What I Read in June!: http://youtu.be/v0qn22SdaP8

The Urge To Break Free

We all know the feeling. It's Monday morning and as the alarm is silenced by an annoyed slap of the hand or as we are sandwiched between two large sweaty commuters on the 7.15 into the city, we start to fantasize about breaking free from our job cages. Surely humans are not adapted for this beige coloured, hum drum, nine to five existence?
I, like many people, am not suited to being an employee. I have a sharp mind and I tend to use it for thinking, problem solving, reasoning and making decisions. So why would I wish to disengage it and blindly do what I was told to do, in the way I was told to do it, often when I know that whatever I am being asked to do is inefficient, ineffective or just plain wrong!
Minds are creative entities, stifle their creativity at your peril. It kills motivation and turns most people into an autonomous beige army of employees who just go through the motions at work in order to pay their bills in the often forlorn hope that they will live long enough to collect a pension which will enable them to live the lives they really wanted to live all along.
So why are we not all rebelling like mad and breaking free from our employment straight jackets? Our creative minds are longing for us to do just that but unfortunately our creative minds have soft, melodic, quiet little voices whereas our reasoning, planning, logical minds loudly shout out warnings about all the bad things that could happen if we dared to take the risk. I am afraid we can blame evolution for this it is natures way of ensuring that we play things safe in order to survive.
On the other hand we can use reason and logic to argue for the other side and give creativity a voice. More and more I am hearing about people who have spent the majority of their lives in the beige army waiting to be demobbed so that they can begin their lives, follow their dreams or spend time with their families, but they never make it. They become ill, or their partners become ill, or their pensions are not quite what they expected or sometimes they just die in service and they don't even get a long service medal.
So next time you get the urge to break free and your logical mind shouts out all the reasons why you shouldn't, shout back and play it at its own game, use logic to win the argument.
One life is all we have, do we really want to live most of it wishing we were somewhere else doing something else and gambling that we will live long enough and be fit enough to get there in the end or do we take the plunge and enjoy our lives NOW? What have we really got to lose? Money? We can all live with less and still be happier. I once advised my daughter to look for another job as she was not being paid enough, she said "I have enough for my needs and I love my job, it makes me happy. I would rather do something I love and get paid little than do something I hate and get paid a lot". She has it spot on right. No one is guaranteed a tomorrow so we need to make sure that we enjoy today. Carpe dium.

Related Reading

The Psychology of Minimalism

Are you one of those people who never keep anything that they don't use, or are you a hoarder like me?  I still have old finger paintings and cards made by my children when they were tiny - they both live in their own homes now!  I have hundreds of books, videos, DVDs, cassette tapes, records, clothes that no longer fit, shoes and jackets that I never wear etcetera etcetera....

So why do we need to hang on to all this stuff?   Well many of us are intrinsically disorganised - but I cannot use that excuse as my organisational skills border on OCD levels. Some of us though keep things because we think we may need them later, or with me it's because we associate sentimental memories with them leading to strong attachments and we link emotions to our inanimate 'stuff'.  We look at the piles of junk in our attics and stuffed into our draws and cupboards and we promise ourselves that we will have a major clear out this week, month or year.

Psychologically such hoarding can be a reaction to feelings of distress, loss or depression, but those thoughts tend to occur only when it comes time to throw things away. Collecting the 'stuff' however, may be due to more innate and therefore unconscious urges. Psychologists theorise that the instinct to collect and hoard may have once had evolutionary advantages being adaptive in allowing individuals to survive and achieve reproductive success when competing for limited resources.  Hoarding of food for examples is common amongst many animals and has an obvious survival advantage. In humans however, the excessive acquisition of things such as old greeting cards, your 25-year-old daughter's first attempt at a painting or theatre and other event tickets does not seem to provide any survival advantage at all, in fact the process of living with all this 'stuff' is positively stifling and very stressful .

Many Psychologists now believe that the 'new' fashion for minimalist living is a reaction to the stress of our increasingly materialistic, possession acquiring lifestyles.  After all what does all this materialism lead too?

• Debt = stress
• Less space in our homes = stress
• More stuff to maintain & clean = stress
• Needing more money to feed our addiction to 'stuff' = stress
• Working harder & longer hours to gain money to feed our addiction to 'stuff' = stress
• Guilt about working harder and longer hours and not spending time with family in order to feed our addiction to 'stuff' = stress

I could go on but I am sure that you have got the picture. It is clear from this that minimalism could be a powerful lifestyle choice that has the potential to alleviate the stress caused by living in today's increasingly materialistic society. So what is minimalism and how can it make us less stress and happier individuals? Minimalism is simply throwing or giving away or not acquiring things you do not use or need. This means that your home becomes uncluttered and you can live a more simple life. Living without obsessing about material things, without trying to keep up with the Joneses or having the latest iPhone, iPad or fashionable trainers.  This means that you use only simple tools, have a minimal and functional wardrobe. A simple rule to accomplish this is to look at your possessions and if it is not either intrinsically useful or so beautiful it makes you smile, you ditch it.
How can this minimalistic lifestyle help you psychologically? Well as previously mentioned it can lower your levels of stress. It also costs less and so can lower your levels of debt and enable you to get a job that you love rather than one that pays you enough money to feed your habit for acquiring 'stuff'. It means that you spend less time on cleaning and maintaining freeing up your time for having fun. After all we only have one life and no one is guaranteed a tomorrow. It allows you to spend more of this precious time on creating, enjoying the company of your family, on doing nothing and on doing the things that give you joy. There’s more time for exercise, for growing things, for eating well and getting healthy. It is a greener and more sustainable lifestyle that makes your life easier to organise.
There have also been numerous psychological studies that have shown that giving your 'stuff' to others significantly increases a persons feelings of happiness. So together with an increase in feelings of happiness, the greatest thing that a minimalist lifestyle will provide you with is time, time for you to do what you want to do, not what you feel that you have to do.  How can that fail to enrich your life? This summer I intend to start my own journey into minimalism, I will let you know how I get on......

Related reading: 

Related articles

• Finding Joy in Simplicity (exploratoriablog.wordpress.com)
• Stuff = happiness? (rightdownmyalley.wordpress.com)
• Minimalism vs. Environmentalism (yourgreenerpath.wordpress.com)
• How to Live a Simplistic Lifestyle (lifehack.org)

The Psychology Of Slim

Can you think yourself thin? Well it does appear that you can think yourself fat so it stands to reason that the opposite may also be true.

It has been shown that Psychological stress does affect food choice either over eating comfort foods for some or starving yourself when unhappy or under pressure. Andrew Steptoe of St George's Hospital Medical School studied university students both during the normal academic year and during a few days before major exams. Shop workers were also assessed four times over a six-month period covering both high and low workload periods.

The findings were that psychological stress affects both the amount and choice of people's food. Students food intake altered predominantly among the anxiety-prone and socially isolated with others being less affected. Generally the change was to increase fat intake.

Today I watched a powerful documentary called "Hungry For Change" and was fascinated by the strong emphasis that was put on psychology and on having the "right state of mind" in order to be successful in losing weight effectively. The evolutionary psychology and biology used in the film was sound and I found myself being persuaded by their arguments.

“Hungry For Change” gives us scientific explanations about why we eat what we eat, based on the chemistry of food and implying - no stating, that some foods can be as addictive as heroin.  In fact it actually uses an analogy of feeding some foods to your children being like shooting them up with the drug! It also gives examples of ways to change eating behaviours, with experts in their fields guiding the viewer throughout. This film's message is that plant-based diets non-processed natural foods are what our bodies have evolved to eat and the high processed diets that most of us are eating at the moment are making us overweight, chronically tired, ill and ultimately killing us from diabetes, heart disease & cancer amongst other things.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MvAM97VDE8]

Dr. Christiane Northrup an esteemed physician explains in the film that “the concept of loving yourself is key to all of it,” and suggests a daily mantra to reinforce a positive opinion of yourself. She even suggests that the benefits this are supported by hard scientific evidence. Her recommended mantra is “I accept myself unconditionally right now.”

Rightly the program does not put forward that 'wanting' something enough can make it happen, which of course we know is not the case, it does however provide the view that if you can accept yourself as you are 'warts and all' then that will open the door for changes to happen. Ultimately it is made clear that this still doesn't mean that hard work and effort is not needed, but it does imply that the psychology of change could be more significant than once thought.

The idea is that we see ourselves both as who we are now, and still 'love' ourselves, but also realise that we are not treating our bodies in a way that supports that love of self.  We should also picture our bodies the way we remember them to be, when we younger perhaps, and realise that if we look after our bodies by only putting into them fresh, non-processed organic produce then we will not only become healthier but we will begin to look like our ideal selves once again.  The emphasis is more on health than on weight, but the two things of course do go hand in hand.  So maybe we should get away from the old idea of "We are what we eat" and realise that it may be that "We eat what we are" and maybe we can 'think' ourselves slim.

Recommended books:

(kindle edition)

Recommended articles:

• Experts urge people to be mindful while eating (reporternews.com)
• Don't Want to Overeat? Stop Multitasking at Mealtime! (news.health.com)
• Whole Earth Psychology (longnow.org)

The Psychology of Happiness

Research has shown that about half of individual happiness comes from our genetic predisposition to feeling happy. About ten percent of our happiness is due factors such as our age, race, gender, health, personal history, and how wealthy we are. However a whopping forty percent of our happiness is down to our choices. This means that we have the capacity to increase our level of happiness by the way we chose to behave.

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”~Dalai Lama

If we have no control over our genetic “happy point”, and if we have little control over our circumstances, then it makes sense to focus on those things that we can do to make ourselves happy. According to James Montier who has written a paper on this subject, these activities include sex, exercise, sleep, and close relationships.

Montiers top ten tips for happiness are:

1. Not to equate happiness with money. (This seems sound as we know from our own experience that people can be happy with no money and miserable with millions. However as we know having money makes it easier to be happy (see first paragraph above!))
2. Exercise regularly. Taking regular exercise generates further energy, and stimulates the mind and the body. (This also makes sense as exercise produces the 'feel good' endorphin hormones and improves our health which again is in the category of other things that affect our happiness)
3. Have sex (preferably with someone you love). Sex is consistently rated as amongst the highest generators of happiness. (Again.... produces endorphins ..... happy hormones!)
4. Devote time and effort to close relationships. Close relationships require work and effort, but pay vast rewards in terms of happiness. (Yes, but sometimes close relationships can have the opposite effect as I am sure you know! On balance choosing the people you have close relationships with carefully and not investing in relationships that make you unhappy or stressed is good advice)
5. Pause for reflection, meditate on the good things in life.  (This is what I would call, counting your blessings.  Recently in the Oklahoma tornado disaster people who lost virtually everything reflected on the fact that they still had their lives and their futures and helped those who had lost even more than themselves. )  You can make this even more effective by using NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programing) Where you anchor or use a very happy memory as a sort of mind mantra repeating it over and over to yourself.  It has been shown to greatly increase your sense of wellbeing)
6. Seek work that you enjoy. This in turn is likely to allow you to flourish at your job, creating a pleasant feedback loop. (This is probably one of the more difficult things to accomplish as of course our jobs are a way of us feeding our families and the job we would enjoy doing may not be the job that can pay us enough to live comfortable.  On the other hand there are a lot of happy people on minimum wage.  The trouble is once you get used to a certain standard of living it is hard to adjust to a drop, however, you will adjust and if your new job makes you happier then it is probably going to be worth it)
7. Give your body the sleep it needs. (This is VERY important, sleep is restorative both for body - so for health, but more importantly for psychological health. Sleeping regularly for 7 -8 hours a night will make most people feel healthier and happier.  So go to bed earlier and you should increase your level of happiness!)
8. Don’t pursue happiness for its own sake, enjoy the moment. Faulty perceptions of what makes you happy, may lead to the wrong pursuits. Additionally, activities may become a means to an end, rather than something to be enjoyed, defeating the purpose in the first place.
9. Take control of your life, set yourself achievable goals. (Much research has focussed on a person's perceived level of 'control' and its effects on psychological and physiological health. People who have an internal locus of control i.e. that they feel in control of their lives and environments are less stressed and more mentally healthy than those who have an external locus of control and feel that their lives are controlled by others. So taking control of your life could be instrumental in improving your level of happiness)
10. Remember to follow all the rules. i.e do all of the above!

Would I add anything to this list other than what I have added already? Well, yes.  Happiness to every person is probably something different, after all we are all very different and things that make one person happy may not necessarily make us all happy.

So my own top tips would be about personalising your happiness.

1. Next time you feel really happy notice what is making you feel that way and strive to reproduce the situation as often as you can.  Greet each day with one 'happy' aim, for example this evening I am going to have a bubble bath with candles and listen to Seth Lakeman (one of my happy aims!).

2. Do things more slowly plan to do less (this is my particular stumbling block, I always try to cram too much into my days) Take time to "smell the roses" my husband is always telling me - and he is right! Just plan one thing that you need to get done in a day and if you do more it is a bonus.

3. Smile! Research shows that just smiling can make you feel happier - so do it!  An easy way is to have a happy memory that makes you smile that you can revisit often when you feel in need of a boost.

4. Love yourself - You are the person who should love you the most after all if you don't look after yourself you cannot look after others, if you don't love yourself how can you expect anyone else to love you?

5. Get a pet - research shows that people who have pets are happier and healthier. Just look at my pets - how could I not be happy with these two adorable fur balls!

Related Reading:

Related articles

• Happiness is What? Psychological Findings About What Makes You Smile (relationships.answers.com)
• Why smiling is the key to happiness and success (voxxi.com)
• 10 Keys to Happiness (lifestylerefocus.wordpress.com)

Everybody Lies.....

We humans are not a very nice species really, we can be cruel, vindictive, manipulative and there is not one of us walking the earth that can say that they have never ever lied.  Well they can say it.... but they are almost certainly lying when they do.

It is in our nature to lie, in fact it is an adaptation that has allowed us to prosper, gain power and increase our reproductive success (get laid more often). We psychologists even have a cool term for this ability we call it Machiavellian Intelligence or sometimes social or political intelligence. I doubt it surprises anyone that successful politicians tend to have oodles of it!

What may surprise you is that we are not the only primate to have adapted this ability.  After humans, rhesus macaques are one of the most successful primate species on our planet. They live in complex societies with strong dominance hierarchies and long-lasting social bonds. Individuals like humans constantly compete for high social status and the power that comes with it using ruthless aggression, nepotism, and complex political alliances. As in humans sex too, is used for political purposes. The strategies used by these monkeys to increase or maintain their power is similar to those Machiavelli suggested political leaders used during the Renaissance.

 Female make sure they have lots of sex with the alpha male to increase the chances he will protect their newborn infant from other
monkeys 6 months later. But while they have lots of sex with the alpha male and make him think he's going to be the father of their baby, the females also have sex with all the other males in the group behind the alpha male's back. Hedging their bets just in case the alpha male is sterile, dies or loses his power before the baby is born.

So next time you are steaming from the ears watching a politician blatantly lying or avoiding answering a direct question have some sympathy for him, after all  its in his nature..... and anyway, everybody lies.....

Sleepless

Beating The Bad Weather Blues

Everyone seems to be talking about it, not surprising perhaps as in the UK it seems to be a national occupation, but this year some how it just seems a little bit worse than usual.  Yes it is that staple conversation starter... the weather.  Since the 'drought' was declared this time last year we seem to have had perpetually miserable weather.... rain, wind, snow, fog, blizzards sometimes all in one afternoon!

So can the weather affect our mood?  Well the short answer unsurprisingly is yes, in fact there is a legitimate psychological disorder driven by it called somewhat appropriately S.A.D or seasonally affected disorder.  The 'affected' bit refers to how emotions are influenced by the changing seasons.  The really 'sad' thing is that  this prolonged dip into winter that we are experiencing has a particularly bad effect not only on those people who suffer from this malady but to a certain extent all of us.

We all know that we feel happier and more positive when the sun shines and a little bit more gloomy in the winter but in people with S.A.D this effect is exaggerated to the point of it causing mood swings, depression, low energy and the need for prolonged periods of sleep.

So can we all beat these blues?  Well short of controlling the weather (still impossible - though there are some scientists who think they can!) there are the usual medications for depression but a more natural method is to use light therapy.  As little as 15 minutes of light each morning from a 'light box', which emits light from the same spectrum as natural daylight,  can vastly reduce or even eliminate symptoms.

If you would like to find out more or to find out how to purchase a light box visit the Seasonal Affected Disorder Association UK website.

For the rest of us who are just feeling a bit down with all this horrible weather.... throwing your curtains open as soon as you wake up, going outside or buying a natural light alarm clock should help bring a little bit of spring into our step without breaking the bank.

Sleepless.....

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Book Review Competition!

A new book that links Psychological theories to popular fiction has been published. Can you write a book review good enough to post on this blog?  If you can you could win a prized 'limited edition' psychology badge and some really tasty jelly brains!

The book focuses on Lisbeth Salander, heroine of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Millenium trilogy follows the story of one of the most compelling, complex characters of our time. Is she an avenging angel? A dangerous outlaw? What makes Salander tick, and why is our response to her—and to Larsson’s Millennium trilogy—so strong?

In The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 19 psychologists and psychiatrists attempt to do what even expert investigator Mikael Blomkvist could not: understand Lisbeth Salander.

What does Lisbeth’s infamous dragon tattoo really say about her? Why is Lisbeth so drawn to Mikael, and what would they both need to do to make a relationship work? How do we explain men like Martin Vanger, Nils Bjurman, and Alexander Zalachenko? Is Lisbeth just as sexist and as psychopathic as they are?What is it about Lisbeth that allows her to survive, even thrive, under extraordinary conditions? How is Lisbeth like a Goth-punk Rorschach test? And what do we learn about ourselves from what we see in her?

Your task is to explain how well the book answers the questions.


If you haven't read this book you can review any book that you have read that has a  Psychological theme, there are plenty available from the Psychology lending library in room W12 or from the College library.  They include books such as 'Serial Killers', 'The Afterlife Experiments', 'The Barmaid's Brain', 'Why Love Matters' and many many more interesting titles. Have a browse on the shelves and see if anything takes your interest.  After you have read the book post your review here as a reply to this blog

The best ones will appear here  Good luck!

Cambridge University Psychology AS Level Essay Competition 2012

Announced on 23rd January 2012 Students in their first year of study for A-Level, Scottish Higher Level or an equivalent qualification are invited to enter the Psychology AS Level Essay Competition. This year, we are inviting essays on either of the following titles:

'Are gender differences fact or fiction? Discuss with respect to at least two distinct measures or traits.'

or

'What is meant by the term 'good-enough' parenting, and how might this construct be useful from EITHER a theoretical OR a practical perspective?'

These essays should address issues within developmental and/or social psychology and demonstrate both a breadth of knowledge and ideas and an ability to write with clarity and coherence. Schools and colleges may submit essays from a maximum of three pupils. Not all of the previous winners studied psychology at school: we’d like to emphasize that the competition is open to all students who are thinking about a degree in Psychology.

More information can be found in the competition details.

Good luck people - go on have a go!