all get a little sad sometimes. It feels like the universe is a twisted gameshow called "How Can We Torture This Poor Soul Today?" -- and you’re the contestant. Other times it can escalate into full-on depression and that dark cloud of emotions follows you around like a fart in a spacesuit. Trying to get anything done feels like trying to climb a mountain of razor blades with a backpack full of anvils while a broken sound system plays…
1974, Daniel Casriel released a book titled, “A Scream Away From Happiness.” The thesis was that by “scream therapy” you could release tension and anger and become a happier person. No, this doesn’t work and you should not buy that book unless you’re a big fan of unintentional humor. Research shows venting anger is not good. In fact, it’s better to do nothing than to scream and yell or throw things. But sometimes screaming, yelling, and throwing things sounds…
t’s begin with a cruel little fact… Iris Mauss, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, found that those who worked the hardest to be happier ended up being unhappier on every measure she studied. Huh? Trying to live a better life fails miserably? Might be time to close up shop on this blog. Well, we had a good run. It’s been fun. Bye... Seriously though, let’s put a pin in that one for now. We’ll get to it…
ere are moments in life that make you say, “And just how did I end up here?” You feel neck-deep in a quagmire of “stuck.” Not only has your desired future not arrived, it might not even seem possible anymore. You wish deus ex machina was really a thing. And feeling stuck isn’t even the scariest part. What’s scary is getting used to it. Whether it’s career, relationships or big picture life goals, we all get to a point where…
all have to deal with frazzled, harried, extremely stressed-out people… some of whom are unfortunately ourselves. There are days where it feels like life is going to grab you by one ankle and one wrist and just wishbone you. These are the moments in any job, project, or career where you want to quit. I discussed the issue of quitting in my first book but today we’re gonna focus on the not-quitting option: resilience. We hear this issue get…
feels like just one more minor inconvenience could tip you over into the abyss. Not so much bad emotions but an erosion of emotions. Reduced energy, enthusiasm and confidence. An incessant buzzing of stress only restrained by exhaustion. Perpetually a half inch from overwhelmed. Life is less meaningful. A negative spiral of not feeling like you can do it, so you do less, which causes more problems that you can’t handle, so you do less. Repeat. YEESH, that’s dark.…
ere’s a case in the medical literature of a butcher who slipped while working and got his arm caught on a meat hook. Yeah, ouch. The pain was bright, attention-grabbing, impressive, and very good at what it does – it was the Beyoncé of pain. He was in agony. Then he realized the hook only caught his sleeve. Didn’t even penetrate the skin. And the pain went away. Weird, right? Here’s another one -- and at the risk of sounding…
memory consists of 70 percent lines from Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes and 30 percent embarrassing moments. Why? I have no idea. Often, memory seems to make no sense. But here’s the thing: a lot of what we think we know about how memory works is wrong. First off, it’s not a perfect video recording of what happened. Memories are a lot more like Legos, assembled and reassembled each time, and rarely in the same way twice. And memory isn’t…
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