Today’s Solutions: December 18, 2025

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.

Aging balance puzzles

Research finds your brain health now could affect your balance later

It should be our goal, everyone’s goal, to live long and to live well. Investing in your later years doesn’t just mean putting away and investing money or buying a house. It means strengthening our relationships, staying mentally and physically active, and utilizing preventative health care. As Read More...

Illustration of person reading the news.

How to practice news-resilience in a world of negativity bias

It’s well known that humans have an ingrained negativity bias, where negative events more significantly impact our psychological state than positive events. This tendency toward gloom is also reflected in media, with a study from The New York Times revealing mainstream media outlets carry a Read More...

Berry smoothie

From the Supreme Court to smoothies: 5 favorites from our optimist editor-in-chief

The Optimist Daily is all about solutions — those that make big impacts in the world as well as those that enhance our daily lives. As solution-seekers, news readers, and good-for-the-world-and-soul product searchers, we often feature discoveries that promise to make our lives better. This week, Read More...

Matcha green tea latte in a cup.

The scoop on matcha tea

If you’re not familiar with matcha, it’s a finely ground powder from dried green tea leaves. Because the matcha leaves grow in shaded bushes, they have increased levels of chlorophyll so they can absorb as much sunlight as possible. This gives the leaves and the drink their eye-catching color. Read More...

Istanbul

This Turkish charity directly connects donors to those in need

Many people couldn’t get by without the invaluable work done by the non-profit sector. Philanthropic organizations the world over, such as the Red Cross or the Halo Trust, provide essential services, effect societal change, and even repair damage from conflicts. In cases of providing funds to Read More...

Stressed business man rushing in the office with not enough time to do his work.

Waking up stressed? You might be overestimating how much you can do in a day

If you wake up feeling like you’re already behind and overwhelmed, perhaps it’s time to reframe the way you look at the day. The issue may not be that you don’t have enough time in the day to get things done, it could just be that you planned unrealistically. Why do we fall into this Read More...

Argan oil

Five health benefits of argan oil

With time and real-world experience, humans often discover multiple uses for a single plant or vegetable. Okra is a delicious and highly nutritious vegetable that goes great in a variety of spicy dishes, and the gooey compound it excretes can be used to extract microplastics from water.  A Read More...

Happy Earth Day

Love and Action: Happy Earth Day!

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” — Marshall McLuhan, philosopher   As far as we know, Earth is the best place in the Universe.  The search for life beyond our planet and even our solar system is ongoing, and one day we could very well make the Read More...

Viv for your V

Viv for your V: championing sustainable periods for menstruators everywhere

Here at The Optimist Daily, we are always excited to feature solutions that elegantly address multiple problems at once. That’s why we were so pleased to interview Katie Diasti, the founder of earth-friendly period care company Viv for your V on our podcast, The Optimist Daily Update. The Read More...

six different mascara wands lay against a bright yellow background

Wait! Don’t throw out old mascara wands, send them here instead

For all mascara users out there, there may be a better destination for your old, dried-out mascara wands than a stinking landfill—the nearest wildlife rehabilitation center! That’s right, when teeny tiny animals (like cute baby birds or squirrels) are rescued, their fur or skin can sometimes Read More...