Anxiety can lead to a fear of loss and abandonment. But there are ways to break the cycle.| Psychology Today
Discover how dopamine impacts your mood, motivation, and mental health—and learn simple ways to naturally boost it for a happier, more rewarding life.| Psychology Today
Are you feeling burned out from always smiling at work? Here's how to find freedom and authenticity.| Psychology Today
There is a difference between healthy critical thinking and an unhealthy obsession with options. Here are five easy steps to help you stay on the right path.| Psychology Today
How makeup and skincare TikTok tutorials became, for some, tools for processing difficult personal experiences.| Psychology Today
A persuasive series of research studies with both animals and humans show us that our first instinct really is to be good, kind and compassionate.| Psychology Today
There is no simple solution for stress and worry. But “soft fascination” can help you get some relief. It’s close at hand and easy to use.| Psychology Today
Meditation is practiced in cultures and religions all over the world. But when and where did it begin?| Psychology Today
Our brain's natural ability to turn our attention inside our body can help us overcome stress, anxiety, and trauma to gain greater control over our well-being.| Psychology Today
Albert Einstein famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Through imagination, people can explore ideas of things that are not physically present, ranging from the familiar (e.g., a thick slice of chocolate cake) to the never-before-experienced (e.g., an alien spacecraft appearing in the sky).| Psychology Today
Boredom is at once both easy to identify and difficult to define. A small but growing collection of scientists have devoted their research to boredom, and some conceive of the state as a signal for change. Boredom indicates that a current activity or situation isn’t providing engagement or meaning—so that the person can hopefully shift their attention to something more fulfilling.| Psychology Today
Research highlights effective, mental practices we can do from the comfort of our own recliners.| Psychology Today
Anxiety is both a mental and physical state of negative expectation. Mentally it is characterized by increased arousal and apprehension tortured into distressing worry, and physically by unpleasant activation of multiple body systems—all to facilitate response to an unknown danger, whether real or imagined.| Psychology Today
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person, animal, or fictional character. Developing empathy is crucial for establishing relationships and behaving compassionately. It involves experiencing another person’s point of view, rather than just one’s own, and enables prosocial or helping behaviors that come from within, rather than being forced.| Psychology Today
Dopamine is known as the feel-good neurotransmitter—a chemical that ferries information between neurons. The brain releases it when we eat food that we crave or while we have sex, contributing to feelings of pleasure and satisfaction as part of the reward system. This important neurochemical boosts mood, motivation, and attention, and helps regulate movement, learning, and emotional responses.| Psychology Today
Nutrients fuel the body and brain's energy needs. This fuel allows humans to function and flourish—to breathe, to speak, to play, to learn, and to reproduce. Humans evolved under very different circumstances than today; sustenance was often in short supply, and it was advantageous to snatch up sugars and fats that could provide a boost of energy. These evolutionary roots are at odds with the modern world, in which food is, in many places, overabundant. Cravings can be difficult to control. ...| Psychology Today
Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.| Psychology Today
Stress generally refers to two things: the psychological perception of pressure, on the one hand, and the body's response to it, on the other, which involves multiple systems, from metabolism to muscles to memory. Some stress is necessary for all living systems; it is the means by which they encounter and respond to the challenges and uncertainties of existence. The perception of danger sets off an automatic response system, known as the fight-or-flight response, that, activated through hormo...| Psychology Today