Chief among my worries as a kid was what I considered the high probability that at some point in my life I would be trapped in quicksand. It felt extremely important that I remember all the tricks and techniques for getting out — just in case! A close second would have to be getting lost in the desert and dying of dehydration. You absolutely had to watch out for those deadly mirages, where the light on the horizon bends in such a way that you’re certain you can see water up ahead.
At least one of those fears was fairly well-founded. All jokes aside, the desert is an incredibly dangerous place. It turns out that thousands of people get lost and go missing in deserts across the world every year. The Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world, claimed a staggering 8,000 lives alone in 2023. These aren’t overly flippant explorers, for the most part. Many migrants fleeing conflict zones across the desert become lost and suffer a tragic fate while trying to navigate the 3.6 million square mile area. There are many things that make the desert deadly, but dehydration with no access to water is at the top.
A team in Saudi Arabia has been testing a new technology that could drastically reduce dehydration-related deaths in the country’s Al-Nafud Desert, and it looks like something straight out of a video game.
Though the Al-Nafud desert is quite a bit smaller than the Sahara standing at about 25,000 square miles, it can still be daunting to cross. Most years, hundreds of people go missing with several dozen of them perishing in the process.
An explorer named Mohammad Fohaid Al-Sohaiman had a brilliant idea to help lost travelers find water. Having been rescued in the desert himself, even as an experienced survivalist and outdoorsman, he knew there had to be a better way.
“Many people lost their lives in the desert near water resources because they did not know that water resources were close to them,” he told Arab News.
The idea: Beacons made of laser light, shot directly into the sky near water sources such as water wells. These powerful lights could be seen from miles away and would be powered by solar panels, ensuring they never go dark.
The plan is to eventually install 100 of the beacons throughout the Saudi Arabian desert.
In Saudi Arabia’s Nafud Desert, solar-powered laser beacons guide lost travelers to wells, using night signals designed by explorer Mohammad Fohaid Al-Sohaiman—combining renewable tech with survival aid.
The program to install the life-saving beacons began in 2021. It’s still getting attention and inspiring awe all over the world.
A recent viral Reddit thread highlighted the innovative laser lights, and users were impressed:
“Absolutely brilliant! The rest of the world should immediately begin to implement this system in their desert areas as well as open oceans where water, food and communication devices could be stored for boaters in distress.”
“This is such an amazing idea.”
Others joked to the beams look like “save points” or “checkpoints” in a video game. They’re not wrong!
Some have criticized the beacons, however, claiming that the light pollution may harm the desert’s natural environment and residents like nocturnal animals and insects.
Solar-powered lasers in the Saudi Arabian desert serve as beacons, guiding the lost to sources of water. pic.twitter.com/8xYxk4EZyy— Science girl (@sciencegirl) April 28, 2025
The desert holds vast potential for solar power due to its massive open spaces and plentiful sunlight. In fact, solar farms are common in deserts all over the world.
However, there are a couple of limitations that stop us from covering all the world’s deserts in solar panels and completely converting to solar energy.
First, people underestimate how destructive and harsh the desert environment really is. Sand is incredibly corrosive, especially when whipped around in high-powered sandstorms. Maintaining solar equipment in the desert is incredibly challenging and costly.
Second, we think of deserts as open wasteland, but that’s a misnomer. They’re actually incredibly biodiverse natural habitats, home to many different forms of plant, animal, bird, and insect life. The desert habitat is no less important to preserve than rainforests or oceans.
Third, while solar energy is generally considered incredibly eco-friendly, massive solar farms can actually put off quite a bit of heat. A desert-sized solar farm would emit so much heat that it could negatively contribute to global warming and have devastating effects.
Saudi Arabian gov installed laser beacons in desert to indicate water source.
In any case, the life-saving beacons are a genius idea and a fantastic use of solar technology. Once the program is fully rolled out, it could save dozens or even hundreds of lives every year.
Just imagine a similar operation conducted in the massive Sahara Desert, or even in remote stretches of the American southwest.
As one commenter stated perfectly, “Now this is the type of innovation for the future I can get behind.”
A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing.
Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold.
A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen.
Volunteers raise a wall for the framework of a new home during the first day of building at Habitat for Humanity’s 2025 Carter Work Project.
Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing.
Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth.
Marsha and her son pose for a photo while building their future home with Southern Crescent Habitat for Humanity in Georgia.
Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.
Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:
Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis
Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community
Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or in one of 60+ countries where we work around the globe
Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door
Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone.
We live in an age of conflict. Sharp political and social divides are everywhere, and while it’s easy to theoretically write off people who disagree with us on fundamental core issues and values, the reality is that we often must co-exist with them and learn to manage our conflicts in a healthy way. Sometimes that means putting aside our differences and “agreeing to disagree.” Something it means hashing them out.
The quickest way to stop having a constructive dialog with someone is when they become defensive. This usually results in them digging in their heels and making you defensive. This can result in a vicious cycle of back-and-forth defensive behavior that can feel impossible to break. Once that happens, the walls go up, the gloves come off and resolving the situation becomes tough.
Ripley is a bestselling author and the co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict. Not surprisingly, she’s in high demand on news programs, conferences, and media summits these days.
How to have a constructive conversation
Let’s say you believe the room should be painted red and your spouse says it should be blue. Instead of saying, “I think blue is ugly,” you can say, “It’s interesting that you say that…” and ask them to explain why they chose blue.
The key phrase is: “It’s interesting that you say that…”
It shows genuine curiosity in their point of view. That’s critical to avoid someone shutting down on you.
Two men shake hands while a woman looks on. Photo credit: Canva
When you show the other person that you genuinely care about their thoughts and appreciate their reasoning, they let down their guard. This makes them feel heard and encourages them to hear your side as well. This approach also encourages the person you disagree with to consider coming up with a collaborative solution instead of arguing to defend their position.
It’s important to assume the other person has the best intentions while listening to them make their case. “To be genuinely curious, we need to refrain from judgment and making negative assumptions about others. Assume the other person didn’t intend to annoy you. Assume they are doing the best they can. Assume the very best about them. You’ll appreciate it when others do it for you,” Kaitlyn Skelly at The Ripple Effect Education writes.
Look out for signs of defensiveness like blaming, criticizing, making excuses, or being passive-aggressive. These are warning signals that your conversation is veering off the rails.
Phrases you can use to avoid an argument
The curiosity approach can also involve affirming the other person’s perspective while adding your own, using a phrase like, “On the one hand, I see what you’re saying. On the other hand…”
Here are some other phrases you can use:
“I wonder if…”
“It’s interesting that you say that because I see it differently…”
“I might be wrong, but…”
“How funny! I had a different reaction…”
“I hadn’t thought of it like that! For me, though, it seems…”
“I think I understand your point, though I look at it a little differently…”
Two men high-fiving one another. Photo credit: Canva
What’s the best way to disagree with people?
A 2016 study from Yale University supports Ripley’s ideas. The study found that when people argue to “win,” they take a hard line and only see one correct answer in the conflict. Whereas those who want to “learn” are more likely to see that there is more than one solution to the problem. At that point, competition magically turns into collaboration.
“Being willing to hear out other perspectives and engage in dialogue that isn’t simply meant to convince the other person you’re right can lead to all sorts of unexpected insights,” psychologist and marketing professor Matthew Fisher at Southern Methodist University tells CNBC.
The key words are “willing” and “genuine.” These phrases aren’t magic bullets designed to help you level your opponents. You have to actually, truly be willing to learn about their perspective and be open to changing your mind.
Let me know in the comments if this data rings true to you and your experience of conflict. And check out danharris.com for more from Amanda Ripley including what she has to say about “conflict entrepreneurs,”people who inflame turmoil to benefit themselves. #conflict#healthyconflict#communication#tenpercenthappier#10percenthappier
Another common tip that usually comes from the world of couple’s counseling is to stop seeing the other person as your adversary. If you can imagine the two of you on the same team versus the problem, your conversations will be more productive.
In a world of strong opinions and differing perspectives, curiosity can be a superpower that helps you have more constructive conversations with those with whom you disagree. All it takes is a little humility and an open mind, and you can turn conflict into collaboration, building bridges instead of walls.
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
Look, let’s just get it out there: It’s uncomfortable any time you have to get fully or partially naked for a medical exam or cosmetic procedure. Right? It’s natural and part of the process, but while you know that the person on the other end is a professional who’s just there to do their job, they’re also a human being. Getting naked in front of them in any other context would be extremely weird, and it’s hard to completely shut that part of your brain off no matter the setting.
It’s amazing how body dysmorphia really knows no bounds. We tend to think of insecurities as focusing on things like the flatness of our stomachs or the size of our noses. But perhaps the thing that people are most self-conscious about is the thing we actually talk about the least.
According to one study, about 30% of men are “dissatisfied” with the size, shape, or appearance of their penis. That number is even higher when it comes to how women feel about their vaginas. A survey done by Refinery29 showed that almost half of women had “concerns” about the appearance of their vulva.
The numbers say anywhere from a third to a half or more of all people think there’s something wrong with the way our private parts look. Which begs the question: If we all think we’re weird, is anybody really weird at all?
A fascinating Reddit thread recently polled experts on this very topic—people who tend to see an awful lot of genitals in their line of work: Waxing technicians or estheticians. The responses were oddly inspiring.
The prompt asked, “Waxers, how often are you surprised by how a clients genitals look?”
Professional waxers chimed in with their stories and observations. As did doctors, nurses, pelvic floor therapists, urologists, and lots of other pros who work closely with people’s unmentionables.
“Gonna chime in as a doctor – and I would imagine it’s the same for professional waxers. WE. DONT. CARE. And in my case I would be surprised if you’d show me something I’ve never seen before.” – feelgoodx
“I use to be very self conscious and insecure about my genitals. I honestly thought I had a weird vagina. But working in this industry has taught me that every one is a snowflake. I’ve seen it all and nothing surprises me. Just clean yourself before coming in.” – Wild-Clementine
Not a waxer but I am a labor and delivery nurse. I see a vulva every single day I work, often multiple, and frequently about 3 feet from my face with a spotlight on it lol. Not much surprises me. Most are out of my memory by the time they’re clothed or covered up. When it comes to genitals you want to be unremarkable.” – tlotd
“Very, very rarely. Shaved, not shaved, lots o’ labia, no labia, etc—it’s all the same to me. I’m just here to work.” – Important-Tackle
“never. i have seen it all. scars, hyperpigmentation, unevenness; none of it surprises me. just please wash yourself before coming to me.” – pastelmorning
“Nothing surprises me, I’m mostly just focusing on the hair, but i do have a client who has a tuft of hair on the underside of his shaft near the tip of his penis we call his downstairs soul patch.” – noorisms
Two big takeaways:
First, outside of obvious mutilations or pathologies, nothing stands out to people who are extremely knowledgeable about genitals. Differences in size, shape, and structure are totally normal and barely even register on the radar!
Second, no matter what you look like down there, good hygiene is always appreciated. A solid tip that extends far beyond the borders of the esthetician’s office!
Being embarrassed, self-conscious, or even ashamed of the way your parts look doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it can be.
It’s bizarre and tragic that unrealistic beauty standards actually affect the way we perceive our own nether regions. Pornography, media, and inconsiderate past partners all play a role in people developing anxiety about the way their genitals look.
Both men and women can have their sex lives negatively impacted by bad self-image and anxiety over the way they look naked. When the shame is really bad, it can hold them back in relationships, or even stop them from seeking them in the first place.
This shame or embarrassment unfortunately extends into the medical arena, as well.
Fear of being judged or humiliated can stop women in particular from not just going in for a wax, but from going to the gynecologist, getting breast exams, or asking potentially-embarrassing but critical and life-saving health questions. For their part, men are prone to skipping prostate exams, testicular exams, or conversations about potentially embarrassing topics like erectile dysfunction or bladder problems. None of these things are fun or comfortable, but they’re critical for our health!
Experts say sharing your vulnerability with your doctor or cosmetic professional can help. Letting them know you’re nervous or embarrassment can signal them to offer you comfort measures. It also helps to be really direct and detailed with what you want or what you want to discuss.
According to Cedars Sinai, “Does sex hurt? Tell your doctor exactly where you feel the pain. Notice that your poop stinks? Try to describe the odor in detail.” If you’re too embarrassed to talk about it, try writing it down. At some point though, you’ll have to get the exam. Just get through it, it gets easier once you build a relationship with your doctor (or waxer!) over time.
If you’ve ever been a little self-conscious, take it from the experts, from the people who have seen hundreds if not thousands of genitals up close and personal, in the most unflattering lighting and from the worst angles possible: You’re totally normal!
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
There’s a nationwide running joke that the food we get from fast-food places isn’t actually food. That doesn’t stop Americans from consuming it. But we do so assuming that this food, which can fossilize in the back of a minivan, is still edible. One man decided to see whether fast food contains enough nutrients to grow vegetables if it’s turned into soil.
Ted Nivison is not a scientist, and does not play one on television. For this experiment, though, he dons a metaphorical lab coat and gloves. After spending time growing his own vegetables, he wanted to see what would happen if he changed up the soil. But instead of adding something practical, like Miracle-Gro, he decided to get innovative.
Nivison set his sights on making his own soil from fast-food scraps. In a YouTube video, he’s seen placing a large box on his kitchen counter.
“This is a Lomi. This is a device that lets you turn food scraps into usable soil, or at least what the company calls ‘Lomi Earth,’” he explains. “Obviously, by food scraps, they mean things like vegetables and fruit, but this device can turn any food scraps into soil. So what would happen if I turned fast food into soil? Could I grow a plant from that?”
Surprisingly, the answer to his question was yes. The curious man went to the nearest McDonald’s and dumped two double cheeseburgers, two large fries, 20 chicken nuggets, and a pack of apple slices into the soil-making device. The small machine takes up to 20 hours to turn food into dirt, so Nivison ran some errands before returning to check on the progress.
“I don’t know what I expected to happen here,” he says before it cuts to a clip of him returning home. “I’ve left the Lomi going and my entire apartment smells like McDonald’s.”
When the video cuts back to the present, Nivison reveals, “I had to open up the windows in my apartment just to filter out the air that I was smelling, and I gotta say, the resulting dirt is a little bit creepy.”
He opens the lid to reveal a bright, reddish-brown, dry, clumpy soil that he says smells like Cheetos. The amateur scientist also describes the soil as greasy. This doesn’t dissuade him, though he muses that a plant might taste the soil and say, “I guess I’m not going to live.”
Unfortunately, the McDonald’s haul didn’t produce enough soil to fill a pot, so he decided to mix things up by creating soil from Taco Bell and KFC, too.
The soil from Taco Bell looks closest to actual potting soil, which he attributes to the food having more vegetables. But the soil from KFC was so incredibly greasy that you could hear it as he moved it around.
To conduct the experiment, he set up a control group, a nod to his high school science education. Then he split the dirt into multiple clay pots with varying levels of traditional potting soil mixed in. One pot contained soil created solely from the fast-food concoction.
It turns out the more Lomi dirt used, the harder the soil became when it was watered. Nivison speculates that this is due to the grease content:
“With 100% Lomi dirt, it looks like the surface of Mars. And I don’t even think the guy in The Martian would’ve been able to grow potatoes from this. This is worse than Mars dirt. It is gross. When I watered it, none of the water would seep into the dirt. It just sat on top, turning into something like a swamp.”
After seeing the progress of the plant grown in 10% fast-food dirt, he decided to increase the amount, making sure not to exceed 50%. Seeds planted in 50% to 100% fast-food dirt molded, but so did the seeds planted in 15% Lomi dirt. Unexpectedly, the arugula planted in 20% fast-food dirt sprouted, though it eventually stopped growing.
If you thought the control plant grew the best, you’d be just as shocked as Nivison. The control plant never got beyond the small initial sprouts. It was the plant soaking up that 10% mixture of greasy fast food that outgrew them all. All that experimenting made for a fairly hungry scientist, so he made an arugula salad.
Most self-help advice gets one major aspect wrong: the habits that actually change your life aren’t the dramatic ones. They’re not 5 a.m. cold plunges or 75-day fitness challenges. They’re much more subtle, and almost embarrassingly ordinary. But that’s the point.
The ideas are simple: create bite-sized routines that fit seamlessly into your day, and build different versions of those systems for different days, whether good or chaotic. The goal is to stick with these practices, daily or weekly, even on turbulent days when nothing seems to go right. They write:
“Traditional productivity advice assumes perfect conditions. This system assumes chaos is inevitable and builds protocols for bad days. You’re not trying to be perfect. You’re trying to be unbreakable.”
Here are 14 deceptively simple habits worth trying, courtesy of Ideas to Thrive:
Jump-starting a healthier lifestyle doesn’t require a gym membership. You don’t need a plan, a new playlist, or special gear. You just need a dedicated block during the day to move: a short walk, five squats while the coffee brews in the morning, or committing to taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
A 10-minute workout done three times a week has been shown to boost endurance by nearly 20%. Importantly, it’s the intensity, not the duration, that drives measurable health benefits. You don’t need an hour per week, just minutes.
2. Drink water before anything else
Before your morning coffee, juice, or that special loose-leaf tea your father-in-law got you (thanks, Perry!), drink a glass of water. Then have another about 30 minutes before your first meal.
This one’s tricky. What about your morning alarm? (Buy one. It’s good to know the time without constantly checking your phone.) What about that nightly Sudoku game you have to do? (Try a book of puzzles, or the one printed in the newspaper.) The research on this topic is extensive and clear: smartphones in the bedroom disrupt sleep. By removing your phone, you eliminate both the temptation to scroll and the device lighting up with notifications during the night.
According to the Indian Journal of Medical Research, 87% of Americans sleep with their phones in the bedroom, despite consistent evidence linking the habit to poorer sleep outcomes. A randomized controlled trial found that restricting bedtime phone use improved sleep quality, shortened sleep onset, and enhanced mood. Luckily, the fix isn’t a fancy gadget. It’s as simple as leaving your phone on the kitchen counter.
4. While you’re at it, write down tomorrow’s one task before bed
Before you sleep, jot down the single most important thing you need to do the next day. That’s it: one thing. Psychologists call the anxiety caused by unfinished tasks the Zeigarnik Effect, first identified by Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik in 1927. It explains how unfinished tasks stay active in our working memory, using up mental energy and potentially disrupting sleep.
Writing down a plan to complete them can help ease these restless thoughts, reassuring your brain that it’s okay to let go because a clear plan is in place. Further research shows that having a written plan boosts productivity, as the act of planning helps lighten your mental load.
The takeaway? Your brain can’t file away a task until it trusts there’s a plan. Give it one sentence tonight.
5. Take a 10-minute walk after lunch
That 2 p.m. slump? It’s not just because of the family-style Jersey Mike’s hoagie you wolfed down (no judgment, though it didn’t help). Afternoon sleepiness is real, but a short walk can actually help tremendously.
A study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that taking a few moments to jot down a quick to-do list before bed can help you fall asleep faster. Gratitude journaling, done specifically before bed, has also been shown to improve sleep onset and reduce nighttime disturbances. Your brain wasn’t designed to hold everything. Three sentences are enough to start letting go.
7. Track your habits with color
Find a visual tracker that works for you, whether on paper or in a digital app, and assign yourself colors:
Green for done
Yellow for partially complete
Red for skipped
Yes, it may sound like an elementary school exercise (what’s next, a pizza party for finishing your books?), but there’s real science behind it. Research on digital behavior change interventions shows that visual tools illustrating the gap between current behavior and a goal, such as a green bar for steps completed and a red line for the daily target, can boost motivation through clear, visual feedback. The idea is that color-coded systems tap into these feedback loops, with the brain processing color patterns faster than text or numbers.
Visual feedback can be powerful. Soon, you’ll start noticing patterns you didn’t even realize were there.
8. Set aside 20 minutes on Sunday for a quick self-review
No one’s under fire; this isn’t a productivity audit. You are not in trouble. But a little self-reflection never hurt, did it?
Without deliberate reflection, it’s easy to stay on autopilot. Reviews create the feedback loop necessary for intentional progress. During these sessions, ask yourself:
What went well this week?
What didn’t?
What does next week look like?
Should I adjust my self-improvement expectations?
Reviewing the week allows you to “bank” wins, process setbacks, and make small, purposeful improvements (a strategy shown to reduce burnout). David Allen, the productivity researcher behind Getting Things Done, notes that the weekly review “will sharpen your intuitive focus on your important projects as you deal with the flood of new input and potential distractions coming at you the rest of the week.”
By spending 20 minutes looking back each week, you can avoid going 20 weeks in the wrong direction.
9. Close all your browser tabs at the end of the day
Every open tab is an unfinished thought. Research from Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles shows that visual clutter—digital or physical—overloads the brain and elevates stress. Closing your tabs at the same time each day creates a shutdown ritual that helps separate work from rest, a clear boundary that prevents lingering anxiety during off-hours. This distinction is especially important for those who work from home. Productivity experts also note that fewer digital distractions means fewer choices and less noise, which in turn reduces decision fatigue and increases the likelihood that tasks get done.
Your browser is not a filing cabinet. Close those tabs. Start fresh tomorrow.
10. Read 10 pages per day
That’s it: 10 pages. That’s about 15 minutes of active reading. Do that every day, and you’ll finish between 12 and 18 books a year (unless you’re working your way through the Dune series. Those books are seriously hefty). It’s good for you, too: a landmark study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that just six minutes of reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68%.
Ten pages a day is more than just a light reading habit; it’s an insurance policy for your brain’s health.
Despite the wisdom in Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, treating “no” as a weekly maintenance habit isn’t an act of selfishness; it’s an act of self-preservation. Chronic people-pleasing drains the same mental and emotional resources that support creativity, focus, and recovery. Research consistently shows that excessive stress—the kind caused by overcommitting—is a major trigger for depression, anxiety disorders, and burnout.
Psychology Todaynotes that saying no “can create more mental health stability by helping with self-care and building your self-esteem and confidence by setting boundaries.” This is a deliberate practice. Decline at least one request, invitation, or obligation each week that doesn’t align with your priorities. When you set limits on what drains you, you create space for restorative activities.
12. Send one thoughtful message a week
Every week, send one intentional message to someone in your life—a text, email, or note that’s personal, specific, and sincere. Social connection is one of the strongest predictors of health and longevity. A landmark study cited by Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education found that a lack of social connection is more harmful to health than obesity, smoking, and high blood pressure.
A study published in Communication Research, involving 900 participants across five university campuses, found that even a single intentional outreach to a friend or loved one on any given day can significantly improve well-being, reduce stress, enhance connection, and lessen loneliness. Importantly, the research showed that no particular type of message—whether catching up, showing care, joking, or giving a compliment—was more effective than another. The key factor was the act of reaching out with intention.
Dishes in the sink. Clothes on the chair. Scattered envelopes on the dining room table. Spend two minutes before bed restoring basic order to your space: reset surfaces, return items to their places, and clear clutter.
Research conducted by UCLA, involving 32 dual-income families, found that individuals who described their homes as cluttered or full of unfinished projects showed elevated cortisol patterns linked to chronic stress, especially among women.
Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology helps explain why the two-minute rule works so well. As he explains, any task that can be completed in under two minutes should be done immediately rather than delayed, preventing small messes from building into overwhelming chaos.
One small step at a time
None of these habits will change your life overnight. You won’t wake up with a different bank account. Your apartment won’t magically become more organized; you’ll probably still lose focus around 3:33 p.m. each day. But that’s not really how change works, is it? It happens in the small, consistent moments that may not look impressive on paper but add up to real momentum.
You don’t need to overhaul your entire life. Ideas to Thrive recommends starting with a handful of habits, then slowly adding more. Pick a few and see where they take you.
But how far did they go, exactly? We can look at the historic number of miles the Orion flew from Earth—approximately 252,756—but that distance is a little tough for us to visualize. Thankfully, Professor Anu Ojha’s scientific demonstration at The Royal Institution makes it a lot easier.
The Moon is farther away from Earth than many people imagine
First, Ojha explained that the distance between the Earth and Moon varies because the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical. But very roughly speaking, he said, the Moon’s orbital distance from the Earth is equal to 10 circumferences of the Earth.
He held up an inflatable globe to represent Earth and explained that he had wrapped a piece of string around it 10 times. At the end of the string, he attached a ball that was the correct scale compared to the Earth.
“It’s about the same size as Australia or Canada or China,” he explained. “About a quarter of the diameter of the Earth.”
He showed a graphic that depicted the Earth and Moon in proper scale, but with a totally inaccurate distance between them. Then, holding the globe, he asked a student to take the Moon ball at the end of the string and start walking away from him.
Photo from the ISS of the moon “rising” over the Earth’s atmosphere (Photo credit: NASA)
After the string unwound about six or seven feet, he asked the student to stop. “That’s the sort of visualization we get from this image,” he explained. “But, you know, there’s a lot of string left here.”
Ojha had the student keep walking, and keep walking, and keep walking until he had fully unwound the string. We can barely see the student as he walked up a flight of stairs into a darkened area of the classroom, but it’s clear the distance between the Earth and Moon is much farther than we are used to picturing it.
The International Space Station’s location compared to the Moon drives the point home
After showing how far the Moon—”our nearest naturally occurring neighbor in space”—is from Earth, Ojha put it into even clearer perspective.
“How far away did I say the international boundary of space was?” he asked the students, who responded, “100 kilometers.”
“That’s 1 millimeter on this scale,” Ojha said. “International Space Station (ISS) 400km—a finger width. The Moon is a thousand times the distance to the orbit of the International Space Station.”
But he wasn’t done. He also said that if we go to the next nearest planet, Venus, we are talking about a distance more than 100 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
“So we start to see the challenges that we are facing in directly exploring even our own solar system, let alone the universe,” he said.
This demonstration also makes it clearer why space missions to the Moon haven’t been a regular occurrence. Many of us had no idea how much further the Moon was than the ISS. They’re not even close to comparable trips.
Physical science demonstrations for the win
People appreciated the old-school science lesson:
“There is no substitute for physical demonstration in a room.”
“A lot of people just don’t realise the sheer scale of astronomical units, there’s too much ‘space’ out there to wrap their heads around it.”
“Most people can only understand what they can GRASP. This kind of physical demo is the most efficient.”
“I used to do that thing with my elementary school students where we go out to the football field and lay down planets showing how far away everything is from the sun. Blew their minds every time.”
“Everything I learn about space tends to come with the subtext of ‘It’s big. No, not the scale you’re thinking, bigger.’”
“Crazy how even with such a distance and small mass the Moon can still have such a massive effect on our water (and other such things).”
Our understanding of the cosmos is always growing and evolving, of course. But the math that tells us the scale of the objects in space has been around a long time and still has the power to boggle our minds. The universe is awesome, literally. Isn’t it wonderful how the awe that space exploration inspires in us is a reminder of everything that makes us human?
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: Taking your child to the doctor and receiving a life-changing diagnosis. It only adds to the heartbreak when they find out there may be no effective treatment at all, and that all they can do is hope for the best.
Few diagnoses strike fear in the heart of parents and doctors more than a cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. Primarily found in children, DIPG is a highly aggressive brain tumor that is uniformly fatal, with less than 10 percent of children surviving longer than two years after diagnosis. The tumors grow fast and on extremely vital areas like the spine and brain stem, making them exceptionally hard to remove. Though young patients have been treated with radiation, chemotherapy, and surgeries, no one had ever been cured of the fatal cancer.
But for the first time ever, a 13-year-old boy from Belgium named Lucas Jemeljanova has beaten the odds.
Various brain scans. Photo credit:
Diagnosed with DIPG at age six, Lucas’ doctor Jacques Grill told Lucas’ parents, Cedric and Olesja, that he was unlikely to live very long. Instead of giving up hope, Cedric and Olesja flew Lucas to France to participate in a clinical trial called BIOMEDE, which tested new potential drugs against DIPG.
Lucas was randomly assigned a medication called everolimus in the clinical trial, a chemotherapy drug that works by blocking a protein called mTOR. mTOR helps cancer cells divide and grow new blood vessels, while everolimus decreases blood supply to the tumor cells and stops cancer cells from reproducing. Everolimus, a tablet that’s taken once per day, has been approved in the UK and the US to treat cancers in the breast, kidneys, stomach, pancreas, and others—but until the BIOMEDE clinical trial, it had never before been used to treat DIPG.
Lucas Jemeljanova poses with his mother. Photo credit: Lesja Jemeljanova via Facebook
Though doctors weren’t sure how Lucas would react to the medication, it quickly became clear that the results were good.
“Over a series of MRI scans, I watched as the tumor completely disappeared,” Grill said in an interview. Even more remarkably, the tumor has not returned since. Lucas, who is now thirteen, is considered officially cured of DIPG.
Even after the tumor was gone, Grill, who is the head of the Brain Tumor Program in the Department of Child and Teenage Oncology at Gustave Roussy cancer research hospital in Paris, was reluctant to stop Lucas’ treatments. Until about a year and a half ago, Lucas was still taking everolimus once every day.
“I didn’t know when to stop, or how, because there was no other reference in the world,” Grill said.
While Lucas is the only one in the clinical trial whose tumor has completely disappeared, seven other children have been considered “long responders” to everolimus, meaning their tumors have not progressed for more than three years after starting treatment.
Lucas with his mother. Photo credit: Lesja Jemeljanova via Facebook
So why did everolimus work so well for Lucas? Doctors think that an extremely rare genetic mutation in Lucas’ tumor “made its cells far more sensitive to the drug,” Grill said, while the drug worked well in other children because of the “biological peculiarities” of their tumors.
While everolimus is by no means a cure, the trial has provided real hope for parents and families of children diagnosed with DIPG. Doctors must now work to better understand why Lucas’ tumor responded so well to the drug and how they can replicate those results in tumor “organoids”—artificially-grown cells that resemble an organ. After that, said Marie-Anne Debily, a researcher in the BIOMEDE trial, “the next step will be to find a drug that works as well on tumor cells.”
A more recent clinical trial tested a new immunotherapy treatment on young DIPG patients and showed promising results. Many of the patients’ tumors shrank and several participants saw functional improvements in their symptoms and day-to-day lives. But only one of the 11 patients has seen success that rivals Lucas’ — a young man identified only as Drew, who has been thriving tumor-free for over four years after receiving treatment.
Once considered a definitive death sentence, there is real hope for the first time. But there’s much more research and work to be done. Until then, however, Lucas’ doctors are thrilled.
“Lucas’ case offers real hope,” said Debily.
Lucas with his parents and sister. Photo credit: Lesja Jemeljanova via Facebook
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
Towards the end of The Beatles’ illustrious but brief career, Paul McCartney wrote Let it Be, a song about finding peace by letting events take their natural course. It was a sentiment that seemed to mirror the feeling of resignation the band had with its imminent demise.
The bittersweet song has had an appeal that has lasted generations, and that may be because it reflects an essential psychological concept: the locus of control. “It’s about understanding where our influence ends and accepting that some things are beyond our control,” Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist, told The Huffington Post. “We can’t control others, so instead, we should focus on our own actions and responses.”
The ‘Let Them’ theory, explained
This idea of giving up control (or the illusion of it) when it does us no good was perfectly distilled into two words that everyone can understand: “Let Them.” This is officially known as the “Let Them” theory. Podcast host, author, motivational speaker and former lawyer Mel Robbins explained this theory perfectly in a vial Instagram video posted in May 2023.
“I just heard about this thing called the ‘Let Them Theory,’ I freaking love this,” Robbins starts the video.
“If your friends are not inviting you out to brunch this weekend, let them. If the person that you’re really attracted to is not interested in a commitment, let them. If your kids do not want to get up and go to that thing with you this week, let them.” Robbins says in the clip. “So much time and energy is wasted on forcing other people to match our expectations.”
“If they’re not showing up how you want them to show up, do not try to force them to change; let them be themselves because they are revealing who they are to you. Just let them – and then you get to choose what you do next,” she continued.
Put the ‘Let Them’ theory into practice
The phrase is a great one to keep in your mental health tool kit because it’s a reminder that, for the most part, we can’t control other people. And if we can, is it worth wasting the emotional energy? Especially when we can allow people to behave as they wish and then we can react to them however we choose?
Stop wasting energy on trying to get other people to meet YOUR expectations. Instead, try using the “Let Them Theory.” 💥 Listen now on the melrobbinspodcast!! “The “Let Them Theory”: A Life Changing Mindset Hack That 15 Million People Can’t Stop Talking About” 🔗 in bio #melrobbins#letthemtheory#letgo#lettinggo#podcast#podcastepisode
How you respond to their behavior can significantly impact how they treat you in the future.
It’s also incredibly freeing to relieve yourself of the responsibility of changing people or feeling responsible for their actions. As the old Polish proverb goes, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
“Yes! It’s much like a concept propelled by the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k. Save your energy and set your boundaries accordingly. It’s realizing that we only have “control” over ourselves and it’s so freeing,” one viewer wrote.
Finding Peace Through Acceptance
“Let It Be” brought Paul McCartney solace as he dealt with losing his band in a very public breakup. The same state of mind can help all of us, whether it’s dealing with parents living in the past, friends who change and you don’t feel like you know them anymore, or someone who cuts you off in traffic because they’re in a huge rush to go who knows where.
The moment someone gets on your nerves and you feel a jolt of anxiety run up your back, take a big breath and say, “Let them.”
This article originally appeared two years ago.It has been updated.
Like it or not, AI technology is almost certainly here to stay. While that might bring new conveniences we never thought possible, it still causes many to stress out over range of topics from our careers to existential level threats.
In a segment for New Normal entitled, “Is Human Connection the New Job Security?” for BBC Global, journalist Katty Kay delves into the idea of job security in this new age. She first recalls a chat she had in 2023 with her old pal, Dermalogica Skincare founder Jane Wurwand.
High touch vs. high tech
In just two words, the corporate mogul had the antidote to “high tech,” and it was really quite simple. She told Kay, “The equal and opposite reaction to ‘high tech’ is ‘high touch.’” She explains that it’s “service-oriented businesses where humans are doing things that humans do best. Cooking. Caring. Touching. Kindness. Compassion. Talking. I’m not just in the business of skincare products. I’m in the business of human connection.”
Kay reconnects with Wurwand over a video chat a few years later to find out if she still feels the “high touch” concept is possible now that AI has advanced. “It’s not confined to physical touch, your concept of high tech/high touch. It’s also about this broader idea of just having a human voice when you call.” (Kay gives the example of having to call tech support if your Wi-Fi has gone out.)
The human being industry
Kay then asks, “Give us some tangible thoughts on which are the high-touch jobs and areas of employment you think survive this rapidly growing technology that may take other jobs away?”
Wurwand replies confidently, “The jobs that I see that are going to be booming…and really can’t be replaced. Hospitality. Travel. Anything in the human being industry.”
She discusses the importance of true empathy, something that can’t be substituted by a robot. “If you are receiving a cancer diagnosis, goodness forbid, an AI bot might have found or detected that rogue cell, but you certainly don’t want that bot talking to you or giving you that diagnosis. You want someone with kindness, empathy, and to hold your hand and literally say, ‘We’ve got a plan. We’re going to execute on it.’”
A doctor consults with his patient. Photo credit: Unsplash
Wurwand gives other examples, as well, essentially suggesting “high touch” can be applied anywhere, including tech jobs. “Whether you’re working in retail, whether you’re working in an industry that is full of technology, what we can bring as humans that makes the workplace, that business, that space kind, empathetic, that you feel seen, you feel heard, that you matter, that somebody knows a little bit about your life so that you can chat and talk.
A new social contract
Kay brings up the insightful point that many, especially younger people in today’s society, feel threatened and disillusioned. “Many felt there was this kind of social contract, where you get educated, you pay an enormous amount of money to go to a university or tertiary education, and then you come out and actually there aren’t jobs because the jobs have been taken.”
She also points out the frustration some might feel from having been told if they’d only learned to “code” they’d be fine. They then entered the workforce to find out lots of those jobs have been taken over, as well. Kay asks, “What do you say to the graduate who has a degree in accounting or coding?”
Wurwand reiterates that “high touch” is still important, even in accounting or coding jobs. “You’re not gonna compete with a robot. We don’t have those same skills. We don’t have that ‘code’ in our head. You have everything else that is needed by other humans. So we have to take the strength and move with it.”
She points out that we shouldn’t be so quick to label. “We shouldn’t box things into that’s ‘tech’ and this is ‘human.’ There has to be this connection.”
Genuine empathy
They both agree that those interpersonal skills—the ones that only human beings can truly have—must be nurtured in order to survive this AI flux. Wurwand gives the example: “Your first message of branding is that voice that answers the phone. And it doesn’t have to be in an office at a desk. It can be obviously remote. However, it has to be a double-down, delicious sort of person who sounds great and is kind and genuinely has empathy because we can hear or spot a fake in 30 seconds.”
Of course, the idea of good customer service isn’t exactly new. But it seems extra important right now given it’s seemingly being forgotten by so many major corporations.
In the article “9 Examples of High Touch,” for Simplicable, writer and IT tech John Spacey writes that it comes down to simply being human: “High touch is any business process that requires extensive human attention. These are typically areas where automation reduces the value of a process because humans add significant value to it.”
Aside from the aforementioned client services, Spacey also discusses the importance of having “personalized attention with every customer.” This includes, of course, listening to their needs and tailoring the experience directly to them when possible.
