People have been putting pen to paper as a means to clear their thoughts since the invention of writing. People who keep a journal praise the pastime as a way to help themselves process their emotions, reflect on their thoughts, and outline their goals for the future. But you may be surprised to learn that journaling is backed by science. Psychologists frequently prescribe a regular…
Positive psychology is described as the study of what makes life worth living. It focuses on what brings people joy and how to inject that joy into our everyday lives. Many of the Fabulous habits you learn to incorporate into your life, like expressing gratitude and developing your sense of purpose, are rooted in positive psychology. An important part of positive psychology is discovering what…
Are you happy? What is happiness? What does it mean to you? It turns out that there is no single definition. Our age, culture, and upbringing can call affect how we perceive happiness. We base our perception of our lives and how content we are on our current circumstances. Once we meet our basic needs, happiness can mean different things to different people. For some,…
Frazzled parents across the globe give timeouts as a way to manage the tantrums of their children. Although some critics may disagree about whether they are an effective motivator of change, a timeout gives both parents and kids a chance to cool down and think about a better response to whatever is frustrating them. By the time we become adults, we may imagine that we…
William Shakespeare once said that the clothes make the man, but he likely had no idea how right he was. What we wear says a lot about who we are and what we feel. Clothes can strike fear into our hearts or help us learn how to have confidence in ourselves. Power dressing is the latter. Born in the late 1970s, women who wanted to…
It’s nearly 1 AM. You should be in bed but you’ve been hit with a nasty case of the midnight munchies. You’ve tried everything but meditating cravings away doesn’t ever seem to work nearly as well as health bloggers say it does. Before you know it, you’ve inhaled a pint of ice cream and, after deciding there’s no coming back from your failure, going back…
“You’re so sensitive.” “You need to grow a thicker skin.” “Buck up.” If anyone has ever said anything like this to you before, you know how unhelpful it is to hear. While everyone has a different capacity for handling difficult people or situations, according to Dr. Judith Orloff, some of us may be especially sensitive to other people’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions: Empaths. Anyone is…
You’ve probably heard of an IQ, before. You may have even taken a test to determine your own IQ. We’re often told that our IQ, or intelligence quotient, is a predictor of our future health and success. But what if it wasn’t? In fact, it may actually be our EQ—emotional intelligence quotient—that better judges our capacity for success and good health. Not to be confused…
Expressing feelings have gotten a bad rep. Social media prides us on relentless positivity, we’re encouraged to persevere through tough situations with an unwavering smile on our face and then we’re praised for being so strong. Many of us even feel ashamed when we feel a “bad” emotion like sadness or anger, and instead, we opt to keep those feelings to ourselves while we put…
