Matt opens the fridge for a beer after a long day. He has an overwhelming desire for the good feeling that the first sip brings him. It’s an urge that doesn’t assist Matt down the road, as it is harmful to his well-being and the relationships that mean the most…
The majority of us aren’t too comfortable with our emotions, which can be accredited to being raised in a society scared to show our feelings. We aren’t properly instructed on the biology of emotions and the brain. And as much as we’re told that we should monitor and regulate our…
Did you know that adults have between 60,000 and 80,000 thoughts each and every day? Out of these 80,000, a majority of these thoughts are repetitive and a large amount of them are negative. Based on this information, two concerns come to mind: Where do these thoughts come from? What…
Most of us could probably agree that social media can damage self-esteem—especially in women. Think about it: every magazine has a slender woman on the cover and a story within about how she lost the weight—and how you can, too. Additionally, TV shows and movies cast female leads that make…
A recent study says emotional or traumatic events can create false memories, despite the widespread belief that traumatic events are more vivid and, therefore, reliable. The latter belief is called flashbulb memory, which says that emotional events cause us to completely capture the context of the event and our reaction…
Jealousy changes with time—we envy what is to come more than we envy what has already happened. This, according to researchers at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In the first phase of their study, researchers asked 620 participants to imagine a close friend living out the participant’s…
Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience say your insomnia might stem from emotional distress. The team asked participants to relive shameful moments from their past, while receiving an MRI scan of their brain activity. Researchers found that good sleepers neutralized those…
When we feel ashamed of our secrets, we’re more likely to think about them over and over again. We can better cope by shifting away from shame and toward guilt. A Columbia University study asked 1,000 participants questions about their secrets, including how much shame and guilt they associated with…
Many of us are fearful of snakes and spiders, whether they are or aren’t poisonous or dangerous—why? Researchers say that this fear is deep-rooted, one we likely developed from ancestors that lived 40-60 million years ago. To reach these findings, researchers showed infants varying pictures of which included snakes, spiders,…
According to Psychologist and Life Coach Dr. Cliff Arnall, the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year. He used a formula—which considered the weather, motivation levels, debt, post-holiday slump, and the amount of time until vacation season—to determine this date as the most depressing of…
A new study says that your imagination can help you overcome your fears; this involves imagining an encounter with the fear and realizing it is not a threat. Researchers sought to understand how fears are learned and unlearned; this goal led to their conducting an experiment that involved auditory threat…
We all have an inner bully who focuses on the negative and threatens to send us into a shame spiral, which can have harmful short and long-term effects. This makes acknowledging your inner bully crucial to improving your life and defeating the bully, so you can then replace the negative…
