The Optimist Living
Can listening to music make you a better person?
With music becoming more and more accessible for people, the average amount of time we spend listening to music each week has increased an average of five and a half hours in just the last year. Our lives are a bit more rhythmic these days, but does this have an effect on the way we go about our Read More...
Solving Darwin’s puzzle of kindness: Does it make sense to be nice?
The benefits gained from receiving kindness are intuitively obvious. But the motivations for engaging in kindness are much less so. In fact, the very existence of kindness and altruism seems to contradict Darwin’s theory of evolution, based as it is on a competitive process of natural selection Read More...
To solve problems caused by sitting, learn to squat
As we have developed economically and technologically, we have abandoned a posture that has major implications for our health: The squat. In the West, we spend most of our time sitting desks and dining chairs, train seats, and comfy couches. We never need to squat on a daily basis, something that Read More...
Sophrology can gently guide you to optimal health and well-being
Sophrology is a self-development technique that uses mental and physical exercises to try to achieve an alert mind in a relaxed body. It combines meditation, breathing and relaxation techniques with gentle movements and visualization. As with mindfulness, it doesn’t require complicated postures, Read More...
Feeling stuck? Here are five ways to find your passion
Following your passion may sound simple enough, but if you don’t know what your passion is, it's impossible to follow it. If you want to find the hidden passion that lies within you, take a look at these five helpful Read More...
To unlock your creative potential, start thinking like Leonardo da Vinci
Using Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, inventions, and artwork, an author came up with seven da Vincian principles that can help us uncover our hidden abilities and maximize our potential. Take a look here to see what you can learn about yourself by looking into the mind of da Read More...
Reduce your carbon footprint with these sneakers
While stepping into your favorite pair of kicks may make you feel good, have you ever considered the impact that your sneakers have on the environment? From materials to manufacturing, producing a pair of shoes emits around 13 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The production of the Read More...
Fasting from time to time can increase your lifespan
A new study from Harvard researchers has shown how fasting can increase lifespan, slow aging and improve health by altering the activity of mitochondrial networks inside our cells. Mitochondria are fundamental to the aging of cells, and the new research shows that fasting manipulates mitochondrial Read More...
How to keep your brain sharp, even if you aren’t a ‘super-ager’
As we age, our brain’s grey matter—the stuff we rely on for seeing, hearing, processing emotion, exerting self-control, learning information, and much more—shrinks and degrades. Well, not for everybody. Scientists have recently discovered a rare group of people above the age of 80 that have a Read More...
How the minimal Japanese concept of “Ma” brings peace into your life
Instead of decorating every inch of space within their homes, the Japanese embrace minimalism and the empty space that exists between things. This concept is called Ma, and it can be found in most aspects of Japanese life, from architecture and garden design to music and poetry. See here what the Read More...