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Posts by Marta Zaraska

Marta Zaraska is a Polish-Canadian science journalist. She is the author of Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100, published in June by Penguin Random House, and endorsed by Adam Grant, Joshua Becker, Emeran Mayer, and others. She has written for the Washington Post, Scientific American, New Scientist, The Atlantic, etc.

Marta Zaraska's Website

How I Stopped Obsessing About the Wrong Things to Stay Healthy

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“To change your life, you need to change your priorities.” ~Mark Twain

Every year, come December, I used to obsess about air pollution. This was the time when my husband and I would take our young daughter to Poland, the country of my birth, to spend Christmas with the extended family. There my anxieties would hit the roof.

Once the heating season kicks off, and the coal starts to burn in home furnaces, Polish air becomes unbreathable. The particle pollution may exceed norms by as much as 3000%. Some days you can actually feel the air burning the back of …