By Melissa
One fateful day, Diderot’s world turned upside down.
No, he wasn’t laid off from his job. No, he wasn’t moving into a new apartment. And no, he wasn’t getting a divorce. In fact, he didn’t even realize at the time what was happening.
But before we get into all that, we need to answer the question: Who was Diderot?
By Melissa
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu
Each and every one of us has two lives.
Throughout our existence, we experience both simultaneously. Sometimes, both lives are aligned. Other times, they are worlds apart.
They are our outer lives and our inner lives.
By Melissa
In 1979, the deadliest peacetime disaster in New Zealand’s history occurred.
On November 28, a flight was scheduled for takeoff at 8:00 am from Auckland International Airport. The aim was to provide passengers with an aerial sightseeing experience that showcased breathtaking views of Antarctica.
An experienced guide would narrate as the plane dipped above McMurdo Sound, explaining various scenic spots and landscapes. By 9:00 pm on the same day, the plane would return back at Auckland, New Zealand.
Air New Zealand Flight 901 was not a particularly unusual air flight. There was, however, one minor exception: someone had entered a typing error in the coordinates, changing the route coordinates by two degrees. Although seemingly insignificant, these two degrees proved to be fatal.
By Melissa
What is the easiest way to absorb information, learn from others’ experiences, and escape to faraway places?
The answer is simple: read. Read, and you’ll be transported to worlds as extraordinary as the mind can conjure. Read, and you’ll glean more about a topic than you would otherwise.
That’s all well and good, but there’s just one problem. Time. Every day, we have a never-ending list of tasks, errands, and chores. As we get older, the responsibilities pile up, leaving little space in our schedule to read. Even if a book looks enticing, we put it aside until it can be squeezed in later.
While it can be hard to find a quiet afternoon, catching up on a book can be combined with regular routines to save time. Here are five ways you can sneak in that book you’ve been meaning to read:
By Melissa
You are the product of your environment.
The environment we live in influences, and in some ways, reflects who we are. Similar to how our bodies reflect the foods we eat, the places we visit and the people we meet reflect the way we think and believe.
Being raised in an inner-city neighborhood means you’ll likely live in the same neighborhood as an adult, while growing up in a middle-class area is a strong predictor of your future lifestyle. It’s difficult to escape the chains in which we are bound.
So how do you thrive in an environment that doesn’t support your goals?
In Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the protagonist Edmond Dantès is set up for a promising future. He’s soon to become captain of a ship, newly engaged, and popular amongst his peers. However, his perfect life is about to take a turn for the worse.
By Melissa
When it comes to the Olympics, the rankings are clear: the gold medalist is the top athlete, followed by silver, and finally, bronze.
The top athletes go for gold. If not gold, then silver is better than the bronze medal. But if that’s the case, why do medalists holding the bronze have a wider grin on their faces than the silver medalists?
In a study comparing the reactions of medal winners, researchers took video recordings of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The first recording showed the athletes as they learned their placement and the second recording showed the medal winners standing on the podium.
By Melissa
It’s that dreaded time again.
Not when you have to get out of bed. Not when you have to step into a meeting. It’s when the clock strikes, signaling time for you to sleep.
As you crawl into bed, you wonder if things will be different. Will you shut your eyes and finally fall into slumber? Or will you once again stare at the ceiling, waiting until you drift asleep? If it’s the latter, you’re likely to end up exhausted the next morning, even though you went to bed early.
There are numerous reasons why we have difficulty falling asleep. Sometimes, it’s psychological. Other times, it’s due to the stresses that life cruelly throws at us. But what about our dietary habits?
We carefully plan out our diets to energize ourselves, trim our figures, and improve our overall health. Yet, the substances we ingest take a secondary role when it comes to sleep.
Here are four dietary factors that might be affecting your sleep:
By Melissa
These days, the concept of happiness seems ever-present on our minds.
We reflect on the things that give us joy and how to incorporate more of it into our lives. We talk about how to deal with mental disorders and depression. We battle isolation, criticism, and negativity on a regular basis.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 4 percent of the world’s population suffers from depression. Global economic losses amount to over $1 trillion a year due to decreased productivity. When people become fatigued or stressed, they find it hard to resolve problems at work and in the home.
If we’re so obsessed with happiness, why are we so unhappy?
By Melissa
Sometimes, it feels like situations compound upon themselves.
Those who experience good fortune continue to have more of it. Others just can’t stay away from bad circumstances. It’s as if we’re stuck in an endless cycle, where our actions and their consequences further perpetuate the situation that we’re in.
One of the most alarming examples of this concerns social mobility, or the lack of it.
What’s in a name?
By Melissa
October evokes images of colorful leaves, dropping temperatures, and pumpkin spice lattes. But it’s also the perfect time to catch up on books that might have been too heavy for the summer.
Since Halloween is the biggest event of October, the question that comes to mind is: What does the word “scary” mean to you?
While we quickly think of ghouls, zombies, and vampires, scary can reach far beyond characters found in horror films. Maybe scary means being taken away from everything you know, or continuing on a path you don’t want to go down. Maybe scary is getting a visit from your landlady.