(Exploring Your Mind) People affected by addiction go from impulsivity to compulsivity. These two stages can also coexist, but they usually happen in that order.
self education
7 Reasons Why You Should Smile More
(Tom Crawshaw) Did you know that you can instantly change your state of mind just by smiling? Science has now shown that when we flex our facial muscles to produce a smile, our brain releases a cocktail of feel-good hormones that elevate our mood and reduce stress. But you don’t need me to tell you that smiling feels good. You’ve already experienced the uplifting effects of smiling and laughing with friends and family.
Toxic Tech: How Social Media Is Making Us Dumb, Angry, & Addicted
(Glen Reynolds) A few years ago, I noticed that I really enjoyed reading on airplanes and wondered why. After a bit of reflection, I realized that it was because I wasn’t distracted by the temptation to check a device every now and then, allowing reading to be the kind of immersive experience I once took for granted.
Snakes Gave Us Sharp Vision
Snakes Gave Us Sharp Vision
Binge Watching TV Increases Heart Health Risks More Than a Desk Job, Study Finds
(Justin Deschamps) Humans are not meant to sit around for long hours during the day. We’re physical creatures meant to be in constant contact with our environment. We’re meant to be in nature, touch the soil with our naked skin, feel the warm breeze on our sun-touched flesh, and run about like gleeful children under the open sky. Of course, this is a bit fanciful, but it’s an obvious truth most people agree with at some level. Is it any wonder that binge-watching TV shows have negative health effects?
Information Addiction: How Information Is like Snacks, Money, and Drugs to Your Brain
(Neuroscience) A new study by researchers at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has found that information acts on the brain’s dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food.
Six Keys to Expressing Your Emotions
(Exploring Your Mind) If emotions are so genuine, then why do we spend so much energy repressing, hiding, and keeping them to ourselves?
41 Powerful Journaling Exercises for Mind Expansion and Effective Behavior Change
(Michal Korzonek) Based on the work of some of the greatest world-class experts on productivity, complexity thinking, health and wellbeing, and more
8 Common Habits of Highly Compassionate People
(Debi Allison) What defines compassion? If you have ever met a truly compassionate person, they likely stuck out to you like a sore thumb, and even more likely, this person had a way of being that truly stuck out to you, from their habits to their mannerisms.
Does Accepting Negative Emotions Make You Happier?
(Explore Your Mind) Although it’s unpleasant to experience negative emotions, learning to accept them can be very beneficial to your health and well-being.
FOMO or Fear of Missing Out: What Is it About?
(Justin Deschamps) We’re implicitly social creatures. We are biologically, neurologically, psychologically, and spiritually designed to associate with other people, things and beings. Finding a balance between a healthy desire for social interaction is essential. Social media helps this in some ways, but it isn’t a replacement for true fulfillment and meaningful fellowship.
Dopamine For the Winners: How Our Mind’s Reward System Drives Political Ambition and Affects Civilization
(Peter Van Els) The effects of the brain’s neurochemistry on geopolitics and human interaction should be more subject to study and debate. It almost seems like a truism to state that our brains, and their fallibility, greatly affect human progress and societal advancement. But what is most striking in today’s culture, is the way in which our mind’s reward system is employed by society to encourage economic and political ambition, and to blunt the creative and critical mind.
The Influence of Other People’s Expectations
(Explore Your Mind) Trying to live up to other people’s expectations can be difficult. But why do we make expectations? What purpose do they serve? In this article, learn about the role that expectations play in our lives and how to manage them in a healthy way.
Learned Helplessness: A Psychological Anchor | Understanding Voluntary Slavery
(Justin Deschamps) The following article is a mainstream psychology piece discussing a well-known condition called learned helplessness. It is effectively what happens when a person’s will has been so fundamentally crippled that they no longer resist. Within the context of the human struggle for freedom, as waged against the powers that be, this condition is what I would call slave-training or think.
Ways Social Media Hurts Pair Bonding, Spiritual Growth, and Loving Relationships: Why It’s Hard to Find Love in Today’s World
(Justin Deschamps) Social media launched into our lives in a swift and prolific way. Due to the positive feedback loop effect of social trends, the more people that joined the more felt compelled to follow along or miss out. This technology is having a massive effect on human life, particularly relationships, disturbing a delicate pair bonding process that draws from biological factors, which themselves, draw from spiritual impulses. For the modern person, forming a lasting and valuable bond with another human being could be more challenging than ever.