Mats rolled tightly under their arms, a group of women walk to a secluded Tripoli beach for a seaside yoga session to escape tensions in conflict-stricken Libya.

Under the watch of a solitary police car, each Thursday the 25 aspiring yogis begin limbering up, their bright gym attire outlined against the crumbling concrete security compound that forms the backdrop to their open-air studio.

People often find it harder to adapt to new situations as they age and now a new mouse study may have shed light on why.

A study published today in the journal Neuron has described, for the first time, how activity in a key brain circuit that allows mammals to adapt to change fades with age.

The circuit is critical to developing new strategies to meet goals, said senior author Dr J. Bertran-Gonzalez, a neuroscientist at the Queensland Brain Institute

He and colleagues hypothesised that older mammals find it harder to adapt because of natural deterioration in this brain circuit involving neurones in the striatum, which is located in the brain's core.

To test their ideas, Dr Bertran-Gonzalez and colleagues set up an experiment in which mice were trained to press levers to obtain food pellets.

One lever gave them access to grain-tasting pellets, while the other gave them access to sweet pellets. After training, the animals were then given just one type of pellet to eat, before again being given a choice of pellets.

Because mice prefer variety in their diet, after having gorged on one type of pellet they chose the lever that would give them the other type of pellet.

But then the researchers switched the levers so the lever that used to deliver grain-flavoured pellets now delivered sweet pellets and vice versa.

The younger mice in the group quickly learned which lever to press to get the pellets they wanted, but the older mice repeatedly pressed both levers, apparently confused about what to do.

Further experiments showed the brains of the older mice had less activity in the neurones of the striatum previously identified as being critical to the ability to adapt.

Finally, the study found that young mice in which this brain circuit had been deactivated, were just as confused as the older normal mice when the levers were switched. This confirmed that deterioration in the striatum circuit was responsible for a failure to adapt to change.

It was an ideal British summer festival evening, courtesy of the most desirable star at any outdoors gathering in the Albion - the Sun (the celestial body not the tabloid paper). Though it had already jetted off from the festival grounds, el sol's rare presence was still felt and seen everywhere - precious warmth was lingering in the air and splashes of crimson and gold turned the sky into an abstract painting you'd actually love having on your wall. Cocooned in the refined luxuries of one of the most middle-class festivals in Britain, if not the world, a mix of human content were aggregating politely around the main stage, where a hot new folkotronica band were blasting out their experimental sounds. Slightly away from all the action, my six-year-old son and I were sitting cross-legged on the grass, facing each other, while my husband and our 3 year-old daughter went off to get some food.

Having exposed our urbanite children to a day of telluric activities such as stone-carving, basket weaving and bow making, I felt quite satisfied with myself as a parent. Being more used to scooting alongside busy city streets inhaling exhaust fumes, it was a welcome change to see our children run around a quaint village fête environment. We pretty much gave up on trying to see any bands during the day, so that our kids could craft their hearts out and delight in organic ice-creams, while we praised their creative efforts and hovered nearby, away from all the musical fun, ready to attend to their whims. Sometimes being a parent feels like being someone's slave, only instead of hating your master, you absolutely love them. At the end of the day, all that was required from my son to continue feeding my self-image of a good parent doing the best for him is to just look happy. When you make sacrifices you need to know they are worth it. Unfortunately, to my disappointment my son's expression was not as jolly as I would have expected it to be.

We all face challenging times in this world. Whether it be surrounding our job, a relationship, familial matters, or anything else we tend to encounter in this thing we call life, everything has its rougher patches. While these patches may be inherently difficult to go through, one of the biggest factors in determining just how difficult they are is our response to them.

Many of us are quick to vocalize our trials and tribulations. We may not directly address those involved, but we tend to have a trusted individual (if not several) that we always turn to for advice. But there is also a select group of us that respond differently. Rather than seeking others, we choose to instead internalize our hardship.

Despite being quite vocal when I need to be, I recently realized that when it comes to personal matters, I tend to be quite introverted in my response. At times, it undoubtedly is the better approach, but in most cases that internalization can lead to frustration, loneliness, and ultimately, bigger blow-ups — amongst many other things.

Wanting to correct this, I decided to do some self-reflection and have come up with 4 lies that I have used to convince myself that internalizing is the better response.

Heavily distracted people benefited most from the simple task.

A short breathing exercise is enough to refocus the minds of highly distracted people, new research finds.

Heavy media multitaskers benefited most from simply counting their breaths, psychologists found.

Media multitaskers might typically have a chat session open on the computer while also watching a video and checking their email.

Thomas Gorman, the study's first author, said:

"In general, people perform better after this mindfulness task.

But we found a significant difference for heavy media multitaskers.

They improved even more on tests of their attention."

Although there are six components to a good apology, two are most effective.

There are six components to a really effective apology, according to new research.

One type of question can indirectly reveal a lot about a person's personality.

Asking someone what they think about other people reveals much about their own personality. The reason is that people tend to see more of their own qualities in others. The generous person sees others as generous and the selfish person sees others as selfish.

Dr Dustin Wood, the study's first author, said:

"A huge suite of negative personality traits are associated with viewing others negatively.

The simple tendency to see people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders."

The conclusions come from a series of three studies. In one people were asked to judge the positive and negative characteristics of three other people. The more positively they judged those people, the more happy, enthusiastic, capable and emotionally stable they turned out to be themselves.

Music has proven time and again to be an important component of human culture. From its ceremonial origin to modern medical usage for personal motivation, concentration, and shifting mood, music is a powerful balm for the human soul. Though traditional "music therapy" encompasses a specific set of practices, the broader use of music as a therapeutic tool can be seen nowadays as doctors are found recommending music for a wide variety of conditions.

1. Music Helps Control Blood Pressure and Heart-Related Disorders

According to The Cardiovascular Society of Great Britain, listening to certain music with a repetitive rhythm for least ten seconds can lead to a decrease in blood pressure and a reduced heart rate. Certain classical compositions, if matched with human body's rhythm, can be therapeutically used to keep the heart under control. The Oxford University study states, "listening to music with a repeated 10-second rhythm coincided with a fall in blood pressure, reducing the heart rate" and thus can be used for overcoming hypertension.

Hebb estimates that since 2013, more than 100,000 death over dinners have been held in 30 countries. Last week in a lovely home, tucked into a Cambridge, Massachusetts courtyard, Hebb led a death over dinner discussion, hosted by the founder of a health care/tech lab, Christian Bailey. Nine of us, ranging from 33 to 64 years old—most who work in the health care space—sat around a long rectangular table, drinking wine and eating a sumptuous meal, while talking about death.

The day before the dinner, Hebb sent homework, including neurologist Oliver Sacks's farewell column in the New York Times, written a few months before his death. In the piece, Sacks quotes philosopher David Hume ("It is difficult to be more detached from life than I am at present.")

At the dinner, Hebb began by asking everyone around the table to "acknowledge a person who's no longer with us, somebody who had a positive impact on your life." After each name, we toasted the departed person and clinked glasses.

"When we go to a funeral today in the way the U.S. lets us die, everyone in that space has been through an extraordinary amount of hell."

What if one key could unlock expression in a child with autism, turn a young woman away from substance abuse, or stop a hardened criminal from reoffending? There is perhaps not one key, but there may be one set of keys: drama therapy.

In the 1920s, a Romanian psychologist, Jacob Moreno, observed how role play and experimental theatre freed people to reveal their thoughts and feelings. He began to incorporate drama into psychotherapy.

Psychodrama continues to be practised as a technique to help individuals achieve resolutions to specific issues by discovering how the past impacts the present.

In the 1960s, a radical Brazilian theatre director, Augusto Boal, was working on the concept of community theatre, from which would emerge "the theatre of the oppressed."

Boal envisaged a theatre where the audience could express themselves through becoming actors, presenting and solving the problems of their own lives. His work provided new direction for drama therapy.

Today drama therapy helps people in a wide range of contexts to achieve change, be it through shedding old habits, learning new skills or accepting a difficult past.