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Five takeaways:

1. Psychologists generally define personality according to “Big Five” traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness toward others, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Consideration of one’s personality traits can predict vacation enjoyment, with “openness to experience” being a leading predictor of enjoyment.
2. One researcher makes the distinction between allocentricity, which he defines as comfort with novelty and adventurousness, vs psychocentricity, which describes those more prone to stick to routine and avoid uncertainty.
3. Scholars combine axes of allocentricity and psychocentricity to derive vacation personalities, which predict levels of stress on vacation.
4. Researchers group vacationers into four types: The Spontaneous Socializer (an adventurer who loves new people), the Gregarious Planner (extroverted but not spontaneous), the Surprise Avoider (an introvert who is not spontaneous), and the Lone Wanderer (the introvert who loves adventure but wants to do everything alone).
5. Consciousness of which type of vacation best fits your personality type can not only guarantee better trips – it can help you pick and choose experiences & create habits to make your life more enjoyable as a whole.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Five takeaways:

1. Useful research has shown that connections forged among different groups of people—what social scientists call “bridging social capital”—reliably enhance peace, prosperity, and social progress. Yet, we often group with those most like us.
2. Diversity in a friend group can focus on any number of factors but can come down to cultivating a friend group with specific viewpoints, experiences, and perspectives.
3. Management researchers have long found that diversity of ideas and ideology leads to better, more creative business outcomes. There are similar outcomes for one’s social life.
4. Here are three tips for jumpstarting the diversity of perspective in your own social sphere:
   • Talk to strangers: While only talking to trusted friends may seem safe, strangers are often more than happy to share their perspectives, and to hear yours.
   • Become a social scientist: Be curious and solicit the views of others in a friendly way. Tactfully ask questions that may expose a healthy difference of opinion.
   • Celebrate heresy: A rewarding social circle will discuss ideas far outside their comfort zone, politically, philosophically, and morally without fear of recrimination.
5. Ideological and intellectual diversity will make social interaction much more thrilling.

From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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Note: At the time of this posting The Atlantic offers five free article views per month.

Four takeaways:

One’s quality of life as they get older should be viewed through a holistic lens– happiness, health, and emotional wholeness. This article provides four habits that help us retain those qualities into our later years. These habits are:

1. Exercise for the body and brain: physical activity has been shown to help stave off the shrinking of the hippocampus that is natural with aging. Strength training also combats age-related muscle loss.
2. Strive for mental fitness: From “find my friends” to reading books to practicing a hobby to meditation, even 10 minutes of mental exercise a day can help rewire the brain to be stronger and more agile.
3. Stay social: social connection has been tied by study after study to enhance emotional/mental health and reduce the risk of premature death. The U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory this year warning of the nation’s loneliness epidemic.
4. Develop good sleep hygiene: sleep becomes more difficult with age, and many seniors find themselves going to bed later and rising earlier. A strong sleep routine can not only help maintain alertness and cognition but to avoid the long-term risks of poor sleep: depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.

From Kristine Gill for Fortune
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