Imagine you’re a kind, submissive sort of mouse. Feel your whiskers sense the temperature and surfaces of your environment. Swish your body-length tail around. Test out the strength of your legs. Now, imagine you’re dropped into a cage with aggressive mice, and despite your amazing ability to jump 18 inches, you experience what scientists call a “social defeat.” This would…
How to avoid getting buried by stress
My work as a post-trauma coach means I study the brain and how to calm it, so I know all about how science has proven that the practice of paying deep, nonjudgmental attention to the present moment quiets the mind, quells emotions, and creates a neurophysiological environment (complete with reduced stress hormones) that reduces anxiety. I also hear firsthand from…
As a mother and a writer who frequently covers child development issues, I’ve read countless parenting books filled with methods “guaranteed” to result in better-behaved children and a more peaceful, productive home. All of these titles are penned by experts who seem certain that their step-by-step strategies (and their strategies alone) are the key to raising happy, healthy kids—no matter…
It’s important to learn how to recognize how stress affects you, learn how to deal with it, and develop healthy habits to ease your stress. What is stressful to one person may not be to another. Stress can come from happy events (a new marriage, job promotion, new home) as well as unhappy events (illness, overwork, family problems). What is…
By Douglas LaBier, Ph.D. It’s increasingly visible that our workplace culture and conventional views of success damage people emotionally and physically, and harm productivity and innovation as well. In a recent post, I emphasized the overlooked role of unhealthy management practices because they reflect and reinforce a narrow, self-interested view of success that’s equated with the pursuit of “more”—more money, power,…
Quieting your mind for rest
Back in the 1960s Dr. Paul D. Maclean devised the Triune Brain model as a way to explain the brain’s evolution while reconciling rational human behavior with more primal and violent outbursts. The Triune Model suggests three parts to the brain: Reptilian (posterior, brain stem): the source of instincts Paleommamalian (mid-brain): the source of emotions Neomammalian (cortex): the source of…
Get rid of the things you don’t need to achieve a less stressful, more organized life.
