Category: psychology

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10 Facts for You to Chew On

Let’s celebrate some great facts!

You can share them with your friends, families, and enemies, and you can whip them out at your next dinner party so people get really impressed with you.

Trust me, it works.

Now memorize these facts!

1. Those programs don’t work.

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2. Bring this to the USA!

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3. Wow, that’s quite a story.

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4. She did what she wanted.

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5. Here’s the real math.

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6.  Well, that’s disgusting.

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7. Have you seen these?

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8. That’s just a myth.

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9. All kinds of weird hybrids.

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10. Runs in the family.

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Hip, hip, HOORAY!

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Narcissists Might Lack the Fundamental Ability to Make Sound Decisions

It seems like varying degrees of narcissism run rampant in our society these days, but as far as the clinical disorder, much about it still remains a mystery.

There are traits typically associated with both types – grandiose and vulnerable narcissism – like impulsiveness and cognitive reflection. But while grandiose narcissists tend to have higher self-esteem and think themselves superior to others, vulnerable narcissists are usually insecure, introverted, and defensive.

Both types, according to new research, are self-focused, impulsive, think highly of their intellectual ability, and perceive themselves as critical thinkers (whether they are or not).

This affects narcissists in an interesting way – and it impairs their ability to make decisions across the board.

Three separate studies were used to assess the intuitive thinking of narcissists. The participants were asked to solve riddles and answer other questions that require some extra thought and the ability to stop and wonder whether your first instinct is correct. Participants then self-reported on their own thought process and how confident they felt in their answers.

The results, says co-author Jonathan Fugelsang, are very interesting.

“We found that grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are negatively associated with certain types of important reflective thinking processes.”

Grandiose narcissists were “significantly overconfident” in their performance, unaware of their mistakes and rejecting any attempts to correct them.

Vulnerable narcissists, meanwhile, were more willing to engage in reflection, but ultimately found the process to be ineffective and time consuming. Not only that, but they, like their grandiose counterparts, weren’t able to rely on intuitive thinking when making decisions.

People in this category disengage from receiving corrective feedback for different reasons – they simply doubt their own ability to make good calls using reason, so instead, they claim confidence in “gut instinct.”

The study’s authors point out it could be a chicken and egg scenario – that individuals who lack cognitive reflection then exhibit narcissistic tendencies and not the other way around – but more research is needed to know for sure.

There are implications here for society at large, especially when it comes to positions of power. Narcissism as a diagnosis is a growing issue, and the current 1% who suffer can impact and influence many more with their behaviors.

So, take some time for some self-reflection and introspection, people.

If you’re not able to take that sentence seriously, well…it might be time for a good therapist.

If you don’t have one already.

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The Psoas Is the Important Muscle Where Your Body Stores Your Deepest Trauma

This is important information for EVERYONE.

Trauma affects people in different ways—physically and psychologically.

But did you know your body may be storing your trauma in a muscle you’ve probably never heard of?

It’s that pesky psoas (SO-az) .

Photo Credit: Pexels, Burst

Your body is built to react to traumatic experiences physically. Think of it as a basis for survival. Have you ever heard stories of how people acquire superhuman strength and can move a car to save someone? Yeah, like that kind of physical.

Even your very cells react to and store trauma.

If these physical responses remain “stuck,” they begin to cause issues. Animals and babies can easily release stress and trauma by literally shaking it off or by crying. But as adults, we learn to hold in our emotions, thus making the process of release much more drawn out and difficult.

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#psoasmuscle

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How do the psoas muscles come into play?

Your psoas is the strongest muscle in your hip flexors, and it contributes to nearly everything you do— from posture to core strength to moving your legs pretty much at all. Back pain is often related to psoas tightness.

If you’ve ever done yoga, you know that almost everyone has tight hips, even people with flexible hips. Yoga teachers often focus on your hips because they believe, with good reason, that humans “store unexpressed emotions” there.

When you think about it, your hips don’t really move much throughout the day—in the course of normal activity, the rest of your body sort of ends up moving around your hips. That means the moving parts release tension, while the static parts don’t.

Since psoas muscles make up the core of your body, they are most affected by our need to survive (i.e. flight or fight). This is part of why after participating in a yoga or stretching session, we feel calmer and more relieved.

Especially if you spend most of your day sitting down, your psoas is not getting the stretching it needs to release all of the pent up emotion and anxiety of modern life.

Take a look at this video on the proper way to stretch this area.

As you practice, you may find your body shaking on different levels. This is okay, but try not to push too hard. Listen to your body. At times you might feel like a good cry is about to burst through, since your mind and body are open. Allow it to happen. This is the muscle releasing trauma.

The human body is an amazing creation, and we want to keep it that way.

Namaste.

The post The Psoas Is the Important Muscle Where Your Body Stores Your Deepest Trauma appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

The Psoas Is the Important Muscle Where Your Body Stores Your Deepest Trauma

This is important information for EVERYONE.

Trauma affects people in different ways—physically and psychologically.

But did you know your body may be storing your trauma in a muscle you’ve probably never heard of?

It’s that pesky psoas (SO-az) .

Photo Credit: Pexels, Burst

Your body is built to react to traumatic experiences physically. Think of it as a basis for survival. Have you ever heard stories of how people acquire superhuman strength and can move a car to save someone? Yeah, like that kind of physical.

Even your very cells react to and store trauma.

If these physical responses remain “stuck,” they begin to cause issues. Animals and babies can easily release stress and trauma by literally shaking it off or by crying. But as adults, we learn to hold in our emotions, thus making the process of release much more drawn out and difficult.

View this post on Instagram

#psoasmuscle

A post shared by Daniele Zanoni (@danielezanonizana) on

How do the psoas muscles come into play?

Your psoas is the strongest muscle in your hip flexors, and it contributes to nearly everything you do— from posture to core strength to moving your legs pretty much at all. Back pain is often related to psoas tightness.

If you’ve ever done yoga, you know that almost everyone has tight hips, even people with flexible hips. Yoga teachers often focus on your hips because they believe, with good reason, that humans “store unexpressed emotions” there.

When you think about it, your hips don’t really move much throughout the day—in the course of normal activity, the rest of your body sort of ends up moving around your hips. That means the moving parts release tension, while the static parts don’t.

Since psoas muscles make up the core of your body, they are most affected by our need to survive (i.e. flight or fight). This is part of why after participating in a yoga or stretching session, we feel calmer and more relieved.

Especially if you spend most of your day sitting down, your psoas is not getting the stretching it needs to release all of the pent up emotion and anxiety of modern life.

Take a look at this video on the proper way to stretch this area.

As you practice, you may find your body shaking on different levels. This is okay, but try not to push too hard. Listen to your body. At times you might feel like a good cry is about to burst through, since your mind and body are open. Allow it to happen. This is the muscle releasing trauma.

The human body is an amazing creation, and we want to keep it that way.

Namaste.

The post The Psoas Is the Important Muscle Where Your Body Stores Your Deepest Trauma appeared first on UberFacts.

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Try These 10 Microhabits That Might Help Improve Your Life in a Year

All of us want to be better versions of ourselves. To be more productive, more positive, just better overall.

Instead of trying for that one, big breakthrough that might never come, you should instead try to focus on microhabits to change your life.

Here are 10 to work on. Remember, start small and these changes will add up and you’ll start seeing changes. Good luck!

1. Rejection is good.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Try to be rejected more often. Reach out to one or two people each day you’d like to work with, even if you don’t think they’ll respond. Someone will respond at some point, and that minimal effort will be worth it.

What do you have to lose?

2. Write a paragraph.

The hardest part of writing is actually sitting down and doing it. You can make up a million excuses about why you shouldn’t write, or you can make the choice to just do it, even if it’s only a paragraph.

Whether you want to eventually write a book, an article, a business plan, or even a love letter, the more you do it, the easier it will become.

3. Think about comfort…in the future.

Photo Credit: Max Pixel

You should choose comfort for yourself in the future instead of comfort right now in the present. Start making choices that will be beneficial for your future self. Always thinking about the present moment and not looking ahead is a recipe for disaster.

4. Get it done.

If you get a text, answer it quickly. If you get an email, respond ASAP. If you have this mindset, you won’t end up with a never-ending backlog of messages to respond to.

5. Your base needs are important.

Photo Credit: pxhere

It’s important to take care of yourself. If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re tired, get some sleep. Don’t burn yourself out and make yourself sick just because you think you have to be busy and working all the time.

6. Reading is good.

Read more. It’s pretty simple. You don’t have to always finish the book you start, but read some articles and expand your knowledge about the world. Reading is crucial for self-growth.

7. Put it down.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Learn to scroll less. Most of us have made scrolling through social media an everyday habit, but you should really work to limit the time you spend doing this. As you probably know, it’s never very productive.

8. NOPE

Learn to say “no” to people. Our time and energy are both limited, so it’s important that you don’t let others suck up all your resources. In other words, you do you.

9. Just one less.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Eat one less unhealthy snack each day. Don’t focus on completely changing your diet overnight. Once you get into this habit, you’ll see changes and you can further tweak your diet.

10. The question.

Begin each day by asking yourself this question: “How can I change my life today?” Stop thinking you have to survive each day and change your mindset to believe that each day is full of potential and you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. You must be willing to see things in your life differently to make some changes.

You can do it!

The post Try These 10 Microhabits That Might Help Improve Your Life in a Year appeared first on UberFacts.

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Study Blames a Lack of ‘Economically-Attractive’ Men for Declining Marriage Rates

This sure doesn’t sound good. I know fewer people have been getting married, but I thought the cultural shift was due to other things.

Once again, I was wrong.

Researchers at Cornell University released a study with a pretty sobering conclusion: there aren’t as many “economically-attractive” men as there used to be for unmarried women to pick from.

Ouch.

The researchers looked at data from marriages between 2007-2013 and 2013-2017. They then looked at the financial and sociodemographic data of the potential husbands for unmarried women by creating economic profiles based on real husbands who had already married similar women. Then, the “potential husbands” were compared to real population data of men across the United States.

After they crunched the numbers, the researchers found some grim data: the “potential husbands,” aka the ones who don’t exist, had an average income 58% higher than the actual, real population of unmarried men currently on the market in the U.S. The “potential husbands” also were 19% more likely to have college degrees and 30% more likely to be employed.

In a media release, the study’s lead author Dr. Daniel T. Lichter said:

“Most American women hope to marry but current shortages of marriageable men–men with a stable job and a good income–make this increasingly difficult, especially in the current gig economy of unstable low-paying service jobs. Marriage is still based on love, but it also is fundamentally an economic transaction. Many young men today have little to bring to the marriage bargain, especially as young women’s educational levels on average now exceed their male suitors.”

Man, reality can be a real bummer sometimes…

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Denmark Dominates the World Happiness Report Rankings Year After Year. Here’s Why.

America, let’s get it together. I don’t know if it’s arrogance or ignorance, but some Americans think that we are hands-down the best, the happiest, the “number-one” at everything imaginable.

I love living in the United States, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else (permanently), but I have to admit that a lot of people here aren’t necessarily happy.

But in Denmark, folks are incredibly happy. In fact, the country ranks at or near the top of the World Happiness Rankings year after year. So what’s behind the happiness in that Scandinavian country of just under 6 million people?

The rankings are based on statistics including crime, income, health, and civic engagement. People were also asked questions about how often they experience positive and negative emotions.

But there’s more than that when it comes to figuring out why Danish people are so happy. They have access to good health care and education, they have a stable government, and they happily pay the highest taxes in the world because they believe this helps create a better society.

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Beautiful Copenhagen ?? ⠀ How many bicycles do you see on the photo? ?? _________ ⠀ Сколько велосипедов вы видите на фото?? ⠀ Дания поистине страна велосипедистов ? По статистике их здесь в два раза больше, чем автомобилей, представляете?? ⠀ Я уже второй раз за год в этом чудесном городе, и каждый раз он мне нравится всё больше ❤ ⠀ К тому же нам дважды везло с погодой, а как вы знаете, Скандинавия в этом плане очень непредсказуема ? Вы были в Копенгагене?)

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But there’s something else in the character of the Danish people that makes them so happy: it’s known as “hygge.” The word is sometimes translated as “cozy,” and Danes value it highly. It basically means having comfortable, high-quality social interactions with family and friends and being content with enjoying the simple things in life.

A hygge evening could consist of a family playing board games, having coffee with a friend in front of a fireplace, or eating a quiet, easygoing meal with someone. Hygge is so important to the Danish character that the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen called it “a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA.”

Places can also be described as “hyggelige”, such as a person’s home, which is obviously a compliment and means that it is cozy, comfortable, and welcoming. Danish people use hygge to combat everyday stress and to build camaraderie.

I don’t know about you, but I love this concept.

FYI, in the 2019 World Happiness Rankings, Denmark came in second place and was edged out for #1 by Finland. The U.S. sits at #19.

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A Study Says You Can Tell If Someone Is Rich or Poor Just by Looking at Them

It’s said that people can tell a lot about you from looking you in the face, but until recently, no one suspected your gross average income could be one of those things.

A new study was published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and it claims that you can tell whether someone is rich or poor simply by studying their face.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Co-author of the study, grad student Thora Bjornsdottir, explains.

“The relationship between well-being and social class has been demonstrated by previous research. In general, people with money tend to live happier, less anxious lives compared to those struggling to make ends meet, and these well-being differences are actually reflected in people’s faces.”

For the study, Bjornsdottir and a psychology professor, Nicholas O. Rule, had their subjects look at black-and-white photographs of 80 males and 80 females without any identifying markers like tattoos or piercings. Half of the photos were of people who made over $150k a year and the other half made less than $35k.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The subjects, who were from various ethnic backgrounds, then guessed the class of the people in the photos – and they were correct around 68% of the time.

That is, in case you’re wondering, significantly higher than random chance.

Dr. Rule told The Cut they were surprised themselves.

“I didn’t think the effects would be quite as strong, especially given how subtle the differences are in the faces. That’s the most surprising part of the study to me.”

Image Credit: Pixabay

“People are not really aware of what cues they are using when they make these judgments,” adds Bjornsdottir. “If you ask them why, they don’t know. They are not aware of how they are doing this.”

Interestingly, the subjects were also able to guess correctly when they were able to look just at the eyes, or just at the mouth, though not quite as often.

Bjornsdottir believes the effect is “due to emotion patterns becoming etched into their faces over time,” because the chronic contraction of certain muscles can lead to changes in the actual structure of your face.

When the subjects were shown pictures of people smiling, they were unable to discern the socioeconomic status of the people in the images with any reliability.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The researchers believe their results are important because first impressions come into play in the real world – a fact they proved when they asked the subjects to choose who they would hire as an accountant based on the images alone.

They chose the people who appeared to be high-earners, which means employers could be doing the same thing.

“Face-based perceptions of social class may have important downstream consequences. People talk about the cycle of poverty, and this is potentially one contributor to that,” they conclude.

So, even though “don’t judge a book by its cover” is one of the world’s more famous sayings, it turns out we’re all doing exactly that every day without even realizing it.

Kind of makes me rethink my decision to not wear makeup most days.

How about you?

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A Study Showed That Older Parents Still Lose Sleep over Their Adult Children

I’ve wondered if my parents still do this, even though all five of the kids they raised are grown up and out of the house.

And now I have an answer.

A study published in The Gerontologist Journal shows many older parents worry about their adult children as much as they did when they were raising them as youngsters.

It also found that there was a correlation between sleep quality and parents worrying about their adult children.

It makes sense when you think about it: when kids are raised by their parents, mom and dad are always home and around the children. It’s when the kids leave the house to go out into the world for college or a job that mothers and fathers begin to experience more worry and stress due to uncertainty and not being in close proximity to their sons and daughters at all times.

Amber J. Seidel of Penn State York, the leader of the study, said:

“I feel that many share this value, yet I think much of the socialization in our culture focuses on the family when children are younger. I seek to study topics that help us understand how family continues to be a central part of our lives throughout adulthood, and I encourage considering family-level influences in all situations.”

The study is obviously more reflective of parents in the West and in Europe, as it is more common for children to live with their parents longer in the East. In the U.S. and Europe, children are pushed toward independence at a younger age.

Seidel ended the study by encouraging parents to consider the type of relationships they have with their adult children because the level of involvement they have with their kids and how much support they offer them affects parents’ sleep cycles. The questions Seidel thinks parents should ask themselves include, ‘Are you enabling your child by rewarding lazy or destructive behaviors?’, ‘Are you trying to control your child in any way?’, ‘Or are you simply letting your adult child live their life while providing unconditional support?’

Asking and contemplating these questions can lead to a more transparent relationship between parents and adult children.

Hey, adults who are out of the house, your parents are most likely worried about you and wondering what you’re up to, so check in once in a while.

Call your mother.

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If Loud Chewing Drives You Nuts, That’s a Psychiatric Disorder.

I now officially have a disorder, apparently.

There are some people out there who report becoming annoyed to the point of rage at the sound of others’ chewing their food loudly.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The problem is more than just sensitivity to eating sounds. It can prevent people from enjoying meals with their family and friends, or distract them at business meals and functions.

Their reactions to someone scraping their plate or smacking their lips can range from disgust to harboring violent fantasies of the face-punching variety.

The name of the condition that causes such over-the-top reactions to everyday noises is misophonia, and it is a genuine psychiatric disorder.

Photo Credit: Pxhere

People who suffer misophonia list pen-clicking, gum chewing, loud breathing, keyboard tapping and even someone fidgeting (among many other activities) as irritating to the point of rage.

It’s not a hearing problem, however. Brain scans show increased activity in the anterior insula when sufferers are triggered, as well as abnormalities in their emotional control mechanisms. In other words, they can’t help going bonkers when they hear and see someone chomping away.

Their physical reactions are real and include sweating and increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Photo Credit: Max Pixel

So if you feel anxious, panic or anger when you hear a repetitive, grating noise, you definitely aren’t alone.

Researchers aren’t sure how people develop misophonia, but it does start in childhood and isn’t related to any one event.

For people whose misophonia affects their lives to the point of high social anxiety, auditory therapy and counseling to develop coping mechanisms may help. Hearing devices to provide white noise for distraction are also available.

Photo Credit: Flickr

There is also support within the Misophonia Association. Based in Portland, Oregon, the association provides resources, advocacy and even a yearly conference for their members.

I imagine there are little to no crunchy foods available at their events, so attend feeling fully supported and heard.

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