The history of colonialism and the stealing of lands from indigenous peoples in the Americas is fraught with pain and suffering that has gone unseen by many. A growing Land Back movement has been fighting, in part, for indigenous people’s reclamation of their ancestral homelands and the restoration of land management based on Native knowledge and practices.
One small but significant move in that direction has taken place in the redwood forests of northern California. The Yurok Tribe, who had 90% of their homelands stolen during the Gold Rush, has joined the Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League in an agreement that will give ownership in 2026 of 125 acres (50 hectares) of land near Orick, California to the tribe.
According to the AP, the land is named ‘O Rew in the Yurok language, and the tribe’s cultural resources director Rosie Clayburn said the return of the land is proof of the “sheer will and perseverance of the Yurok people.”
The site being returned to the Yurok is about a mile from the Pacific coast and sits adjacent to the Redwood National and State Parks, home of the world’s tallest trees. The Yurok people have always utilized the redwoods for building plankhouses, sweat lodges and canoes, though they traditionally only use trees that have fallen naturally.
Clayburn explained what the memorandum of understanding between the tribe and the parks service means.
“As the original stewards of this land, we look forward to working together with the Redwood National and State Parks to manage it,” she said. “This is work that we’ve always done, and continued to fight for, but I feel like the rest of world is catching up right now and starting to see that Native people know how to manage this land the best.”
Reconstructed plankhouse, the traditional dwelling of the Yurok Tribe in <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Redwood_National_Park" title="Redwood National Park">Redwood National Park</a> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yurok_plankhouse05.jpg">NPS/Public Domain</a>
The tribe plans to build a traditional Yurok village on the site, as well as a new visitor and cultural center displaying sacred artifacts, sharing information on redwoods and forest restoration and serving as a hub for the tribe to carry out Yurok traditions, Clayburn said.
The site will also serve as a new gateway to the Redwood National and State Parks, with more than a mile of new trails that will connect to existing trails inside the parks. The trails will include a new segment of the popular California Coastal Trail with interpretive exhibits.
The agreement also sees the restoration of a salmon habitat in Prairie Creek that had been buried by a lumber operation. The Yurok have been working on restoring it for the past three years, bringing thousands of juvenile coho and chinook salmon and steelhead back to the stream where salmon traditionally swam upstream to spawn.
In this historic collaboration, the Yurok will be the first indigenous people to co-manage National Parks land. But there are many more examples of Native American and First Nations people working with government institutions and municipalities to return land and pass management back to the people with centuries of proven sustainable relationship to the land.
Another significant move toward the legal recognition of Native lands was the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling that the eastern half of Oklahoma, including much of Tulsa, is on tribal land. The ruling was deemed a huge win for tribal sovereignty and territorial boundaries, but the fact that the battle made its way to America’s highest court (and had limitations placed on it in 2022 by the same court) is indicative of the struggle indigenous people face in reclaiming their ancestral lands.
The logistics of land rights, restoration and reclamation are complex from a legal standpoint, so it’s heartening when an agreement can be made without protracted legal battles. Such agreements depend on the people engaged in them acting in good faith, which appears to have made this Yurok Tribe agreement successful.
As Redwoods National Park Superintendent Steve Mietz said, the restoration effort and partnership with the Yurok Tribe, it is “healing the land while healing the relationships among all the people who inhabit this magnificent forest.”
From Pakistan to Tanzania, the most effective education solutions are community-led. Here’s how local leaders, in partnership with Malala Fund and supported by Pura, are mobilizing entire communities.
When asked to describe what Tanzania smells like, Grace Isekore closes her eyes and breathes in deep. For a moment, she’s somewhere else entirely. Tanzania is a rich tapestry of sights and scents, from the smell of sea mist that permeates the coastline to the earthy cardamom and cloves she cooks with in her kitchen. But when Grace emerges from her reverie, her answer is unexpected.
“Tanzania smells like peace,” she says, her eyes still closed. “I see a beautiful country where we are free to move, free to speak. And there is peace within the community.”
For Grace, that sense of peace isn’t just something she smells; it’s something she works toward every day. As a project coordinator with Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a women-led organization that empowers pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, she has seen firsthand how girls flourish when they have the opportunity to attend school. Like scent, education not only connects girls to their own culture, but also helps broaden their horizons, realizing new possibilities for themselves and others. That transformation reshapes entire communities and ripples outward, with the potential to change countries and transform the world for the better.
Different scents, different approaches, and communities driving change
Spices in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
For Grace and others around the world, education is freedom, as well as a pathway to a stronger community. Rooted in that shared belief, Pura, a home fragrance company, was inspired to build on their four-year partnership with Malala Fund to create something truly unique: a fragrance collection that connects people through scent to communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil, where barriers to girls’ education are among the highest.
Using ingredients from each region, the new Pura x Malala Fund Collection uses scent to transport people to these regions directly. “Future in Bloom,” for example, invokes Pakistan’s lush valleys through notes of jasmine, cedarwood, and mango; while Tanzania’s fragrance, “Heart on Fire,” evokes the spirit and joyfulness of the girls who live there through cardamom, lemon, and green tea.
The new Collection honors the work Malala Fund does every day, partnering with locally-led organizations in these four countries to ensure every girl can access and complete 12 years of education. Each scent celebrates the joy, tenacity, and courage of the women and girls driving change on the ground, while also augmenting Pura’s annual grant to Malala Fund by donating eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection to Malala Fund directly.
Just as each country’s scent is unique, so too are their needs related to education. But with support from Malala Fund and Pura, local leaders are coming up with creative ways to mobilize entire communities (parents, teachers, elders, and the students themselves, in their pursuit of solutions, understanding that educating girls helps everyone thrive. Here’s how their efforts are creating real, durable impact in Tanzania and Pakistan, and creating a ripple effect that changes the world for the better.
Parent-teacher associations help Maasai girls and their communities in Tanzania problem-solve
A girl’s school in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Northern Tanzania, Grace’s home, is home to pastoralist communities like the Maasai, a nomadic people who have moved with the seasons to nurture the land and care for their livestock for centuries. The nomadic nature of this lifestyle creates significant and unique barriers to girls’ education. Longstanding gender roles have enabled Maasai to survive in the harsh environment and have placed great value on both women and men. Over time, as nomadic life has been threatened by the privatization of land and stationary education models have been implemented, the reality of pastoralist livelihood has shifted and introduced new complexities. Now, the sheer distance to schools is both a practical challenge and one that often comes with danger from the landscape, predators, and potential exposure to assault along the journey. Girls shoulder the responsibility of household chores and there is often cultural pressure around early marriage – both leading to boys’ education being prioritized over girls’.
“There are very, very good [pastoralist] cultural practices, which are passed from generation to generation,” says Janet Kimori, an English teacher at Lekule Girls Secondary School in Longido, Tanzania. But when cultural practices act as educational barriers, “you have to sit down and look for where you are going to assist. As a school, as an individual, the school administration—all of us will chip in and know how we are going to deal with this problem.”
PWC works to ensure girls are able to exercise their right to an education while also preserving pastoralist culture. One successful approach, the organization found, has been the formation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), created with help from Malala Fund. In PTA meetings, students, parents, teachers, elders, and government officials meet, discuss educational barriers, and come up with community-led solutions that preserve and honor their culture while advancing educational outcomes.
PTA meeting in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
One recent PTA meeting highlights how these community-led solutions are often the most effective. At Lekule Girls Secondary School, the lack of fresh water forces girls to walk long distances to collect water for the school’s kitchen during the school day, and these long journeys not only disrupt class time but can leave girls vulnerable to sexual assault in isolated areas. Through facilitated discussion, PTA members landed on a solution: installing a borehole to pipe in fresh water to the school. Reliable access to water creates a better learning environment for the girls, but it also benefits the community at large, as local governments are then more likely to invest in health clinics and other community resources nearby.
With a solution in place, the PTA was then able to discuss ideas and map out a course of action. The women would raise money for the cost of the borehole, while the men would recruit workers to dig the hole and lay the pipe. Together, they would ask government officials to match their investment.
The benefits of PTA meetings within the pastoralist communities are undeniable. “The girls are talking and addressing issues in a confident way, and parents feel they are part of the resource team to solve challenges happening at school,” Grace says. One unexpected benefit: The larger cultural impact these PTA meetings have created. Thanks to the success of PTAs within pastoralist communities, the models are now being endorsed on a national level, and schools across Tanzania are starting to use them to solve problems in their own communities. When a community creates opportunities for girls to learn, everyone benefits.
Safe spaces in rural Pakistan help students and their parents connect, then drive change
Safe space for girls meeting in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
A continent away in Pakistan, the country’s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan seems like a land untouched by time. The region’s looming mountains, snow-capped peaks, lush valleys and crystalline lakes draw nature lovers and landscape photographers from around the world, but living among this kind of breathtaking scenery has its drawbacks. Schools in the region are few and far between, and the area’s harsh climate often makes roads inaccessible for travel. Poverty and gender-based discrimination are additional obstacles, making school even further out of reach, and girls are affected disproportionately. Going up against these barriers requires a persistent, quiet strength that’s found in the women who live there and reflected in Pakistan’s signature scent.
Saheli Circles are how local leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan are bridging the gap between girls and education. An Urdu term for “female friend,” Saheli Circles are after-school safe spaces where girls explore subjects like art and climate change, while also developing skills that help them manage emotions, set goals, and build positive relationships. Girls study in groups, visit the library, play sports, and tackle filmmaking and photography projects, all designed to develop self confidence and teach the girls how to advocate for issues that matter to them. But the work doesn’t stop there.
“What we’re trying to achieve here will only be impactful if it trickles down to the home environment and the school environment,” says Marvi Sumro, founder and program director of Innovate, Educate, and Inspire Pakistan (IEI), the local organization that developed the Saheli Circles model and partnered with Malala Fund in 2021 to make it a reality. Ever since, Saheli Circles have grown to involve teachers, elders, and parents to encourage relationship building that’s essential for young girls and adolescents. “Our spaces can give mothers and daughters an opportunity to interact a little differently—do an art activity, or have a cup of tea together, or some good conversation,” Marvi says.
The relationship building is what makes the biggest positive impact throughout the community. Recently, one Saheli Circle was able to bring together parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate for better education at their local school, and together they convinced the department of education to hire a science teacher. Another Saheli Circle organized a fund where members of the community can contribute monthly to pay for uniforms, books, and other school expenses for the girls in their village, eliminating those small, hidden costs that are often a barrier to education for many. A third Saheli Circle was able to produce a short film about how gender-based household chores can take away valuable study time from girls, leaving them at a disadvantage. “The girls put the film together and showed it to the mothers, and the response from the mothers was just beautiful,” Marvi says.
Girls smiling in Pakistan. Captured by Insiya Syed.
The education and relationship building that the girls receive in Saheli Circles connects them to larger opportunities and economic freedom that are not possible in their hometown. “For girls in Gilgit-Baltistan, education is extremely important because of the fact that we’re so far away from where the economy is, where the opportunity is. Education becomes this bridge for us, for our girls, to access all the opportunity and economy that exists in [larger cities].”
From rural Tanzania to remote Pakistan, local organizations prove every day that prioritizing girls’ education benefits everyone. Communities that lift up girls are able to secure resources like clean water and well-staffed schools, as well as build stronger relationships.
These outcomes are only possible because of the women and girls who work tirelessly in these regions to overcome barriers and drive progress. The Pura x Malala Fund Collection is a way to honor them, celebrate their achievements, and unite people the world over around a shared belief that education is freedom. Like scent, that belief can build, travel, and has the possibility to transform the world.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
There have been a lot of dubious medical research papers published over the years. Famously, there was the 1998 case series that kicked off what would become an entire movement of vaccine skepticism by falsely linking them to autism. Before that, there was a whole slew of research bought and paid for by the sugar industry designed to “downplay the risks of sugar and highlight the hazards of fat,” according to NPR.
Rarely, however, are studies so heavily, and intentionally, fictionalized as a paper that quietly popped up in some small corners of the Internet in early 2024.
Researcher tests AI hypothesis
Almira Osmanovic Thunström, medical researcher at the University of Gothenburg, knew that Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, etc. draw from an expansive knowledge base they’re trained on.
Training data can include anything and everything from books to Reddit posts to song lyrics to articles published in reputable medical journals.
Crucially, hundreds of millions of people log into these AI services every year to ask about symptoms and receive medical advice. It’s the natural evolution of the “Just check WebMD” approach. Thunström wanted to see if she could effect the output of these LLMs by planting bogus ideas into their training data.
So, she made up a disease. She called it “Bixonimania,” which includes symptoms such as sore, itchy eyes and discolored eyelids. Then, she fabricated an entire research study around the condition and uploaded a “preprint” of the paper to a couple of servers—a preprint being a version of the research paper that has not yet undergone peer review, but is still made available for the public to read.
Finally, with the seeds planted, and the false study publicly available for anyone (or anything) to see, Thunström waited to see if LLMs would begin spitting out “Bixonimania” as a diagnosis.
Fake disease finds serious legs in AI chats
If the experiment sounds ethically dubious, that’s fair, but Thunström made every effort to make it clear that the findings were completely false. Not only did she collaborate heavily with an ethics consultant on the experiment, she left plenty of breadcrumbs along the way.
For starters, the lead author of the study is listed as “Lazljiv Izgubljenovic,” a person who does not exist. Translated from Slovenian, the name means “The Lying Loser.”
Second was the name of the disease itself, which was chosen to be ridiculous sounding. “I wanted to be really clear to any physician or any medical staff that this is a made-up condition, because no eye condition would be called mania—that’s a psychiatric term,” Thunström said per Nature.com.
Early in the paper, the text “this entire paper is made up,” appears. As does a note that all of the fifty so-called “participants” were completely fictional. Toward the end, Thunström thanks such esteemed colleagues as “Professor Maria Bohm at The Starfleet Academy … onboard the USS Enterprise” and partners like “the Professor Sideshow Bob Foundation.”
Despite the warnings, and the fact that (nearly) any qualified human reading the paper would know it was a fake, it began showing up in search results and even had the authority to appear on Google Scholar.
AI chatbots began spitting out “Bixonimania” as a possible diagnosis to users within just a few weeks—users who were probably suffering from eye irritation due to too much screen exposure. Thunström even has the screenshots to prove that certain models, including Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, still refer to the disease as a “recently” proposed or described condition.
Then something even stranger happened.
“Bixonimania” gets cited by other research papers
The “Bixonimania” paper was never peer-reviewed or published in an official journal, for obvious reasons. But, soon enough, it was referenced and cited in a new paper that was peer-reviewed.
“Bixonimania is an emerging form of POM [periorbital melanosis] linked to blue light exposure; further research on the mechanism is underway,” the authors confidently wrote.
The papers referencing the made-up disease were later retracted.
More than just AI trickery
The TL;DR? People rarely read beyond the headline. In fact, one study (a real one!) found that more than 75% of people who share an article online haven’t even read it. Most of us trust anything that appears in a medical journal.
You’d think physicians and researchers would be more thorough, but the truth is they’re just as susceptible to time crunches, lapses of focus, and even taking shortcuts in their work from time to time. In other words, they’re only human.
This fascinating experiment isn’t just about how a researcher managed to fool AI, it speaks to bigger problems with how we use the technology and our daily media habits.
“The solution isn’t just better filters. It’s better habits, better norms, and better expectations around how we read, verify and cite. Human‑centred resilience has to come first,” an astute commenter wrote.
“This expose has huge implications for academia and ‘googling your symptoms’. I was/am worried about being the one taking the hit for a controversial experiment of this sort. It was done with very high guardrails and ethical considerations, I hope everyone reading will take that in to account,” Thunström elaborated on LinkedIn.
She recently decided to retract the papers and keep them private somewhere curious users can read them, but they’ll no longer be crawled by LLMs.
LLMs are powerful tools, but they can be dangerous. Photo Credit: Canva Photos
“The bixonimania experiment was never about exposing LLMs as flawed tools, or arguing they have no place in medicine. They do. It was about demonstrating that any system can be infiltrated and that researchers who blindly cite AI-generated references really should read what they’re quoting. I know this firsthand,” she says in another LinkedIn post, adding that she herself has been duped by AI-generated summaries of her own research papers.
“The failure wasn’t the system. It was how I used it.”
On February 1, 2003, a tragic reminder of how delicate life is struck those watching the landing of Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107). Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. “Willie” McCool, and mission specialists David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon were selected for Columbia’s 28th mission. The mission involved orbiting Earth while conducting experimental research.
What they didn’t know was that, during liftoff, a piece of insulation foam had compromised one of the shuttle’s heat shields. Upon reentry, with just 16 minutes remaining before they were expected to touch down, the shuttle met its fatal end.
Crew of the STS-107. Photo credit: NASA
Giant leaps
Many have recently taken a renewed interest in astrophysics, inspired by the awe of the Artemis II mission. Astronauts who devote their lives to space exploration are nothing short of magnificent. It’s a pursuit defined by equal parts devotion, incredible bravery, and the ability to see the big picture, quite literally. As astronaut Neil Armstrong famously put it, even “small steps” in this realm are “giant leaps for mankind,” a reminder of the importance of perspective within the smallest scientific details.
Letter from space
Mission specialist Brown had sent an email just one day before the crew was set to land, and his aerial view of our tiny blue marble of a planet clearly gave him perspective.
A Reddit user who said they were related to Brown shared the email and wrote, “I had a family member on Columbia, Dave Brown. We were at the launch and the disaster was put in a very different perspective for us, even though I didn’t know him that well. He emailed the family regularly and the day before reentry sent a very impactful email to us that became much more so after the incident.”
The email read:
“Friends, It’s hard to believe but I’m coming up on 16 days in space and we land tomorrow.
I can tell you a few things:
Floating is great – at two weeks it really started to become natural. I move much more slowly as there really isn’t a hurry. If you go too fast then stopping can be quite awkward. At first, we were still handing each other things, but now we pass them with just a little push.
We lose stuff all the time. I’m kind of prone to this on Earth, but it’s much worse here as I can now put things on the walls and ceiling too. It’s hard to remember that you have to look everywhere when you lose something, not just down.
The views of the Earth are really beautiful. If you’ve ever seen a space IMAX movie that’s really what it looks like. What really amazes me is to see large geographic features with my own eyes. Today, I saw all of Northern Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, the whole country of Israel, and then the Red Sea. I wish I’d had more time just to sit and look out the window with a map but our science program kept us very busy in the lab most of the time.
The science has been great and we’ve accomplished a lot. I could write more about it but that would take hours.
My crewmates are like my family – it will be hard to leave them after being so close for 2 1/2 years.
My most moving moment was reading a letter Ilan brought from a Holocaust survivor talking about his seven-year-old daughter who did not survive. I was stunned such a beautiful planet could harbor such bad things. It makes me want to enjoy every bit of the Earth for how great it really is.
I will make one more observation – if I’d been born in space I know I would desire to visit the beautiful Earth more than I’ve ever yearned to visit space. It is a wonderful planet.
Dave”
Data from the mission
While these precious lives were ended far too soon, their work was not in vain. NASA was able to salvage much of the data collected during the mission.
One of many examples was video footage that appeared to show a new, unexplained lightning-like phenomenon. In an article for New Scientist, Maggie McKee explains that researchers who pored over the footage saw a reddish glow unlike anything astrophysicists had seen at the time: “The glow occurred about 150 kilometres above the ocean near Madagascar and does not appear to be linked with thunderstorms.”
Similar to the tragic end of the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51L) mission, astrophysicists, as all good scientists do, find a way to carry on. They use these experiences to deepen their understanding and to advance science beyond what once seemed possible. In the words of Isaac Newton, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Ever wake up in the morning unsure of what you want to get out of the day? One day rolls into the next, and it’s easy to lose track of time and go on through our daily routines without any real purpose. That’s why, if we want to achieve our dreams and live the best life possible, it’s important to have a clear idea of what we’re working towards and to affirm it every morning.
Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, a certified mental performance coach who has worked with the Minnesota Vikings, USA Track & Field, and several Fortune 100 and 500 companies, created a 4-minute practice you can do every morning to have a successful day. She calls it the GRIT morning routine. “This simple GRIT routine gets my day started on the right foot!” she wrote on LinkedIn.
How to start your day using Dr. Cindra Kamphoff’s GRIT morning routine
To perform the GRIT routine, Kamphoff says that you should focus for one minute on each of the following:
1. Gratitude
“For one minute, remind yourself what you’re grateful for, the good things and the tough things,” she said in a YouTube video. Kamphoff told CNBC to envision a highlight reel of everything that has shaped your path. Think about the people you love, the blessings you’ve had in life, and the challenges that you’ve overcome to be the person you are today.
Gratitude is extremely important because it’s at the root of living a satisfied life. If you don’t appreciate the things you have in life, then it’s almost like not having them at all. A 2024 Harvard study found that gratitude is associated with greater emotional well-being, lower risk of depression, better sleep and heart health, and may even extend people’s lives.
“R is remember your purpose, or your ‘why.’ For one minute, remember and remind yourself why you do what you do,” Kamphoff says. If you haven’t found a specific purpose yet, that’s okay. Your purpose can be as lofty as creating a great movement that changes the world or as small as learning to be 1% kinder every day. Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, says that finding purpose may feel overwhelming, so it’s best to boil it down to a simple question: “What can I do with my time that is important?”
“For one minute, state at least three intentions. These are the ways you want to show up today, less about what you want to do but who you want to be,” Kamphoff says. She says to consider “who you want to be” and how you “want to show up” in the world, whether at home or at the office. Some examples include: “I will be a more patient parent” or “I will do everything in my power to avoid being distracted.”
4. Talk to yourself powerfully
“The last step is T, which is to talk to yourself powerfully. For one minute, tell yourself who you really are,” she says. She suggests that people talk to themselves with statements that include “I will,” “I can,” or “I am,” she told CNBC. If you are going to a job as a teacher, tell yourself, “I am the best teacher these kids have ever had,” or if you have a mile-long to-do list, tell yourself, “I can accomplish everything on my list and more.”
As the great Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Every morning, we begin our own journey, and the most important thing is to take that step in the right direction. With the GRIT morning ritual, hopefully, finding that direction and staying on the path is a lot easier.
For millions of people, this sort of run-of-the-mill sleep advice feels like being handed a pamphlet about umbrellas in the middle of a tropical storm. The advice isn’t wrong, not really. But it’s basic. Generic. It fails to account for the wildly diverse reasons people struggle with sleep in the first place.
A new study from Concordia University feels radical for a simple reason: Instead of lumping all sleepers into “good” and “bad” categories, researchers identified five distinct sleep profiles, each with its own causes, brain patterns, and emotional fingerprints. Once you know which one sounds like you, the advice actually starts to make sense.
What they found: Your sleep isn’t just about what happens when you close your eyes. It’s deeply intertwined with your brain wiring, your emotional life, and how you move through the world during the day. These findings align with the current sleep-deprivation crisis. Six in ten adults aren’t getting enough sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in three adults is chronically sleep-deprived. But not all of those sleepers are struggling for the same reasons, and that distinction matters more than previously realized.
Your sleep profile isn’t a quirky, fun fact like an astrological sign. Knowing which profile you belong to could unlock a good night’s rest—not just tonight, but for a lifetime.
Does this sound familiar? You get into bed exhausted, lie there for an hour, and suddenly your brain wants to review every awkward conversation you’ve had since 2009. When you do sleep, it’s shallow. You wake up wondering why you even bothered.
LC1, known as the Struggling Sleeper, is the most prevalent and clinically significant sleep profile. It is defined by a potent combination: sleep difficulty and underlying mental health struggles, including anxiety, depression, low mood, and poor concentration. These factors are so closely linked that it’s almost impossible to tell which came first. Research has consistently shown that insomnia and anxiety and depression have a bidirectional relationship, with each feeding and amplifying the other in a self-reinforcing cycle. Treating only the sleep without addressing the emotional root is like mopping the floor while the faucet is still running.
Brain scans reveal another neurological layer: Individuals with LC1 exhibit hyperactivity in emotional processing regions and reduced connectivity in areas tied to rumination and focus. The brain gets stuck in a loop. So when it’s 2 a.m. and you’re mentally planning contingencies for catastrophes that haven’t happened, this is your brain’s wiring, not a personal failure.
This one’s surprising. While Resilient Sleepers often carry real psychological stress—attention difficulties, low mood, pressure that would flatten most people—somehow, they sleep.
This profile offers a fascinating contrast to LC1. People in LC2 experience similar levels of psychological burden as those in Profile 1, but their sleep does not break down under that pressure. Researchers think this may reflect a neural resilience pathway—a different kind of wiring that prevents stress from taking over the sleep system.
Their brain scans reveal something intriguing: strong attention and control networks that act as a buffer, preventing emotional noise from flooding the sleep system at night. You might even underestimate your own sleep quality, thinking it’s worse than it actually is. Researchers believe this profile could be key to understanding what the brain can learn to defend, and whether those defenses can be developed in other sleepers.
For the Medicated Sleeper, sleeping aids are non-negotiable. Photo credit: Canva
Profile 3: The Medicated Sleeper (LC3)
Melatonin gummies, sleepy tea, a glass of wine, a Benadryl “just this once” that became every night—if sleep aids have quietly become non-negotiable, you probably recognize this profile.
Medicated Sleepers are often doing well by most measures—they’re socially active and physically healthy—but simply can’t fall asleep on their own without a little chemical assist. The trade-off? Mild declines in visual memory and emotional regulation, as sedating medications have been shown to affect both perceptual and emotional processing.
An important note: The researchers found that LC3, LC4, and LC5 were less robust than LC1 and LC2, suggesting these profiles may be more variable across populations and should be interpreted with caution.
Short Sleepers don’t need less sleep—they’re sleep-deprived. Photo credit: Canva
Profile 4: The Short Sleeper (LC4)
You’re efficient. You’ve adapted. So five and a half hours of sleep is fine—you’ve been running on it for years.
Here’s the hard truth: The brain scans of Short Sleepers look nearly identical to those of people who have pulled a full all-nighter. No, not just tired people—people who literally haven’t slept. As you can imagine, the cognitive costs of this sleeper profile accumulate quickly, often below the threshold of what we can feel but well above what researchers can measure.
LC4 is characterized by regularly sleeping fewer than six to seven hours per night, and the cognitive impacts are measurable: slower reaction times, decreased problem-solving ability, lower emotional patience, and difficulty managing interpersonal frustration. You may pride yourself on needing little sleep, having built an identity around efficiency. But your partner notices you snap more easily. You’ve forgotten three appointments this month. You’re not superhuman. You’re sleep-deprived, and your brain is working overtime to hide it from you.
You spend eight hours in bed, but you wake up exhausted. Throughout the night, everything in the world seems to keep you from rest—discomfort, noise sensitivity, a partner who snores—and despite spending plenty of time technically “sleeping,” Disturbed Sleepers rarely feel rested. The quality of sleep is just too fractured.
This was the only profile in the study to show a notable gender difference, with women scoring significantly higher—consistent with research showing that women experience greater sleep fragmentation over their lifetimes.
Why your sleep type matters
The stakes go well beyond feeling groggy. Each of these profiles carries unique long-term health risks, and the brain research is truly concerning.
The dementia connection
Every night, while you’re asleep, your brain quietly does something extraordinary. It activates what scientists call the glymphatic system—a built-in janitorial crew of fluid channels that weave between your brain cells. Their job? To flush out toxic proteins that accumulate during the day, including amyloid beta and tau. These are the same proteins that clump and tangle in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
When this system fails over time—as it does in people with the Struggling Sleeper, Short Sleeper, and Disturbed Sleeper profiles—toxic proteins don’t just linger; they build up. They cluster together. They trigger inflammation, worsening the problem. It’s a slow, silent spiral that can develop for years before anyone notices anything wrong.
The anxiety-depression loop
The relationship between sleep and mental health isn’t a one-way street where anxiety causes bad sleep. It’s more like a revolving door. Decades of research have confirmed that insomnia predicts the onset of depression, and depression predicts the worsening of insomnia. Each one fuels the other, back and forth, in a cycle that can go on for years.
If you treat depression alone and ignore sleep, you’ll often get incomplete results. If you treat only the sleep and overlook the underlying anxiety, the same issue occurs. The two are so closely connected that addressing one without the other usually leaves the whole thing unchanged.
The biggest takeaway from the research is the idea that sleep problems don’t all stem from the same place. They can’t all be fixed in the same way. What helps a Struggling Sleeper might do nothing for a Short Sleeper. What a Disturbed Sleeper needs is a completely different conversation from what a Medicated Sleeper needs. Here’s a rundown of what your sleeper profile requires for genuine rest:
Congrats! You’re doing something right, even if you’re not sure what it is.
Take a minute to take stock of your stress-management habits; something in your routine is actively protecting your sleep. Jot this down, whatever it is, and try not to trade it away when life gets busy. It’s doing more for your mental health than you realize.
One gentle caution: Resilience isn’t a permanent condition. Major life disruptions—loss, burnout, significant transitions—can shift your profile over time. Keep checking in.
If you’re a Medicated Sleeper (Profile 3):
No judgment here: a lot of people are in this category, and most of them didn’t plan to be.
Let’s name the thing directly: The belief that you’ve adapted to six hours is one of the most common and most convincing lies the sleep-deprived brain tells itself.
True Short Sleepers—people who genuinely thrive on less than seven hours due to a rare genetic trait—represent less than 3% of the population. Everyone else who “only needs six hours” has simply stopped noticing the deficit. Treat 7–8 hours the way you treat eating or exercise: a non-negotiable, not a nice-to-have.
If you’re a Disturbed Sleeper (Profile 5):
Sleep hygiene alone probably isn’t going to fix this, because the root is often physical, and physical problems need physical solutions.
A consistent sleep and wake schedule also helps anchor your circadian rhythm, making it easier for your body to build the biological pressure for sleep that actually gets you through the night.
Knowing your profile isn’t just interesting self-knowledge. It’s a starting point for solving the problem and finally getting the kind of sleep that makes everything else in life feel a little more possible.
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.
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