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Is Your Family’s Chewing and Slurping Driving You Insane? Here’s What to Do
Many of us know the experience of feeling enraged while sitting with a friend or a family member who's eating a little loudly and that sound makes you want to scream. Now we're spending all of our time quarantined with the same family or friends, and every bite, chew, crunch and slurp is so LOUD. For some of us, it's worse than for others, and the subtle, seemingly irrational reaction can actually be heightened among people we know well. It's called "misophonia," said Zachary Rosenthal, a psychology professor at Duke University.
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7 Habits of the Happiest People (That Most of Us Rarely Practice)
There is no better time than now to be thinking about making wise choices to ensure your own happiness. What science continues to affirm is that doing and thinking positive things throughout your work week are not only good for your health and well-being, they are especially good for business. Here are seven habits of the happiest people -- all solidly grounded in research. 1. They choose kindness.
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In Praise of Pessimism
Confession: I have a secret talent for making lemons out of lemonade. It may not be readily apparent. I smile a lot and make cheerful conversation; my end of the dinner table is not some horrible event horizon beyond which all sunlight disappears. But tucked inside me, almost always, is a grumbling Eeyore. That Eeyore is having her moment. The coronavirus is springtime for pessimists. Every gloomy thought I’ve had about this pandemic has more or less come to pass.
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Coronavirus: ‘Anxiety Rose After Lockdown Was Introduced’
Psychologists at Ulster University (UU) are researching how measures taken to limit the spread of Covid-19 have been affecting mental health. They are working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield on the joint study. It involves a representative sample of 2,000 people across the UK. Their initial findings suggest levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms rose after "lockdown" measures were introduced on 23 March. However, the numbers of those who reported experiencing anxiety and depressive symptoms declined in subsequent days. So far, 30 people of 689 who tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland have died.
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How to Make Deadlines Motivating, Not Stressful
There’s no doubt that work deadlines can be stressful. When you have too many, you can feel overwhelmed. And looming deadlines have a habit of encouraging last-minute dashes for the finish line, like when students pull ‘all-nighters’ in an attempt to achieve weeks’ worth of essay writing in a handful of long, adrenaline-fuelled hours. Yet there’s no question deadlines can serve a positive psychological function – after all, without them, many students might never even finish their work. You can see evidence for the power of deadlines in the ‘real world’, too.
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Post-Traumatic Growth: Finding Meaning and Creativity in Adversity
Kintsugi is a centuries-old Japanese art of fixing cracked pottery. Rather than hide the cracks, the technique involves rejoining the broken pieces with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. When put back together, the whole piece of pottery looks beautiful as ever, even while owning its broken history. Many people are wondering at this time in history whether we will have a second life. When put back together, will we recover with dignity and grace? The science suggests that not only will we recover, but we will demonstrate the immense human capacity for resiliency and growth.
