New book encourages readers to embrace uncertainty in order to improve decision-making, mental health, and more

Life is uncer­tain. We nev­er know what will hap­pen, and many things are unknow­able. This can make us feel stressed or wor­ried, since the unknown is asso­ci­at­ed with dan­ger. But as jour­nal­ist Mag­gie Jack­son argues in her new book, Uncer­tain: The Wis­dom and Won­der of Being Unsure, there are many ben­e­fits to allow­ing our­selves to…

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Six favorite books of 2023 to help harness the stress response and boost resilience, curiosity and wonder

It’s hard to address impor­tant issues in our lives or in soci­ety if we are stressed, deplet­ed, and iso­lat­ed. Per­haps that’s why many of 2023’s favorite books offer approach­es for real self-care. They focus on how to man­age stress, find more hap­pi­ness in life, seek won­der and inspi­ra­tion, appre­ci­ate art, under­stand our per­son­al strengths, or…

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The Mindful Body argues against mindlessly accepting age-related decline in cognition and health as inevitable

In 1979, Har­vard researcher Ellen Langer invit­ed elder­ly men to spend a week at a retreat designed to remind them of their younger days, sur­round­ed by the art, music, food, games, décor, and more from the late 1950s. After­ward, the men were test­ed and found to have made sig­nif­i­cant gains in hear­ing, mem­o­ry, dex­ter­i­ty, posture,…

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Major evidence review supports an “exercise prescription” for most adults to boost mental health and well-being

When you head to your week­ly yoga class or lift weights at the gym, you’re doing some­thing good for your phys­i­cal health: get­ting more fit today, and so pro­tect­ing your body into the future. What you may not always think about, though, is that you’re also pro­tect­ing your­self from anx­i­ety and depression—about as much as…

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