Many who suffer from anxiety tend to blame themselves for their “tricky” brains. Compassion-focused exercises can soothe horrible bouts of anxiety, as they did for me on a recent trip home from Bali.
Pixar’s new film, Inside Out, shows that chasing happiness along won’t necessarily bring well-being, which is a view backed by the latest psychological research.
In William Shakespeare’s comedy Merchant of Venice, the play’s heroine Portia sings: Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head. If you look at Valentine’s Day cards, it’s clear fancy…
At a staff away day a few months ago we discussed well-being, both physical and psychological, in the workplace. I suggested, half tongue-in-cheek that we get a departmental dog – not practical on many…
Scientists in the Netherlands have reported that we share about 80m bacteria during a passionate ten-second kiss; a finding that makes puckering up seem cringe-worthy – and downright unsanitary at the…
What makes people happy? Finding a definitive answer to this question could certainly make someone very rich (butwhether that would in turn make them happy is another matter). The problem is that happiness…
Let’s imagine this all-too-familiar scene: a fan, perched on the edge of his or her seat, eyes wide open in anticipation, a quick inhale at a goal attempt – quickly followed by either a joyous and prideful…
Empathy is having a moment. Author Roman Krznaric, founding faculty member of The School of Life in London, called for an empathy revolution, arguing that empathy is a transformative force. Organisations…
Does reading a friend’s happy post on Facebook make you happier? This seems to be the case, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) today – we may…
The mounting flowers and candles in Isla Vista mark the mourning of six university students killed in the mass shooting at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and sympathy for the other 13 who…
A soft and tender caress between two people can trigger a flood of emotions, and now we may have some idea why. Research [published in Neuron](http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(14%2900387-0…
Go ahead and contemplate your own mortality. How does it feel? Would you be surprised to learn that it can potentially improve your mental health to think about your death more often? The Russian novelist…
An unfortunate myth about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is that diagnosed individuals have no emotions, that they are somehow a bit like Spock from Star Trek: analytical, logical but not very emotional…
Your face plays an important role in the experience and expression of emotion. Yet despite the complexity of the human face, which has 43 muscles in all, most of existing facial expression research focuses…
It was Victor Borge, the famous Danish comedian, to whom we can attribute the quote: “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people”. And he was right, laughter is universal in human cultures and…