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.
Manage your energy, not your time
Emma Seppälä and I have something in common: we are both recovering chore-haters. “There was a time when I couldn’t stand running errands: getting gas, taking my car for an oil change, calling the electricity company about a bill, or going grocery shopping,” she writes in her new book The Read More...
2015 was record-breaking year for investment in renewable energy
A record $367 billion was invested in renewable energy around the world last year, according to a new report published today by Clean Energy Canada. That’s more than a third of a trillion dollars (USD) and a 7 percent increase on 2014. Whereas the oil price crash had everyone expecting renewable Read More...
How meditation actually changes your brain
Sit down. Close your eyes. Feel your chest rise and fall with each inhaled and exhaled breath. For decades, researchers have suggested that this simple practice--known as mindfulness meditation--can have health benefits that range from banal to life-changing. Some occasional meditators report being Read More...
Stevie Wonder talks being vegan and living a green lifestyle
There is no doubt about it that Stevie Wonder is looking great these days, but what contributes to his already fabulous self? "I've been a vegan for two years, so that's helped my already good-looking self," joked the musician. "I think that eating healthy is important." The legendary singer put Read More...
This ceasefire deal could bring peace closer for Syria—really
The ceasefire—or, to be precies, the halt to "combat operations"—discussed by Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin and accepted yesterday, has been met widely with skepticism. After all, ceasefires are known to be proposed by outside powers, only never to materialize. But this deal deserves a more Read More...
San Diego is ready to go big on biking and walking
The city of San Diego has big ideas for downtown streets. Their draft Downtown Mobility Plan outlines a network laden with protected bike lanes, pedestrian greenways, curb bulb-outs, road diets and more. If the plan can make it from concept to construction, it will remake the city core for biking Read More...
6 ways to give your activism a much-needed global spin
To do truly responsible advocacy work, you have to go global. Adding a global sensibility to your activism means reaching outside of your own community to get a broader view of the inequalities at hand. By hearing and acknowledging global perspectives, rather than listening to the single story that Read More...
Can ‘effective altruism’ really change the world?
Let’s imagine you have some spare cash to give away and you want to do something useful with your money. Should you spend it on food for starving children or vaccinations in refugee camps? Mosquito nets or courses in financial literacy? Animal rights at home or carbon off-setting in Latin Read More...
A Stanford psychologist says these 6 things are the keys to happiness and success
If you want to be successful, you should work as hard as possible and suffer, right? Or so we're told. But that notion is completely wrong, according to psychologist Emma Seppala, science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. As Seppala Read More...
The neuroscience of creativity
Some scientists believe that studying creativity is a fruitless endeavor, others do not. Neuroscience can be a dense and unrelentingly complex area of study. The scientists involved strive to answer disparate questions ranging from "how do we walk?" to "how do we remember things?" and from "how do Read More...