Researchers found that when people are left out of a group, their body temperature drops. But holding a warm cup not only made them feel less excluded, it made them feel more social. Perhaps they should serve hot chocolate at school dances?
When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth built an app, Track Your Happiness, that let people report their feelings in real time. Among the surprising results: We’re often happiest when we’re lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be. (Filmed at TEDxCambridge.)
Let’s face it, we all all imagine a time when we “have it together” and we are “on our game” and in control of our lives. However, Brene Brown’s research underscores that living a whole hearted life, is only as possible as our capacity for feeling vulnerable. She asks, “Is it possible to do a courageous act without feeling vulnerable?” Below is a wonderful radio interview and a video with this engaging woman.
This theme seems to be making its way from psychology research into the mainstream media more and more (see the TIME article I posted on June 21). Decades of the “positive thinking” industry have little to show, and folks are looking for something more realistic and useful…
How can we instill in our kids a greater capacity to struggle and not give up? As this piece illustrates, it is part of the educational culture in many eastern schools (listen to the wonderful anecdote about the kid trying to draw a cube in front of his classmates). Perhaps we can learn something from our friends on the other side of the globe?
Struggle for Smarts? (NPR Radio Show, 8 minutes)
A client said this to me once, and it struck me as such a wonderful metaphor I searched online and found this video. The goal for so much of us is to get out out of the eddy (our mind’s rumination) and into the river (our life).
Rivers Time Lapse Eddy Currents from Geography Fieldwork on Vimeo.
This one-page handout explains what ACT work looks like. Since ACT can be thought of as a unique set of life skills, it involves learning and practicing these skills so we can make progress in areas that are important to us.
How does it feel when few people if any “like” your status update? Unworthy, perhaps? Or you see people smiling at an event to which you were not invited? Unwanted? You are not alone in experiencing the downside of the social media world…
Facebook not so friendly to those with low self Esteem (3 min NPR show)
Sorry, but the evidence is mounting: light from our TVs, computers and video games is telling the sleep regulation centers of our brains that it’s daytime when it is not. But test this against your experience: compare reading a book an hour before bed versus watching TV or using your computer.
Using a computer before bed disrupts sleep (NY Times article)
In this brief interview Barbara Kohlenberg eloquently explains the heart and structure of the ACT model. “When one has compassion for one’s own suffering,” she says, “then that suffering changes.”