Why Other People's Behavior Really Isn't Your Problem - Beverly D. Flaxington
Here's why you should focus on yourself first.
You don't have to agree with how other people behave—and nothing you say or do is going to change them.
However, understanding why certain behavior triggers negative feelings for you can help you choose healthier reactions.
Try focusing instead on what you want out of the relationship and be honest about mistakes you may have made along the way.
6 Ways to Make Meaning of Life - Amanda Dodson LCSW
A few ideas to kick off the search for the meaning of your existence.
Finding life's purpose can promote resilience during times of suffering.
For the non-religious, building a personal system of meaning is a necessary but daunting task.
Altruism, self-knowledge, fatalism, absurdism, and surrender are all ways to make sense of life.
Your Five Core Emotional Needs Keep You Feeling Alive - Richard Brouillette, LCSW
Caught in a cycle of detaching from it all? Try these simple tips to reconnect.
We are all born with core emotional needs that are part of who we are for life.
Growing up, the way these needs are fulfilled or frustrated forms our character.
We can learn to live without some needs being fulfilled, but this can cause us trouble as adults.
It’s never too late to learn how to re-connect with your core needs and improve your quality of life.
Why Your Well-Meaning Defenses Are in Over Their Heads - Leon F Seltzer Ph.D.
Have you ever thought of your defense mechanisms as “parentified children”?
People experience defense mechanisms as life-saving when they are children, for they helped lessen scary feelings of insecurity and instability.
In adulthood, outdated, habitual defenses often continue to take over and sabotage people in ways that they may not even be aware of.
Identifying one's defenses and actually talking to them, updating them about one's physical and mental development, can help change them.
The VIA Character Strengths Survey
The VIA Survey is the only free, scientific survey of character strengths in the world. Take this simple, 15 minute character test and discover your greatest strengths. Research shows that knowing and using your character strengths can help you:
Increase happiness and well-being
Find meaning and purpose
Boost relationships
Manage stress and health
Accomplish goals
The Other Side of Languishing Is Flourishing - Dani Blum
Research shows that the pandemic took a toll on our overall well-being and left many of us drained. Here are seven simple steps to get you thriving again.
We’re looking for the next $5 million idea in mental health.
actually, it’s nothing short of an epidemic: Men are disproportionately affected by suicide.
American men suffer a friendship recession - Daniel A. Cox
The percentage of men with at least six close friends fell by half since 1990, from 55 percent to 27 percent. The study also found the percentage of men without any close friends jumped from 3 percent to 15 percent, a fivefold increase.
Single men fare the worst. One in five American men who are unmarried and not in a romantic relationship report not having any close friends.
How to Separate Your Identity From Your Behavior (and Why You Should) - Sam Blum
In a perfect world, it’d be easy to untangle our mistakes from our personal identities, but in reality, it’s rarely a simple task. Every misstep can become a teachable moment if you approach it with the right intentions: namely, forgiving yourself and looking for ways to understand those whom you may have offended or disappointed.
How Do You Talk to Yourself? - John D. Rich, Jr., Ph.D.
All of us have had experiences that have disappointed us, challenged us, made us feel like failures. As a result, we either figured out a way to "get back up on that horse and try again," or we decided that it was too painful to take risks and avoided challenges in the future.
False Self-True Self: The Perils of Living a Lie to Fit In - Rob Whitley, Ph.D.
Some scholars have linked the development of a true (or authentic) self to better mental health.
Barriers to the development of a true self include peer pressure, family preferences, social norms, and cultural expectations.
This can lead to a discrepancy between internal desires and lived reality, contributing to the development of a "false self."
A "false self"—and the dysfunctional choices that may arise as a result—have been linked in research to poorer mental health.
Can You Think Your Way to Well-Being? - Michelle McQuaid
How you view a situation affects how you feel. It’s not the situation itself that directly leads to your reaction—emotional, behavioral, or physiological; it’s your perception of the situation and, more specifically, it’s the thoughts you have when you’re in that situation or when you’re thinking about it.
Can Online Psychology Classes Increase Well-Being? - Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D.
Online classes have been increasingly popular during the pandemic.
A study found that participants in online psychology courses saw increases in well-being from their baseline measures.
If these classes have long-term benefits, they could become reliable public health interventions.
4 ways to give critical feedback without coming off as a jerk - Emma Brudner
Being brutally honest isn't always the nicest or most productive way to give feedback.
It's important to be straightforward with people, but a little bit of compassion goes a long way to inspire someone to accept your constructive criticism.
Make sure you're taking time to listen to them, be empathetic to their point of view, and demonstrate that you care.