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Edited by Jill Wright,
We all know how stressful work is these days. Everyone talks about the insane demands of unreasonable bosses, out-of-control email inboxes and the impossibility of achieving a healthy work-life balance. So how do we reconcile that with a recent Pennsylvania State University study that measured cortisol levels (a principal marker for stress) in 122 men and women and found that...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Author and journalist Paula Span, who blogs about "the new old age" for the New York Times, recently highlighted just how important it is for good physical, as well as mental health, to have a sense of purpose in life: it can help you live longer, and avoid cognitive deterioration in old age. I couldn't help but wonder whether having...
Anyone who is undergoing therapy with a psychologist very quickly learns that not all the work happens in the session. It's not enough just to show up at the clinic once a week. If you're going to get the most out of treatment, you have to commit to continuing the work between sessions. Your psychologist might ask you to do...
Edited by Jill Wright,
A recent article in the American Psychology Association journal Monitor on four psychologists who moonlight as novelists offered some useful insights on the healing power of reading. As an inveterate reader myself, I'm always delighted to find anything that eases one's conscience about leaving the busy world and curling up with a good book - or in my case a...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I think we must be in the middle of a mindfulness explosion right now. Over the past few months I've been coming across articles in everything from Harvard Business Review to Time magazine, the New York Times, The Times of London etc., etc. about a practice that can achieve extraordinary results in everything from alleviating anxiety to improving clarity of...
Edited by Jill Wright,
A recent opinion piece in the New York Times has some valuable insights on happiness. The first is that taking the risk of chatting to strangers on public transport can bring unexpected joy. A 2004 study reported that commuting is associated with fewer positive emotions than any other activity, and most people believe that their fellow commuters wouldn't want to...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Interested in a healthier brain? You might want to listen to a Shrink Rap Radio interview with neuropsychologist Dr John Arden. Arden's latest book, The Brain Bible, offers some scientifically-backed advice - as opposed to various fads and gadgets offered on the internet - on practical things you can do to improve and sustain your brain health, and therefore your...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Here's an arresting thought from a recent podcast from the BBC Radio 4 show The Human Zoo, on negotiation: "There is probably no more basic psychological principle than how we influence folk." The speaker was Professor Margaret A. Neale, who teaches courses on negotiation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. You might find the PDF discussing her negotiating tips...
The report in The Age today that maternal depression is significantly greater four years after birth than during the first year has some alarming implications for parents; depressive symptoms in mothers are linked with worse developmental outcomes for children and higher risk of accidental injuries. A study of 1500 mothers by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute found that while 10...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I've just bought one of the last Sony Vaio notebooks ever produced as a faster way to take notes at meetings and conferences using the bewitching personal database program, Evernote. That possibly made me more than usually sensitive to a piece in Psyblog about research carried out by two psychologists who had trouble recalling notes [GROAN] taken on a notebook...