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.
4 lessons from TED talks on how to find inner calm and happiness
How much time do you intend to spend reading this post? A couple of minutes? A few seconds? The problem with our modern lives is that we're always pushing so hard to get our work done, visit that exciting new place, and connect with our many friends in social media and real life that we're in too Read More...
What Copenhagen and Houston tell us about how “trust” affects cities
You’d be hard pressed to find two Western cities that are more different than Houston and Copenhagen. The former has a reputation for being a business-focused place where everything is big. Buoyed by an economy that has thrived in recent years as the oil industry boomed, residents drive in Read More...
Swap just one hour of daily sitting with walking and you'll live longer
We are spending more time sitting then ever before in history, and it's not good for us. Researchers are studying the adverse effects of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and they found that it's not too late to change. Replace one hour of sitting each day with walking, and you can decrease Read More...
US government introduces new rules to reduce smog pollution, improving health
The Obama administration announced a new smog pollution limit yesterday. The standard for US smog levels is now reduced to 70 parts of ground-level ozone per billion, down from 75. Ground-level ozone—the main ingredient in smog—is formed when pollutants such as nitrogen oxides from cars and Read More...
The best ways to get to work, according to science
Commuting affects your mental health, your physical health, and even the way you think about other people. And these changes are more profound than you might think. The average commuter spends about an hour a day heading to and from work, but plenty spend as much as three hours commuting. Those Read More...
Bill de Blasio calls on New York pension funds to divest from coal companies
The global movement to divest from coal is gaining momentum. This summer, Norway's parliament endorsed the selling of coal investments from its $900 billion sovereign wealth fund, and earlier this month, California lawmakers passed a bill requiring the state’s two largest pension plans to divest Read More...
Optimistic seniors report fewer chronic illnesses and better overall health
Optimism has a remarkable impact on physical health, as several scientific studies have shown. A few researchers wondered what this effect could mean for elderly people, who more often get to deal with the mental and physical health effects of aging. They also wanted to find out if a change to a Read More...
6 simple ways to turn a bad day around
Some days just suck the life out of you, and no amount of cleansing breaths are going to change that. Here's what will. You’ve heard the standard advice about getting through a bad day—breathe deeply, meditate, be mindful. But some days just suck the life out of you, and no amount of cleansing Read More...
Boredom is not a problem to be solved. It's the last privilege of a free mind
Lean in to boredom, not your smart phone screen. You’ll learn more about yourself and the world around you than you think Confessing to boredom is confessing to a character-flaw. Popular culture is littered with advice on how to shake it off: find like-minded people, take up a hobby, find a cause Read More...
7 habits that force your mind to stop worrying
Worrying can get the better of almost anybody. Work stresses, personal concerns, and sometimes even irrational thoughts can seep into your mind and interfere with your ability to concentrate on ordinary tasks. Unfortunately, stopping those worries isn't easy--there's no "off switch" that can shut Read More...