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Showing Gratitude Is Good for All of Us, so Why Don’t We Give Thanks More?
Giving thanks is good for the person giving it as well as the one receiving it. So why don’t we express gratitude more often? Research suggests that many people don’t realize how much a simple gesture of thanks can mean. In one 2018 study published in Psychological Science, over 300 participants were asked to write a letter of gratitude to someone who positively impacted them — their parents, friends, coaches or teachers from long ago. ...
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Why It’s Not Enough to Just Spend More Time With Your Partner, According to a Psychologist
Many people come to therapy worried that they may not be spending enough time with their partner. They ask questions like: “My partner wants us to spend time together every day but I can’t because of my busy work schedule. How do we overcome this?” “My partner and I spend a fair bit of time together every week, but lately I’ve been feeling a little distant from them. Will making more time for each other help?” “My partner loves to go fishing, but I don’t really enjoy it. We don’t get a lot of ‘us’ time, so when he asked me to join him I couldn’t say no. Is this healthy?” We know that spending time with our significant other is important.
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Happiness Study Reveals a Critical Difference Between Two Types of People
HUMANS HAVE A complicated relationship with happiness. Consider this study on the subject: Scientists found that valuing happiness can lead to less happiness when you feel happy. It’s an emotional rollercoaster fueled by unhelpful expectations. Yet the relationship gets more complex still. According to a recent paper published in the journal Psychological Science our current state of well-being can interfere with our perception of the past. Overall, researchers observed an asymmetrical pattern: Happy people tend to overreport an improvement in their well-being, while unhappy people tend to exaggerate a worsening sense of well-being. ...
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Essential Trust: The Brain Science of Trust
What happens in your brain when you decide to trust someone? “When people make decisions to trust, it’s kind of the same as when they make decisions to gamble," Jamil Zaki says. "You see activities in the parts of the brain that are involved in its dopamine system that calculate on the fly, ‘Well, what does this gamble look like?’” In episode two of our special series “Essential trust," neuroscientists explain how our brains process trust, and why it's worth the risk. ...
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The Anatomy of a Panic Attack
Panic attacks revolve around terror. Though people mainly associate them with the mind, they’re actually constellations of symptoms, both physical and cognitive. Your brain is seized by fear; your body responds, and it can be hard to make sense of it all. What is a panic attack? Most experts define a panic attack as a sudden onset of intense fear, as opposed to a condition like general anxiety, which usually manifests as almost constant worry. People having panic attacks are bombarded by mental and physical symptoms, which can vary from person to person. ...
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We Could All Learn a Thing or Two From Fans of Lousy Sports Teams
When I attended a Washington Wizards open practice at D.C.’s Capital One Arena earlier this month, the focus was more on spectator entertainment than Rocky-style workouts. The season opener was a week away, and the players ran drills at half speed and engaged in silly skills competitions for fans, including a basketball version of Connect Four. But as a lifelong Wiz devotee, I was having an awestruck, love-you-man moment. Here I was posing for a photo with Phil freakin Chenier. Franchise royalty. My childhood idol. Back in the 1970s, when Chenier was draining jumpers and sporting a Richard Pryor mustache, the team routinely chased titles. These days? Not so much.