wheel and the other Top 18 greatest inventions of all time
Yes, antibiotics and the car are also on the list. But here’s a test: Write your own list on a piece of paper before you click, and, possibly even more important, take a moment to consider how creativity can further improve the human experience. Technology is a core component of our existence. We Read More...
Swiss railway ticket machines to sell Bitcoin digital currency
From next week railway travelers in Switzerland will be able to trade Swiss francs for Bitcoins using ticket machines. The Swiss railway services SBB says it has been testing customer demand for Bitcoin across the country and had decided to launch a two-year pilot project. “There have been few Read More...
Try stealing this bike while not vomiting
The Optimist Daily also has roots in the Netherlands, a country with more bikes than people. A country too with low crime rates. However, stealing bikes happens all the time. As far as we know, the Dutch haven’t figured out this very effective solution: A lock that emits chemicals that make Read More...
Why real peace in Colombia matters to the U.S. and the rest of the Americas
In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel The General in His Labyrinth, the Columbian Nobel Prize laureate imagines General Simon Bolivar musing as he tries to liberate South America in the 19th century: “I go to seek a great perhaps.” This moody sentiment has distinct echoes in Colombia Read More...
Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation
As mindfulness meditation and yoga have become mainstream and more extensively studied, growing evidence suggests multiple psychological and physical benefits of these mindfulness exercises, as well as for similar practices like tai chi and qi gong. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses analyzing Read More...