Emotions

To lower stress levels (ours and others’), practice cognitive reframing instead of venting

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We all get upset from time to time—some of us more than oth­ers. Whether we’re sad about the loss of a loved one, angry at friends or fam­i­ly, or fear­ful about the state of the world, it often feels good to let it all out. [Read more…] about To low­er stress lev­els (ours and oth­ers’), prac­tice cog­ni­tive refram­ing instead of venting

“Never stop wondering” — Sharon Begley, science journalist, RIP

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We are deeply sad­dened to hear that Sharon Beg­ley, one of the most exem­plary sci­ence jour­nal­ist of our times, died on Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 16th.

She was always full of curios­i­ty, high stan­dards and excel­lent writ­ing about all things sci­ence, with a long­stand­ing inter­est in brain and mind research. May she rest in peace, and may her mind­ful­ness remain with us all. [Read more…] about “Nev­er stop won­der­ing” — Sharon Beg­ley, sci­ence jour­nal­ist, RIP

Tip: To manage stress, sleep better. To sleep better, keep a good routine and manage stress.

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Dis­rupt­ed rou­tines and wor­ries about coro­n­avirus have made it hard­er for us to sleep this year. For exam­ple, reports sug­gest there was a 15% increase in pre­scrip­tions for sleep med­ica­tion pre­scrip­tions at the begin­ning of the pan­dem­ic in the U.S., and a 37% increase in insom­nia in China.

Impor­tant­ly, if you’ve been feel­ing out of sorts over the past few months, the lack of sleep could be part­ly to blame. [Read more…] about Tip: To man­age stress, sleep bet­ter. To sleep bet­ter, keep a good rou­tine and man­age stress.

Quick brain teaser to workout your frontal lobes: Can you read this face?

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Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, in dis­cussing the human brain’s frontal lobes in his excel­lent book The Wis­dom Para­dox, high­lights that “exec­u­tive intel­li­gence” includes the abil­i­ty to “pen­e­trate oth­er people’s minds, and that starts with an inter­est in oth­er people’s minds.”

And, what is a good win­dow to “pen­e­trate oth­er people’s minds” and iden­ti­fy oth­er peo­ple’s emo­tions? [Read more…] about Quick brain teas­er to work­out your frontal lobes: Can you read this face?

Three key insights to celebrate the holidays meaningfully

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There is plen­ty of evi­dence to con­vince us that social con­nec­tion is key to well-being. But rela­tion­ships are com­pli­cat­ed, bring­ing good and bad into our lives. 

Let us share a few key insights from sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies pub­lished in 2018 on top­ics rel­e­vant to lead­ing a mean­ing­ful life. They won’t solve all of our social problems—but we hope they will help you to bet­ter under­stand your­self and the peo­ple around you.

Keep on reading!

Six tips for social-emotional learning (SEL) to transfer into real-world skills

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Social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL) teach­es the key atti­tudes and skills nec­es­sary for under­stand­ing and man­ag­ing emo­tions, lis­ten­ing, feel­ing and show­ing empa­thy for oth­ers, and mak­ing thought­ful, respon­si­ble deci­sions. For five years, I was an edu­ca­tor in the field teach­ing mind­ful­ness and emo­tion­al skills to teenagers at six dif­fer­ent high schools.

Over and over, I saw the pow­er of mind­ful­ness to trans­form the inner lives of stu­dents. Stu­dents became less stressed, more self-reg­u­lat­ed, and more thought­ful toward their class­mates. But I also saw that [Read more…] about Six tips for social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL) to trans­fer into real-world skills