Psychology-Psychiatry
According to the researchers behind the new study, if people were better able to generate pleasant thoughts, they might rely less on technology for constant stimulation. The researchers didn’t find a magic switch. But they did discover a simple trick.
We need to find that place in our hearts to stop looking at the ego through eyes of judgment and see it through eyes of love. Only then can we shift the energy around our ego from one of annoyance and avoidance to one of willingness to integrate what we can learn from it.
We can manipulate our experiences to stand out more by rising above the everyday and seeming extraordinary, capturing ourselves at our best, when we are achieving something important or showing courage, strengthening our social relationships, and…
Steven Kotler explains the neurochemical changes during flow states that strengthen motivation, creativity and learning. “The brain produces a giant cascade of neurochemistry. You get norepinephrine, dopamine, anandamide, serotonin and endorphins. All five of these are performance enhancing neurochemicals.
Recently another brave whistleblower has stepped forward to expose it. Bryan Kofron (who formerly used the alias of Justin Carter) is a security industry specialist who used to work for a private security company SIS (Security Industry Specialists) in Seattle, Washington.
Can the season that you were born in affect your personality? New research shows that the season you are born has a significant impact on your risk of developing mood disorders. People born at certain times of year may have a greater chance of developing certain types of affective temperaments, which in turn can lead to mood disorders. Read More: Birth season affects your mood in later life
Psychology once assumed that most human emotions fall within the universal categories of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. But a new study from Greater Good Science Center faculty director Dacher Keltner suggests that there are at least 27 distinct emotions—and they are intimately connected with each other.
The awe we experience during a total solar eclipse is very unique because it is the universe that we are experiencing. When you think about it, you are actually standing in the shadow of the moon, which is a solar object out there, and it’s the shadow that’s passing over us—that’s what the darkness is. It’s probably among the strongest awe we can feel.
Have you ever observed that time seems to be going by faster as you get older? There’s a reason that one summer seems to stretch out forever when you’re a kid, but zips by before you know it when you’re 30. That reason is perspective, as a gorgeous interactive visualization, by Austrian designer Maximilian Kiener, demonstrates. When you’re one year old, a year is literally forever to you — it’s all the time that you’ve ever known. But as you grow older, one year is a smaller and smaller fraction of your total life. It’s like watching something shrink in your rear view mirror.
Opposition Defiant Disorder is another new “mental illness diagnosis” included in the latest DSM. So are many other things that are simply descriptors of characteristics. Read the list. All have pharmaceutical “solutions”. Where there is non conformity especially deficiencies in “rule-governed behaviour” the answer is to medicate the person into submission. There are now 357 mental illness diagnoses instead of the 130 in 1950. Overdiagnosis and overmedication are now the norm.
These activities are helpful for people of all ages, but those in their elderly years will certainly benefit more: a greater number of studies show that keeping an active mind is important for the brain as it ages, and doing exercises and games that keep different parts of the brain engaged are associated with warding off Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other such diseases typically associated with growing older.
Bright light therapy has a proven track record of success in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), commonly referred to as the winter blues. A new study from the University of British Columbia shows that this simple and safe therapy is effective for non-seasonal major depression. In fact, researchers showed light therapy was much more effective than fluoxetine (Prozac).
A new study of early humans has challenged one of the main tenets of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, the idea of the survival of the fittest, by suggesting compassion and the ability to accommodate “defective” members of the community actually played a significant role in how humans developed.
Talking to yourself has been proven to help one through difficult tasks, performance. So when you take on something new, talk yourself through it. Hearing yourself say it becomes another form of input and helps you learn in multiple ways.
Another interesting study from 2015 shows that being open minded can affect a person’s ability to perceive unexpected objects while attention is focused on something else, called “inattentional blindness.”
