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Sometimes Mindlessness Is Better Than Mindfulness
“Be present.” This is the mantra of mindfulness meditation and a supposed key to self-awareness and acceptance. In one type of mindfulness exercise, the goal is to perform routine activities with a heightened sense of attention. “Try to take the time to experience your environment with all of your senses—touch, sound, sight, smell and taste. For example, when you eat a favorite food, take the time to smell, taste and truly enjoy it,” recommends one Mayo Clinic article. Mindfulness may indeed have psychological benefits.
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How to Stop Languishing and Start Finding Flow
Have you found yourself staying up late, joylessly bingeing TV shows and doomscrolling through the news, or simply navigating your day uninspired and aimless? Chances are you're languishing, says organizational psychologist Adam Grant -- a psychic malaise that has become all too common after many months of the pandemic. He breaks down the key indicators of languishing and presents three ways to escape that "meh" feeling and start finding your flow. ...
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Ready for the Roaring 20s? It’s Time to Re-learn How to Have Fun, Says Happiness Professor
After a year-and-a-half of loss, sickness and stress caused by the pandemic, burnout is high and morale is low. But in some positive news, according to Laurie Santos, Yale’s “happiness professor”, the way to feel better need not depend on restrictive diets, gruelling fitness regimes or testing mental challenges, but in something far more attractive: fun.
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Where Happiness Hides
We all think we know what will make us happy: more money. A better job. Love. But psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky says happiness doesn't necessarily work like that. This week, we explore why happiness often slips through our fingers, and how to savor — and stretch out — our joys. ...
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Research Roundup: What’s ‘News’ in the APS Observer
In this special episode of Under the Cortex, the entire APS communications team shares its top highlights from the September/October 2021 Issue of the Observer.
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The Wild Science of How Geronimo the Alpaca Captured Our Hearts
He spends his remaining days lolling around, oblivious to his fate. Faced with an upcoming death sentence, his only crime is that he has tested positive for an infectious disease. Meanwhile, a controversial government agency has a warrant for his destruction which could be executed at any moment. Pleas from his loving family are ignored as hundreds of thousands of well-wishers and activists rally to his defence. This is Geronimo the alpaca. It’s the fluffy animal caught at the centre of a lengthy legal battle, thrust across the headlines, capturing the imagination of Britain.
