Posts by Greater Good Science Center
From forest bathing to urban parks: How nature helps protect our well-being during a pandemic
Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on people’s mental health and well-being. Restricted movement, loss, and isolation have led to increases in depression, anxiety disorders, stress, sleep disorders, and more. The effects have been even harsher for teens. How can we help protect our well-being during this particularly difficult time? Though a…
Read MoreQ&A with Dr. Wendy Suzuki on the parasympathetic nervous system and harnessing anxiety for good
Anxiety can feel like a heavy weight that we didn’t ask to carry. Who wouldn’t love to get rid of it? But neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki wants to challenge the way we look at our anxiety. In fact, her new book is called Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion. If you’re skeptical, so…
Read MoreTen insights on human well-being and potential from two giants we sadly lost in 2021: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Ed Diener
Many of us suffered terrible losses in 2021. In the field of positive psychology, we lost two of our most influential scholars: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Ed Diener. In their honor, I’d like to remember and appreciate the contributions they made to the understanding of human flourishing.
Read MoreCould I be wrong? Exploring research on cognitive bias, curiosity, intellectual humility, and lifelong learning
A few years ago, I asked a sample of adults to think about all of the disagreements that they have with other people, from minor disagreements about relatively unimportant issues to major disagreements about important matters. Then, I asked them to estimate the percentage of disagreements they have with other people in which they are…
Read MoreStudy finds ultimate hack to protect teen brains from harmful screen time: Exercise (and good role-modeling)
Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about how Instagram was affecting teen mental health. In particular, some internal studies at Facebook (which owns Instagram) appeared to confirm that when teen girls used the site, they suffered poorer body image and were at increased risk for depression and eating disorders. But is social media…
Read MoreOn uncertainty, stress, emotion regulation, and carpe diem
Ever since it began, the pandemic has been a crash course in uncertainty. Safe behaviors, school openings, vaccination timelines, the job market, new variants—these have all seemed to change on a weekly basis, threatening our sense of security and stability. Uncertainty is stressful and perhaps even harmful to our health, research suggests, and it can…
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