Smart. Sexy. Fun.
Love and Sex
1 The Gratitude Project
Love and Sex
2 Where Do You Stand? Optimism
Poll
3 Do America's Best Days Lie Ahead or in the Past?
Love and Sex
4 Looking on the Brighter Side
relationships
5 The Benefits of Long Distance
Love and Sex
6 Are You Having a Hard Time Being Optimistic?
Health
7 Come on Get Happy! Optimistic Women Live Longer
It's a little depressing to hear that the majority of Americans have little faith in Gen Y. The only people that seem hopeful about our prospects are, well, the 20-somethings themselves. Just 44 percent of respondents believe that people in their 20s will have a better life than their parents, according to a Gallup survey. Compared with past results, that's the lowest since 1983 and the first Read more
Swedish massages are good for many things: relieving tension, destressing, taking a much-needed mind break. And now there's scientific proof that all that time you spend with soft hands and aromatic oils can be good for your health. The study compared Swedish massage to light touch only and found that just one 45-minute massage session increased white blood cell counts, which are an important Read more
It goes without saying that a healthy dose of optimism can make just about any situation easier to weather, but now there's one more reason to look at the glass half-full. According to a new study, an optimistic attitude will boost your immune system. The study followed optimism and immune response among first-year law students, and tracked changes over a one-year period. Researchers found that Read more
Learned Optimism is one of the best books I've read in a while. Psychologist Martin Seligman explores how optimists — those who believe that life's setbacks are only temporary — can avoid depression, improve their health, and enjoy an overall better quality of life. Now a new scientific study, which shows that optimistic women have a lower risk of heart disease and death, supports Seligman's Read more
Having a positive attitude is how underdog sports teams come from behind to cinch victory. It makes for exciting games, but a positive attitude is also important for your personal health — it fights heart disease. New research from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that seeing the glass half full appears to protect the heart against disease and death, and conversely pessimism Read more
Do you see this glass as half full or half empty? Careful now: how you answer could determine the length of your life. This may not come as much of a surprise, but optimists live longer. Using data from 100,000 women over age 50, the Women's Health Initiative, which began in 1994, found that self-described optimists were more likely to be alive after the first eight years of tracking Read more
When I asked you a while back if you were a pessimist or an optimist, most of you owned up to being a realist, but now that the going is getting tough and life feels grim, I'm wondering if you're finding yourself being more pessimistic. If this sounds familiar, you might want to know that according to a recent study, optimistic women actually live longer, so it's time to look at that glass as Read more
Though I've mentioned the environmental concerns related to a long distance relationship, I know that being able to physically see the person you love is extremely important. Feeling like a major facet of your relationship is out of your control can be very frustrating, and missing someone is always a struggle. Together, these can make long distance relationships difficult, which is probably why Read more
To combat the impending Winter and the lagging economy, last week Smitten challenged its readers to list five of their favorite simple pleasures in life. By making ourselves more aware of the good things around us, we can take our minds off of the things in our lives that aren't going as well as we'd like. It's all about the power of positive thinking, so if you're a person who tends to see the Read more
Forty-four percent of respondents believe America's best days are still to come, according to a poll just released. The pessimists, who think the good days have passed, represent 41 percent of the surveyed group. Optimism about the country's future appears tied to individual economic status — voters who make less than $40,000 a year are more likely to say the best days are behind the US. Those Read more
