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.
Three ways to cultivate a sense of hope, even when times seem hopeless
All Souls Unitarian, a liberal church two miles north of the White House in Washington, has seen record attendance in the weeks after the election of Donald Trump. Congregants have filled the pews, bringing fears and disillusionment about what the next four years could mean for them and for Read More...
Changing the way you think
Many of us may already be struggling with our New Year’s resolutions, but at least we can take comfort in modern neuroscience. Forty years ago, we’d have been less hopeful. Back then neuroscience would say that the brain was fixed after early childhood. One famous experiment in the 1960s showed Read More...
The Kurdish woman building a feminist democracy while fighting Isis
Asya Abdullah is not a polished politician. She speaks slowly and deliberately in Kurmanji in a tone which suggests she has had to practise her material many times. But despite the reserved and careful exterior, Abdullah is one of the most radical and effective revolutionaries in the world today. Read More...
Hundreds of professors from 176 US law schools oppose Trump’s attorney-general pick
The president-elect’s decision to choose Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general is less than reassuring for forward-thinking Americans. Sessions is known for his objection to women’s and LGBT rights legislation, his complete opposition against illegal immigration, and for his many Read More...
How to break your addiction to work
For many of us, working simply feels good. But just because it feeds your ego or makes you feel important, that doesn’t mean it’s actually good for you. How do you break the cycle of working long hours at the office and constantly checking email at home? How do you persuade those around you Read More...
You can’t reach your goals if you can’t forgive yourself for failing at them
Many of us will start out the New Year by making a list of resolutions—changes we want to make to be happier, such as eating better, volunteering more often, being a more attentive spouse, and so on. But, as we know, we will often fail. After a few failures we will typically give up and go back Read More...
This app helps the world’s largest minority group to communicate
In 2007, Carlos and Aline Pereira welcomed their daughter, Clara, into the world in Recife, Brazil, but their world would never be the same. “The day my daughter was born, a medical mistake induced her with cerebral palsy,” Carlos says. “She wouldn’t walk or speak. From the Read More...
Indian social entrepreneur of the year gives rural women access to banking
Social enterprises aim to improve communities and help society benefit from their profits, so what could be more enterprising or more social than a bank for illiterate village women? This is what the unassuming Chetna Sinha has set up: an Indian cooperative bank for 310,000 rural women, doing Read More...
French law requires companies to grant employees “right to disconnect” at night
Laptops and smartphones allow us to do work efficiently, but what they have also done is blur the line between work and home life. We carry our phones everywhere, and it's created a "forever on" culture that leaves little time to disconnect and reboot. That's why France has passed a law that Read More...
Angela Merkel: Jihadists, terrorists need love and compassion
Angela Merkel, Germany’s leading lady who’s responsible for opening the country’s doors to tens of thousands of Muslim refugees, said in New Year’s Eve remarks that the likes of ISIS terrorists and Islamic jihadists need more love and compassion. Say what? From the Express: Read More...