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.
Organ donation law 'revolution' starts in Wales
Wales has become the first nation in the UK to introduce a "revolutionary" new system to increase the number of organ donors. From Tuesday, adults will be regarded as having consented to organ donation unless they have opted opt. More than one million people - 34% of the population - have Read More...
Spending money on others could benefit your health
Research has already proven that donating time as a volunteer can improve physical health, but now new research suggests spending money on others can benefit your health as well. Researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted an experiment in which two groups of adults aged 65 and Read More...
Virtual-reality games could really make you feel more empathetic
As virtual reality games and films rise in popularity around the world, so could the levels of empathy in people. Researchers in Finland studied how people react when looking at images of faces, and they’ve found that 3D images transfer more emotion to the viewer than simple 2D photographs. When Read More...
Learn how to meditate with seven simple techniques
It seems that the whole world is now meditating. This is wonderful as meditation does so much for us on all levels of body, mind and spirit. It helps to make the body stress free. It assists the mind to feel peaceful and less detached to the outcome of things. It takes us beyond the mind were a Read More...
Assemble: The unfashionable art of making a difference
None of the 16 members of Assemble is a fully qualified architect, and some are not architects at all. They are aged between 26 and 29. They don’t yet have a completed permanent new building to their name. They occupy a provisional space close to the former Olympic site in east London that Read More...
Room in Room saves on heating by pitching a tent over your bed
The Room in Room bed tent is designed to reduce heating bills in wintertime Heating bills in colder climates can be a nasty surprise and turning the thermostat down on a chilly night can be an unpleasant exercise in economy. Room in Room is a modern take on the four poster bed from tentmaker Read More...
Contact with nature may mean more social cohesion and less crime
The benefits of being surrounded by nature are endless, but a new study suggests that the amount of nature that an area has access to plays a role in crime rates as well. Researchers from Cardiff University found that the amount of green space or farmland accessible in people’s neighborhoods Read More...
The secret to reshaping your brain and getting more done
Nowadays we’re always on, always available. That iPhone in your pocket makes it pretty difficult to truly ‘punch out’ when you leave the office. (Especially when there’s code to ship and slack messages to read!) Instead we rely heavily on these pocket computers to stay in Read More...
David Lynch and the "second coming" of Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation might have remained a relic of 1960s counterculture practiced by the elite few. Yet, there may be a "second coming". In a fine article, Motherboard writes about how this resurgence is partly thanks to David Lynch. The film director (Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) has been a Read More...
The essential happiness ingredient: altruism and here’s how
Thanks to pioneers like Robert Emmons and Michael McCollough, we now know that gratitude can have an enormously positive effect on our mental health. Not only that, thanks to the advent of neuroplasticity, practicing gratitude can even help shape your brain in ways that promote resilience and Read More...