5 Powerful Mental Shifts to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” ~Lao Tzu We carefully pick out what we wear to the gym to make sure we look good in the eyes of the other gymgoers. We beat ourselves up after meetings, running through everything we said (or didn’t say), worried that coworkers […]
How Communities of Practice Can Support Teachers
In classrooms around the world, educators strive to nurture not only students’ academic skills but also the qualities that help them thrive more generally as dynamic people, namely character strengths such as curiosity, perseverance, kindness, and open-mindedness. Researcher Marvin Berkowitz and his colleagues define character education as “the intentional attempt in schools to foster the […]
How Forgiveness Changes You and Your Brain
What does forgiveness look like in the brain? As a neuroscientist, I am always looking for the biological underpinnings of mental processes—not as an effort to distill mystery into molecules, but to understand rich and complex psychological experiences as combinations of simpler building blocks. Breaking things down in this way can shed light on how […]
How Research Cuts Are Hurting the Science of a…
Recently, Toni Antonucci, a senior researcher at the University of Michigan, received a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For decades, she and her colleagues had been running the National Study of American Life, studying the social determinants of health in preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in Black […]
7 Reasons Adult Children Stay Connected to Toxic Parents
Parent-child relationships are often portrayed as inherently loving, but this isn’t true for many adult children. Instead, they endure ongoing emotional harm or mistreatment from their parents that undermines their self-worth. If you find yourself in this situation, you might question why you remain in contact with parents who consistently belittle you, manipulate you, ignore […]
Four Ways Making Art Can Help New Moms
Maternal well-being is an important public health issue. A 2022 report by the World Health Organization explains that one in five women experience Mental health challenges during pregnancy and one year after the birth of a baby. There are many government policies, workplace benefits, and other supports that could help mothers during this transition—but a […]
“Profound Autism” Consensus Definition Debuts at INSAR
It’s been more than three years since the Lancet Commission proposed the new term “profound autism” to describe the subset of the autism spectrum most disabled by the disorder. This label has been widely embraced by a range of stakeholders, including researchers, clinicians, policy makers, autistic people, and parents. A quick search for “profound autism” […]
Coming Soon: 14+ Life-Changing Tools for the Price of One
Every January for the past few years, I’ve run a big bundle sale offering a collection of online tools to help you heal, grow, and reconnect with peace, joy, and meaning. But this year, it didn’t happen when I planned. Life happened instead. Between health issues, tests and treatments, and a loved one’s diagnosis, I […]
The Mental Health Benefits of Free Speech
Sarah Ross / CC BY-NC 2.0 What is free speech? The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, […]
Discovering I Lived in Fear, Thinking It Was Love
“Fear is the opposite of love. Love is the absence of fear. Whatever you do out of fear will create more fear. Whatever you do out of love will create more love.” ~Osho I did not realize I was driven by fear for most of my life. I thought I was making choices from love […]