Benefits of Reading – Getting Smart, Thin, Healthy, Happy

A love of reading can protect your brain from Alzheimer’s disease, slash stress levels, encourage positive thinking, and fortify friendships. Here’s how your brain and body benefit when you crack open a book. Reading gives muscle to your memory. Reading gives your brain a different kind of workout than watching TV or listening to the radio. Whether you’re absorbed in a page-turner or simply scanning…

Small Talk Can Improve Health

Social isolation, not loneliness, is linked with earlier death. Led by Andrew Steptoe of University College London, the study surveyed 6,500 people aged 52 or older about their social contacts and experiences of loneliness. After seven years, the researchers followed up to see who had died. Initially, people rated as highly lonely seemed to die at a higher rate than those with low or average…

Deal with Post Vacation Depression

According to psychological studies, the return from vacation is a major stress for the organism. Many people that need to go back to work after holidays can feel fatigue, lack of energy, depression, anger and insomnia. After a month of “fooling around” the body forget the need to get up early, to think quickly and deal with any work. So that is why, right after the…

5 Myths About Introverts and Extroverts

Common Myths About Extroverts and Introverts Originally coined by Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and contemporary of Sigmund Freud, these words have become part of everyday language and, unfortunately, have become quite lost in translation. Most people think that all extroverts are outgoing and all introverts are shy. The truth is more complicated. Myth #1: You are either an extrovert or an introvert. Reality:…

How Many Days Does it Take to Create a Habit?

Ann Graybiel of MIT’s McGovern Institute has shown through research that neurons change their firing patterns when habits are learned, and then change them again when unlearned. However, as soon as something kicks back in the habit, they are fired back up.  That is why it is so easy to pick back up negative addictions like smoking and drinking, but also why if you establish good habits…

Hidden Personality Traits Revealed Through Your Favourite Ice-cream Flavour

Studies conducted by neurologist Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, tell you how personality traits are linked to your favorite ice cream flavor. Hirsch uses various standardized psychiatric test results to make statistical correlations, explaining that the same part of the brain (the limbic lobe) is responsible for both personality traits and food preference. Interestingly, Hirsch says the taste…

Top 10 Most Depressive Professions

You think that you have the hardest job in the world and that other people love their jobs? Relax, it’s not true. The proof of this is the rating of the most depressive professions in which you will hardly find yours, which means that you’re luckier than many others. And well, if you can find there yours there’s nothing you can do about it. Either…

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…

Quick Stress Relief Tips Through Your 5 Senses

We all possess the power to decrease the effects of stress in our lives in an instant. Once we learn to identify our stress and the way our body responds to stress we can develop our personalized plan for decreasing stress in stressful situations. The best way to relieve stress is through our senses. Our five senses often hold the key to quick stress relief.…

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…