It doesn’t take a whole new routine to instill a dose of happiness into your day—but it does take a little self awareness. 1. Be grateful for the good & the bad. Research shows, grateful people are happy people. It’s also important to understand that happiness is not the absence of negative feelings. Gratitude is…
Have you ever finished your workday but continued thinking about an unanswered email? Or tried to relax while remembering errands, conversations, appointments, and half-finished tasks? Psychological research has long examined our tendency to mentally return to unfinished goals. More recent work on the Zeigarnik effect suggests that uncompleted tasks can remain cognitively accessible, particularly when…
Have you ever walked into a room where someone was tense and suddenly felt tense yourself? Or finished a conversation with an overwhelmed friend only to realize that you were now carrying some of that same heaviness? There is a psychological basis for this experience. Emotional contagion describes the tendency for emotions to spread between…
Loving someone doesn’t require carrying what belongs to them. Luisa cried the entire drive home. There had been no argument in the car. No dramatic scene. Just silence. Her husband stared out the window while she tried to make sense of what had just happened. The medical appointment had left them with more questions than…
Summer often seems to disappear faster than we expect. One reason may be that our brains don’t remember life by counting the days that pass—they remember the moments that stand out. Research suggests that experiences that are new or emotionally meaningful are more likely to be stored as lasting memories than routine, predictable events (Schacter,…
When Fixing Keeps You From Creating Trevor had spent several therapy sessions trying to understand his parents. The stories were different each week, but the questions were remarkably similar. Why were they so emotionally distant? Why did they seem incapable of showing interest in his life? Why, after decades of disappointment, did he still find…
Many people expect growth to feel dramatic. We imagine confidence arriving all at once or healing appearing as a clear turning point. In reality, psychological growth is often gradual and difficult to notice while it’s happening. Research on learning and behavior change suggests that improvement tends to occur through repeated experiences and small adjustments over…
“Just shut up.” That’s what he told himself the night before. He said it out loud, lying in bed, staring into the dark. “I don’t have to think about this right now. I can think about it tomorrow.” But the mind didn’t stop. Mark is almost 50 and has always been a good sleeper. He…
Many people find it easier to be compassionate toward others than toward themselves. A person may comfort a struggling friend with patience and understanding, yet respond to their own mistakes with harsh criticism. This pattern is so common that many individuals mistake self-criticism for responsibility or motivation, believing that being hard on themselves will push…
An Economic Wellbeing reflection on work, money, and meaning There are sessions where something feels urgent, and then there are sessions where something feels settled. Today was the latter. Nothing needed fixing, but something important was clear. Not too long ago, work made Avery miserable. Just months into a role that was meant to be…
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