Mental Health
Here you can read the latest news and research studies covering mental health. This is also the place to find out about different strategies on how you can reduce stress and boost happiness, and many other ways to look after your mental wellbeing.
Is this the age of "digital drugs?"
A lot of us love a change in perspective. Whether that’s an adrenaline surge from risky behavior or someone taking a trip with magic mushrooms to explore their deeper selves, people are always coming up with new ways to shift their state of mind. The latest trend in mind-shifting isn't in taking Read More...
Feeling restless? Here’s how to channel that into something good
Whether you’ve got something major on your mind or you’ve eaten too much sugar, sometimes it simply feels impossible to sit still. You may be familiar with the feelings: anxious, antsy feet, jittery body, crawling skin, general unease, or quickening breath. This overwhelming energy can be very Read More...
Achieving quality along with quantity: an Optimist’s View on aging
“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” - Betty Friedan By Oliver Kammeyer I live on a bike path, and just a half-mile east of my place there’s a coffee shop that’s always packed. It seems every day the customers compete to see who can wake up earliest to Read More...
How your microbiome can affect your mood
Food can convey such an array of emotions. People can express love to their partners with their cooking. An exquisite and rare dish could make a dreary vacation totally worth it. A healthy meal can perk you up, and fast food can, ironically, make you feel sluggish. Food can make us feel so many Read More...
Finding your confidence at work? Follow these 3 tips
When Julie Zhou became a Silicon Valley executive at the age of 25, she didn’t find any elation in being at the top of the food chain: rather, she felt as if she was stuck at the bottom of a deep, dark pit. We’ve all been there, feeling a lack of confidence at work and like we don’t deserve Read More...
Could caffeine be used to treat ADHD?
An estimated 4.4 percent of adults are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, a neurological condition where people find it hard to pay attention or control their behavior and experience hyperactivity. Diagnoses of this condition have increased exponentially over the Read More...
How meditation helps the mindset of people coping with disease
Keeping our spirits up is important for all of us, no matter the task at hand, and that's easy to forget sometimes as we trudge along. When someone receives a life-changing medical diagnosis, it’s difficult enough to maintain the strength to endure treatment, let alone foster an outlook that lets Read More...
The Human Library: reading people instead of books
Have you ever heard about someone living with a condition and wished you knew more? Maybe you were streaming a drama about someone living with a rare disease, or you read a piece that mentioned a particular trauma. Your human empathy kicked in and you wanted to know what it was like living as the Read More...
The climate victory garden movement is springing up all over America
A lot of people picked up vegetable gardening as a pandemic pastime, but what started as a casual time (and tummy) filler has become a mainstay for many Americans. According to Green America, an organization focused on encouraging people to grow their own food to fight climate change, offset Read More...
Scientists discover decision-making brain cells
Our most complex organ, the brain, is a puzzle that scientists are still trying to piece together. Here at The Optimist Daily we like to keep our readers up to date with the latest discoveries on the neurological front, like pinpointing the singing regions of the brain or how zebrafish brains Read More...