Bees are wonderful little beings that spread pollen to places that need it and, as a bonus they create delicious honey. It turns out that a spoonful of honey can help you sleep! Suffering from yet another poor night’s sleep? Then how about trying some local beekeeper’s honey for a
Continue readingTag: Mind Space
Things Are Good: Embrace Serendipity With Shuffle My Life
Shuffle My Life is a cute website that encourages you to bring some randomness into your life by giving fun and easy tasks. It’s a play on all those to-do lists people have which tend to be filled with boring activities. To bring a sense of adventure into your life
Continue readingThings Are Good: Worldviews Conference Looks at Media and Education
Universities and colleges do a lot of research and sometimes their findings can make a large difference on the world around us. Unfortunately, it can be hard to get the media to represent what the research actually means and how the media can best work with academics to ensure that
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Sense of Purpose is More Important Than Money for Workplaces
In this TED Talk Dan Ariely presents his research into what motivates people to do work and how they feel about their workplace. The findings are interesting because it’s not necessarily what people do but the reactions to what has been done that provides motivation.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Be Optimistic by Learning About It
The book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Dr. Martin Seligman is not new, but it is to me. For others who have not heard about it before, it looks like an uplifting read. The central thesis of the book is to essentially learn what
Continue readingThings Are Good: Get Rid of Stuff, Do What You Love
Often we hear that spending on experiences make for a happier life than buying into consumerism. In concept it sounds great, but many people think that it’s hard to rejig their life to be focused on doing things rather than consuming things. This TED talk is about breaking free of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Stealth Hoodie Protects Your Privacy
Around the world there is an increase in surveillance of individuals by private and public organizations. Artist Adam Harvey has devised a way to help people get some privacy back from electronic surveillance through his fashion line Stealth Wear. If you’re in London you can see the artwork at Primitive
Continue readingThings Are Good: Futuristic Things That Became Reality Last Year
It seems that most ideas in the realm of Science Fiction stay as fiction but it’s not too rare that “out there” ideas from Sci-Fi can become real. At the Sci-Fi blog IO9 they have complied a list of some seemingly crazy things that turned out to become real last
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Minimalist Generational Movement
Consumerism takes a huge toll on our planet and out pocketbooks and one generation raised in a consumerist culture has opted out. Many in the generation following Gen-X have realized that doing activities is more fun than owning plates (or whatever people buy, I have no idea) and have decided
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Old Man Wants Adults to Play
Here’s a fun video to start your week with, this old fellow plays all day for his health and to inspire his next invention. He wants all people from kids to seniors to play all day, everyday to help their mental and physical health. At the very least, his enthusiasm is infectious.
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Continue readingThings Are Good: Seniors Who Are Social Are Healthier
Seniors who lead active lives like playing cards and generally hanging out with friends feel healthier and are healthier than there less social peers. Friends make things fun and keep you fit! Dr. Nicole Anderson is a clinical neuropsychologist at Baycrest Health Sciences in Toronto, where she’s leading a research
Continue readingThings Are Good: Change Your Stance to Change Your Attitude
In this TED talk Amy Cuddy explains that if you change how you stand, sit, or generally hold yourself you can change how you feel. As an added bonus, by posing yourself in certain ways you can make other people think of you differently.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Track the Small Things for Big Happiness
Teresa Amabile is a professor at Harvard Business School who has researched diary keeping and has made a very nifty realization: even keeping a few thoughts a day can amount to huge differences in happiness. I use I Done This to track my days, perhaps you’d like to too after
Continue readingThings Are Good: Why Drivers Don’t Understand Cyclists
As an average cyclist I often find it confusing when drivers get their hate on for sustainable transit. Anyone who knows anything about the environment or living in an urban centre would acknowledge that bicycle infrastructure is important and creates a more vibrant city than car-dominated streets. Yet, car drivers
Continue readingThings Are Good: Paris Revitalizes the Seine for People
Paris is continuing it’s transition to be more people-focused. The city has a great plan to gut its highways in the city along the Seine and replace them with bike lanes, pedestrian walks, and cultural spaces. It’s bound to make a city known for its romantic appeal even more lovely.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Crowdsourcing the Meaning of Life
Some filmmakers are channelling the world to find out what the meaning of life is. Their project has started an Indiegogo campaign to fund their project and they can use your help. The world we live in is extremely confusing and precarious. With economic meltdowns, global terrorism, ecological disasters, civil
Continue readingThings Are Good: Charlottetown Transforms a Street for People
Residents of Charlottetown, P.E.I. decided to make their city nicer, more sustainable, and more fun by transforming one of their streets from car-dominated to people-friendly. They’ve made a great video showing what they did and hopefully it’ll inspire other communities to realize that streets are for people and we should
Continue readingThings Are Good: Keep Sane by not Working
Thanks to modern technology it can be really easy to always be checking email and taking calls. This is great for some circumstances but it’s always important to take a break from being always-connected to work. In fact, it can be good for you! Another trick: simply ask yourself “will
Continue readingThings Are Good: Reading for Faster Freedom in Brazil
Prisoners in Brazil may be able to shorten their stay in jail by reading and writing. It’s only 48 days but it can make a difference, the prisoners need to read from a collection of philosophy, science, literature, or the classics then reflect on them in a submitted paper. Educational
Continue readingThings Are Good: Google to Catalog Languages
The Endangered Languages Project is a new initiative run by Google to catalog languages that are threatened because of globalization. As nice as it is that the people on the planet are finding more languages in common, we still need to encourage people to embrace languages that aren’t as popular.
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