happy

To boost your mental well-being, simply recall, right now, an act of kindness

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Just a few weeks ago, a group of mid­dle school stu­dents in Alaba­ma made the news for post­ing pos­i­tive notes on the lock­ers of fel­low stu­dents. For Christ­mas, a few Attle­boro, MA, stu­dents chipped in to buy their beloved school jan­i­tor new boots as a present. And in Decem­ber, a Michi­gan wait­ress received a $2,020 tip for a $23 din­ner bill, spark­ing the “2020 Tip Challenge.”

Peo­ple per­form acts of kind­ness both to do good and to feel good. Research finds that being kind makes us hap­py, can help to low­er our blood pres­sure, and encour­ages stronger social con­nec­tions. Now [Read more…] about To boost your men­tal well-being, sim­ply recall, right now, an act of kindness

Upcoming: Live Q&A on How the Brain Works with David DiSalvo

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David DiSalvoWhen: Next Fri­day, Decem­ber 9th, 11am Pacif­ic Time/ 2pm East­ern Time.

What: Live Q&A with David DiS­alvo on the lat­est cog­ni­tive sci­ence of how our minds work.

How: You can Reg­is­ter Now Here.

[Read more…] about Upcom­ing: Live Q&A on How the Brain Works with David DiSalvo

What makes your brain happy and why you should do the opposite

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(Edi­tor’s Note: This is an excerpt from David DiS­alvo’s new book What makes  your brain hap­py and why you should do the oppo­site.)

Tak­ing a posi­tion in any argument—large or small—is slip­pery busi­ness for our brains. We can have every inten­tion of hon­est­ly pur­su­ing an answer, yet still fool our­selves into think­ing our method is objec­tive when it is, in fact, any­thing but. Cog­ni­tive sci­ence has helped deci­pher this enig­ma with research on the the­o­ret­i­cal men­tal struc­tures our brains use to orga­nize infor­ma­tion, called schema­ta. [Read more…] about What makes your brain hap­py and why you should do the opposite

Carnival of Education #159: Briefing the Next US President on 35 Issues

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Dear Mr or Mrs Next US President,

Thank you for stop­ping dur­ing recess for a quick study ses­siMeditation School Studentson. 35 edu­ca­tors have col­lab­o­rat­ed to present this Car­ni­val of Edu­ca­tion as a use­ful les­son plan for you and your edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy team on what our real con­cerns and sug­ges­tions are.

In case this is your first vis­it to our Sharp­Brains blog, let me first of all point out some use­ful resources to stay sane dur­ing the rest of the cam­paign: select­ed Brain Teasers, a list of 21 great Brain Books, over a dozen inter­views with lead­ing sci­en­tists on learn­ing and brain-based top­ics, and more.

With­out fur­ther ado, let’s pro­ceed to the issues raised. We hope they pro­vide, at the very least, good men­tal stim­u­la­tion for you and your advisors.

Edu­ca­tion as a System 

All about Brain Fitness

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We are very hap­py to see how the sci­ence-based brain fit­ness field is emerg­ing, and we have pre­pared a Hot Top­ics sec­tion to keep you well informed. Our Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer, Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, has been writ­ing about brain fit­ness for many years. Here you have a selec­tion of the most pop­u­lar posts: Hot Top­ics on Mem­o­ry, Brain Fit­ness, Brain Teasers, Men­tal Exer­cise, Stress Man­age­ment, Phys­i­cal Exer­cise, Nutri­tion, News, Prod­ucts, Events, Stu­dents, Sci­ence, Resources, and more.

We are also open­ing up our mod­er­at­ed Mes­sage Boards to every­one inter­est­ed in learn­ing and shar­ing. You can self-reg­is­ter to cre­ate a new forum account and join the con­ver­sa­tion. Jump in and start ask­ing ques­tions and give us feedback!

This is a new field, and we are hap­py to con­tribute, and to lis­ten. Look­ing for­ward a stim­u­lat­ing dialogue!