Science of the SpiritS


Bulb

Need to relieve stress or regulate emotions? Try talking to yourself in the third-person

Najja Parker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:37 UTC
talking to yourself, man talks to himself
Carving out time for a therapy session is a great way to reduce some stress. However, a new study suggests there is someone else you can talk to release tension: yourself.

Psychology researchers from Michigan State University and University of Michigan conducted a study to determine if self-talk could reduce anxiety. To do so, scientists rounded up a group of participants for two experiments.

For the first one, the subjects were shown disturbing images, such as a man holding a gun to their heads. Then, they were asked to respond to the pictures in first-person and third-person as their brain activity was being monitored.

For the second one, they were asked to recall a traumatic experience in first-person and then in third-person while their brain activity was being reviewed.

Comment: Think about yourself in the third person: Detachment from problems helps deal with trauma

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Brain

Study suggests psychopaths learn to lie better, faster than non-psychopaths

Daisy Dunne
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 25 Jul 2017 18:48 UTC
psychopath
Psychopaths aren't born dishonest - but they are better at learning how to lie than others, new research has shown
Psychopaths may give themselves away by showing how well they can lie, new research suggests.

Researchers found those with psychopathic traits can learn how to be deceitful and manipulative faster than people without these characteristics.

The results suggest that psychopaths do not not have a 'natural' capacity for dishonesty, but can learn how to deceive people more easily than others.

Researchers say psychopaths might find it easier to lie because their brains do not have to work so hard at resolving moral conflicts.

Researchers asked people to take part in an experiment where they had to pretend to recognise or not recognise faces in a collection of photographs.

They discovered individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits were able to lie much more quickly after practising the task.

By contrast, individuals with low levels of psychopathic traits showed no improvement in their lying speed.
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Light Saber

Sixteen difficult to learn life skills that will pay off forever

Rachel Gillett
Business Insider
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
time management, missing train
© GettyTime-management skills will make your life exponentially easier.
The best things in life may be free, but that doesn't mean they won't take time, sweat, and perseverance to acquire.

That's especially the case when it comes to learning important life skills.

To ascertain which talents are worth the investment, one Quora reader posed the question: "What are the hardest and most useful skills to learn?"

We've highlighted our favourite takeaways, as well as a few other skills we thought were important.
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2 + 2 = 4

If you don't rest you get stressed

Sarah Jones
Alternet
Sun, 09 Jul 2017 14:48 UTC
stress
© Total Women's Cycling
There are a number of ways that you can relax, and relaxation is a must to combat stress.

Stress and anxiety can strike almost everyone at some time or another and this can be made worse by not getting enough sleep, having unwanted thoughts, and by having the wrong mindset.

Stress creates a surge of hormones in your body, which then causes your body to produce cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones will help you deal with any pressure or threats and this response is known as the flight or fight response.
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Brain

Cognitive cross-training and exercise enhance learning

Liz Ahlberg Touchstone
Medical Xpress
Tue, 25 Jul 2017 20:54 UTC
Just as athletes cross-train to improve physical skills, those wanting to enhance cognitive skills can benefit from multiple ways of exercising the brain, according to a comprehensive new study from University of Illinois researchers.

The 18-week study of 318 healthy young adults found that combining physical exercise and mild electric brain stimulation with computer-based cognitive training promoted skill learning significantly more than using cognitive training alone.

The enhanced learning was skill-specific and did not translate to general intelligence. The study, the largest and most comprehensive to date, was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

multi brain traing2
© Julie McMahonIllinois professor Aron Barbey led a study that examined how cognitive cross-training affects skill learning.

Comment: The paper can be accessed here:
"Enhanced Learning through Multimodal Training: Evidence from a Comprehensive Cognitive, Physical Fitness, and Neuroscience Intervention" Nature Scientific Reports, 2017

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Fire

Gabor Maté: The addict in all of us

Lauren Dockett & Rich Simon
psychotherapynetworker.org
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 11:56 UTC
Gabor Mate
Over the past several decades, popular attitudes toward addiction have undergone a radical destigmatization. Many attribute the beginning of this shift to former first lady Betty Ford and her decision to go public about her addiction to alcohol and opiates soon after leaving the White House. She hadn't been a public nuisance or a barfly. She'd never driven drunk, she said, or stashed bottles so she could drink secretly when she was alone. But by openly addressing her problems and becoming an outspoken advocate for rehabilitation through the Betty Ford Clinic (now the Betty Ford Center), she helped change the face of addiction. Perceptions of addicts as out-of-control gutter drunks and junkies were replaced by images of glamorous celebrities like Liza Minelli, Mary Tyler Moore, and Elizabeth Taylor as they checked in and out of Betty Ford.
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Smiley

Provable science: Money really can buy happiness

Karen Kaplan
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 12:00 UTC
Flying on money
© Getty Images
They say money can't buy happiness, but science begs to differ. An international research team has demonstrated that you really can make yourself happier by paying other people to do your time-consuming chores.

It doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, the new study suggests. If you feel pressed for time, your life satisfaction can be improved by trading money for minutes that you can use as you wish.

The researchers, led by Ashley Whillans, a new professor at the Harvard Business School, began with survey data from nearly 4,500 people from the United States, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. Survey-takers were asked whether they paid other people to do "unenjoyable daily tasks" in order to "increase their free time."

In 28% of cases, the answer was yes. These folks spent an average of $147.95 per month to buy themselves extra time.

What they lost in currency, they made up for in happiness. Whillans and her colleagues found that the people who traded money for time were more satisfied with life than their counterparts who didn't. They also were less likely to say they felt "time stress," a condition that was linked with lower levels of life satisfaction.
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Quenelle - Golden

Jordan Peterson: 'Postmodernism is destructive, and its origins are Marxist' (VIDEO)

Joshua Philipp
Epoch Times
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 13:22 UTC
jordan peterson
© Epoch Times
Communist principles in postmodernism were spread under the guise of identity politics

Communism was not popularized in the West under the direct banner of communism. Instead, it came largely under the banner of postmodernism, and aimed to transform the values and beliefs of our societies through its Marxist idea that knowledge and truth are social constructs.

Under it, a new wave of skepticism and distrust was applied to philosophy, culture, history, and all beliefs and institutions at the foundations of Western society.

The postmodern philosophy "came into vogue" in the 1970s, according to Jordan Peterson, Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, "after classic Marxism, especially of the economic type, had been so thoroughly discredited that no one but an absolute reprobate could support it publicly."

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Cross

What exactly divides Catholics and Orthodox? (Hint: not much)

Carl Bunderson
Crux
Sat, 01 Jul 2017 14:23 UTC
francis kirill
'Merge doctrines? Sure, why not!'
Eastern and Western Christianity have been divided for a millennium, and although in recent decades both Catholic and Orthodox leaders have made closer ties a priority, some serious issues still remain -- including, in the first place, the role and the authority of the pope.

With the Eastern Orthodox wrapping up their "Holy and Great Council" this past weekend, designed to be a "pan-Orthodox" event even though four churches, including the Russian Orthodox, pulled out, it might be a good time to take a look at the factors that separate Catholics from their sister Churches in the east.

The main issues of disagreement are the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and elements of Trinitarian teaching, although conflict also exists over the Immaculate Conception, purgatory and other doctrines.

For 1,000 years, the Churches of east and west were in communion with one another, holding seven ecumenical councils between 325 and 787 to define Christian belief.

Comment: Why not, y'know, reunite?

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Hearts

The healing power of trauma sensitive yoga

Azriel ReShel
Upliftconnect.com
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:02 UTC
yoga
Some years ago, I was involved in a women's circle where an older woman, while dancing vigorously after a deep internal process, had a spontaneous memory of a long-buried trauma. As she fell into the vast emotion of this trapped experience, she became unhinged, unable to escape the emotional vacuum of this memory. With experience dealing with trauma, I supported her to come back into her body and find safety so that she could ground and return to stability.

It was extremely challenging to bring her back and it took me and another facilitator some time. But what was most important was not to let her re-experience the emotions to the extent that she was being re-traumatised, and to support her to move through it safely, and find a place of calm in her body that could anchor her once more.
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