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Sábado, 23 / 05 / 20

9 Signs You Have Mean World Syndrome and How to Fight It

9 Signs You Have Mean World Syndrome and How to Fight It

Janey Davies, B.A. (Hons)

https://www.learning-mind.com

May 23rd, 2020.

 
 
 
 
 
There’s an unwritten rule we all tend to assume. The rule is ‘the more violence a person views on TV, the more violent their tendencies are in real life’. But one person believed the reverse to be true. That in fact, the more violent the media, the more frightened we become. This is Mean World Syndrome.

What Is Mean World Syndrome?

Mean World Syndrome describes a psychological bias where a person believes the world is a more violent place because they watch a large amount of violence on TV.
Mean World Syndrome is based on the research of Hungarian Jewish journalist George Gerbner. Fascinated by the influence of violence on TV on our perceptions of society, Gerbner wondered why, if we are all now consuming larger amounts of violence on TV are the real-life crime figures dropping.

How to Spot the Signs of Mean World Syndrome?

You might think to yourself that there’s no way you would succumb to this way of thinking, but here are just some of the signs of Mean World Syndrome:
  • Do you believe that most people are just looking out for themselves?
  • Would you be afraid of walking through your neighbourhood at night?
  • Are you cautious when interacting with strangers?
  • Would you cross the road if you saw a man of ethnic minority approaching you?
  • Do you think people should go home to their native countries?
  • Are most people out to take advantage of you?
  • Would you be unhappy if a Latino or Hispanic family moved in next-door?
  • Do you avoid people of different ethnic backgrounds?
  • Do you always tend to watch the same types of programme i.e. horror, gore?

Violence and TV: What Leads Us to Develop Mean World Syndrome?

We tend to think of the TV as an innate and harmless form of entertainment. It sits in our living rooms, we turn it on to appease bored children, or it remains on in the background unnoticed. But TV has changed throughout the decades.
For instance, I’m 55 years old now, and I remember the very first time I watched The Exorcist. It frightened me for nights on end. I happened to show the film to a few friends who were twenty or so years younger than me, expecting them to have the same visceral reaction. But they just laughed.
It’s easy to see why. Films like Hostel show a woman’s eyes blowtorched in graphic detail. In contrast, Linda Blair’s turning head just looks comical.
I think we can agree that TV and films, in particular, portray violence in a much more graphic way these days. But the majority of us watch violence like this on TV and do not turn into serial killers. And this is what interested Gerbner.

See Violence, Commit Violence?

Historically, psychologists focused on whether those who had been exposed to media violence would be more likely to commit violence in real life. Gerbner believed exposure to media violence was far more complex. He suggested that consuming media violence is more likely to make us scared and fearful. But why?
Gerbner found that people with moderate to heavy TV and media viewing habits were more likely to believe they would be a victim of violence. They were also more worried about their personal security. They were less likely to go out in their own neighbourhood at night.
These responses differed greatly from people with light viewing habits. In this case, light viewers had a more rounded and generous view of society.
“Our studies have shown that growing up from infancy with this unprecedented diet of violence has three consequences, which, in combination, I call the “mean world syndrome.” What this means is that if you are growing up in a home where there is more than say three hours of television per day, for all practical purposes you live in a meaner world – and act accordingly – than your next-door neighbour who lives in the same world but watches less television.” Gerbner

So What Exactly Is Going On?

There’s a historical view of media and TV violence that we viewers are passive in our entertainment. We are like sponges, soaking up all the gratuitous violence. This old view suggests that TV and media fire information like a bullet into our minds. That TV and media can control us like automatons, feeding our minds with subliminal messages.
Gerbner saw things differently. He did believe that TV and media played a crucial role in the way we view society. But not one where we are encouraged to commit violent acts. One where we ourselves are scared and frightened by what we see.

How Mean World Syndrome Is Cultivated in Our Society

According to Gerbner, the problem lies in how this violence is portrayed on TV and in the media. It intersperses with banal content. For example, one minute, we are watching an advert for bleach or nappies, and the next, we see a news item that someone’s daughter has been abducted, raped, and dismembered.
We switch from one shocking news story to comedies, from a graphic horror film to a cute animal cartoon. And it is this constant switching between the two that normalises the violence we see. And when mass media normalises something as awful as a child abduction we don’t feel safe anymore.
We assume that this is the world we live in now. It’s that old news saying: “If it bleeds, it leads.” News channels focus on the most violent crimes, movies find new ways to shock us, even local news prefer gore and horror to cute stories about rescue puppies.

Violence Is Normal

Gerbner realised that it was the normalisation of violence, he called it ‘happy violence’ that cultivates a fearful society. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the amount of TV a person watches and their level of fear.
Mass media saturates us with graphic images, horrific stories, and frightening storylines. News channels remind us about the ‘War on Terror’, or the consequences of the coronavirus, all while glaring mugshots of offenders pierce through our collective consciousness.
It’s not surprising we are afraid to go outside our own homes. This cultivated fear shapes us into victimhood.

TV and Media Are the New Storytellers

Yet, you could say that we come across violence in fairy tales as children, or in Shakespeare’s play as teenagers. That we need to acknowledge violence as part of what’s good and bad about society. However, we are told fairy tales by a parent who provides context or comfort should we become upset. Shakespeare plays often have a moral story or ending which is discussed in class.
There is no parent or teacher advising us when we view violence portrayed in mass media. Moreover, this violence is often sensationalised, it’s delivered in a spectacular way. It’s often portrayed as humorous or sexy. As a result, we become indoctrinated with this constant flow saturation.

We Are Born into Viewing Violence

psychotic female killer
Gerbner stated that we are born into this saturation. There is no before or after viewing violence, we grow up with it, and from a very early age. In fact, children view around 8,000 murders by the age of 8 years old, and around 200,000 violent acts by the time they are 18.
All this violence adds up to a pervasive narrative we believe to be true. Each TV programme, every news story, all those films add up to a seamless and continuous dialogue. One that tells us the world is a scary, frightening, and violent place to live in.
The reality, however, is much different. According to the Justice Dept., murder rates are down 5% and violent crime is at an all-time low, having dropped 43%. Despite this, coverage of murders increased by 300%.
“Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line measures…” Gerbner

How to Fight Mean World Syndrome?

There are lots of ways you can control how you feel about the society you inhabit.
  • Limit the amount of TV and media you view.
  • Alternate between different types of programmes, e.g. comedy and sport.
  • Remember, the majority version of violence presented by the media is a small minority of real life.
  • Use different kinds of media to access information, i.e. books, journals.
  • Get the facts from reliable sources so you don’t over-estimate the amount of violence in the world.
  • Ask yourself, who benefits from perpetuating the myth of mass fear?

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to see how we can become enveloped in Mean World Syndrome. Every day we are bombarded with the most gruesome facts and images. These present a distorted view of the world.
The problem is if we only see the world through fear-tinted glasses, solutions to our problems will be based solely around this fear. And we could end up imprisoning ourselves for no good reason.
References:
  1. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  2. www.theatlantic.com
  3. www.apa.org

 

 
Janey Davies
 

 
 
About the Author: Janey Davies.
Janey Davies has been published online for over 8 years. She is the head writer for Shoppersbase.com, she also writes for AvecAgnes.co.uk, Ewawigs.com and has contributed to inside3DP.com. She has an Honours Degree in Psychology and her passions include learning about the mind, popular science and politics. When she is relaxing she likes to walk her dog, read science fiction and listen to Muse.
 
 
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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


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publicado por achama às 18:09
Sexta-feira, 22 / 05 / 20

...

 

Worry Time: How to Schedule Your Anxieties 

Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted May 22nd, 2020.

 
 
 
There’s a new way of dealing with anxiety. It’s a unique process called “worry time”, which schedules a time for your obsessive concerns.
For those who suffer from anxiety, worrying seems like a normal part of life. On a personal level, I worry way too much during the day, then keep myself up at night doing the same thing. I feel like I’m not in control of this worry.
Many of you may feel the same way, especially when an additional crisis is added to the mix. But here’s some good news: you can schedule worry time and this allows you to address your concerns, and then move on to other things the rest of the time.

What Is Worry Time?

Worry time is a cognitive-behavioral concept which actually helps you control your obsessive thoughts. It’s a paradox. You will purposely decide to worry at a specific time of the day. Why? Well, since you’re stressing all the time and wasting so much of your life with concerns, you can at least practice compartmentalizing that worry. You can do something else for the rest of the time.
For instance, take time to worry, then have productive thoughts the remainder of the day. So, since this is a schedule to worry, there have to be steps to follow in order to do it correctly, right? Let’s take a look.

How to Schedule Time to Worry

Halt your obsessive thoughts for a moment and listen up. Worrying is not so bad when it’s controlled. Although you assume you cannot control it, worry after consistent training can indeed be trained. Here are the steps you use for worry time:

1. Schedule the time

The first thing you must do is decide what times of the day you should worry. Yes, I know that sounds kind of silly, but cognitive-behavior therapy would disagree with you.
So, use a calendar, planner, or notepad and write down the time of day you wish to schedule a time for obsessive thoughts. A session of between 15 and 30 minutes is ideal for worry time. After that, you can go about your positive daily routines. And by the way, it’s advised that you do not schedule this right before bedtime. It’s more than likely to keep you from sleeping well.

2. Write things down

During your scheduled time to worry, make sure you write down your thoughts. You don’t have to find a solution in this 15-30-minute window, but if you do, then that is fine too. The objective is just to get your thoughts onto paper, so you can see exactly what’s troubling you, instead of just obsessing.
There is therapeutic power in taking thought and turning it into written information. You take it from you and put it somewhere else, and at the same time, you see all the truth in the thoughts as well.

3. Keep worries inside worry time

If you start to worry about things outside your designated worry time, then stop immediately. You must remind yourself that worry can only happen during its scheduled time. This will not be easy, and it will take some time to remember. Consistently catching your worries and putting them back into those neat little slots of your day will help you gain control.
Also, when worry time comes, please don’t dwell about all the times you worried outside of worry time. It’s counterproductive and just silly.

4. End of the week reflections

At the end of each week, go back and read the things you wrote during your scheduled worry time. Are there any patterns? What are the things you ponder about the most? Go ahead and ask yourself any questions you want in order to understand more about your concerns. And yes, you should also schedule the “end of the week reflection on your worries” just like you did with the worry time in each day.
Your reflections are healthy, but take care and don’t dwell on repetitive problems and feel defeated. Just keep moving forward with the same schedule as before.

5. Make it long term

After a week or so of this practice, you may want to just continue. In fact, I recommend this. If you practice this routine for the long term, you will strengthen your thoughts, make it easier to control your worries, and also learn more about structure and focus. So, just keep going and see where it leads you.

Worry isn’t all bad

It’s not horrible to be concerned about things in life. Right now, I am concerned about our world and the nation in which I live. Every day, I check the headlines to see if things have improved, but sadly, it seems to get worse day by day. With scheduling worry time, I can allow myself to deconstruct these headlines and keep them from taking over my entire day with stress and anxiety.
You’re not alone. I have anxiety and many others do as well. But the fact is, you don’t need to have anxiety to practice worry time. You can schedule even the smallest amount of time for concerns each day. Whether large or small, your worries can be set aside for examination. I coax you to try this technique.
Let me know how it works for you!
References:
  1. https://www.livescience.com
  2. https://www.helpguide.org

Sherrie Hurd

 

 

Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. 

 

 

 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


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publicado por achama às 21:20
Sexta-feira, 15 / 05 / 20

How the Law of Reciprocity Works and Practical Ways to Use It

How the Law of Reciprocity Works and Practical Ways to Use It

Jamie Logie, B. Sc.

learning-mind.com

May 15th, 2020 .

 

 

The law of reciprocity is all about an action being rewarded with another action in return. But how does this all work exactly, and how do you best use it to benefit your life and the lives of others?
This law is all about spreading to good between us all, and it’s something that more people need to practice. This article will look at how the law of reciprocity works, and some practical ways that you can use it.

What Is the Law of Reciprocity?

The simplest way to look at the law of reciprocity is that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The problem is, this sometimes can take on an ugly form with people only making gestures to get something in return.
This is often used by salespeople who generally have no interest in your betterment and are only out for themselves. They will often give out something for free so the other person feels an obligation to return the favor, which is based around buying a specific product.
We want to ignore this particular aspect that is more about persuasion than it is reciprocity. Instead, we want to focus on reciprocity to spread more joy, support, and caring among one another. This is a law that will usually trigger a positive reaction in another person. When you do even the simplest, kindest gesture, it generally triggers the desire in the person to act similarly.
Reciprocity is about the sense of obligation to return the favor. That may sound like a burden, but we are talking about small, intimate gestures that go a long way in helping us all feel better about ourselves. The act of giving goes a long way in instilling a positive impression in the mind of the other person. And that’s what this is all about; creating as many positive experiences as we possibly can.

What Are Some Ways We Use the Law of Reciprocity Every Day?

You are probably using this law every day, and not even realizing it. A basic example is the idea of a simple smile. When we smile at someone, the other person will usually smile back. Your action is you giving the smile, and the reaction is them returning the smile to you. This is one of the most practical, simple, but still effective ways to practice the law of reciprocity.
We do not understand what other people are going through, and even though they walk around carrying a brave face, they could be suffering on the inside. It’s incredibly powerful what the simple act of a smile can do to another human being and – even for just a moment – it will lift their spirits. That act is returned to you, also causing you a boost in endorphins and a sense of happiness.
This is, of course, the most basic example of this law – but you can see how powerful it really is. Now, you want to continue to put this law into practice as much as possible. What are some other practical ways to use the law of reciprocity?

1. Creating a More Harmonious Home Environment

If things are a bit chaotic in your home, it may seem easier to blow your top than to deal with disastrous situations. Say that you come from work only to discover a mess all around the house. You’re trying to remain calm, but then one of your kids comes running through and knocks a dish off the table, causing it to break. Your child is in near hysterics, and this could end in a total breakdown for everyone, or you could use the law of reciprocity.
It’s not always easy, but in this situation, it would involve not losing your temper and instead, comforting and hugging your child. This would not be the reaction they were expecting while also expecting to be forced to clean it up. Tell your child to go and do something else while you clean it up. It’s not unlikely to find a child resorting to a more peaceful and apologetic situation as they’ve seen the gentle approach you’ve taken and are responding in kind.
By yelling and punishing, you would probably get a similar response. By taking a gentler approach, you allow for inner peace to be created instead of a harsh situation. This is not the easiest thing, but if we do this on a daily level, you will get more positive reactions instead of strife, fear, and anguish.

2. Repay Things as Soon as You Can

This isn’t specifically related to money, but it still applies. One of the most practical ways you can use reciprocity is by returning favors and gestures as soon as you can – even if it’s something small. When you don’t, people can often think you are taking advantage, and that’s the opposite intentions we should go for.
With close friends and family, you may have a little more leeway in the length of time you take to pay someone back because there is a closer intimacy. With people like coworkers or associates, you’ll want to repay them as soon as possible for the reciprocity to work its best.

3. Helping Out A Stranger

We’ve discussed reciprocity with people we are in close contact with, but what does this look like in the outside world with people you don’t know? It’s all about creating the best environment you can in whatever situation you find yourself in. And this can be as simple as holding a door open for a stranger. If it’s an entrance with more than one door, you can be pretty certain they will make sure to hold the next door open for you.
Again, these are small gestures, but reciprocity working like this creates a better sense of community and connection between the people living in it.

Final Thoughts

We all want to live in the most supportive and encouraging society possible. This isn’t always going to be possible, but by practicing the law of reciprocity, we can create the closest semblance to an ideal living situation.
Reciprocity all comes down to being the change you wish to see in the world. If you want joy, kindness, and compassion, it starts with giving it to others. When you do this, you allow it to find its way back to you.
References:
  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/
 

About the Author: Jamie Logie, B.Sc.

Jamie Logie is a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, and health & wellness specialist. He holds a bachelor of science (B.Sc.) degree in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario, studied sociology and psychology at Western University and has a counseling diploma from Heritage Baptist College. He has run a blog and top-rated podcast on iTunes called "Regained Wellness". Jamie is also a contributing writer for places like the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, LifeHack and has an Amazon #1 book called "Taking Back Your Health".

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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

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publicado por achama às 23:14
Segunda-feira, 11 / 05 / 20

9 Signs of a Sense of Entitlement You May Not Know You Have

 

9 Signs of a Sense of Entitlement You May Not Know You Have

Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted May 3rd, 2020.

 
 
 
Could it be that you are not as humble and satisfied as you think? The truth is you could be harboring a sense of entitlement.
I’d like to think that I’m a balanced human being, despite the fact that I struggle with many forms of mental illness. Do I have a sense of entitlement? Honestly, I’m sure I display it from time to time. It could be that I don’t even recognize many of these symptoms. This entitlement is closely related to the unhealthy aspects of narcissism. It more or less rates on the egotistical side of the narcissistic spectrum.
Yes, feeling entitled is hard to recognize because of this correlation, and can mask its true identity underneath feelings of humility. There is also no age preference for this feeling either. You can feel entitled as a young adult, and you can feel just as entitled at the ripe old age of 75. In case you don’t understand what feeling entitled means, here’s one definition:
In psychology, a sense of entitlement is a personality trait that makes someone feel as though they deserve more than what society gives them. These are sometimes unrealistic and unmerited demands for better living conditions or treatment.

9 Signs That You Have a Sense of Entitlement

In case you’re wondering if this is you, if you have a sense of entitlement, then there are signs that throw up red flags. A red flag is a warning of something, and it’s usually pretty spot on. So here are a few indicators that you may have fit into this entitled group.

1. Superiority

While at face value, you might not think you feel superior, there could be a bit of “better than the rest” mentality dwelling between your ears. I’ve noticed this in myself at times, and it’s usually after someone has pointed it out and I’ve gotten angry. My anger revealed my guilt, you see. Feeling superior to others is easier than you think, and so you must always be aware of this trait. This is one facet of entitlement.

2. Unrealistic expectations

You may often feel like someone owes you things, or you feel cheated. This is considered unrealistic expectations from others. This is a sign that you believe you deserve more than you do. Most of the time, this feeling comes from past mistreatments in relationships or by neglect from your parents. It could even come from being let down by your best friend or fired from a job where you were previously praised.
Your sense of right and wrong can quickly get crossed and damage your trust…thus, creating this unrealistic demand mentality. This sign is noticed when you start feeling like nothing will ever go the way it should.

3. Self-pity

Yes, people are unfair, and they can hurt you for no real reason at all. Self-pity can start from here, right where an unwarranted wound happened. The right thing to do in these situations is to take the hurt and learn from it, growing into a stronger person. But if the wound is not tended to, self-pity will grow, then it will mature into a ridiculous sense of worth.
I’ve done this myself before. Once, I was hurt so badly that I expected everyone else to recognize the hurt and feel sorry for me. It didn’t work out the way I thought it would, and eventually, someone told me to grow up. It was harsh, but they were right to let me know.

4. Bullying

Those who feel entitled are prone to bullying others. It starts with low self-esteem, which then causes you to lash out at others to bring down their self-worth. The objective is to vault yourself above others by using them as your stepping-stones.
But you must keep in mind, those you step on will experience the same low feelings, and if they aren’t strong enough, they will also bullying others. You’re not just responsible then for bullying people, but you can potentially start a negative pattern that could ruin many lives due to self-entitlement. So, if you sense you are being a bully, you are guilty of a worse mentality than just being mean.

5. Double standards

Another sign that you may have a sense of entitlement is that you use double standards in life. For instance, it might not be okay for your adult son to get drunk, but you think it’s okay to do the same thing when he’s not around. It might be okay for you to leave your clothes lying around, and yet you yell at your husband for leaving his things out all the time.
Do you see the pattern? Living like this is pretty obvious to others, so keep in mind that they know you are unfair, and basically, a hypocrite. Maybe you should check for entitled standards you’ve made for yourself.

6. No compromise

Did you know that effective communication means compromise? Especially, if you are in an argument. If you feel like someone owes you something in life, you will hate compromise. I’m not sure, but I have set standards and morals, and sometimes, I hold them so tight that I refuse to compromise with others.
Now, I’m not saying that your standards or morals aren’t important because they are. What I am saying is that somewhere, somehow, you will have to compromise with people you care about. Otherwise, they might not stick around for long. So, if you aren’t even willing to compromise at all, then you have a problem, and no, it’s not the other guy. It’s you!

7. Attention, Praise, and admiration

If you feel you are above the rest, you will crave the spotlight. There is never enough attention for you. You always fish for compliments and post everything you purchase on social media, which makes you struggle all the time just to hold onto the same level of admiration from the day before.
In your eyes, others owe you all the love and comfort now because you’ve done your share of good deeds.  For every negative thing that you endured from the past, there’s certain retribution and, what’s worse is all the attention in the world is never enough.

8. Using punishments

Another sign that you could have a “surprise” sense of entitlement is that you use punishments. I don’t mean you punish your children for disobedience, as some do. I mean you punish other adults for not giving you exactly what you want.
Here’s an example: Say your best friend doesn’t come to visit as much as you think she should and you get angry. Well, you decide she deserves to be punished, and so you stop answering her calls or texts. When your best friend does come to see you, an attitude greets her at the door.
While this might seem like nothing to some people, it’s actually a negative reaction driven by the need for entitlement. You feel entitled to her attention and love. While in truth, you are both equal and deserve the same amount of respect. Non-toxic actions are when you give your friend the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she doesn’t come because she could be too busy to come to visit.

9. Everyone is a threat or competition

Remember, a sense of entitlement means no one is your equal, right? Well, this means that everyone is either a threat to your wellbeing, or they are a competition that you must constantly keep an eye on. Even your closest friends aren’t allowed to go through this veil of doubt and mistrust. You keep them close, but far enough so they have little access to how you really feel about them.
Entitlement means jealousy, hatred, and gossip. All these things come with insecurities and the dislike of others.

Are You Secretly Struggling with a Sense of Entitlement?

Sometimes the things you do that seem normal could, in fact, be a bit toxic. I had to learn this the hard way after hurting people or being told that I was acting entitled. But this is no witch hunt, no.
Every person on the face of the earth is imperfect. We all have skeletons in our closets, crosses to bear, and quirks that we cannot even see. When we cannot see these things, we perceive our lives as fair and good. The objective is, however, that we learn more and more every day about how to be better people. We analyze ourselves, check on how we treat others, and just strive to be good at every opportunity.
If we want a better world, guess what? It starts first with our own changes. We have to see our sense of entitlement for what it is and change a little at a time. Why should we change slowly? Well, because it’s not fair to be too hard on ourselves, any more than it’s okay to be hard on others. I want you to remember that. So, take your time and be honest with yourself. This is the only way to make those permanent improvements.
I believe in you, and that’s because I’m imperfect too…and I do believe I can do better as well.
References:
  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  2. https://www.betterhelp.com

Sherrie Hurd

 

 

Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. 

 

 

 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.


 


Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

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publicado por achama às 21:56
Quarta-feira, 29 / 04 / 20

What Triggers Narcissistic Injury and How to Recognize It?

 

What Triggers Narcissistic Injury and How to Recognize It?

Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted April 28th, 2020.

 
 
 
Narcissistic injury happens when the narcissist has been confronted, challenged, or denied something. In a situation like this, they feel like their whole façade comes apart. The narcissistic wound is real, and yet, it comes from a place of make-believe hurts. How can we tolerate this sort of behavior?
To understand narcissistic injury, you have to know a little bit about the narcissist themselves. A person who has been “diagnosed” per se, as a narcissistic individual will have layers of characteristics.
First of all, most narcissists were first traumatized or abused children. This mistreatment, in time, caused them to build high walls to keep others out. It made their self-esteem plummet as well. As a result of all this, the narcissist built a façade of who they really are, and when confronted or challenged, they acquire the narcissistic wound.

What triggers the narcissistic injury?

There are a few ways that this injury can be triggered by others. Just as I said above, being challenged or confronted would do the trick. But let’s look at a few of these things in order to get the big picture.
  • Breaking the mask

The narcissist has a false idea of who they are. Some of them actually believe in this false identity, while others use the identity to trick others. Injuries occur when someone rips the mask off revealing the true identity of the narcissist. This triggers anger, resentment, and manipulation.
You see, when you lived the majority of your life with a low-self-esteem, creating a different, more positive identity is ideal. When that identity is destroyed, you’re right back where you began. It’s actually painful for the narcissist.
  • Pointing out mistakes

There is no narcissist in this world that likes their failures being noticed. Injuries are triggered quickly when the narcissist fails at something or is wrong about something, and a friend notices. Maybe if they fail at something while alone, it’s not so bad, but for someone to see what happened, this can be devastating.
  • Revealing the lack of confidence

Narcissists cannot handle someone else revealing their lack of confidence. The truth is, the root of narcissistic behavior lies in low self-confidence, as it comes from past trauma or abusive childhood. The narcissist walks and talks with an air of confidence, and yet, it is all false. When it’s revealed for what it is, a narcissistic injury happens.

How do we recognize the narcissistic injury?

Touching once more on the adult/child relationship as to abuse, we can learn how to recognize the narcissistic injuries that surface. If a parent was narcissistic, then it’s likely that some of those traits will try to stick to the child, especially mental injuries. So, how can we tell if this is happening?

1. They reject others

If the narcissist’s friends and family know what they’ve been through, people usually want to help. But this help will also come with revealing their mistakes and helping them work through the problems. They don’t want others to see the imperfections, and so friends and family cannot help. Loved ones may even get a bit harsh with the narcissist, and say that they are challenging them to do better. This will make them push friends and family even further away.
You see, narcissists feel as though they should be loved and accepted at all times. This can get especially negative on social media. If someone with a narcissistic wound is challenged online, they will go to extremes in arguments and comments, so much that they may even delete or block people from their personal spaces – these can even be their loved ones.

2. They have impossible expectations

Even if everyone is talking about how talented they are, it’s never enough. Narcissists have to always be in the spotlight, always getting attention, and when it comes to the online world, always posting things about themselves or what they’ve accomplished. One nice compliment is never enough for them. This is because secretly, narcissists always feel like a failure.

3. Sometimes they’re overachievers

On the flip side, sometimes the narcissist just wants to help too much. In order to fill that void inside, and yes, there’s a deep dark void inside every narcissist, they must constantly be doing things for people, or giving out endless compliments – they are usually empty compliments which this toxic person doesn’t really mean.
I know this sounds cruel, but it’s true. The narcissistic injury shows through the many layers of the good Samaritan sometimes. If they can hold up that camera while helping, they can be an overachiever and live those impossible expectations all at once. Giving and getting at an abnormal and toxic level.

4. You don’t want to say no

Inside, the narcissist always wants to say no, but on the outside, they never want to say no. Does that make sense? Well, it’s how the narcissist works. A narcissist focuses on themselves first, even though they help tremendously, never want to speak the word “no” and always seem so humble. All of this is false.
They don’t want to speak “no” because they are afraid of the consequences. That is all. No narcissist wants to be injured by rejection because they didn’t go along with someone else’s wishes. So, they try to bridge that gap somehow. It’s usually a messy routine.

Narcissistic injuries are real

If you live with a narcissist, you will eventually experience those strange injuries. When you do, take some time before you get into an argument with them. Think about why the narcissist may feel injured and work around this issue accordingly.
Although most narcissists never change, some do. So, if you have the chance to show them the truth of their injuries in a peaceful manner, you could be able to help them heal. If not, it could be time to make some changes.
I wish you the best.
References:

  1. https://www.betterhelp.com
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov



Sherrie Hurd

 

 

Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. 

 

 

 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:
 

 



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.


 


Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 05:19
Domingo, 26 / 04 / 20

10 Signs of a Spoiled Child: Are You Overindulging Your Kid?

10 Signs of a Spoiled Child: 

Are You Overindulging Your Kid?

Michelle Liew, B. A. 

Contributor writer to Learning Mind.

April 25th, 2019.

 
 
 


 

To give or not to give” is a question that mystifies almost all parents. So how much should you give your little one before he or she becomes a spoiled child?
Bratty behaviour is off-putting, but how can you prevent it? You don’t want to shortchange your child either. Balance, as always, is the key, and it’s not easy to achieve. Here are some signs that you’ve over-indulged your little hero or heroine.
How does a child become spoiled?
Experts in child psychology such as Dr. Laura Markham cringe at the terms “spoiled” or “brat“. They connote rejection and ruination. These words are also inappropriate to say since it is parents who are accountable for their behaviour. According to Dr. Markham, adults lead children to understand behavioural and social norms. They will not adhere to limits if they are too lax.
Parents often encourage spoiled behaviour unwittingly despite their positive intentions. They are afraid of saying ‘no’ for fear of hurting feelings. Some are just too tired after a day’s work to enforce rules.

10 signs of a spoiled child: so they sound like your kid?

Hence, many parents fail to notice hints of unwanted or temperamental behaviour. Here are a few signs that you may need to rein in your child.

1. Tantrum throwing

This is the first and most obvious sign of a spoiled child. This behavior is one that parents should address immediately and is as clear as day. Should your seven-year-old child throw a fit just because they don’t get to go where they wish to, pull the reins at once. They should start to learn about boundaries and constraints.

2. Your child cannot cope with simple chores

All children must achieve independence, and of course, some will be more independent than others. When your ten-year-old child throws a fit just because breakfast is not on schedule, you know that you’ll need to pull the reins.
It’s challenging to determine if a child has developed undesirable character nuances. Experts suggest that a three-year-old should be able to put their toys away after using them. A ten-year-old should be able to prepare simple meals.

3. You give in to all your child’s requests

Do you find yourself giving in to your child’s whims and fancies for fear that they will throw tantrums? Many hassled parents give in because they cannot bear the thought of another person yelling at them after a long day of work; their bosses had already done that. On other occasions, they just want to bond with their children because their work schedules are tight.
While the intentions are sound, giving in to children to readily isn’t in their best interests. They will start to form unrealistic expectations and want everyone to cater to their whims. When parents immediately satisfy every wish a child has, they grow up into a tempered and immature adult.

4. Negative reaction from peers

In essence, the child will bring out the attitude they receive in their family. If they never get punished when they do something wrong and always get what they fancy, they don’t learn the basic rule of life – every action has consequences. Thus, such a kid will feel entitled, which will affect the way they treat other children.
Furthermore, spoiled children will get adverse reactions from their peers. They may face ostracism because they don’t know how to socialise well. You’ll often find them taking things from others without giving something in return, and of course, the reception to that is almost always as you’d expect.

5. Your child is afraid to lose

Is your child a sore loser? A spoiled child hates competition, even more so when someone else gets to claim the prize they covet. Children must engage in competitive activities and learn that everyone loses occasionally.
Your child should learn that failure is a part of life and they can’t always win. Moreover, unhealthy competitiveness is not going to lead them anywhere. It will only bring them bitterness and anger.

6. The spoiled child speaks in a presumptuous manner

Spoiled kids speak to adults, particularly the ones that they do not like, as less than equals. They presume that they can get everyone to do their bidding, including those who have had years of life experience under their belts. There is a complete disregard for authority.
This kind of attitude reveals a sense of entitlement, so you need to deal with this behavior as soon as possible if you don’t want to see your child developing into a narcissist.

7. You issue empty threats

Your child is spoiled if you find them ignoring your threats of punishment. Unheeded warnings are ineffective and even detrimental. A power struggle is not the way to form meaningful relationships.
Later on, your child may end up handling conflict and disagreements in an unhealthy way, such as becoming manipulative and passive-aggressive. Don’t let your kid adopt this kind of immature approach to relationships.

8. Inconsistent expectations

Parents of spoiled children don’t set boundaries early enough. Their children do as they please because they know that they will not suffer consequences. If you issue a curfew and skip the punishment, your child will view it as an empty threat and ignore it.
When you don’t punish your child if they did something wrong, they don’t learn that their actions have consequences and they need to take responsibility. This is a one-way road to becoming an immature and irresponsible adult.

9. You protect your child from painful emotions

Do you rush to comfort your child each time they whine or stomp their foot? You may have to act quickly to nip the spoiled behaviour in the bud. Children need to process complicated feelings like fear and anger. It’s up to parents to furnish them with that need.
Children of overprotective parents often grow into mentally weak adults who develop unhealthy coping mechanisms. If you don’t want this for your child, you need to let them experience life in all its depth, both negative and positive sides of it. Otherwise, they will never develop resilience and will be helpless when life throws them a curveball.

10. Your child doesn’t understand that money doesn’t grow on trees

You have spoiled your child if they tend to overspend. They think that it is within their rights to get any toy they fancy. But should you indulge them whenever they whine? Children need to learn the process of saving money early, and that the things that they want at the time do not come for free.

Tips for preventing spoiled behaviour in your child

If you are feeling anxious because you have said yes to your child displaying these signs, take heart. You can take steps to counter the behaviour.

1. Set limits

The first order of business is to set limits. You must let your children understand what you like and dislike them to do. Set moral standards as well, as they will be the foundation for a child’s behaviour later on in life.

2. Use open-ended questions

It’s the adults’ responsibility to teach children to reflect on their actions, and they can do so by challenging children with questions that require them to consider the impact of their behaviour. You could ask, “Why do you think that taking the toy away from your brother isn’t the right thing to do?”
Asking them questions that trigger “yes” or “no” responses will show them that they only need to say what you want to hear.

3. Make sure that children do chores

As mentioned earlier, a spoiled child would expect you to do their chores for them. The key to making sure that they understand that nothing is a given is to make them work for what they want. Assign tasks around the home and make sure that they are age-appropriate – you can’t expect a three-year-old to prepare chicken sandwiches for the whole family.
But he or she can help to pick up books and stack them in designated areas. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has highlighted chores that are suitable for children of different ages.

4. Discipline

It’s also essential to give your children some discipline, which does not mean using a rod every time they err. It implies structure, and it’s up to parents to find their balance.
Free-range parenting, which involves children doing activities at their discretion, works with active parental monitoring. Some parents may prefer to routinise their children. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advocates the early setting up of firm boundaries. Whatever your balance is, parental involvement in guiding them with appropriate conduct is necessary.

5. Raise children with an attitude of gratitude

While this seems like a commonsensical suggestion, we often neglect it. Sansone, in this study, recognises the potential links between gratitude and well-being, although they require more research. When children learn to say ‘thank you’ often enough, they’ll start doing so as a reflex action. They will make the expression of gratitude part and parcel of their lives.
Does the above description of a spoiled child sound like your kid? If yes, then you need to do something about it. Kids will throw the occasional tantrum, but an adult determines whether a child remains spoiled. These hints ensure that yours will stay grounded.

 
Michelle Liew.
 

 


About the Author: 

Michelle Liew


Michelle is a freelance writer who loves all things about life. She has a broad range of interests that include literature, history, philosophy, human relationships, and psychology. When she is not busy writing her heart out, you will find her tinkering jazz tunes on her piano. She loves anything that helps her to grow as a person, including her pet terriers, Misty and Cloudy.

COPYRIGHT © 2020 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 
 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 21:07
Sábado, 18 / 04 / 20

What Is the Story of Your Life? How You Tell It May Reveal Who You Are.

What Is the Story of Your Life? 

How You Tell It May Reveal Who You Are.

Lottie Miles, M.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted April 18th, 2020.

 
story of your life narrative psychology.

 


You might not often get a chance to tell the story of your life, but when you do how would you tell itRecent research has shown that the way you tell the story of your life has an impact on your personality and your well-being.
In this post, we take a look at how our personal narratives dictate who we are and we look at ways we can alter how we interpret our life for the better.
What Is Narrative Psychology?
Personal narratives fall within the realm of narrative psychology. Narrative psychology is concerned with how humans create meaning from stories and how they portray themselves in the story of their life. Narrative psychologists are interested in how we choose to tell our personal narratives, how this changes over time, and what this reveals about our personality.

Why Is the Story of Your Life Important?

The story of your life isn’t only present when you tell it to others, it is also a personal narrative that exists within us whether we recognize it or not.
When we think about our past we are, in fact, telling ourselves the story of our life. How we interpret that story is, according to researchers at Western Washington University, reveals, constructs and sustains ourselves through time. And it is how we make sense of the world around us.
The story of your life is important because it is a product of events, interpretations, and facts that you have picked out from your years on this earth and pieced together to make meaning. What we choose to focus on, and how we tell it can reflect who we are.

How Can the Story of Your Life Impact Who You Are?

So, what does it mean that the story of our life reflects who we are? Let’s look at an example of a memory. Imagine that you had gone through a difficult time in your career. You were made redundant and left without a job. During this time you discovered that your real interests lay elsewhere and you found yourself pursuing a different and more fulfilling career path.
How would you tell this story? Would you focus on the negative part or would you interpret this time in your life as a positive turning point in your life?
Those who tell their life stories with more of a positive slant, that see light in the dark moments, are more likely to experience greater life satisfaction and better mental health. This is also true for those who give a sense of autonomy in their life story and mention meaningful relationships within their personal narrative.
On the other hand, reliving your experiences and telling stories containing more “contamination”, negativity and a lack of autonomy can relate to less life satisfaction and reduced well-being. This can also have an impact on the kind of person we continue to be and how we continue to view the world around us.

Adjusting Our Personal Narratives

In telling our own story we reveal how we see ourselves. It uncovers how we have interpreted events in our lives and whether or not we view them from a positive or a negative angle. Unsurprisingly, this has an impact on our well-being, life satisfaction, and our self-esteem. How many times have you compared your life with someone else and being left feeling inferior?
Such a thought pattern is unhelpful, and in re-framing our personal narrative we may be able to improve our outlook on life. One study of life stories asked volunteers to write their narrative in a more constructive way – following this these individuals showed greater goal persistence long after the experiment took place. This suggests that, in re-framing our personal narrative, we can improve our motivation and general satisfaction from day to day life.
Known as ‘narrative therapy’, individuals can be helped to re-interpret the story of their life and be assisted in seeing it in a more constructive and positive way.
In this respect, re-framing the story of your life is not dissimilar to the philosophical concept that life is what we make of it and that we construct our own realities. It is not surprising, therefore, that how we construct our own life affects who we are and how we view ourselves.
Take some time to think about the story of your life and how you have previously framed it for yourself and others.
See how any of the negative aspects could be re-framed into something that you learned from, whether it led you to meet a life-long friend or generally viewing it in a more constructive light.
Life certainly has its ups and downs and not all of it can be positive. But realizing when events are actually bad, or if you have just interpreted them in that way, will help you to learn about yourself, who you are and how you might be able to alter such perspectives for improved life satisfaction and well-being.


 

 

Lottie Miles

 




 
About the Author: Lottie Miles


 
Lottie Miles is a professional researcher and writer with a passion for human rights. She has 4 years of experience working within the NGO sector and has a Masters Degree in Social Policy. She has a keen interest in exploring ways in which happiness habits can help to improve mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, she likes doing crossword puzzles, painting and traveling.
 
Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 23:05
Domingo, 12 / 04 / 20

4 Signs You Need an Information Detox and How to Do It

4 Signs You Need an Information Detox and How to Do It

Lottie Miles, M.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted April 12th, 2020.

 
information detox signs.

 


Even at the best of times, it is easy to get overloaded with information. However, whilst we hear a lot about the symptoms of information overload, we don’t often hear about how to detox from it. During the time of the coronavirus, recognizing when we might need an information detox is even more important.
In this, post, we will look at 4 signs you might need an information detox and how to do it.

What Is Information Overload?

Information overload refers to the overstimulation of the brain that takes place from exposure to excessive amounts of irrelevant information. As powerful as the brain is, too much information can flood it and even drive out knowledge.
Information overload can decrease our ability to process information and reduce the quality of our decision making. It can also affect both our physical and mental well-being. For example, it can lead to;
  • raised blood pressure
  • depression and low mood
  • a lack of energy
  • insomnia & tiredness
  • reduced cognitive power and performance
  • reduced productivity

4 Signs You Need an Information Detox

As you can see, information overload can be damaging to our health. During the time of coronavirus, this is heightened due to the nature of information propagating across every area of society. To help overcome this, we outline 4 ways to notice you need an information detox and how to achieve it.

1. You feel in a heightened state of anxiety

As tempting as it can be to stay informed about the latest on the coronavirus, this can be damaging to our mental health. Moreover, spending too much time on social media can be toxic and bad for your health at the best of times. Even verified news can be harmful during a time of crisis due to the nature of what is being reported on.
When we feel anxious, small things can feel overwhelming. As such, it is important to take control of our interactions with new media if we are to protect our mental wellbeing.

How to detox:

If you find yourself feeling in a heightened sense of anxiety, take note of how long you have been spending on social media platforms or news websites. Does the length of time you spend on these platforms seem to have a correlative effect on your mood?
If you feel it does, a good way to manage this is by setting daily limits. These can be controlled with willpower alone or enforced by apps which can be used to block sites in a variety of ways.

2. Social media can be isolating

Numerous studies confirm the link between the use of social media and isolation. Whilst the coronavirus and social distancing requires us to communicate more using digital means, this doesn’t necessarily mean social media is the best way to do this. Typically, sites like Facebook and Twitter portray idealized versions of reality, which can foster the fear of missing out (FOMO) so bad for our mental health.
How to detox:
Once again, the key way to deal with this is to detox. Distraction-blocking apps can be a great way to do this again. However, ultimately, focusing on reducing the time we spend on social media can e effective.
Nevertheless, if one reason we are drawn to look at social media daily is to feel connected with others, we can also try to implement new communication channels. This could include chatting more on Skype, Zoom, or Jitsi. Or it could be playing games online with friends. Alternatively, you could send a daily favorite poem or quote to people we care about.

3. You don’t know what to believe

In the time of the coronavirus, this is even more apparent with rumors aplenty spreading like wildfire across the internet. If you are not ready for an information detox, then you can deal with this by checking the source, cross-referencing with what reputed organizations like the WHO say.

How to detox:

It is also a good idea to take a step back before reposting distressing things. By doing this, we protect the well-being of others who may not have heard of an information detox.
To detox from untrustworthy information, you should avoid social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. If you feel a desire to find out information, you can go directly to a source you trust. This way you stay in control of what you read much more than letting algorithms decide what you see.

4. We struggle to be present in the moment

Whether it was before coronavirus lockdown or after, people have long been absorbed in their phones. Indeed, a common sign that we are suffering from information overload is the compulsion to check emails, apps, and social media. When we do this, we need a detox.
When we are on the phone, it is hard to be wholly aware of our surroundings. As such, we can become detached from the reality around us. This can reduce our attention spans and our ability to focus and have a negative impact on our wellbeing.
How to detox:
To deal with this we can prevent access to our phones. This can be by physically leave our phone outside of the room we are in. We can also use apps or will-power. However, we can also be even more proactive when we recognize this sign of needing to detox from information. You can learn to focus on the present by practicing meditation. Meditation can also be used as a tool for anxiety relief.

An information detox can be useful at any time

During normal times, it is easy to become overloaded with information and need a detox. With the coronavirus forcing us to spend more time indoors, we need to be even more wary of this tendency. Be vigilant for the signs outlined above and try as many of the information detox techniques as possible.


 

 

Lottie Miles

 




 
About the Author: Lottie Miles


 
Lottie Miles is a professional researcher and writer with a passion for human rights. She has 4 years of experience working within the NGO sector and has a Masters Degree in Social Policy. She has a keen interest in exploring ways in which happiness habits can help to improve mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, she likes doing crossword puzzles, painting and traveling.
 
Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
Free counters!

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publicado por achama às 19:26
Domingo, 12 / 04 / 20

How to Handle Emotional Overwhelm as an Empath in a Crisis

How to Handle Emotional Overwhelm as an Empath in a Crisis 

Becky Storey.

https://www.learning-mind.com/

April 11th, 2020

 

Being an empath means constantly picking up on the emotions of other people. Be it positive, or more often negative, empaths can feel and manifest emotions that aren’t their own. This is usually uncomfortable but manageable under typical circumstances. Unfortunately, we aren’t under typical circumstances right now, and negative emotions are everywhere. Empaths everywhere are taking on more feelings than ever, and rapidly developing emotional overwhelm.
The whole world is under constant stress. I can’t imagine there are many people who are handling the current coronavirus pandemic with ease. For an emotional empath, this means being constantly exposed to very intense emotions.
Empaths are often able to pick up on the emotions of others through means other than being up close and personal with others. Television, posts online and phone calls are all possible sources of emotional overwhelm.

What Is Emotional Overwhelm?

You enter a state of emotional overwhelm when the intensity of emotions you feel outweigh your ability to handle them. When empaths are exposed to a lot of serious negative emotions, they can be quickly overwhelmed and find themselves unable to process what they’re experiencing.
In a state of emotional overwhelm, your ability to think and be rational is hindered because of the mess of thoughts in your mind. This painful state of mind can get in the way of daily life if it’s not addressed well. It could even disrupt relationships if it prevents proper rationalization and communication.
It’s common for non-empaths to experience emotional overwhelm too. There are a whole host of possible causes, such as stress, trauma, difficult relationships. Major life changes or events, just as we’re all experiencing right now, can bring on emotional overwhelm for anybody. This means empaths could be taking on multiple doses.

Signs You’re Suffering from Emotional Overwhelm

In any situation, it’s important to be able to detect when you’re developing emotional overwhelm before it’s too late. Most notably, emotional overwhelm will cause a big reaction to seemingly small problems. When your bucket is full, even the smallest droplets will cause it to overflow.
When your mind is cluttered with too many thoughts, feelings, and emotions, as empaths often are, you might have difficulty focusing on tasks you’re supposed to be doing. You might even find yourself struggling to sleep, despite feeling more tired.
Emotional overwhelm can be similar to depression. The inability to process negative thoughts means you might not feel the same joy during usually “good” experiences.
Emotional overwhelm, much like any mental health issue, can cause physical symptoms. The tension in your body caused by being under inescapable stress can lead to headaches and muscle pains and even nausea and dizziness.
Ultimately, emotional overwhelm can result in missed meals, failed work projects and lost relationships. Fortunately, emotional overwhelm doesn’t have to be a long-term issue. There are ways to cope with it.

How to Cope with Emotional Overwhelm

There’s no need to let the emotional overwhelm take over your life. Handling emotions as an empath is almost second nature, but in very tense situations like we’re in right now, even the most experienced empath needs some guidance.

Remove the Stimuli

The easiest way to cope with emotional overwhelm is to reduce the influx of negative stimuli. Try to stay away from places online where people might be sharing their negative feelings. It might feel wrong at first, but any empath should also consider limiting their time as a friend’s “shoulder to cry on”.
Right now, everyone has very intense emotions and if it’s not going to be healthy for you to take on multiple cases of distress, it might be best to be honest and admit you can’t be their go-to for now.
Obviously, no one should be out in public now unless it’s really essential, but if you needed more reasons to stay in, here’s one. As an empath, you’re going to pick up on an awful lot of stress and sadness even if you’re only visiting the store.

Learn to Release It

Of course, it’s easier said than done for anyone, especially empath, but it’s very beneficial to learn to let go of those emotions. Letting negative emotions, especially the ones that don’t belong to you, sink too deep will really harm your mental state.
To reduce your emotional overwhelm you could try a number of activities, like meditation or yoga, or even screaming loudly to release the tension if that’s your kind of thing. When you feel those emotions bubble up, breathe and release them. It’s important to remind yourself that they aren’t yours to harbor.

Let It in

You know what they say – if you can’t beat them, join them. If you find yourself totally unable to release the emotions you’ve taken on that have caused emotional overwhelm, then let them in. Don’t wallow in them, simply acknowledge and greet them.
Note what each feeling is, be it anger, sadness or anxiety. Note whether you feel they’re your own or something you picked up from the external world.
File those emotions in their correct place, and suddenly you’ll find it easier to think straight. A cluttered mind is hard to function with. Consider journaling, or just opening up and confiding in someone. Once you can see things more clearly, the emotional overwhelm will reduce significantly.

Mental Distractions

When processing and talking, meditation or other mindfulness activities don’t seem to be doing the job, you can always try distractions to reduce the impact of emotional overwhelm. Everyone needs some peace in their minds at times. There’s nothing wrong with involving yourself in something that will occupy your mind.
Reading, drawing and other arts are great for absorbing your attention. There’s also nothing wrong with video games and computers if you aren’t of the arty persuasion.

Physical Distractions

When you feel the negative effects of emotional overwhelm coming on, try bringing your attention back to your body instead of your mind. You could try fidget device for a momentary distraction. Exercise of any form is a great physical distraction.
For immediate distraction and a return to your body, not your mind, try extreme sensations. You could put your hands in hot or cold water, or even pinch yourself a little when you feel like your mind is running away from you.
Times are incredibly uneasy right now. None of us are handling it particularly well, and empaths can feel that. If, as an empath, you’re falling quickly into a state of emotional overwhelm, take it easy on yourself. Look after your mind and preserve your own mental health first. Times like these are difficult but not impossible.
References:
  1. https://www.goodtherapy.org
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com
 
 
 
 

 

Becky Storey
 

 




 

About the Author: Becky Storey


 
Becky Storey is a professional writer who has been passionate about the way we think and the human mind since she developed chronic anxiety many years ago. Now she loves to write and educate people on mental health and wellbeing. When Becky is not writing, you’ll find her outside with her Labrador, sitting behind a jigsaw puzzle, or baking something with too much sugar.
 
Copyright © 2012-2019 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 05:19
Domingo, 12 / 04 / 20

5 Signs of Cabin Fever and How to Deal with It

 

5 Signs of Cabin Fever and How to Deal with It

Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted April 11th, 2020.

 
 
 

 

Some of us go through what’s called, cabin fever at times. Whether we’re in the middle of a crisis or just trapped inside due to severe winter weather.
Although it’s not a psychological disorder recognized by society, cabin fever is real. Even for those who like staying at home, there comes a time when the confinement may become too much. During a shelter-in-place order, learning how to deal with cabin fever can be even more difficult. This is because we really don’t know when the lockdown will end.
How to recognize cabin fever
In severe winter weather, we learn to cope with cabin fever in many ways. One simple way is to keep in mind where we are during the season and how many months are left until spring.
Unlike seasonal emotions, when we don’t know how long until we can go out in public, we start to panic in a different manner. There are ways we act which let others in our household know that we’ve started to suffocate with cabin fever.

Symptoms of cabin fever

1. Depression or even just sadness

As you know, depression is different from sadness. Sadness lasts for a little while, but depression hangs out and feels much worse. Those who are feeling trapped may start to exhibit sadness or depression signaling they need some fresh air, and even some sunlight to combat the depression.

How to deal with it?

There is no quick or sure cure for clinical depression except to take your prescribed medications and go out and get some sun. But if you are just sad, try thinking of good memories, call a good friend you haven’t spoken with in a while, and maybe write in a journal.
When you start recording your calendar dates with your thoughts, it helps you to remember what day it is and keeps the days from feeling like they’re running into one big space or time.

2. Restlessness

An overall feeling of restlessness will start to develop when you’ve been staying inside and away from others for too long. You may be staying at home with family or you may be completely alone. Either way, restlessness can occur. Now, I will say that if you have family around, the restlessness may not be as severe. It just depends on how well you’re getting along with everyone.

How to deal with it?

If you’re feeling restless, deal with cabin fever by channeling that energy into something productive. Decide to embark upon some household projects like organizing your clothing or learning to cook something new.
Learning how to bake bread was a fun thing for me when I was restless, and when I was done, I realized that I’d learned a new skill. Also, if sheltering in place allows you to go outside, go for a walk, but stay close to home as orders decree.

3. Low motivation

While you’re staying inside, you may think of many things to do, like clean or organize things. You might ponder about reading a book or dancing to your favorite music. However, when you have cabin fever, you may not have the motivation to do anything. It doesn’t make sense, but I’m going through this myself right now. Motivation to me is getting harder to muster each day as one day melts into another.

How to deal with it?

Building motivation isn’t always an easy task. Sometimes it takes getting thoroughly disgusted with yourself without getting depressed. So, here’s a hint: when you start to feel bad about yourself, push yourself right then to go do something.
This will help you cut the connection between low motivation and depression. This might take practice. You may be able to use your restlessness to recognize you’re about to get depressed.

4. Lack of concentration

Coping with cabin fever requires you to deal with the lack of concentration. It’s hard to focus on one task at a time when you are constantly staring at four walls. You know that you have plenty of time to do almost anything in your home, but for some reason, the inability to go out makes it hard to concentrate on tasks. You may start one task, and then move to another, leaving many things half-way done.

How to deal with it?

A good way to improve your concentration when you have cabin fever is to do a small yoga session each day. Yoga helps to improve concentration by coaxing you to focus on the present time alone. On any occasion when you are locked in, you look to the future for answers.
Yoga helps us embrace the now. You can use different objects in the home as well, to keep you grounded. If you don’t want to do yoga, then just practice looking at one object for as long as possible. This is how an initial yoga class usually starts anyway. You just don’t have to do the whole session if you don’t want, although I recommend it highly.

5. Fatigue

When you have cabin fever, you will gradually lose energy. You will lay around more and eventually start to suffer from fatigue, sometimes severe fatigue at that. Inside, there is not as much room for exercise, and fitness videos or television programs will get old fast. Before you know it, you will feel tired all the time. You may even have trouble getting out of bed, staying there most of the day.How to deal with it?
The only way to beat fatigue when learning how to cope with cabin fever is to force yourself to do something active. Even if you are in pain, you must get up and at least walk around in the yard, if you have a yard. If not, walk around your home or do some simple floor exercises to make yourself feel better.
I have chronic pain every day, and it’s so hard to make move around, but if I don’t the fatigue gets worse. Doing anything physical works, and sometimes it helps you get beyond the pain.

If you’re having cabin fever, you’re not alone

Dear, most of us, if we are smart, are dealing with cabin fever this April 11th day of 2020. People around the world are battling a crisis which forces needed workers outside the home, and the rest of us, inside. While in a way it’s easier to be shut up inside your home, it gets difficult after a while, even for the most introverted person you know. I am starting to feel a bit of panic myself at times.
So, I encourage you to stay strong, and I will leave you with one more incredible tip:
Change things up. Don’t do the same thing every day. Add variety to your shelter-in-place and this will help you get through. Remember, wherever we are, whatever role we’re playing at this time, we are all in this together.
References:
  1. https://www.healthline.com
  2. https://www.verywellmind.com

 

 

Sherrie Hurd

 

 

Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. 

 

 

 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

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publicado por achama às 04:47
Sábado, 11 / 04 / 20

How to Cope with Social Isolation and Loneliness?

How to Cope with Social Isolation and Loneliness? 

An Astronaut’s Guide.

Becky Storey.

https://www.learning-mind.com/

April 10th, 2020

 


In these wildly unexpected times, we’re all experiencing loneliness in a way we’ve never done before. Social isolation and loneliness are brand new to most of us and even the most introverted amongst us aren’t having much fun anymore.
As humans, we’re social creatures, we love to be around others. Unless you’re lucky enough to live with everyone who means something to you, you’re probably craving some more contact. The days feel long, and the loneliness keeps growing. But, if you think social isolation in your home is hard, try doing it in space, thousands of miles from Earth and normal human interaction.
Social Isolation and Loneliness in Space: an Astronaut’s View
Dr. D. Marshall Porterfield was a professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University in Indiana, USA. He is currently the Director of Space Life and Physical Science at NASA, which took him all the way to the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Porterfield is now an expert on coping with loneliness and social isolation. In his interview with Lifehacker, he gave a helpful piece of advice for getting through these difficult times.

What Can an Astronaut Teach Us?

As difficult as we think we have it now, I think it’s fair to say that being in outer space must be harder. The available room for an astronaut is much smaller than most of our homes, so it’s easy to feel claustrophobic and cramped.
You might also be sharing that space with a few strangers, and sometimes they might all speak different languages. While some company could help us feel less loneliness, but we all know that it’s easy to feel lonely even in a crowded room.
While we might get to wave at a neighbor or pass by others when we stretch our legs outside, astronauts don’t get those luxuries. They’re in completely unfamiliar environments while we’re in our own homes. We’re alone together in our social isolation, they’re alone in the universe.
It’s not a competition though, we’re all struggling down here on Earth too. Fortunately for us, astronauts have seen it all. They’re the leading experts in coping with social isolation and loneliness, and they’ve finally shared their secrets.

An Astronaut’s Secret Tips for Coping with Social Isolation and Loneliness

Keep a Routine

Dr. Porterfield says that all astronauts have strict schedules filled with activities, sometimes they’re even organized as far as every 5 minutes. Structure is important to avoid feeling lost and hopeless. Instead of dwelling on the loneliness, it’s recommended that you have plans in place to keep you busy.
When you’re not able to get out and about, each day can feel scary and uncertain. Our astronaut suggests that you have a time to wake up, a time to get moving, and always have a time for things that make you feel happy every day. That’s not to say that every day should look the same, but try to have a sort of plan before you go to bed the day before.
Nothing needs to be organized as strictly as the astronaut’s schedule but having a plan will help to reduce the daunting nature of the days and ease your time in social isolation.

Stay Active

Astronauts get 2 hours of exercise a day, Dr. D. Marshall Porterfield says. Fortunately, exercising here on Earth is much easier than on the International Space Station.
Depending on where you are, you might even be allowed a little time to exercise outside. If you can, this is the best bet and not something to be taken for granted. Follow your government’s guidelines and stay away from others, but if you can get those endorphins flowing and get some fresh air at the same time, do it. If outdoors isn’t what you want or isn’t allowed, then there are endless possibilities online! From gym-style workouts to yoga and dance, there are so many at-home versions of your favorite exercises right at your fingertips.
Exercising regularly reduces your risk of developing a whole host of life-threatening conditions and illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Possibly more importantly given our social isolation situation, exercising is incredibly beneficial for your psychological health. Stave off loneliness, depression, and anxiety whilst boosting your mood and improving your sleep.
Dr. Porterfield says that even if you have never been much of an exerciser, now is a great time to start. This time could be life-changing for the better!

Keep in Contact with Your Loved Ones

You’re probably missing some people quite a bit right now. You might even be missing people you never thought you would. Loneliness can come on quickly when you’re separated from the people you love, even if you’re not living alone.
Even on the International Space Station, astronauts keep in close contact with their friends and family back home. These kinds of interactions should be a priority for your mental health. You don’t need to be in physical contact with people to fight loneliness. A simple phone call can keep your mood high.
Small interactions with the people you miss and just letting them know you’re thinking of them is important, Porterfield says. It’s easy to feel alone in social isolation, but it’s even easier to learn that you aren’t. While you’re physically distant from others, you can always ensure you’re never emotionally distant.

Find Your Purpose

Dr. Porterfield says that in order to fight the hopelessness and stay motivated amid the social distancing loneliness, you should find your purpose for doing it. Astronauts might suffer out in space, but they know why they’re doing it and are motivated to keep going.
It might be harder to see our purpose when you’re just stuck at home, but there is one. By preventing further spread, we’re stopping our health services from getting overwhelmed and helping to save lives. If you need a purpose to motivate you to stick it out through the discomfort of social isolation, what better one than saving lives? Maybe it’s your grandparents, vulnerable friends or family, or maybe you just love your community and want to help it survive.
Whatever your purpose is, remember it and hold it close. This is what will help you stay strong on the hardest days.
Loneliness is getting to us allyou aren’t alone in your struggle. Reach out to loved ones, keep the people you care about close. Social isolation and loneliness are hard, but we will get back to normal eventually. Until then we keep moving, and we keep remembering why we’re doing this. Stay home, save lives.
 
 
 
 

 

Becky Storey
 

 




 

About the Author: Becky Storey


 
Becky Storey is a professional writer who has been passionate about the way we think and the human mind since she developed chronic anxiety many years ago. Now she loves to write and educate people on mental health and wellbeing. When Becky is not writing, you’ll find her outside with her Labrador, sitting behind a jigsaw puzzle, or baking something with too much sugar.
 
Copyright © 2012-2019 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:

 

 



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 04:52
Terça-feira, 31 / 03 / 20

The Struggle of Living with Anxiety in Times of Crisis: How to Stay Sane

 

The Struggle of Living with Anxiety in Times of Crisis: 

How to Stay Sane

Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted March 30th, 2020.

 
 
 

 
Let me tell you, living with anxiety is beyond difficult. So, you can imagine how it feels being anxious during a crisis.
I’ve lived with anxiety as long as I can remember, even dealing with panic attacks during grade school. This illness didn’t just make me a little nervous – it was much worse than that. It was so bad that I spent many days of my childhood with a child psychologist trying to stay in touch with reality.
The struggles of living with anxiety
It was a daily struggle. It was one that a little girl couldn’t comprehend. Living with anxiety made it hard to function without help. As a small child, I didn’t understand what was happening to me, and so I needed someone to listen. These were during times that I was secretly being abused by a relative. But the good news is, I did survive those times.
Yes, my anxiety came as a result of childhood trauma, and now I live with it during semi-normal times as well. When everything in the world is just peachy, I still have panic attacks and unbearable thoughts. The panic attacks, they come as either trigger or just sneak up on me for no apparent reason.
So, when another crisis arises, anxiety can only get worse. However, there are ways to stay sane when things go south.

How to ward off insanity during a crisis?

1. Step away from media

When reports of deaths or sicknesses clog the media, it’s easy for anxiety to rear its ugly head. You start thinking about how to stay safe during the sickness, and whether or not you will survive if you contract the contagion. The media reports daily the number of deaths and infected, and so your anxiety levels have a greater risk of skyrocketing.
Here’s what you do. You turn off the television, get off the computer, and put down your phone. Take a break from the media, at least for several hours and do something else.
Even though the crisis may be very real, you can take your mind away from it just for a little while. You can even pretend it’s not there, but just also remember to come back to reality and stick with precautions because it does exist. I think you get my idea.

2. Focus on your health

Taking your mind away from the crisis by focusing on your physical health will help with anxiety. For instance, ingesting plenty of vitamin C and eating healthy meals will help you to stay on top of proper nutrition.
Also, plenty of exercises, even if you feel you should stay inside, will help lower anxiety levels. Yoga is a good example of physical and mental exercise in one. So instead of letting anxiety take over your life, allow your health and wellbeing to take over your anxiety. This will take some practice but will help you keep your head above water.

3. Take it easy

While many people will argue with you about sleeping too much or laying around, this option might actually work for you when it comes to anxiety. Yes, you do need to stay healthy with exercise and mindfulness techniques, but you also need downtime. If this downtime includes sleeping off and on for a couple of days to recuperate, then that’s what you should do.
Anxiety has a way of completely robbing you of sanity while you try to stay fit and healthy, and if you need to check out for a while, it’s okay. Yes, napping is sometimes all you can do to stay sane.

4. Become consistent with your care

During some traumatic times, like during disease outbreaks, you will be instructed to use safety precautions and hygienic practices. While you should always wash your hands and stay clean, when a crisis hits, the act of cleanliness will be crucial to your survival. So, instead of panicking, try staying consistent with hand washing, sterilization, and cleaning.
When you take appropriate action in your life, it decreases anxiety. You feel like you have a great purpose to protect yourself and your family. Each day, try harder to be a bit more consistent until you’ve created a full day of precautions and protection. After a while, these measures will become fun and even a part of your normal routine. Things won’t feel so chaotic anymore.

5. Help others

If you happen to be someone who cannot self-quarantine during a crisis, and your services are needed, then, by all means, help anyone you can. Work hard during these days to keep your mind off the chance of negative things happening.
Yes, stay positive, restock, serve free meals, provide transportation, and if you can, help some people financially. When you’re busy focusing on the needs of others, your anxiety will see these moves as routine. As stated above, anxiety is bound by routine actions.

6. Don’t completely isolate

Yes, it’s important to stay away from the infected if you are going through a health crisis. However, you can keep in contact with friends via social media or by phone. This doesn’t mean that you should wander off and drown yourself in the negativity of the media again.
When you can, call your extended family and friends to make sure they are doing well too. Not only do they appreciate your thoughts, but it breaks up the monotony of being alone living with anxiety during times of mandatory isolation.

7. Educate others

If you have important information to share about a crisis, it’s your responsibility to share these instructions. For instance, when there’s an epidemic or outbreak of some kind, it’s imperative that you share what you know about how to stay safe and clean.
Teach your children what they need to know during this time as well. This has a double impact on your life: you will help educate and you will take your mind off your own fears for a moment.

All things pass in time

Both good and bad times change. There are pros and cons to this truth. If you’re living with the insanity of anxiety, then it’s important to find ways to feel sane again. It might not be easy to keep calm during things like pandemics, but it’s still important to do so.
I encourage you to offer even more insight into this, and I hope you share more ideas for retaining your sanity during a crisis. You may have anxiety, but this doesn’t mean you have to lose control.
Let’s hear about how you keep it together during the chaos. 
 
 
 
Sherrie Hurd

 

 

Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us. 

 

 

 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:
 

 



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
Free counters!

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publicado por achama às 17:48
Segunda-feira, 30 / 03 / 20

What Is Cognitive Ease and How It Blocks Your Critical Thinking.

What Is Cognitive Ease and How It Blocks Your Critical Thinking.

Janey Davies, B.A.

https://www.learning-mind.com

March 29th, 2020.

 
 

 
Now before you start reading this article, I just want to promise you it is not a political piece. I am only using an event in recent British politics to highlight a way of thinking called cognitive ease.
Last December, the Conservative Party won the General Election with a huge majority not seen since WWII. This is despite the fact that many voters disagreed with their policies and preferred the Labour manifesto. So what went wrong? Cognitive ease, dear readers. Cognitive ease.
I say again, don’t worry, this isn’t a political article. It’s the easiest way I can tell you about this particular way of thinking. Let me explain. Going into the election the Conservatives had a very brief and succinct message. It was: ‘Get Brexit Done’
On the other hand, the Labour party was wishy-washy about where they stood on Brexit. Their leader told the UK he would be an ‘honest broker of the people’ (whatever that meant, no one really knew). He wouldn’t take sides and the Labour party message was one of ‘we’ll go with want the people want’, or something like that. I don’t recall. And that’s the problem.
The Conservatives won a massive majority. After the dust had settled, many people cited the clear message from the Tories about Brexit. It was easy to understand they said. They knew what it meant. It was catchy, concise, and simple to remember. It chimed well with the public. Audiences took to it.
On the other hand, no one understood what Labour was trying to say.
The Conservatives won because they took advantage of cognitive ease. So what exactly is it?

What Is Cognitive Ease and How It Works

Put simply, cognitive ease is the ease in which our brains process information and this then has a direct impact on how we then view that information. In other words, if something is easy to understand, like ‘Get Brexit Done’, we immediately understand it and we view it in a positive way.
Not only that, but the easier a thing is to process and understand, the more time and effort we’ll invest in it. Conversely, when something becomes harder to understand, and we need to take more of a mental effort, this leads to a negative view. In fact, we can become suspicious, distrustful and lose confidence.
The problem is that not everything in life is easy to understand. If it was, Einstein would never have come up with the theory of relativity. So why are we drawn to cognitive ease?
It’s because we are most likely to believe what is familiar and what is easy. Going back to the ‘Get Brexit Done’ slogan again, even when members of the opposition told the British public that Brexit absolutely would not ‘be done’ in a matter of months (which was what Boris Johnson had been saying) because it would take years to negotiate the trade deals, we all ignored them and voted him in.

Familiarity Breeds Cognitive Ease

So the phrase became so familiar that in the end, it was the truth. Studies show that if something is repeated enough times, we believe it. There’s an old saying: ‘a lie travels around the world several times before the truth is putting its shoes on‘.
This repeating something until we are familiar with it is the mere-exposure effect. Many people use this to their advantage, including politicians. The purpose of repeating a certain phrase is that it gives us a sense of cognitive ease. Our brains don’t have to work that hard because we’ve heard it before, therefore, it must be true.

Simplicity Is Key

Again I’m using the Brexit phrase because it is so simple it was so effective. When something is simple, it requires less processing and that gives us cognitive ease.
For example, if I give you two options, Option A is very simple to understand and Option B is extremely difficult, then I ask you to choose which option you prefer, statistically, you are more likely to say Option A.
This is because you find option A easier to understand and we like things we understand. We find them easier to process. They take less mental strain.

Cognitive Ease Validates Our Existing Beliefs

But there’s another reason why cognitive ease is such a pervasive thought behaviour and that is the information we think is true and right and that we already understand makes us feel better.
Information that is consistent with what we already believe validates our opinions. We are more likely to accept information that already fits in with our belief systems, with our values. It’s like big green ticks along all our confidence boxes.
Conversely, information that is inconsistent with what we believe is held up to much greater scrutiny. We don’t easily accept it as we do information we already believe in. In fact, the opposite is true.
We instantly distrust it, we look at the source of the information, and we dislike the characters that are talking about the information. We find reasons to dismiss the information.
This is because it is taking us much greater cognitive processes to dissect the information than the simple or familiar stuff.
The problem is that cognitive ease is a cognitive bias and a shortcut to processing the world around us. As with all cognitive biases, they can distort our thinking. So how do we stop falling into the trap of cognitive ease thinking?

How to Avoid Cognitive Ease Thinking

  • Accept different views
  • Don’t believe because something is simple, it is true
  • Don’t believe because you’ve heard it before, it is true
  • Listen to as many different people as you can
  • Don’t get trapped in an echo chamber
  • Be wary of the feel-good response that cognitive ease thinking gives you
  • Start accepting that feeling uncomfortable is a sign you are thinking properly

Final Thoughts


It’s hard to escape the trap of cognitive ease. When we feel validated, we get a rush of confidence and our mood is lifted and we are happy. But it’s important to realise that some factions of society use cognitive ease as a way of fooling the public. So be on your guard. Is something too simple? Do you keep hearing or seeing it? It could be cognitive ease.


Janey Davies



About the Author: Janey Davies.
Janey Davies has been published online for over 8 years. She is the head writer for Shoppersbase.com, she also writes for AvecAgnes.co.uk, Ewawigs.com and has contributed to inside3DP.com. She has an Honours Degree in Psychology and her passions include learning about the mind, popular science and politics. When she is relaxing she likes to walk her dog, read science fiction and listen to Muse.
 
 
COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 
 
 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

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publicado por achama às 17:59
Sábado, 28 / 03 / 20

How Mass Hysteria Is Making the Pandemic Worse and How to Cope.

How Mass Hysteria Is Making the Pandemic Worse and How to Cope.

Janey Davies, B.A.

https://www.learning-mind.com

March 28th, 2020.

 
mass hysteria.

 
 
 
I like to think of myself as a fairly rational and calm person, but in the last few weeks, I have felt close to tears. Since the coronavirus has taken hold, I have seen mass hysteria on an unprecedented scale.
 
Never before in my lifetime have I witnessed empty supermarket shelves, people walking around wearing masks and daily updates from the government. It seems as if we are living in some kind of nightmare. Common-sense no longer applies. Rules are turned upside down.
 
In times of hardship and struggle, we pull together, we hug each other and visit our family and friends more often. However, we can’t do that with this new threat. Instead, we must self-isolate and socially distance ourselves.
 
Our normal routines and daily lives have to follow a strict safety code. No more unnecessary travel. Only shop for essential products. If you do go out, stay 2 metres apart from other people. It’s enough to bring on mass hysteria.
 
What Is Mass Hysteria?
 
It is a psychological condition shared by groups of people who feel threatened by a certain event or person. There are many examples of mass hysteria throughout history.
 
 
Examples of mass hysteria
 
Salem Witch Trials
 
In late February 1692 in a small village called Salem, Massachusetts, two young girls began having fits. They would twitch and shriek uncontrollably. The parish and community blamed the fits on witchcraft and singled out women who had supposedly afflicted these young girls.
 
Soon the numbers started to rise and eventually many more were showing signs of witchcraft. In 1693, more than 200 women had been accused of witchcraft. In fact, 30 were convicted and 19 were executed.
 
Remember, only two girls were ill, but it ended up with countless of women being held captive and subject to ridiculous ‘witch tests’.
 
The Louisiana Twitching
 
Talking of twitching, in early 1939, one Louisianan schoolgirl developed a strange twitch in her leg. Suddenly the twitching spread to others. The number of cases rose sharply but no doctor could pinpoint the problem.
 
All tests came back negative. Meanwhile more and more girls were succumbing to this strange leg-twitching phenomena.
 
Parents removed their children from schools, refusing to allow them back until the cause was known. After a few weeks, the incidences of leg-twitching seemed to calm down, but what had caused the outbreak in the first place?
 
Those who investigated narrowed it down to one girl – Helen – who had the first symptoms. Helen couldn’t dance. In fact, she hated dance classes but was worried that her boyfriend would be tempted by another girl who was a better dancer than her.
 
She pretended to have an uncontrollable twitch in her leg so that she could get out of dance class and have a readymade excuse to her boyfriend.
 
The Bin Laden Itch
 
After the tragic 9/11 attacks of 2001, reports started to surface of children complaining of a strange skin rash. The rash could last from just a few hours to a couple of weeks. But doctors and parents were none the wiser.
 
Some parents started to speculate that this could be a result of a bioterrorist attack. Remember, at the time we were all terrified about viewing the broadcast of the two aeroplanes.
 
People started calling it the Bin Laden Itch after an extraordinary number of elementary students appeared to come down with this rash. As more and more children fell victim to the rash, so did the panic and hysteria begin to rise. So what was the cause?
 
The Center for Disease Control investigated. They found that because of the initial fear of a biological attack, children and parents had been paying closer attention to their skin. More cases were reported and numbers rose. In fact, it was these rising numbers that started the mass hysteria.
 
The problem with mass hysteria
 
So what about today and the virus that everyone is talking about? Has mass hysteria led to panic buying in supermarkets? Does the constant updating of cases and deaths help to fuel our anxiety? Are the orders from governments beginning to scare us?
 
It’s really not surprising that people are becoming hysterical. We feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of events when we are bombarded with information from many different sources.
 
However, despite the fact that we are all living in very crazy times, there is a real problem when it comes to mass hysteria.
Mass hysteria can lead us to believe things that are simply not true.
  • It can also fool us into thinking the problem is much worse than it really is.
  • It can change our behaviour and make us act foolishly or selfishly.
  • It leads to the spread of misinformation which only fuels our anxiety even further.
  • How to cope with mass hysteria
 
It is true that this pandemic is more deadly than the recent outbreak of swine flu in 2009, but that doesn’t mean we need to panic.
 
Take, for example, the SARS epidemic in 2003 which killed around 10% of those who caught it. Not to mention the MERS outbreak, which killed 34% of those infected.
 
So far, this virus is not as deadly as SARS and MERS. Today there are around 600,000 confirmed cases and a mortality rate of 4.4%.
 
And what does this tell us? Well, with SARS and MERS we weren’t seeing massive shutdowns and forced changes to our behaviour. But the facts and figures speak for themselves. Coronavirus is no more deadly than the last few recent epidemics the world has had to face.
 
Final thoughts
 
In these strange and unprecedented times, it can be easy to sit at home and worry. If you feel anxious and hysterical, remember, it’s easy to pass this onto others.
 
Instead, why not go to reputable sites like the World Health Organisation and get the facts from the horse’s mouth. You’ll feel much better, I promise.
 
Meanwhile, stay safe.
 
References:

  1. www.verywellmind.com
  2. www.businessinsider.com


Janey Davies



About the Author: Janey Davies.
Janey Davies has been published online for over 8 years. She is the head writer for Shoppersbase.com, she also writes for AvecAgnes.co.uk, Ewawigs.com and has contributed to inside3DP.com. She has an Honours Degree in Psychology and her passions include learning about the mind, popular science and politics. When she is relaxing she likes to walk her dog, read science fiction and listen to Muse.
 
 
COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 
 
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 

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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 




 

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publicado por achama às 19:09
Sexta-feira, 27 / 03 / 20

5 Proven Ways Mindfulness Will Strengthen Your Mental Health.

5 Proven Ways Mindfulness Will Strengthen Your Mental Health.

Alicia Seibel, B.A.

https://www.learning-mind.com/

March 27th, 2020.

Mindfulness Mental Health.

 

 

 
What Is Mindfulness?
 
Mindfulness is your ability to bring awareness to experiences, feelings, and emotions. Buddhists believed that through prayer or mediation, you can shift your thoughts away from distraction and into intention.
 
The mind has on average 3,000 thoughts per minute. A Harvard study claims that the average person is ‘lost in thought’ for at least 47% of the day. That’s a lot of thoughts that are running on autopilot!
 
What’s incredible to me is the thoughts and feelings we have control how we feel and what we believe consciously and subconsciously. Allowing thoughts to run on autopilot is dangerous because you’re not aware of or in control of your mind. The practice of mindfulness will grant you the ability to take that power back. Doing this will strengthen your mental health profoundly.
 
 
The Act Of Being Mindful
 
Bringing your thoughts, feelings and emotions into intentional awareness is only the first step to mindfulness. The second step is choosing how to process those thoughts in a healthy, productive way. I like to view mindfulness as a nurturing lens we can see life through that helps us make the best decision on what to do next. For example:
 
A mindful person will be accepting of their thoughts, feelings and emotions. They will view them without judgement or fear. They will take time to process and validate their thoughts, feelings and emotions. They will decide how to act on that on that information in a healthy and productive way.
 
A non-mindful person will usually seek external blame for their problems. They will allow their thoughts, feelings and emotions to run on autopilot, which will create limiting beliefs about themselves and their abilities. As a result, they will react poorly to highly stressful and emotional situations.
 
Mindfulness systems can include mediation, breathing techniques, guided imagery or other practices that relax the body and mind. I acknowledge that mindfulness cannot be attained with all thoughts all the time, but it is proven that people who do practice mindfulness have a healthier and happier life.
Mindfulness Affects Your Mental Health
 
The Oxford dictionary defines mental health as ‘a person’s condition regarding their psychological and emotional wellbeing.’
 
A person’s mental health can be affected by how they think, feel and act. Since we all experience life through our own mental/emotional lens, our own ability to be mindful is directly correlated to our mental health.
 
More than 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental disorders. As a result, many intervention strategies have been explored by therapists and other mental health professionals. Mindful-based interventions have been very popular in the last decade. There have been many studies showing the impact and success of mindfulness.
 
Let’s discover 5 proven ways mindfulness will strengthen your mental health.
 
 
5 Ways Being Mindful Can Benefit Your Mental Health
 
1. Better Stress Management
 
Stress affects everyone in the world. Too much stress or chronic stress can cause depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease and even suicide. The ability to relieve stress that can make a huge impact on your mental health and wellbeing. Which is where mindfulness becomes an asset.
 
A 5-year study demonstrated how mindfulness activities, such as meditation, lowered stress in patients. By engaging patients in mindful-based stress reduction activities every single day for 8 weeks, patients were able to manage their stress better than the test group. This shows how powerful mindfulness can be on our ability to manage stress and promote healthier emotional wellbeing.
 
2. Emotional Intelligence
 
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware and in control of your emotions. In particular, the ability to self-regulate your own emotions can greatly affect your mental health. Emotional regulation is measured by your ability to control strong emotions by not acting on raw feelings in an impulsive way.
 
Throughout our lives, we experience a lot of strong emotions, from anger and frustration to sadness and fear. When people cannot regulate their emotions, it leads to more conflict, emotional outbursts, stress, and other mental health issues.
 
A study done by the American Psychological Association showed that mindfulness plays a role in a person’s ability to regulate their emotions. Instead of just experiencing the emotion on autopilot, test subjects began to differentiate their emotions in a different way. As a result, they processed the emotion more productively and was able to self-regulate easier.
 
3. Decreased Depressive Symptoms
 
Having depressive symptoms affects much of the population. According to Healthline, 16.2 million people struggle with depressive symptoms in the U.S. alone. Depression is huge in the mental health world, and the numbers only seem to be going up.
 
Studies show how mindful-based interventions are efficient at decreasing depressive symptoms and depression relapse in patients. It demonstrates how mindfulness-based treatment allows patients to process and regulate their emotions in a different way from those who did not receive the treatment.
 
This proves how important mindfulness is to our mental health and overall emotional wellbeing.
 
4. Less Anxiety
 
Anxiety occurs when we feel nervous and/or worried about a certain event or outcome. In psychiatry, anxiety is known as a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension typically with compulsive behavior or panic attack.
 
Controlled trials were performed on patients with anxiety disorders in which they had patients participate in regular mindful-based activities. The trials showed that mindful-based intervention was effective in decreasing anxiety symptoms in patients and lasted longer than other techniques.
 
Prolonged anxiety can control people’s life. I personally suffer from anxiety and it can be a very scary and stressful thing to experience. I started practicing mindfulness exercises regularly and found that the anxiety symptoms disappeared.
 
5. Better Coping Skills
 
Coping is a response we use to process our emotional or psychological stress. Our coping skills are measured by how we choose to respond to highly stressful situations. Most people think of coping when they experience a death in the family. This tragedy adds lots of emotional stress on a person and can test their ability to be emotionally strong and resilient.
 
An article published in 2012 demonstrates how using a mindful approach to coping strategies helped their patients. In this mindful-coping study, doctors used mindful strategies including meditation, cognitive therapies & empathy exercises to improve their patients’ coping abilities.
 
Patients reported having fewer negative emotions and felt more constructive about the situation. This shows the power that mindfulness has on our ability to cope with stressful situations.
 
 
Summary
 
Incorporating regular mindfulness exercises into your life can be very beneficial to your mental health. Mindful-based interventions have been proven through scientific research to strengthen your mental health in many ways.
 
These benefits include managing stress, developing emotional intelligence, decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms, and strengthen your ability to cope.
 
The power of the mind belongs to you. Whether you choose to exercise it or not, this power will always remain in your hands. Take a dive into mindfulness. You may be surprised to see where it may lead you. Regular practice will let you discover the above effects of mindfulness on your own mental health.
 
Alicia Seibel
 
 
About the Author: 

Alicia is a passionate writer who holds a bachelor of arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Business Management and Youth Development from Columbia College. Her experience in the wellness industry has motivated her to share lifestyle choices that lead to heath, happiness, and abundance. For this reason, Alicia created a blog called Down To Earth Vitality, where she promotes natural lifestyle and spiritual & physical self-love. She lives on the beautiful Central Coast of California with her husband and dog.
 
 
Copyright © 2012-2020 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 
 
 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

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publicado por achama às 18:52
Terça-feira, 24 / 03 / 20

5 Ways Impact Bias Is Making You Unhappy

5 Ways Impact Bias Is Making You Unhappy

Lottie Miles, M.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted March 23, 2020.

 
Impact Bias unhappiness.

 


 
 
When we dream of winning the lottery, we imagine that we will always be happy. But what if the way we imagine the future is not reflective of how we truly experience it? The impact bias explores the phenomena whereby we tend to overestimate our emotional response to future changes in our environment.
 
In this post, we outline what impact bias is, 5 ways it is making you unhappy, and how you can seek to address these issues.
 
What Is Impact Bias?
 
It refers to the tendency to overestimate how much future events will affect our mood. We also tend to overestimate how long a given emotion will last as a result of major events in our lives. This is particularly true of extreme events whether they are positive or negative.
 
When it comes to extremely negative experiences, this could be down to something Gilbert metaphorically describes as the ‘psychological immune system’. If we imagine an extremely negative event in the future, this is unlikely to be triggered. However, in a traumatic event, it is likely to kick in and enable us to take a positive outlook on a seemingly inescapable situation.
 
When it comes to extremely positive events, if we imagine them, we tend to focus solely on the positive change to our circumstances. However, if we come to actually experience an extremely positive event, our focus will be broader than the extremely positive event.
 
Events in our daily life, from a rough night’s sleep to challenges in personal relationships, will be in our purview. This is also true of negative events where we may ignore positive aspects of our lives when imagining something traumatic in the future. As such, impact bias is also apparent when we imagine positive and negative events.
 
“The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another” Adam Smith, the Theory of Moral Sentiments
How does impact bias make you unhappy?
 
So what does this all mean for our own happiness? Here, we outline 5 ways impact bias can make you unhappy and what you can do to avoid this.
 
1. ‘The grass is greener’ thinking
 
We all like to think that we are good predictors of what will make us happy. However, according to research by Wilson & Gilbert (2003), this is not the case.
 
We might think that our lives will be improved if only we can get a bigger house, a faster car, a promotion, or a new partner. However, when we seek to predict our emotional response to changes in our future, we almost always fail.
 
We may invest a lot of time and energy in the anticipation of a new dawn of positivity. Unfortunately, when the moment arrives and we realize nothing much has changed, this can lead to severe disappointment. Being aware that we have a tendency to reach for the next thing indeterminately, can help us learn to appreciate what we have in the here and now.
 
2. False expectations of wealth and happiness
 
Similar to ‘the grass is greener’ analogy, much of what we expect of the future never turns out to come true. This is particularly apparent in studies of wealth, such as books like “The Spirit Level” by Katie Pickett and Richard Wilkinson.
 
People often intuitively expect that as their wealth increases, their happiness will continue on a correlative upwards curve. However, the spirit level shows how beyond middle-class security, or essentially comfortable subsistence living, the correlation between money and happiness almost disappears.
 
If we focus too much on money and wealth rather than on what truly makes us happy, we may not be able to recognize the source of our unhappiness.
 
3. Narrow focus
 
When we think about the future, we tend to focus on one thing. If we plan a change in our life, we imagine only the change and not everything that stays the same. However, unless we move out into the woods and cut off all contact with society, most decisions we make will only affect a small percentage of our overall lived experience.
 
As such, when thinking about the future, it is important to try and broaden our horizons. Consciously widening your focus will help you avoid impact bias.
 
4. Things won’t be as good (or as bad) as you think
 
If you win the lottery, will you be happy? If your relationship finishes, will you be devastated? Would you never be able to cope with losing a vital sense or a limb?
 
People may intuitively think that they know the answers to all these questions. However, our intuition may not be as good as we think. Moreover, if we fail to recognize the dominance of one of our competing fast and slow thinking systems, we may fail to reap the benefits of slow thinking according to science.
 
Equally, when we envision the future, we fail to account for the human ability to make sense of what happens to them. Humans seek to rationalize what has happened and find underlying reasons, whether good or bad. When we do this, we dampen the impact of any event on us, reducing the effect of the good and the bad.
 
This is perhaps best highlighted by a study comparing the happiness of lottery winners and people who had lost the use of their limbs. A year after each event, the happiness levels of each group were the same.
 
5. Failing to live in the now
 
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly” – Buddha
 
We cannot accurately predict our level of happiness (or unhappiness) in the future. Does this mean that any expectations we place on happiness in the future are necessarily a waste of time?
 
Clearly, our hopes for the future play a positive role in our present mental well-being. Thus, knowing about the impact bias shouldn’t make us stop dreaming. However, it is important to be aware that our expectation will almost certainly not be matched by reality.
 
Moreover, ultimately, the present is the only experience that exists in time. If we dwell on the past or the future, we often allow the present to pass us by.
 
Practices such as yoga can help you train the mind to be present in the moment and there are numerous other life lessons you can learn from it. Focusing on enjoying the present is one of the key ways of overcoming the impact bias and stop us from planting seeds for future unhappiness in our minds.


 

 

Lottie Miles

 






 
About the Author: Lottie Miles


 
Lottie Miles is a professional researcher and writer with a passion for human rights. She has 4 years of experience working within the NGO sector and has a Masters Degree in Social Policy. She has a keen interest in exploring ways in which happiness habits can help to improve mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, she likes doing crossword puzzles, painting and traveling.
 
Copyright © 2012-2019 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
Archives:



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 


 

 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 00:46
Segunda-feira, 23 / 03 / 20

How to Avoid Emotional Distancing in Times of Social Distancing

How to Avoid Emotional Distancing in Times of Social Distancing.

Lottie Miles, M.A.

learning-mind.com

Posted March 22, 2020.

 
Emotional Distancing social Distancing.

 
 

 
When we feel lonely or overwhelmed by the situation we are in, we can easily fall into the trap of emotionally distancing ourselves from others. In this post, we will look at how you can avoid emotional distancing when socially distancing.
 
The effects of the coronavirus have been more far-reaching than most of us could ever have imagined. Fortunately, all of us can successfully help prevent the exponential spread of coronavirus. What we need to do is to reduce our social contact with others by practicing ‘social distancing’.
 
This means cutting down on all non-essential contact with others even if we are healthy ourselves. However, when we spend more time on our own or in close quarters with just one or two others, we can sometimes feel lonely.
 
What Is Social Distancing?
 
“Remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible” – Center for Disease Control
 
Social distancing refers to steps taken to reduce our social interactions with other people to stop the spread of infections. This usually involves curtailing all contact that is purely social and sometimes staying away from work and school even when healthy.
 
It means limiting face-to-face time with our loved ones and our friends if we do not live with these groups. It means doing this, even if we personally show no symptoms or are unlikely to suffer an extreme reaction to the coronavirus.
 
Coronavirus is highly contagious and an estimated 15% of cases will require hospital care, with a further 5% requiring ICU care. For this reason, social distancing is vital to stop the spread.
 
Social distancing can help hospitals with limited resources and prevent the speed of virus spread. Moreover, it can buy time for the global community to find vaccines, cures, and source vital equipment to help those who need it before more lives are unnecessarily lost.
 
Why Is Social Distancing Important?
 
The value of social distancing is shown most starkly in the contrasting death rates between South Korea and Italy which both saw 10 people killed by the coronavirus at about the same time.
 
With social distancing and an effective testing program in South Korea, under 100 people have died from coronavirus, compared to almost 5,000 deaths in Italy as of late March 2020. Ultimately, by practicing social distancing, you can save lives.
 
What Is Emotional Distancing?
 
Emotional distancing can occur if we live on our own, with friends, or with a partner. Typically, we can be drawn to isolate ourselves emotionally when overwhelmed by demands in a relationship or other stresses.
 
As the discussion above shows, we have a lot to be overwhelmed by at the moment. Moreover, practicing social distancing can lead to us feeling lonely because of our physical separation from others.
 
Fortunately, there are steps we can take to help stop us from feeling lonely. The first step is recognizing when we may be becoming emotionally distant.
 
 
Below, we outline 3 ways to avoid emotional distancing during social distancing
 
These will help us all feel connected during these emotionally challenging times.
 
 
Practice emotional connectivity
 
Spending time alone can help us to reconnect with ourselves emotionally. We also have to try and remember that being alone physically does not have to mean we feel alone mentally. We can realize this by practicing feeling emotionally connected by remembering things we have done with others in the past. This could be acts of kindness people have done for us or acts of kindness we have done for others.
 
We can also feel more connected to people by taking the time to think about who we care about as well as ourselves. This could be a small group of people close to you or broader.
 
Simply by recognizing our care for others and taking time to think about this, we can feel more connected to others. We can also engage with supporting the people more isolated than ourselves by organizing collectively to minimize our overall social contact.
 
 
Stay virtually connected
 
Not being able to see people face-to-face can be hard. Thankfully, with video calls, text, email, and phone calls, we can feel much closer to our nearest and dearest when socially distancing. It is a great idea to ramp up this form of connectivity as we more stringently socially distance ourselves from others.
 
Indeed, we may find ourselves benefiting from more regular contact with our loved ones than if we could simply pop round. We can give ourselves space from those we share close quarters with and foster relationships with those further away.
 
 
Practice kindness and gratitude
 
If we are socially isolating or socially distancing with others in our homes, then we can become emotionally distant with those we share physical space with. We can combat this by being open and honest about how we are feeling.
 
Early on, it can be beneficial to recognize some of the aspects of ‘quarantine’ that you may find challenging. Whilst we can be tempted to evade things that make us feel uncomfortable, avoidance coping can be unhealthy.
 
Actively practicing kindness to one another and ourselves can help to make us feel closer to each other. Do you find yourself feeling distant or irritable with those you share space with? Actively focusing on being kind and grateful to have them is a way to stave off emotional distancing.
It can be tempting to see ourselves as invincible to the consequences of the coronavirus.
 
However, it is important to remember that our actions have consequences for others as well as ourselves. Socially distancing has been shown to be vital in the fight against coronavirus. It is something we all need to take seriously.
 
Fortunately, when socially distancing ourselves from others, we can remind ourselves that we are connected emotionally as well as physically. By realizing this, we can avoid emotionally distancing ourselves during social distancing.


 

 

Lottie Miles

 






 
About the Author: Lottie Miles


 
Lottie Miles is a professional researcher and writer with a passion for human rights. She has 4 years of experience working within the NGO sector and has a Masters Degree in Social Policy. She has a keen interest in exploring ways in which happiness habits can help to improve mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, she likes doing crossword puzzles, painting and traveling.
 
Copyright © 2012-2019 Learning Mind. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact us.
 



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No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
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publicado por achama às 00:18
Quinta-feira, 19 / 03 / 20

Persecution Complex: What Causes It and What Are the Symptoms?

Persecution Complex: 

What Causes It and What Are the Symptoms?

Janey Davies.

https://www.learning-mind.com

March 19th, 2020.

 
persecution complex.
 
 
 
Do you sometimes feel that everyone is against you? That the world has it in for you? Or that people are out to get you? You could be suffering from a persecution complex.
 
Those statements might sound pretty outrageous, and to most of us, they are. However, did you know that according to research, at least 10 – 15% of us regularly experience these kinds of delusions?
 
Of course, we all get paranoid thoughts and feelings of persecution occasionally. It’s easy to blame outside forces when things don’t go our way. But for some people, it is a pervasive way of thinking that severely disrupts their life.
 
So what exactly is this complex?
 
What is a persecution complex?
 
This complex arises when a person falsely believes that someone is out to cause them harm. The intensity and longevity of these feelings can differ, as can the object of the paranoia.
 
For example, an employee can believe the whole office staff is against her and deliberately undermining her chances of promotion. Or an individual can think they are being persecuted by government agents who are trying to frame them for crimes they did not commit.
 
Examples of persecution complexes:
My husband is trying to poison me because he has a new lover and wants me out of the way.
  • I know the police are tapping my phones.
  • I have to go to the self-service tills because the shop assistants have been told not to serve me.
  • My neighbours are stealing my washing from the line while I’m at work.
 
In all examples, sufferers believe that either a person, group of people or an organisation is going to cause them harm.
 
Sufferers from a persecution complex will typically talk in vague terms. They will say ‘They’re out to get me’ or ‘Someone’s listening to my calls’. However, when pressed further they are unable to identify the perpetrator.
 
So where does this delusion come from and who is likely to suffer from it?
 
Where does a persecution complex come from?
 
Sufferers share three common aspects in the way they think, feel and then act. To understand this complex further we need to examine three main human behavioural processes:
  1. Emotional processing
  2. Abnormal internal events
 
1. Emotional processing
 
Studies show that those who suffer from this complex tend to think with more emotion when it comes to their social experiences. They view their interactions with others through an emotional lens, rather than a logical one.
 
As a result, sufferers get upset at everyday occurrences and react with more impulsivity. The main problem, however, with viewing everyday incidents through an emotional lens is that a sufferer will attribute greater meaning to non-events.
 
2. Abnormal internal events
 
Emotional processing is just one aspect of a persecution complex. The second is that sufferers misconstrue what is happening to them externally in the environment.
 
In order for them to rationalise what’s going on in their heads, they’ll fixate on something outside of them. For example, a person with anxiety might attribute their anxious state because they believe they are being watched.
 
Or someone who has been ill recently might believe they are being slowly poisoned. In all cases, they attribute their internal thoughts to outside events.
 
3. Reasoning biases
 
Studies have found that persecution complexes are perpetuated by cognitive biases. In other words, sufferers are likely to use biases when they think. For instance, jumping to conclusions, black and white thinking and blaming other people instead of themselves.
 
For example, someone who jumps to conclusions might view the black car that is driving up and down their road as a government spy. Those with normal reasoning might just assume the driver was lost.
 
Who is more likely to suffer?
 
As well as the above three common traits, there are other commonalities that sufferers may share.
 
Childhood trauma – Psychosis and paranoia can be linked to neglect, abuse and trauma in childhood.
 
Genetics – Delusional thinking is more common in those who already have a family member suffering from a psychosis such as schizophrenia.
 
Low self-worth – People with a low sense of self-worth, who are vulnerable to criticism and have little self-esteem are more likely to succumb to paranoid delusions.
 
Overly-critical of themselves – Research has shown that those who are overly critical of themselves can suffer from a persecution complex.
 
Worriers – Those with a persecution complex have a tendency to worry and ruminate more than the average person. They’ll also catastrophize and fantasise about implausible outcomes.
 
Over-sensitive – People with paranoid delusions can appear oversensitive to criticism from others. They are more likely to perceive a light-hearted comment as a personal attack on them.
 
Treatment of a persecution complex
 
Treating this delusion will vary according to the overriding symptoms and underlying causes.
 
For instance:
  • Learning to control the original anxiety can reduce the feelings of persecution.
  • Recognising one’s thought patterns, such as catastrophizing and black and white thinking can increase feelings of paranoia.
  • Learning to reduce time spent worrying will decrease the likelihood of a paranoid episode.
  • Addressing past trauma from childhood can lead to significant reductions in symptoms.
  • Cognitive-behavioural therapy can help sufferers reduce their negative thought patterns.
 
Final thoughts
 
Living with a persecution complex is not only surprisingly common but can be extremely debilitating. However, treatments are available and you can, with professional help, learn to manage the symptoms.
 
 
References:
  1. www.wired.com
  2. www.verywellmind.com


Janey Davies



About the Author: Janey Davies.
Janey Davies has been published online for over 8 years. She is the head writer for Shoppersbase.com, she also writes for AvecAgnes.co.uk, Ewawigs.com and has contributed to inside3DP.com. She has an Honours Degree in Psychology and her passions include learning about the mind, popular science and politics. When she is relaxing she likes to walk her dog, read science fiction and listen to Muse.
 
 
COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 
 
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 

Archives:



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 




 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 23:56
Terça-feira, 17 / 03 / 20

Outcome Bias: How It Leads You to Disaster and How to Avoid It

Outcome Bias: 

How It Leads You to Disaster and How to Avoid It

Janey Davies.

https://www.learning-mind.com

March 17th, 2020.

 
outcome bias.
 
 
 
Cognitive biases shape our everyday experiences and influence our decision-making. But one bias, in particular, can be extremely dangerous – the outcome bias.
 
What Is an Outcome Bias?
 
The outcome bias can make you focus on the end result and ignore the risks along the way. When we already know the outcome of a specific task, we can become blind to the dangers that might present during the process.
 
  • “When people observe successful outcomes, they tend to focus on the results more than on the (often unseen) complex processes that led to them.” Tinsley, Dillon, Madsen
 
This usually happens when we have repeated a task and achieved a good result at the end. This gives us the impression that every time we undertake this task, the results will be good.
 
But lots of things can happen during the process.
 
For example, imagine you live in an area prone to flooding. So far, in the twenty years you have lived in your house, the floodwaters have never been close to reaching your property. Do you buy flood insurance?
 
Many people would say no. The floods have not affected you for twenty years. But then the following year you see exceptional levels of rain and the river banks burst, flooding your house.
 
Studies show that if a person experiences a near-miss where they’ve escaped a potential hazard, they are less likely to take protective action. They’ll have an “I was alright last time, it will be alright again,” attitude.
 
Instead of evaluating the situation as it unfolds, they are focusing on past outcomes to inform their future decisions. But this is a rapidly changing world. So why do we feel the need to concentrate on the results, rather than the process?
 
Why do we experience it?
 
Human beings are continually trying to make sense of the world and to do this, we have to take shortcuts in our cognitive processing. We can’t evaluate every single new experience and try and decode it.
 
As a result, we learn these cognitive shortcuts. In the outcome bias, we do this by evaluating a situation against a previous one. If the previous situation had a good outcome, then we’ll chalk that up to a good decision. It’s a little like we’re using the power of retroactive hindsight when we focus on the outcome. It worked before, it will work again.
 
But is the outcome bias such a bad thing? Surely learning from past experiences is a good thing for humans?
 
Yes, it is, but the problem with the outcome bias is that we are not learning from our previous experiences. We are simply replicating them. And that’s where it gets dangerous. Because we fool ourselves into thinking that our decisions don’t matter, and they do of course.
 
Famous examples of disastrous outcome bias
 
Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig
 
In April 2010, a gas blowout safety mechanism failed on BP Gulf’s oil ring. The blowout ignited which caused the rig to sink, triggering a massive oil spill that wrecked wildlife and killed 11 people. This accident is one of the worst environmental disasters in American history.
 
But why did it happen? There had been warning signs.
 
The crew on the rig called it ‘the well from hell’ because of numerous technical problems. For a start, the main pipe that led into the well didn’t have enough centralizers in place to keep it straight. In addition, the drillers had removed the drilling mud too soon which lead to an unstable pipe.
 
The night before the blowout crew had performed a negative pressure test on the pipe to see if it was leaking oil and gas. Basically, this meant removing the heavy mud and replacing it with lighter seawater. In order to see if pressure built up the well was shut down. Pressure-build up is a sure sign that oil and gas were seeping into the well.
 
The tests showed that pressure had indeed built up, but BP managers and rig crew disagreed on the results. The test had to be repeated as no one could agree. After repeating the test now everyone agreed they had a good result and many crew members went to bed.
 
But it wasn’t a good result.
 
Over the next few hours, hundreds of barrels of oil and gas were leaking out and travelling up the pipe with increasing momentum. This roiling mass of pressure burst through the safety blowout and just kept going. Eventually, it ignited, blowing up the oil rig.
 
An ensuring investigation took years to complete, but it found a catalogue of errors that lead to this disaster. BP executives had experienced dozens of near-misses in the industry but with no major consequences.
 
However, each near-miss was down to sheer luck or circumstances, not good decision-making. For example, wind direction, or using different safety equipment. But instead of raising alarms and being carefully investigated, each near-miss was viewed that the safety procedures were working.
 
The Challenger Space Shuttle
 
Most of us can remember the horrific sight of the Challenger Space Shuttle breaking up in mid-air.
 
In January 1986, 73 seconds after it was launched, NASA’s Challenger space shuttle exploded. Seven astronauts were killed instantly, including a teacher. Broadcast live, this launch happened with millions of spectators around the world watching. So what went so drastically wrong?
 
Investigators attributed the accident to a failure of an O ring seal. This was a sealing ring that should have protected two joints in the lower parts of the rocket. The seal was designed to stop extremely hot gases from leaking from these two joints.
 
However, it broke, the gas escaped causing foam to break off an external rocket tank. This created shards of debris that pierced a hole through the wing of the space shuttle and causing it to explode.
 
Many people questioned why the launch went ahead as the initial recommendation was to cancel, due to the extreme cold temperatures on that day. However, the decision to launch was made.
 
The following investigation showed that doubts had been initially raised by the failure of the O rings on previous flights. But they were effectively ignored because their failures had never caused damage before.
 
In fact, Richard Feynman, a professor of theoretical physics and part of the investigation, stated:
 
“There were many seals that didn’t have any problem, and so it is obviously a random effect. It depends upon whether or not you get a blowhole or you don’t get a blowhole. So if within a particular flight it happens that all six seals don’t get a blowhole, that’s no information.”
 
Mars probe
 
And I can show you another example of NASA’s failure to properly investigate an anomaly in space travel which led to disaster.
 
During its 1998 journey towards Mars, the Mars Climate Orbiter kept drifting off-course. Actually, it drifted four times and each time analysts on Earth had to make small adjustments to correct it.
 
Scientists did not try to find the cause of the drifting of a $200 million spacecraft. Instead, they carried on correcting the trajectory. As it approached Mars, instead of entering into orbit, it crashed and broke up in the atmosphere.
 
NASA investigators later discovered that the programmers had mistakenly used English measurements instead of metric ones when they set the code for the journey. A mistake easily rectified, but because it wasn’t causing much concern and they could fix it during its journey, they didn’t look into the drifting.
Four ways you can avoid outcome bias
 
Of course, we’re not all in charge of expensive oil rigs or space shuttles, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be wary of outcome bias. Here are four ways to avoid it:
 
Don’t act under pressure
 
Feeling under pressure leads to hastily-made decisions where we could be tempted to rely on the outcome, rather than the procedure.
 
Don’t rely on previous experiences
 
Of course, it is natural to examine past scenarios and make judgements against those. But where near-misses are concerned we should take each case on an individual basis.
 
Look at the cause, not the result
 
Again, this is difficult but we need to see what is happening now, and not concentrate on the results of what happened before.
 
When in doubt, assume the worse
 
Just because some experience worked out before, doesn’t guarantee that it will have a favourable outcome again. Always assume the worse.
 
Final thoughts
 
Remember, just because you’ve had good results time and time again, doesn’t mean you can predict the same results this time around.
 
References:
  1. onlinelibrary.wiley.com
  2. sas.upenn.edu
  3. hbr.org


Janey Davies



About the Author: Janey Davies.
Janey Davies has been published online for over 8 years. She is the head writer for Shoppersbase.com, she also writes for AvecAgnes.co.uk, Ewawigs.com and has contributed to inside3DP.com. She has an Honours Degree in Psychology and her passions include learning about the mind, popular science and politics. When she is relaxing she likes to walk her dog, read science fiction and listen to Muse.
 
 
COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 
 
 



Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 

Archives:



No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 

All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 




 

Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily

 


 
 
 
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publicado por achama às 17:59
Domingo, 15 / 03 / 20

What Is Status Quo Bias and How It Leads You to a Mediocre Life

What Is Status Quo Bias and How It Leads You to a Mediocre Life

Francesca Forsythe.

https://www.learning-mind.com

March 9th, 2020.


 
 
Status quo bias is a powerful cognitive bias that can affect you so severely that it leads you to live a mediocre life.
There are many different cognitive biases which can have a powerful impact on our psyches and our lives. One of the most common ones is status quo bias. It stops people from doing new things and can lead them to live very boring lives.
 
Luckily, as with all cognitive biases, there are ways of beating it so that you can make your life more exciting and much more fun.
 
What is status quo bias?
 
It is one of the many kinds of cognitive biases that affect our daily lives, thinking and decision making. This bias causes individuals to prefer things to remain the way they are or to maintain the current state of affairs. This can be in your everyday life, but it can even go as far as political decisions and huge life choices.
 
Status quo bias can result in people remaining in jobs or relationships that make them unhappy simply because they are too scared to make a change. It seems safer to maintain current situations that are known to use than facing the unknown of making a change.
 
How can status quo bias lead you to live a mediocre life?
 
You put your life on hold and miss opportunities
 
When you are suffering from status quo bias, you may feel scared of change or making big decisions. You feel comfortable in the here and now and would like things to remain that way.
 
As a result, you may not go for a promotion or pursue a new relationship because you don’t want things to change. By doing so, you leave yourself in a state of pause and life begins to become repetitive.
 
You don’t evolve
 
Status quo bias can also stop you from growing as a person. When you are afraid to try new things, you miss out on valuable experiences. Instead, those who suffer from status quo bias may simply choose to do nothing. They may not try a different meal or travel to different places and this means you will miss out.
 
Your life gets boring and predictable
 
By only experiencing the same things over and over, you will begin to get bored. By allowing status quo bias to control your life in this way, you may find that your life begins to turn stale.
 
Not only will you get bored, but you may get frustrated by the constant predictability. You may find that time moves faster than you would like it to and you aren’t really living.
How to beat status quo bias?
 
If you feel like you are suffering from status quo bias and want to learn how to beat it, don’t worry. It is entirely possible to beat the bias and really start living.
 
Be aware
 
Like all cognitive biases, being aware of it can change how you address different situations. If you understand that you may be afraid of making changes or approaching new challenges, then you have already made the first step. By recognizing what scares you, you can try to challenge yourself to make little changes.
 
Start small
 
Don’t feel like you have to throw a grenade into the middle of your job or relationship to shake things up. If you feel out of your comfort zone, that’s a good enough start. Try a new food or take a trip, just do something new and something that interests you.
 
If it’s something you never imagined yourself doing, even better. You could even try a different skill. Take up painting or try a sport. You may find that you have a secret talent you didn’t know you had.
 
What to do if you are bored at work
 
If you are bored at work, ask for more responsibility or consider looking for other employment opportunities. If you don’t enjoy your career, consider taking some night classes or going back to school to change your career path.
 
What to do if you are stuck in a relationship
 
If your relationship is growing a little stale, try to inject the spark back into it. Go on a date to somewhere new, go on holiday together or simply do something you haven’t done in a while. Relationships take work to maintain. Start trying to do things together and you’ll soon remember all of the reasons you fell in love.
 
Decide how you want your life to be
 
The best part about beating status quo bias is that it is completely up to you just how exciting you want to be. Making little changes is a great first step.
 
However, if you are truly unhappy in the mundane, then don’t be afraid to change things. It might be scary to step into the unknown, but it is always better than living a mundane life you are unhappy with.
 
Final thoughts
 
Status quo bias can keep us in a state of pause. We may not even notice that life is passing us by and we end up wasting a lot of time. If you really want to start living your life, start recognizing the problem and take steps to change it.
Your life is completely within your control, so don’t let cognitive biases stand in your way. Start making small changes and trying new things. You might just find that you really enjoy some of them!
 
 

References:
  1. https://sites.hks.harvard.edu
 

 
 

Francesca Forsythe





 

About the Author: Francesca Forsythe

Francesca is a freelance writer currently studying a degree in Law and Philosophy. She has written for several blogs in a range of subjects across Lifestyle, Relationships and Health and Fitness. Her main pursuits are learning new innovative ways of keeping fit and healthy, as well as broadening her knowledge in as many areas as possible in order to achieve success.
 
 
 
COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEARNING MIND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT, CONTACT US.
 

 
Compiled by http://violetflame.biz.ly from: 
 
 

 
No religious or political creed is advocated here.

Organised religion is unnecessary to spirituality.

Excellent teachings of the masters have been contaminated by the dogmatic control of these religions.

Discernment yes; judgement does not.
If you use discernment you are free to research with an open mind. 

With discernment it is possible to reach the spirit of the letter of any writing and it is also much easier to listen to the voice of the soul that comes from the heart.
Individually you can be helped to find your Truth that is different of everyone. 


Please respect all credits.

 
Discernment is recommended.
 


All articles are of the respective authors and/or publishers responsibility. 
 
 
 

 
 
Like this! please bookmark. It is updated daily
 
 
 
 
 
 
Free counters!

  geoglobe1
 
 
 
 
 
publicado por achama às 20:18
A Luz está a revelar a Verdade, e esta libertar-nos-á! -Só é real o AMOR Incondicional. -Quando o Amor superar o amor pelo poder, o mundo conhecerá a Paz; Jimi Hendrix. -Somos almas a ter uma experiência humana!

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