Jazmin Truesdale grew up reading comics. But, as she got older, she lost interest in the catchy crime-fighting plots and the mostly male casts of characters.

“When you get older you start to notice more things like sexism and racism in the entertainment you consume, and I was becoming more put off by comics,” Truesdale told The Huffington Post. Rather than turning away from her interest, however, she dove into it head-on, dreaming up a squad of heroines that better reflects the lives of real women reading comics today. 

“In the superhero industry, there are many physically powerful women and people of color but none of them are truly empowered,” Truesdale said. “They'll show up for a comic issue or two and then disappear into the superhero void.”

She’s referring specifically to Nubia -- a black woman who features in the "Wonder Woman" series as a powerful equal to Wonder Women, yet is scarcely seen after a three-issue stint in the late 1970s. Her fate is common among superwomen, who tend to crop up as strong-willed love interests -- ahem, Catwoman -- more than stars in their own right.

“Female superheroes were never meant for women,” Truesdale said. “They were created by men, for men. The characters are either created based on female stereotypes or they are literally regurgitated female versions of popular male characters."

This may not be a fair wholesale dismissal, especially in light of Marvel’s recent attempts to create and promote superheroes of color, and women superheroes. Last year, for example, the comic book publisher rebooted the Thor series, revealing partway through that Thor has been replaced by a woman -- a former love interest of his alter ego, to be exact.

It’s a step in the right direction, certainly, but does infusing white male-centric plots with new and reimagined characters really avert the male gaze? Truesdale doesn’t think so.

“When a male superhero defeats a villain, he gets the girl. But what does a female superhero win? Nothing. She defeats her villain and goes home alone,” she said. “She doesn’t even have girlfriends she can call up and go out with to celebrate her victory. If she does have a boyfriend, it’s usually a male superhero who is stronger than her, which subconsciously tells girls that in order to win the guy, you can’t be stronger or as strong as him.”

To spur more meaningful change, Truesdale thought it best to start from scratch, writing women characters who are fully realized individuals, and who are defined by their relationships with each other, rather than romantic pursuits. And so she created the Aza universe, consisting of Ixchel, a crime fighter who values brain over brawn; Adanna, a super-strong woman who owns an auto shop; Kala, an impassioned activist; and more. The team, known as "The Keepers," was illustrated by Remero Colston and written into a digital, self-published novel.

Truesdale hopes the book will work against the usual stereotypes about women upheld by comic books -- that their purpose is their sex appeal -- but also the misguided notion that women don’t get along. In comic books, it’s rare to see two women in a scene unless they’re at battle, but, Truesdale points out, “Women don't fight any more or less than men. The only difference is that people only seem to care when we do it. Two men fighting gets no one's attention.”

Will major comic book publishers adopt the same approach -- crafting women and minority characters who are well-rounded rather than tailored to appeal to male readers? In a universe where men can fly faster than light, stranger things have happened.

For more on the re-imagination of superheroes, check out Markus Prime's B.R.U.H. (Black Renditions of Universal Heroes).

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SOCHI, Russia, May 5 (Reuters) - Russia's Mariinsky Theatre staged a surprise concert in the amphitheater of the Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday, in what looked like an attempt by the Kremlin to win hearts and minds and remind the world of its role in the city's recapture.

The concert, held just over a month after Russian air strikes helped push Islamic State militants out of Palmyra, saw Valery Gergiev, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, conduct the Mariinsky orchestra.

Sergei Roldugin, a cellist friend of Putin's named in the Panama Paper leaks as owning a network of offshore firms that have handled billions of dollars, also performed. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Putin, addressing the audience by video link from his Russian Black Sea residence of Sochi, called terrorism a contagion the world needed to rid itself of and said the fact the concert was taking place at all was "surprising."

"Today's action involved major inconvenience and dangers for everyone, being in a country at war close to where hostilities are still ongoing. That has demanded great strength and personal courage from you all. Thank you very much," said Putin.

Gergiev, a longtime Putin supporter, described the concert as a protest against the barbarism and violence exhibited by Islamic State militants who had destroyed parts of Palmyra and used the city's Roman amphitheater to execute prisoners.

The event was made public just hours before it began. Russian and Syrian military personnel as well as locals could be seen in the audience.

Russian special forces called in air strikes in March to help the Syrian government retake the city and Russian engineers later demined the historic part of Palmyra. Moscow has said its experts are ready to help restore the city, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Thursday's concert had echoes of a performance conducted by Gergiev in August 2008, when the Mariinsky performed in front of the bombed-out parliament of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia after Russian forces defeated the Georgian army in a short war over the territory. (Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is set to open in September 2016, and in honor of its grand opening, the museum wishes to honor the memory of  Tamir Rice, by preserving the gazebo where he was fatally shot by police in 2014.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda once admitted that Marc Anthony is one of his “pop-culture dads,” and now he's shown fans a video that proves it. 

The Boricua genius gave his Twitter followers a gem from his college days on Monday, and shared a video of himself performing at the "Expresiones" Latino talent show during his junior year at Wesleyan University. He was 20 years old. 

The "Hamilton" creator and star was inspired to share the video as a way to join in on the yearly online tradition of sharing memes at then end of April of Justin Timberlake telling you "It's gonna be May."

As his talent, Miranda remixed well-known songs of the late '90s and early 2000s into Marc Anthony-style salsa hits, and he started with N'SYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me." The now 36-year-old star then quickly went on to do other classics like Britney Spears' "Oops, I Did It Again" and Destiny's Child's "Say My Name."

We think Marc Anthony would be proud! Check out Miranda's singing (and his Salsa moves) in the video below:

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"We all got born into this. We didn't make this up," Gloria Steinem said to a room of women and men (but mostly women) on Wednesday night, referring to sexism and sexual violence around the world. 

The feminist activist was speaking with Vice co-founder Shane Smith after a screening of the upcoming mini docu-series "WOMAN." The room was filled with stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Mariska Hargitay, along with press, fans and even a high school feminism class.

When asked why he helped create the docu-series Smith said, "It's simple. I have two daughters," later adding "I think there's a lot of problems out there. And I think you need to figure out what side of history you want to be on."

With a team of female journalists, the eight-episode series explores stories of  womanhood around the world we often don't hear about, from incarcerated mothers in the United States to female members of the guerrilla organization in Colombia. "WOMAN" will air weekly and premieres on May 10. 

Watch the trailer for "WOMAN" below. 

The series was produced in collaboration with Steinem and Vice's TV channel Viceland. In the first episode, "WOMAN" takes viewers to the Democratic Republic of Congo to speak with women who have been raped as a tactic of war, and the activists who have devoted their lives to creating support systems for these women.

Although the Great War Of Africa (also known as the Second Congo War) officially ended in 2003, "WOMAN" shows the ways in which Congolese women still face brutal sexual assault and violence on a daily basis.

"Today in the DRC, mass rapes are no longer confined to war zones. They have become routine," Steinem says in the episode. Over 1.8 million women in the DRC have been targets of violent sexual assault. 

During the episode, viewers meet people like Mama Masika, a women's activist who, after being gang-raped by militia soldiers, created a safe haven for survivors of sexual assault and rape. When women are raped in the DRC they are often shunned by their families and communities, leaving them with nowhere to go. Mama Masika's village offers a place for women to create new lives and begin the healing process. 

As Steinem says in the "WOMAN" trailer: "By confronting the problems once marginalized as women’s issues, we can tackle the greatest dangers of the 21st century."

And that's exactly what Viceland's "WOMAN" is trying to do. 

Head over to Viceland to read more about the upcoming "WOMAN" series.  

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For his latest act, Broadway and television actor Benjamin Eakeley put a modern spin on the Cole Porter classic, "Love for Sale," and The Huffington Post has an exclusive first look. 

The 37-year-old New Jersey native, who was named one of the "10 Hottest Chorus Boys on Broadway” by Time Out New York in 2014, will return to the cabaret stage in "Broadway Swinger” on May 9. The show, which debuted at New York nightspot Feinstein's/54 Below in January, is all about "love and sex with no apologies," he said.

Eakeley and his musical director, James Olmstead, were compelled to include "Love for Sale," which originally appeared in the 1930 musical, "The New Yorkers," because "nobody would be singing about sex at all if it weren’t for Cole Porter." The rest of the "intensely personal" set, he said, will trace America's "shifting attitude toward love and sex" through the scope of musical theater, with songs from "Promises, Promises,"“Cabaret" and "Hair," among other shows.   

In fact, Eakeley said he was partly inspired to create "Broadway Swinger" after his stint in the 2014 Broadway revival of "Cabaret," which starred Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams. 

"It was the first time I had the opportunity to bring sex and an unabashed sexuality to the forefront of my work on stage," he told The Huffington Post. "I am very interested in the 'in between' moments of life, the moments that we experience every day but don’t share with the public, or even ourselves."

In particular, Cumming taught him "the importance of dropping your guard," Eakeley said, adding, "If I learned anything on stage last year, it’s that it can be great fun to put the moves on attractive strangers -- especially when it’s your job."

"Broadway Swinger" comes at a particularly happening time for Eakeley, who can currently be seen alongside Laura Benanti, Zachary Levi and Gavin Creel in the hit Broadway revival of "She Loves Me." He praised both Benanti, who nabbed a Tony Award nomination for her performance, and Creel, who he understudies, as "extraordinary." 

"I’ve learned from them that it’s important to be serious, but also that silliness is equally important," he said. "Life is so much better when we're having fun." 

While "Broadway Swinger" will offer its share of silly, saucy moments, Eakeley said he won't be stripping down for the show -- at least not in the literal sense. 

"Since this is a show about sex," he quipped. "I will definitely be wearing tight pants."

Benjamin Eakeley performs "Broadway Swinger" at New York's Feinstein's/54 Below on May 9. Head here for more details. 

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"These mothers, they are the living victims," artist Sylvia Maier told The Huffington Post. "Living with the loss of their children."

Maier is referring to the Circle of Mothers, a national support group for mothers whose children were murdered by police officers. Started by Sybrina Fulton in 2012 after the death of her son Trayvon Martin, the Circle of Mothers network provides mothers with a space to grieve, heal and advocate for a better world together. 

These courageous women are the subjects of Maier's upcoming exhibition, titled "The Circle of Mothers Project." The series, consisting of oil paintings, depicts women who did not ask to become heroes, who hoped to endure the average ups and downs of any mother; however, prejudice, police brutality and gun violence forever ruptured the trajectory of their lives. 

"I pray for strength for any mother," Fulton explained in an interview with Essence in 2014. "I pray for healing. I would just hope that she could return to the life that she had before because it's very difficult. It's like you're missing an arm or leg or something and then you’re supposed to still function without it. You have to really push yourself to say, yes, I can do this! I can keep living!"

Fulton is far from alone. "There were so many moms, that was what really shocked me," Maier said. "They could would wrap around a city block many times over. I want to show that there is a huge crisis in our community, where women are mourning their children. It’s not a political thing. It’s a human thing. I want the mother in Westchester to relate to these images as much as the mother in The Bronx."

During the painting process, Maier spoke at length with her subjects about what they had endured. "They want to talk about what happened to them," Maier explained. "They don't want these stories to be forgotten." The artist tried to capture the individual spirit of each subject, determined to create tributes that stand apart from the stream of images we encounter daily on the news. "People become so numb to it. I want to capture the fact that Constance is young and hip, while Hawa is more serious." 

Each of the portraits is rendered against the outline of an American coin, the words "In God We Trust" and "Liberty" etched alongside the name of the child unlawfully killed. The juxtaposition of the nation's identifiable ideals and the lived reality of discrimination and suffering so many Americans are forced to face is haunting. 

"Their children were denied liberty just because of the way they looked in a racist society," Maier said. "It’s not just prejudice when it infringes on someone’s rights to live and be happy and pursue an education. It’s hypocritical to see those words on a coin. Does it mean 'liberty for all'? What makes people think only some of us deserve liberty?"

The artworks, part of Maier's larger "Currency Series," also aims to commemorate unsung heroes who deserve to be honored on a coin. The works beautifully coincide with the recent announcement that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

"I was really thrilled about that," Maier said. "It’s really about time." The artist explained how, like Tubman, her subjects emanate a different kind of strength than the type often celebrated in American culture. "I want to show that the women are really the leaders, through their gentleness, nurturing and tenacity. Women are revolutionaries."

"The Circle of Mothers Project" also comes on the heels of Beyoncé's stunning visual album "Lemonade," which features appearances by Fulton as well as the mothers of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. For Maier, this type of social awareness is what artists are destined to do. 

"As an artist you need to respect your time," she said. "What are you giving back to the community? Are you going to answer the call? For me personally, I don’t see how someone can turn away from what's going on in the world around them. I'm a mother and the fact that these beautiful people have had to suffer this -- it’s just an outrage. I don’t want to leave this for our future generation. It’s not just a black issue, everyone needs to care. What’s it going to take for you to care?"

Sylvia Maier's "The Circle of Mothers Project" will run at gallery josephine in Martha's Vineyard from May 28 until June 13, 2016. 

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It's hard out there for a summer movie not tied to a lucrative franchise. Some two dozen reboots, sequels, video-game adaptations and comic-book spectacles will hit theaters over the course of the next four months. It all begins this weekend -- a month and a half before the official start of summer -- when "Captain America: Civil War" inevitably knocks "The Jungle Book" off its box-office perch.

We'll soon find out whether there's another "Jurassic World"-sized behemoth on our hands. The 13 potential cash cows we've targeted merely scrape the surface. There are also new "X-Men," "Alice in Wonderland," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Ice Age" and "Star Trek" installments on the horizon -- not to mention "The Angry Birds Movie," "Warcraft," "The Legend of Tarzan" and, for some reason, a CGI-laden "Ben-Hur" redo. Next week we'll preview some under-the-radar titles whose noise and visual effects won't scorch your senses, but here is a handful of big-budget releases worth marking your calendar for.

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This is Laura Mvula -- British singer-songwriter, Prince protégé, and all around phenomenal woman. 

On May 4, Mvula released a color-drenched music video that celebrates the strong, beautiful and, yes, phenomenal ladies in her life. Be prepared to press play and play and play again. 

The song, "Phenomenal Woman," is based off a 1970s Maya Angelou poem of the same name.

Check out an excerpt from the ode to a woman's ineffable powers below.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Mvula taps into Angelou's fire with a vibrant music video shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Expect some serious power clashing, ferocious dance moves, a stuffed cheetah, and hella female empowerment.

"Phenomenal Woman" is a song off Mvula's upcoming second album "The Dreaming Room," out June 17. See the video in full below:

H/T Jezebel

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There are some queens so powerful, their words can move mountains -- or, at least, drive sales. First, it was Red Lobster. Now, it's lemonade. 

When Beyoncé released her masterful visual album "Lemonade" last week, there was praise, there was gossip, there were think pieces and fan fiction and covers. But perhaps the strangest offshoot of the stellar album is that lemonade sales are up following the album's release. Yes, like, actual lemonade, the refreshing, citrus-y beverage. 

At least this is what fresh juice industry expert Natalie Sexton explained in a phone call with The Huffington Post. The current CEO of Natalie's Juices, a local family-owned juice company based in Florida, Sexton explained that since Bey's album dropped, the company has doubled its sales of natural lemonade, lemonade tea and strawberry lemonade. 

"People are drinking lemonade and posting pictures with #Beyoncé," Sexton explained to The Huffington Post. "You can't drink lemonade these days without thinking of her."

Of course, some of the spike in recent juice sales may be linked to rising temperatures, but without Bey's divine guidance, who knows what drinks we'd be turning to to quench our summer thirst?

As Market Watch reported, lemonade sales are dwindling, down about 24 percent from 2004, in part because consumers are more conscious about imbibing sugary drinks. But Matt Barry, a research associate at Euromonitor International, thinks Bey might just be the savior the lemonade industry needs. "Beyoncé has done it before, and she could do it again," he said.

Matt McLean of Uncle Matt's juice hasn't seen quite as much action as Sexton, but he does note a significant rise in his sales. "Sales are increasing. We're up about 20 percent," McLean told the Huffington Post. "I don’t know if that’s due to Beyoncé or the heat. Maybe it’s Beyoncé. We’d send her some free lemonade -- it’s organic!"

McLean has not listened to the album yet himself but, as a human being on this earth, has gotten wind of some of the Bey buzz. "I guess she puts some pretty candid stuff in there about her marriage with Jay Z. That's sort of interesting. I'm glad they worked through their marital issues." 

So, there you have it. Either Beyonce or summer is controlling the juice industry. Or maybe they're in on it together. Let's just hope lemonade enjoys its time in the sun before watermelon water, Bey's newest bev of choice, catches on. 

This breaking news comes just after Twitter observed a major spike in lemon and bee emojis following the record drop. 

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It's a phenomenon that would seem unheard of to today's 18-24 demographic, but MTV was first brought into consciousness by a single rallying cry: "I want my MTV!"

The slogan implored anyone listening to call their cable provider and ask -- nay, demand -- that MTV be included in their package. Today, when the aftershock waves of "Unplugged," "Yo! MTV Raps," "Total Request Live," and even "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom" continue to ripple throughout pop culture, it's difficult to imagine a cable lineup without that ubiquitous giant "M" logo. 

Then again, these days, it's difficult to imagine a cable lineup at all. Over the past few decades, viewing habits have shifted from hours logged surfing through 1,000-plus channels of premium cable to on-demand streaming feeds curated by users themselves. Viewers choose what they want to watch instead of finding something by happenstance; we can watch the latest episode of our favorite show whenever we feel like it instead of conforming to a channel's airing schedule. 

It'll be interesting to see how MTV adapts to this environment on the heels of the network's announcement that they, like so many other film and TV enterprises, are looking backward in order to get ahead. Yup: MTV's president Sean Atkins recently told Variety they'll be bringing back music programming, starting with "Unplugged," a feature that began in 1989, showcasing musicians of all stripes giving intimate acoustic performances. Variety noted that though the network has struck gold in reality fare like the aforementioned "Jersey Shore" and "Teen Mom," as well as "Catfish," advertising revenues were down, and something needed to change. 

Take those aforementioned reality shows, add other MTV staples like "True Life," "The Real World" and "The Challenge," and cut the mix with a decent amount of scripted programming, and the joke from the mid-aughts on was easy: "Why doesn't 'Music Television,' um, play music videos anymore?" Some felt the final death knell for the network came around 2010, when the network announced it would be scrapping its iconic logo for a fatter "M," the words "Music Television" conspicuously absent.

Of course, to go back to what many would call the glory days of early MTV, when music videos and accompanying music chatter were the rule of the land, would simply be an attempt to fit a square premium-cable peg in a round hole. With just about every music video at our proverbial fingertips, there's no longer an incentive to tune in and see if your favorite will air on TV, and with surprise album releases and leaks in abundance on the Internet, waiting to find out about a new Drake or Taylor Swift album on television seems prehistoric. "Unplugged" in a pre-Internet era was iconic because it was a divine thing to catch a fleeting glimpse of Kurt Cobain and co., or Lauryn Hill, performing like you had never heard them before. These days, you can find a clip online and re-live it whenever you want, or pass it over in favor of the endless other videos available. 

Beyoncé and HBO, of course, made the case for a world in which premium cable and music can create a you-had-to-be-there viewing experience. But, special events like album drops -- from perhaps the biggest recording artist out there right now -- do not a regular programming schedule make. 

MTV capitalized on a recent opportunity to remind us all of the power of great music programming. The death of music icon Prince, which sent chills through the world, made just as big of an impact on the music network: MTV eschewed its regular schedule, including a "Real World" premiere, to air the "Purple Rain" film, footage of his performances and his music videos. On the Internet side, they went live with a roundtable discussion of Prince's impact featuring editorial director Jessica Hopper and reporter Doreen St. Félix, who presented an understated delivery of the news reminiscent of the network's Kurt Loder and Su-chin Pak era.

It was a nod to MTV roots, adapted for the present.

It seems the music programming could follow the same path: creating something for TV that's just as easily consumed and shared online. Along with reviving "Unplugged," the network will also have "Wonderland," a weekly series of comedic and musical performances where stars try out new formats for a special, one-off experience. These bring to mind BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, where artists perform unique covers, the popularity of wild "Lip Sync Battle" YouTube clips or even James Corden's smash "Carpool Karaoke" segment -- two examples of traditional media and the Internet coming together in beautiful harmony. 

The network has no problem establishing its voice online, either. What seems to be a recently revamped MTV News Instagram account shares relevant info in a bright, fun feed that is seemingly right at home with the Tumblr aesthetic. Plus, the MTV News account's recent "takeover" on Twitter showed they clearly know how to speak to the kids these days (and I just aged 100 years/lost 1,000 relevancy points typing that sentence).

We're excited to see MTV get back to its music- and news-heavy past and bring it into the post-aughts, or whatever we're calling this decade. The steps they've taken so far show a bright future ahead. 

You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Sign up to receive it in your inbox weekly.

Follow Jillian Capewell on Twitter: @jcapecape

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This article first appeared on QuietRev.com

Neil Pasricha is on a crusade, and his goal is to help people get happy. He has firsthand experience with the working world’s disconsolate little secret—having spent years helping people lead teams, businesses, and organizations, he realized hardly anyone was happy (including himself). And to paraphrase Dean Wormer from Animal House: frazzled, stressed, and miserable is no way to go through life, son.

His resulting book, The Happiness Equation, consolidates piles of research on how to train your brain to be happy. And yes, we can be happy from the inside out. Happiness comes as a result of conscious training (think of it as emotional CrossFit, only without any painful, pulled muscles). Happiness isn’t a destination we arrive at after everything else in life is awesome—it’s what we do to make everything else in life awesome. And once we make that internal shift, we can put our day-to-day external frustrations into perspective. Neil’s strategies are practical, effective, and (shocker) FUN as he distills the attainment of a happy life into a simple equation:

Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything.

The following excerpt presents seven straightforward techniques you can use every day to boost your happiness quotient. You can start RIGHT NOW. And honestly, you should—who doesn’t want to be happier? Oh, and if you haven’t visited Neil Pasricha’s wildly popular blog 1000awesomethings.com, check it out. At least one of his awesome things will make you smile (if you’re an introvert, probably #913).

7 Ways to Be Happy Right Now: An Excerpt from The Happiness Equation

1. Three Walks
Pennsylvania State researchers reported in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychologythat the more physically active people are, the greater their general feelings of excitement and enthusiasm. Researcher Amanda Hyde reports, “We found that people who are more physically active have more pleasant-activated feelings than people who are less active, and we also found that people have more pleasant-activated feelings on days when they are more physically active than usual.” It doesn’t take much: Half an hour of brisk walking three times a week improves happiness. The American Psychosomatic Society published a study showing how Michael Babyak and a team of doctors found that three thirty-minute brisk walks or jogs even improve recovery from clinical depression. Yes, clinical depression. Results were stronger than [those from] studies using medication or studies using exercise and medication combined.

2. The 20-Minute Replay
Writing for twenty minutes about a positive experience dramatically improves happiness. Why? Because you actually relive the experience as you’re writing it and then relive it every time you read it. Your brain sends you back. In a University of Texas study called “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words,” researchers Richard Slatcher and James Pennebaker had one member of a couple write about their relationship for twenty minutes three times a day. Compared to the test group, the couple was more likely to engage in intimate dialogue afterward, and the relationship was more likely to last.

3. Random Acts of Kindness
Carrying out five random acts of kindness a week dramatically improves your happiness. We don’t naturally think about paying for someone’s coffee, mowing our neighbor’s lawn, or writing a thank-you note to our apartment building security guard at Christmas. But Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness, did a study asking Stanford students to perform five random acts of kindness over a week. Not surprisingly, they reported much higher happiness levels than the test group. Why? They felt good about themselves! People appreciated them. In his book Flourish, Professor Martin Seligman says that “we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.”

4. A Complete Unplug
“The richest, happiest and most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the challenge at hand, but also to disengage periodically and seek renewal,” say Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement. And a Kansas State University study found that complete downtime after work helps us recharge for the next day.

5. Hit Flow
Get into a groove. Be in the zone. Find your flow. However you characterize it, when you’re completely absorbed with what you’re doing, it means you’re being challenged and demonstrating skill at the same time. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes this moment as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

6. 2-Minute Meditations
A research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at brain scans of people before and after they participated in a course on mindfulness meditation and published the results in Psychiatry Research. What happened? After the course, parts of the brain associated with compassion and self-awareness grew while parts associated with stress shrank. Studies report that meditation can “permanently rewire” your brain to raise levels of happiness.

7. Five Gratitudes
If you can be happy with simple things, then it will be simple to be happy. Find a book or a journal, or start a website, and write down three to five things you’re grateful for from the past week. I wrote five a week on 1000awesomethings.com. Some people write in a notebook by their bedside. Back in 2003, researchers Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough asked groups of students to write down five gratitudes, five hassles, or five events that happened over the past week for ten straight weeks. Guess what happened? The students who wrote five gratitudes were happier and physically healthier. Charles Dickens puts this well: “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many, not your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”

This post includes an excerpt from Neil Pasricha’s new book The Happiness Equation, which began as a 300-page letter to his unborn child on how to live a happy life. Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. On sale March 8, 2016. Copyright © 2016 by Neil Pasricha.

Neil Pasricha is Director of The Institute for Global Happiness, a New York Times bestselling author, and a “Top 10” Most Inspiring TED Speaker.

This article originally appeared on QuietRev.com.

You can find more insights from Quiet Revolution on work, life, and parenting as an introvert at QuietRev.com.

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Street artist Pegasus says he won't be censored, despite receiving death threats from Donald Trump supporters over a piece that likens the presumptive GOP presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler.

He told The Huffington Post via email that dozens of menacing telephone calls have been made to his manager in recent days.

Some people have threatened to stab, kidnap or gun him down. 

Others have vowed to sabotage his upcoming show in Los Angeles, where he is planning to exhibit a version of the piece he initially painted on the side of a pub in Bristol, England, in February.

A few have reportedly promised that when Trump becomes president, Pegasus will be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported.

But the street artist, who is from Chicago but now lives in London, said he won't be silenced. And he's promised that the second stop of his "Gods & Monsters" tour at Artists Corner will still go ahead on Oct. 1 -- with the Hitler/Trump piece included.

"I have the best security team on the night," he told HuffPost. "I will never give in to fear mongering, nor will I ever be censored. I am American and I believe in freedom of speech and artistic freedom of expression."

Here's Pegasus' original painting:

"I have endlessly stated my opinions on Trump and all I have left to say is the man is a tyrant," Pegasus added.

He told Mashable that the Los Angeles Police Department had been "very supportive" over the threats and that uniformed cops would attend the event.

The Huffington Post has reached out to the LAPD for further comment.

Leonard Villa, Pegasus' manager, told Mashable the situation was "quite frightening really," adding, "I think people must be really obsessed with Donald."

Pegasus, known for his "Fallen Angel" mural of Amy Winehouse in Camden, London, created this touching tribute to Prince in London last month:

See more anti-Donald Trump street art here.

Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

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What does the average nude body look like? If you were to use pop culture --circa the mid-aughts, specifically -- as your barometer, your answer might look like the swath of thin, light-skinned women found on television, in film, or on the pages of magazines. If you were to use the 11-year-old Nu Project as your gauge, the answer would be somewhat different: In essence, there is no average nude body.

The Nu Project started with Matt Blum, a freelance photographer and web developer based in Minneapolis, Minn, who, in 2005, was seeking a way to subvert the typical image of a nude woman that dominated mainstream media. Instead of the "perfect," highly stylized bodies that filled screens and billboards, he wanted to showcase the very real and varied forms that female-identifying individuals outside of Hollywood were proud to have as their own. He wanted to showcase an "honest" nude.

His goal was simple: he eschewed professional models and glamour in favor of capturing a diverse array of nude volunteers in poses and makeup comfortable to their personalities. The project really took off in 2009, when Blum's wife, Katy Kessler, began editing the series. It was her idea to take the series into subjects' homes, photographing nude women in the intimate spaces they feel most secure.

In their resulting images, women of many sizes, ages, races and identities -- women who've undergone gastric bypass surgery, are pregnant, or live with scars from past illnesses -- bare their bodies for Blum and Kessler's lenses, boldly presenting a different kind of nude image for themselves, and the other women and men who lay eyes on the series. Over a decade of work, Blum and Kessler have photographed over 250 women across North America, South America and Europe, and today, they continue to recruit volunteers on their website's participation page.

"I try not to talk anyone into participating because of the extremely personal nature of the photographs and I also realize it's not for everyone," Blum explained during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. "From what I've experienced, 99 percent of the women who've participated have told me that they saw themselves differently and that they felt more beautiful... There are so many women for whom seeing your image might bring peace and acceptance."

We checked in with the Nu Project's Blum to reflect on 10 years' worth of photography and talk about the future of his series:

What sparked the Nu Project?

There were actually an intersection of two things that led to the creation of The Nu Project. [My] experience with disordered eating in college and the lack of diverse body types and ages in nude photography. From the beginning our focus has always been the personal connection between the viewer and the subject. As a photographic team, the best compliments we can receive are things like, "Your subjects look so confident and happy" and "You show beauty in many diverse types of people."

How do you define an "honest nude"?

Our "honest nudes" still include post-productions and Photoshop, we just don't change the people themselves nor do any retouching of permanent features of their home or body. I have no problem photoshopping out a zit that someone got before the shoot, but I don't see any reason to slim someone's waist line, increase their breast size or remove the texture from their skin. Our hope is to make the portraits look like we caught someone on a great day.

Do you think there's a problem with the way women -- particularly nude women -- are portrayed in mainstream media? Was Nu Project an attempt to address this?

Sometimes. We think Lena Dunham has done a great job with "Girls"; showing the world that there is no single body type that can be nude in a very successful, mainstream show. We also notice that for most publications and shows, it's still the same as it ever was.

Tell me about Katy Kessler, how she became involved in the project and what she's added to the work.

Since she decided to start doing the editing in 2009, my work became our work. She selects all the images, writes the copy, co-curates the social media (when we have time, which is almost never) and without her there would be no project anymore. The project has completely transformed from what it was when I started it, and I give her full credit for the shape it has taken. She gave me permission to be a little weird and to take the images a little less seriously. There are more smiling, happy images and a little irreverence.

Do you speak to your subjects about body positivity or confidence during the shoots? 

Typically they speak to me about it. Most everyone has their story: the time they were bullied because of their body, their weight, their look, etc. Or a struggle with an eating disorder. That said, I want to make sure I state that we don't think this project can prevent or cure eating disorders. That can only be done over lots of time and with assistance from professionals.

What kinds of conversations on body positivity has the project started for you personally?

In terms of my own body, I don't know that I have seen much change since I started shooting. Part of that is unfortunately due to the fact that I struggled with the same disordered eating that many other people do. I still wish I were thinner, more muscular and had smaller love handles, but it doesn't occupy every minute of my thinking nor control what I do (or eat) in life. What absolutely has changed is the way my brain perceives beauty and who I'm attracted to. Who I was drawn to at 18 or 24 is completely different than now, with the exception of Katy (we are married, with two kids and I am still drawn to her every day because of her confidence and strength).

Online, in your FAQ, you write (in response to people asking if you photograph men): "we understand there is a lot of pressure on men to look a certain way, we believe that women are judged more harshly by appearance." Can you elaborate on this?

Every person could suffer from body image issues, but for women, body objectification is ever-present. Part of this is the way [of] society, and part of it is media. They feed each other. Most men are judged on their jobs. If somebody wanted to do a photography collection about that, we would love to see it.

We would also absolutely love some celebrities to allow us to shoot them for The Nu Project so people can see the human in their celebrity body.

What's next for Nu Project?

We've started work on a new project, similar to what the Nu Project is to body positivity, but centered on sex positivity. It's a lot harder to find models due to how much more personal the shoots are, so we anticipate a lot of trips to New York City and Los Angeles in order to complete the work. The main idea is that no matter who you are or what you're into, be honest with yourself, your partner(s) and do what makes you happy.

In regards to The Nu Project, we hope to sell 200-300 more copies of The Nu Project Volume II in order to fund the next rounds of shoots which we're hoping will take place in Israel. Regardless of book sales, we'll keep shooting this project (maybe forever?) because it's just what we do ... We believe in it, so we keep doing it.

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Dads and kids often get creative around Mother's Day to make mom something extra special.

In his latest "New Father Chronicles" video, La Guardia Cross and his adorable daughter Amalah demonstrate how to make a DIY Mother's Day card. Between the markers, sparkles, stickers and toddler's attempts to put craft supplies in her eyes, the finished card is quite a ... masterpiece. 

As Cross writes in the YouTube caption, "Nothing shows mommy we love her more than making a Mother's Day card with our own hands. She'll love it ... or not."

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Spanish graffiti artist Pejac visited a couple of Jordan's refugee camps this spring and painted murals he dedicated to children and their mothers in the camps. 

Jordan is home to 639,000 Syrian refugees -- 80,000 of whom now live in the bustling Zaatari camp. Jordan’s King Abdullah said in recent months that the massive influx of refugees has overwhelmed his country and brought it to a “boiling point.”

In April, Pejac visited the sprawling Azraq camp in east Jordan, which was built in 2014 to alleviate the pressure off of Zaatari. There are currently more than 20,000 refugees in the camp, 56 percent of whom are children, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The artist's intervention in Azraq captures a silhouette of a veiled woman bathing her child. To the left of the images is Pejac's adaptation of a painting by the post-impressionist Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla, titled Playa de Valencia a la luz de la Mañana (Valencia Beach in the morning light). 

Pejac said he dedicates this artwork to the mothers in the camp -- three in 10 households in Azraq are headed by women, according to a UNHCR report published in April. 

“A mother’s creativity is something truly admirable -- how they manage to create a special world to protect their child by transforming reality into a better place,” he said.

The Barcelona-based artist is known for his public space interventions and replicas of classic masterpieces by the likes of Claude Monet and Alberto Giacometti. His artwork -- often carefully designed silhouettes against a wall -- tackles social and environmental issues.

Pejac’s visit to Azraq follows a visit earlier this year to Al-Hussein, a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan that dates back to 1948.

Pejac spent some time in the popular neighborhood of Jabal Al-Weibdeh during his visit to Amman. In a mural he titled “Rotation,” a silhouette of a teenage boy spins a globe like a basketball at his finger tip.

“On the one hand I’m talking about Jordan, a country that has a long history of hospitality towards refugees,” Pejac said. “On the other hand…a big part of Jordan’s population and its future is being determined by, is in the hands of, the kids.”

Scroll down for more photos of Pejac's artwork in Jordan. 

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With more than 7.3 billion people and countless cultures and traditions, the world is a beautifully diverse place.

For Australia-based photographer Alexander Khimushin, capturing this beauty became an exciting challenge that has already led him to explore 84 nations in his lifetime, camera in hand.

An avid traveler, Khimushin spent the past two years venturing from country to country to shoot portraits of people he encountered for "The World In Faces," a photo project celebrating diverse cultures around the world.

"While on the road, I realized that people were the most interesting part of my travel experience; it is them that I have most unforgettable memories about," he told The WorldPost. "I was especially fascinated by people living in remote, off-the-beaten-path places, where traditional lifestyle and ancient culture remained untouched by the outside world."

"The idea is simple," he wrote on his website of the ongoing photo project. "I want to show diversity of the world we are all living in by taking portraits of its incredible people."

Khimushin believes that embracing cultural diversity will make the world a more tolerant and compassionate place. "Our diversity is not a reason to hate each other. Quite the opposite, we must admire and respect it," he said.

Check out some of his extraordinary photographs of men, women and children from around the world. To view more of Khimushin's work, visit the project on his website.

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A Kardashian trend you may not want to keep up with: taking photos with baby monkeys. 

The practice inadvertently glamorizes the illegal monkey trade, according to a UN body.

A spokesman for the UN's Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) told CNN yesterday that celebrity photos with baby orangutans promote animal trafficking.

The UN specifically called out Khloe Kardashian and Paris Hilton, who have posted Instagrams with baby monkeys at private zoos in Dubai. 

"Every time a famous face is seen cuddling an ape in this way, it undoes years of our work," GRASP coordinator Douglas Cress told CNN. "It lowers the value of the animal, and the public sense of conservation drops."

Cress said the photos send a message that posing with illegally trafficked monkeys is okay as long as it's cute. "But it’s not," he said. "It’s illegal, and it contributes to the destruction of already endangered species."

Many monkeys in private zoos and residences were likely obtained illegally, sidestepping the process to get official permits. Most of the international primate trade is illegal, according to the nonprofit Orangutan Republik. Legal primate trade is highly regulated, with complete bans on any trade of certain species like wild chimpanzees.

Other celebrities that have posted photos with monkeys include Real Madrid player James Rodriguez and the rapper Kid Ink.

Smugglers prefer to traffic in baby monkeys because full-grown ones are harder to move, according to the Guardian. And for every baby chimpanzee taken, an average of 10 will be killed trying to defend it.

Despite this, according to Cress, private zoo owners can easily obtain monkeys because “law enforcement is relatively weak against a wealthy elite that appear untouchable.” The monkeys are usually kept in privately owned zoos or in what Cress calls the "private menageries" of wealthy families.

According to GRASP’s 2013 report “Stolen Apes,” as many as 22,218 wild great apes were lost between 2005 and 2011 in the illegal trade. What's more, says the report, the illegal trade has shifted from being a by-product of practices like deforestation into a standalone business of its own.

But it's very difficult to prosecute: from 2005-2011, only 27 arrests were ever made in connection with great ape trade.

Besides private zoos in the Middle East, the other major destination for monkey trafficking is China, where they are trained to perform in circus shows.

So Khloe and Paris, please help spread a new message: Clueless social media pics could be perpetuating animal exploitation. And that's not very likable. 

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Science tells us that people with anxiety see the world in a fundamentally different way.

Anxiety can cause you to jump to wrong conclusions really quickly, making it hard to stop second-guessing yourself or worrying what others think of you in social situations. Even the gentlest manifestation of the disorder can mess with the way you perceive yourself and others. 

But just because your anxiety speaks doesn't mean it's always right. In fact, your anxiety would sound pretty darn rude if it wrote to you in texts, as Buzzfeed proves in a recent video:

It's important to remember that anxiety, and social anxiety in particular, comes in all sorts of forms, to varying degrees. Here are a few tips to help you navigate yours. 

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These tats leave a real impression. 

Ukrainian tattoo artist Rita Zolotukhina uses leaves as stencils to create what she calls "live leaf tattoos." The result is some beautifully botanical ink. 

The 23-year-old artist, who's been making these works of art for about a year now, presses leaves or flowers dipped in stencil ink onto the clients' bodies during the tattoo process.

By creating a tattoo stencil -- or the helpful outline over which artists ink -- with the actual leaf, she can create a more true-to-form image than a stencil made from a sketch. Her approach yields a tattoo that captures exactly how, for example, the plant’s stem bends or the leaf vein’s wind. Then she inks in the details, using nature as her guide for coloring and shading.

While she's always liked incorporating nature into her artwork, she realized this particular technique would be the best way to reveal the plants' true beauty. 

"I wanted the tattoo to be as natural as the plant itself. It’s impossible to get it with a sketch – you would interpret the object in your own way, and the result is always a styled picture," she explained to HuffPost. "[These] prints look in harmony with a human body."

Zolotukhina's first tattoo of this sort was of a dandelion leaf for her best friend and she was ecstatic with the way it turned out. She says she's done about 20 of these live leaf tattoos by now and one of her favorites remains a tattoo of a willow branch. Though it was by no means a simple tattoo, she says it was definitely worth the challenge. 

"It was the only one that required two sessions and it was quite ambitious to draw not a leaf, but the whole branch. I worried a lot," she said. "But I was extremely satisfied -- the willow seems to have always been here, on the leg."

We can only imagine how gorgeous a forest of these tattoos must be! 

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