Mood and Neurotransmitters

NEUROTRANSMITTERS are the brain chemicals that communicate information throughout our brain and body.  They relay signals between nerve cells, called “neurons.”  The brain uses neurotransmitters to tell your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, and your stomach to digest.  They can also affect mood, sleep, concentration, weight, and can cause adverse symptoms when they are out of balance. There are two kinds of neurotransmitters…

Work Environment Plays Key Role in Well-Being and Happiness

Researchers from the UK have found that the work environment has a significant effect on a person’s perception of well-being and happiness. Queen Mary University of London investigators discovered positive aspects of working life — such as high levels of control at work, good support from supervisors and colleagues, and feeling cared for — were linked to higher levels of life happiness. Researchers discovered higher…

Why Summer Makes Us Lazy

Recent research suggests that summer really does tend to be a time of reduced productivity. Our brains do, figuratively, wilt. One of the key issues is motivation: when the weather is unpleasant, no one wants to go outside, but when the sun is shining, the air is warm, and the sky is blue, leisure calls. on rainy days, men spent, on average, thirty more minutes…

More Frequent, Not Long Vacations Best for Stress Reduction

Getting away from work or a routine at home is a tried and true remedy for stress relief and mental rejuvenation. However, taking the correct amount of time off can make a difference for returning with renewed vigor, or coming back from a vacation loaded with new stress. Moreover, the small or even unplanned activity may provide more stress relief than a long vacation. “Although…

How to Smile for Better Health – Part 2

Find out how to smile to look younger, live longer, look prettier, and stamp out stress. 7. Which would you prefer: a smile or chocolate? Smiles stimulate the brain’s rewards systems better than sweets. One British study found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 (yes, you read that right: two thousand) bars of chocolate, according to…

How to Smile for Better Health – Part 1

Find out how to smile to look younger, live longer, look prettier, and stamp out stress. 1. Your smile can predict the length of your life. Here’s a good reason to get happy: A 2010 study of photographs of 150 Major League Baseball players from the 1952 season correlated the strength of their smile with the length of their life. Those who were deemed to…

Why Self-Disciplined People Are Happier

It’s easy to think of the highly self-disciplined as being miserable misers or uptight Puritans, but it turns out that exerting self-control can make you happier not only in the long run, but also in the moment. The research, which was published in the Journal of Personality, showed that self-control isn’t just about deprivation, but more about managing conflicting goals. The researchers found a strong connection between higher…

5 Ways to Find Happiness By Living in the Moment

Many people spend their day-to-day existence looking forward to an upcoming event or ruminating over one from the past. Even within the days of the week, we talk about Wednesday as “hump” day- it’s the middle of the week, and Friday is only two days away. It’s true that a future time orientation can be beneficial for helping you set goals and measure your progress toward them, and…

Building Your Parent Playlist

Many of the parents are overwhelmed with the responsibilities of parenting and taking care of young children. Whether they stay at home or work, these parents are running on a hamster wheel and getting nowhere fast when it comes to their own well-being. By neglecting opportunities to recreate and play, in isolation or with their kids, they are starving for a vacation from the “shoulds”. Addiction specialist…