How is silence a source of strength? I adore the works of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching, but sometimes I don't know what he means. Does he just mean the kind of silence in meditation? Here's more:

When life is simple,
Pretenses fall away;
Our essential natures shine though.

By not wanting there is calm,
And the world will straighten itself out.
When there is silence
One finds the anchor of the universe within oneself.

This kind of silence appears to be the inner peace of living in the moment and appreciating the invaluable ordinary things around us every day. Quieting all those thoughts that color our perception day in and day out, we live in the moment and tap into a bounty of joy and gratitude for the simplest things.

We spend much of our time in the future, worrying about what will be and planning what we will do. We also spend a lot of time in the past mulling over regrets, changes, and losses. In order to slow down and live present in the moment, we have to quiet the cycle of stress and worry.

I find that stepping off the roller coaster of anxious thoughts is easiest first thing in the morning, and I think that applies to all of us. Do you want to find your silence? Then before you step into your routine and begin thinking about all the things you have to do today, step back and let your thoughts flow freely. Don't treat today like an emergency. Have faith that you can handle whatever comes because you always have. You are a capable person — capable of coping and of finding inner peace.

We live in a sea of subtle energies. We can become conscious of them and learn to use them.

Ancient cultures understood that we live in a vast sea of energy. They understood that the planets and stars are conscious beings who communicate with each other. They believed that the trees serve as antennas, which allow natural subtle energies and information to flow up from the Earth to the stars and planets, and from all other celestial bodies into the Earth. They taught that everything and every being has consciousness and channels this energy according to its capabilities, to help facilitate this essential cosmic dialogue.

In fact, they understood that all matter, including the physical body, is a gathering of this universal energy. They recognized that our thoughts and emotions are a form of energy, and that when these are in harmony with the living universal energy field, we become clear channels. Then, the life force of the Earth and cosmos flows through us more smoothly and abundantly, guiding our evolution as new perspectives are revealed and advanced abilities are awakened within us. These abilities include heightened creativity, extrasensory perception and the ability to bring about dramatic physical healing. Shamans learn to feel, sense and use this energy without filtering or distorting it. They often refer to this process as becoming a "hollow bone".

Did you dream of having sex last night? Was it with someone other than your partner? Was it awkward? Embarrassing? Disgusting? Or the best sex you have ever had?

It could be all or none of these things. Dreams are the result of our unconscious minds trying to communicate what they are processing at any given time in our lives. You may be processing things that happened yesterday, in high school, or as a four year old you.

Dreams of sex are the most interesting to decipher and represent the most private revelations of personal growth. However, you need to understand a few basic things. If you dream of sex and have an orgasm, this may be a purely organic and natural function of your body releasing some backed up energy. No big thing... just the start of a new day.

The ability to understand and share in another person's feelings is not only a good trait to have, but it's a key factor of successful social interactions; the other is an ability to understand a person's intentions. Empathy has also been linked to many health benefits, such as reduced stress and anxiety. And yet, new research published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience suggests there's such a thing as being too empathetic — and it hurts more than helps your relationships.

Prior studies have linked these two social skills, empathy and understanding, together, suggesting they connect and relate to one another to some extent; however, the exact link is still unclear. So researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, set out to examine whether or not people who empathize easily with others are also capable of grasping their thoughts and intentions. They conducted two experiments using electroencephalography — a method that records electrical activity of the brain — involving about 200 people. This data would also tell researchers if certain parts of the brain are more active as participants complete the study.

A few weeks ago it was all over the headlines that what we typically call "burnout" just might be depression. Beyond the vagueness such wording introduced (another way to push anti-depressants?), the actual research further affirms burnout as a genuine psychological and physical experience. This second study confirms that those who suffer from job "burnout" also experience the onset of key depression symptoms, something of little surprise to anyone who's ever been through it. Yet, as an earlier study suggests, burnout is its own animal. Symptoms are largely linked to "atypical" depression, which behaves differently and can more readily suggest situational origins. It's something I've been saying for years—certain elements of the modern (unmitigated) experience promotes neurosis more than we'd like to admit. Burnout is one common example.

Most people have experienced brief phases of it. Others have unfortunately found themselves in the long-term grip of it. Burnout is that bottomed out sensation of emotional and often bodily exhaustion. We feel wholly knocked down by the unrelenting demands or psychological disorientation of our circumstances. Eventually, we feel we just can't get up again. The result can be a hollowed-out, hopeless, automaton feeling. Some people cry at random. Others shut down. We might still be moving through our duties at home or work, but it's often with a numbness that hovers above a perpetual anxiety or emptiness.

Still, it's important to understand that we're not talking about "just" a psychological phenomenon here. Burnout, while it's the long-term result of outer circumstances rather than inherent genetic workings, is still very much a physical malady. Primary symptoms include the aforementioned physical and mental exhaustion but also, commonly speaking, insomnia or sleep disturbances, slow mental processing, impaired memory, irritability, reduced concentration, impatience, cynicism, unexplained pain or headaches, and appetite changes. This is no figment of the imagination.

We mostly hear about burnout in terms of work, as in job burnout. That's the case with the aforementioned studies (which followed teachers), but I've seen burnout in people who either don't have standard jobs (e.g. parents who stay home with children) or who do have regular work but whose burnout is clearly rooted in other long-standing factors such as intensive parenting or other caregiving demands, acute health/fitness obsession, chronic marital conflict or family dysfunction. The primary issues in these cases are basically the same as those noted in job burnout: lack of life balance, dysfunctional dynamics, unclear or unreasonable expectations, inadequate social support, and perceived lack of control.

Have our decisions been made far before we make them? Walking down a specific street, choosing a career path or even reaching for a cup of coffee make not be as conscious a decision as we think, new research by Yale University psychologists suggest.

The belief in free will is thought to engender levels of cooperation that allows for the emergence of social order. Our fate and destiny is shaped by not only the course our life takes but a combination of conditions which many believe are pre-determined and then molded by our free will.

Many philosophers believed that all behaviors are predetermined and have a causal lineage. Some of the factors believed to influence determinism include genetics, environment, and past and present experiences.

Bertrand Russell famously said, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts."

Over the years, I've hammered on the importance of becoming comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, in questioning all of your most cherished beliefs and dreams, on practicing skepticism, and doubting everything, most importantly yourself. Throughout these posts, I've hinted at the fact that our brains are fundamentally unreliable, that we really have no clue what we're talking about, even when we think we do, and so on.

But I've never given concrete examples or explanations. Well, here they are. Eight reasons you can't trust yourself, as demonstrated by psychology.

1. You Are Biased and Selfish Without Realizing It

There's a thing in psychology called the Actor-Observer Bias and it basically says that we're all assholes.

For example, if you're at an intersection and somebody else runs a red light, you will probably think they're a selfish, inconsiderate scumbag putting the rest of the drivers in danger just to shave a couple seconds off their drive.

On the other hand, if you are the one who runs the red light, you'll come to all sorts of conclusions about how it's an innocent mistake, how the tree was blocking your view, and how running a red light never really hurt anybody.

Same action, but when someone else does it they're a horrible person; when you do it, it's an honest mistake.

We all do this. And we especially do it in situations of conflict. When people talk about someone who pissed them off for one reason or another, they invariably describe the other person's actions as senseless, reprehensible, and motivated by a malicious intent to inflict suffering.¹

However, when people talk about times when they inflicted harm on someone else, as you might suspect, they can come up with all sorts of reasons about how their actions were reasonable and justified. The way they see it, they had no choice to do what they did. They see the harm experienced by the other person as minor and they think that being blamed for causing it is unjust and unreasonable.

Both views can't be right. In fact, both views are wrong. Follow-up studies by psychologists found that both perpetrators and the victims distort the facts of a situation to fit their respective narratives.

Steven Pinker refers to this as the "Moralization Gap."² It means that whenever a conflict is present, we overestimate our own good intentions and underestimate the intentions of others. This then creates a downward spiral where we believe others deserve more severe punishment and we deserve less severe punishment.

This is all unconscious, of course. People, while doing this, think they're being completely reasonable and objective. But they're not.

According to a new analysis, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be more helpful than other treatments for people with recurring depression. MBCT combines traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) methods with psychological strategies such as mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is the practice of becoming aware of, and accepting of incoming thoughts without attaching or reacting to them. The practice is common among most meditation practices. MBCT was designed to help those suffering from chronic depression to learn to respond constructively to their emotions.

Taking care of the space we occupy the most, our homes, is vital to our well-being, and spring is the absolute best season to tackle this cleansing, as it marks a natural time for renewal, manifestation, celebration, and love. Feng shui is perfect for this because it harmonizes your energy with that of your home, aligning your environment with who you are and where you want to go.

It also completely reframes the traditional idea of 'spring cleaning'; when you have the mindset that this is more about creating wealth, bringing balance, and opening yourself up to romantic opportunities, the feeling that this is a huge hurdle to overcome simply disappears.

If you are a parent or a teacher, you most probably read stories to young children. Together, you laugh and point at the pictures. You engage them with a few simple questions. And they respond.

So what happens to children when they participate in shared reading? Does it make a difference to their learning? If so, what aspects of their learning are affected?

Shared reading for language development

British researcher Don Holdaway was the first to point out the benefits of shared reading. He noted that children found these moments to be some of their happiest. He also found that children developed positive and strong associations with spoken language and the physical book itself, during these moments.

Since then a number of studies have been conducted showing the value of shared reading in children's language development, especially in vocabulary and concept development.

Early childhood researcher Vivian Paley, for example, during her work in the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, found that kindergarten children learned when a story was dramatized in shared reading. Not only did children develop oral language, they imaginatively learned the conventions of a story, such as character, plot and themes. In shared storytelling, children also learned how to use language in multiple ways.

Other research found that shared reading was related to the development of expressive vocabulary. That is, children developed listening skills and built an understanding of grammar as well as vocabulary in the context of the story.