How To Stress Out Less And Reduce Worrying
body likes stressing and worrying. And, no, even if you think it keeps you sharp it's not good for you. It can cause all sorts of health problems over time, including messing up your memory and ability to pay attention: The authors report the first direct assessment of working memory capacity when people engage in worry. High and low worriers performed a random key-press task while thinking about a current worry or a positive personally relevant topic. High (but not…
3 minutes
How to make yourself happier in just a few seconds:
agine an important positive event in your life (like meeting your spouse) never happened. Mentally subtracting cherished moments from your life makes you appreciate them more, makes you grateful and makes you happier: The authors hypothesized that thinking about the absence of a positive event from one's life would improve affective states more than thinking about the presence of a positive event but that people would not predict this when making affective forecasts. In Studies 1 and 2, college students…
1 min read
Will you be able to cope when tragedy strikes?
, I'm not selling insurance. You may wonder about your ability to deal with extreme adversity -- or even extremely positive events. Turns out we can usually anticipate major events and quickly adapt. Chances are, you'll be fine: This paper addresses the question of when and to what extent individuals are affected by major positive and negative life events, including changes in financial situation, marital status, death of child or spouse and being a victim of crime. The key advantage…
1 min read
Things you didn’t know about happiness:
w to make yourself happier in just a few seconds Does giving really make us happier than receiving? Are women getting unhappier? Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce and happiness (Video) Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert discusses the science of happiness United States Gross National Happiness, measured via Facebook Status Updates Is happiness contagious? Happiness expert Martin Seligman on positive psychology (Video) Are the chronically ill happier if they give up hope? Can working on something frustrating make us happier? Are hourly…
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Can living like you’re young prevent aging?
some point we all wish we could turn back the clock. But is it as easy as merely acting as if you were still younger? To a good degree, the answer may be yes. Via BBC: Prof Langer recruited a group of elderly men all in their late 70s or 80s for what she described as a "week of reminiscence". They were not told they were taking part in a study into ageing, an experiment that would transport them…
3 minutes
Is there a way to easily counteract loneliness — by yourself?
rns out merely being nostalgic has notable affects on making you feel less lonely: Four studies tested whether nostalgia can counteract reductions in perceived social support caused by loneliness. Loneliness reduced perceptions of social support but increased nostalgia. Nostalgia, in turn, increased perceptions of social support. Thus, loneliness affected perceived social support in two distinct ways. Whereas the direct effect of loneliness was to reduce perceived social support, the indirect effect of loneliness was to increase perceived social support via…
1 min read
United States Gross National Happiness, measured via Facebook Status Updates:
a theatlantic.com The Atlantic Monthly reports that Facebook is keeping tabs on the national mood via its Gross National Happiness Index. It "counts the number of 'positive' and 'negative' words used in each status update, converts them to percentages, finds average percents based on all users that day, then subtracts the 'negative percent' from the 'positive percent' to get a value for the y axis—but the results are clear: Weekends and holidays are better than midweek, and Mother’s Day and…
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What makes medication 2-4x as effective? Adding a placebo:
a eurekalert.org: Researchers used the placebo effect to successfully treat psoriasis patients with one quarter to one half of their usual dose of a widely used steroid medication, according to an early study published online today in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Early results in human patients suggest that the new technique could improve treatment for several chronic diseases that involve mental state or the immune system, including asthma, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. By designing treatment regimens that mix active…
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