Being an HSP in a big, boisterous city can feel utterly unbearable. That’s because HSPs have a hard time screening out stimuli. Specifically, the problem lies in artificial stimulation, according to Ted Zeff, Ph.D, a psychologist and author of three books on HSPs, including The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide and his newest book Raise an Emotionally Healthy Boy.

All sights, sounds and smells aren’t created equal. Compare a big city’s bright lights, big crowds, honking horns, pollution and bumper-to-bumper traffic with a smaller town’s hiking trails, chirping birds, ocean waves and scents of freshly cut grass.

It’s very hard to function when grating stimuli assault your senses, and you’re in a constant state of overwhelm. One of Zeff’s students told him that at times she felt like she was “walking around with no skin, like a sponge absorbing everything that comes her way.” Over time, this can affect your emotional and physical health, such as spiking your blood pressure, Zeff said.

Below are Zeff’s suggestions for leading a more satisfying life when you’re surrounded by a cacophony of sounds and other big-city stress.

1. Evaluate your reasons for staying in the city. If you really can’t tolerate where you’re living, consider “What am I doing here?” Zeff said. And consider places where you might feel more peace, he said.

At first it might seem like you don’t have a choice over leaving the city. For instance, you might be in a rent-controlled building – every renter’s dream. But you also might have horrible neighbors and live on an extremely noisy street.

Sometimes we’re so used to living in a bad situation, we can’t even conceive of something better, he said. If so, dig deeper, and ask yourself, “Why am I abusing myself this way?”

2. Use devices that help you tune out noise. Try earplugs and white noise machines, Zeff said. “HSPs in big cities are exposed to all sorts of people’s energy when they are outside, so it’s important to listen to an iPod when walking in crowds or when commuting in a bus or subway.” You can even purchase a construction worker’s headset to drown out the clamor. (Zeff wears one on flights.)

3. Create a sanctuary in your home. Create a space where you can withdraw from the hustle and bustle. For instance, buy heavy curtains to block out the light, and play calming music, Zeff said.

4. Retreat regularly. It’s essential to have retreats during the week to shut out the artificial stimulation and find inner peace, Zeff said. Try a yoga studio, take a nap, read a book or enjoy a bath with soothing scents like lavender, he said. “Go away for the weekend to somewhere calming.”

5. Unplug. “Disconnect for at least one hour a day from everything electronic, especially before bed,” Zeff said. This includes the TV, computer and phone.

6. Avoid peak times. “Plan ahead so you minimize the most intense parts of city life,” Zeff said. Go out when the city is less crowded or noisy. For instance, avoid seeing films on opening night, visit museums on weekdays or early mornings and eat at popular restaurants earlier or later in the day. Zeff, who lives in California, rarely travels during rush hour.

7. Bring calm to your workspace. Listen to calming music while you work, Zeff said. Bring nature inside by keeping plants on your desk and pictures of soothing surroundings like the ocean, he said. Ask your boss if you can work from home a few days a week. If your job is especially stressful, evaluate if that’s really healthy for you, and consider your options, he said.

8. Try meditations and visualization. Zeff suggested the below grounding meditations when you’re in a large crowd. Record these meditations, and listen to them until you can recite them from memory, he said.

Centering Meditation

Once you have completed a few minutes of slow, deep breathing, imagine a green cord that is attached to the base of your spine…clearly observe the green cord…the cord is slowly moving from your spine toward the floor… imagine two more green cords that are attached to the soles of your feet…now visualize all three green cords meeting at the Earth’s surface and forming one large green cord…

Observe the large green cord as gravity pulls the thick rope deeper toward the center of the Earth…the cable is now traveling through layers and layers of solid rock… deeper and deeper…you can clearly see the cord traveling as it plummets toward the center of the Earth… 

Finally, the green cord arrives at the very center of the Earth…the rope anchors itself to the Earth’s center and you begin to slowly inhale calm, centered and stable energy from the Earth’s core. …visualize the energy slowly rising toward the Earth’s surface with each inhalation…

The energy easily ascends towards the ground level…observe the grounding energy arrive at the Earth’s surface… the powerful energy ascends through the floor and into the soles of your feet. …you feel the energy rising up your legs…you feel solid and centered like a rock…

Now feel the Earth’s energy enter the base of your spine… the serene, grounded energy feels so soothing…feel the Earth energy slowly travel up your spine through your lower back…mid back….upper back….neck….all the way to the top of your head…

You feel centered, calm and strong as this core energy circulates throughout your entire being… filling every cell of your body…breathe in the Earth’s energy for a few moments. ..you are calm, centered and happy …you are calm, centered and happy… you are calm centered and happy.

White Light Meditation

 Once you have completed a few minutes of slow deep breathing…visualize a crystal-clear white light encircling your body …notice how the shimmering light encompasses every inch of your skin…observe clearly how strong the shield is… imagine negative energy bouncing off the impenetrable armor and ricocheting back to its source… you are safe and protected…you are safe and protected…you are safe and protected…

Living in a big city as an HSP can be especially overwhelming. Some HSPs might realize they’re better off living on the outskirts of a city, while others might find that the above modifications do the trick.

Big city photo available from Shutterstock.

Whether in the center of a city or deep in a forest, the cacophony of sounds around us makes it apparent that true silence is impossible. Composer John Cage wrote music that included long periods of silence. When the musicians stopped playing, concertgoers were quickly confronted with the shuffling, shifting, and coughing sounds in the concert hall.

So what is silence?

Silence is the absence of intentional sound. Intentional sounds are the things we turn on, such as TVs and iPods; words spoken or heard in a conversation; music such as humming or tapping; and the noise of tools, keyboards, or other objects. Sounds that remain are unavoidable. So silence is purposeful quiet. Some find it unsettling.

A study of 580 undergraduate students undertaken over six years, reported by Bruce Fell on The Conversation, shows that the constant accessibility and exposure to background media has created a mass of people who fear silence.

This study, along with research by Drs. Michael Bittman of the University of New England and Mark Sipthorp of the Australian Institute of Family Studies argues that “their need for noise and their struggle with silence is a learnt behavior.”

This cannot be blamed on the relatively recent rise of social media and 24-hour availability. For many of these students’ lives the TV was always on, even when no one was watching. That often was the case throughout their parents’ childhoods as well. If background noise has always been with us, it’s no wonder we can become so uncomfortable when it’s taken away.

Lest I try to pass myself off as a contemplative or a meditation master, I confess that I have my own difficulty with silence.

My wife and I, city dwellers, were staying in a house far from the city. It was rustic, with no TV, radio, or Internet. When we went to bed it was so dark and quiet it was unsettling. We couldn’t sleep! If I miss a few days meditating in a row, as I did in the busyness of the recent holidays, I find it very challenging to break away and begin my practice again. And when I am in a difficult episode, riddled with self-doubt, nervousness or anxiety, the last thing I want to do is turn off all of the media that distracts me from my insecurity. But I soon realize that distractions can exacerbate the difficulty. I get back to fixed periods of silence, return to the discipline of my practice, and heal.

If the fear of silence is a learned behavior, it can be unlearned. This can be undertaken through mindfulness meditation and focused attention.

To develop focused attention, you may want to begin by confronting the experience of silence. Turn everything off, go to as quiet a place as you can find, and sit for a few minutes. Take in the environment. Just experience the present moment and allow what is around you to exert itself.

If you find yourself agitated or ill at ease, start with very short periods of quiet. Turn off the TV when washing the dishes. Drive without the radio on. Walk the dog without the iPod or phone. You will reap benefits. And slowly, as silence is embraced, you will find comfort there.

Silent man photo available from Shutterstock

A growing body of evidence indicates that the impact of pollution goes beyond physical health.  According to the Monitor, researchers have found that high levels of air pollution may damage children’s cognitive abilities, increase adult risk of cognitive decline and may even contribute to depression.

The issue is not as visible or taken as seriously as it should be, according to Paul Mohai, PhD, a professor in the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources.

How Does Pollution Affect Our Brain?

It depends on the size of the particle we inhale, says Jennifer Weuve, MPH, ScD, of Rush Medical College.  Fine particles, such as those found in smoke, car exhaust and pollen, can interact directly with the brain.  It is still unclear how coarse particles impact our brains.

One study exposed mice to levels of pollution similar to the exposure a human commuter might experience. It found that longer exposure led to slower completion of a maze and more mistakes.

These mice exposed to pollution also showed signs of the rodent version of depression, giving up on tasks more quickly and avoiding previously pleasurable activities.

Comparisons of exposed mice to mice that were not exposed showed striking differences.  Those exposed to pollutants had higher levels of a molecule that regulates the body’s inflammatory response.

More surprising was the discovery of changes to nerve cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain known to play a role in spatial memor.  Exposed mice had fewer connections and less complexity in this part of the brain, a situation usually connected with poorer memory.

Human studies also are showing cognitive impairments with pollution exposure.  In a study that included more than 19,000 women, Weuve and her colleagues found long-term exposure to high levels of pollution worsened the women’s cognitive decline.

In a similar study, Melinda Power, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology and environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, found men exposed to high levels of black carbon (used to measure traffic-related pollution) had reduced cognitive performance.  In fact, the pollution appeared to age them, cognitively, by two years, as compared to men with less exposure.

Mental and cognitive effects of air pollution are now beginning to receive attention in the mental health research community.  There is still much to learn.

So many people’s homes and  neighborhoods and entire towns were destroyed, and many more people can’t get basic necessities. It’s overwhelming to think about the amount of work that needs to be done to put things right–and to guard against this kind of disaster in the future.

I’m awed by people’s resiliency in the face of such circumstances. Watching the news the other night reminded me of one of my favorite passages in all literature, from Winston Churchill’s history of the Second World War, Their Finest Hour, about the events of 1940.

Churchill recounts a visit he made to a very poor London neighborhood that had just been bombed during the Blitz:

Already little pathetic Union Jacks had been stuck up amid the ruins.  When my car was recognized the people came running from all quarters, and a crowd of more than a thousand was soon gathered.  All these folk were in a high state of enthusiasm.  They crowded round us, cheering and manifesting every sign of lively affection, wanting to touch and stroke my clothes. 

One would have thought I had brought them some fine substantial benefit which would improve their lot in life.  I was completely undermined, and wept. 

Ismay, who was with me, records that he heard an old woman say:  “You see, he really cares.  He’s crying.” 

They were tears not of sorrow but of wonder and admiration.

Tears not of sorrow but of wonder and admiration.

If you’d like to donate to Hurricane Sandy relief, options include the American Red Cross here, the United Way Hurricane Sandy Recovery Fund here, and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City here

Looking up that passage to copy it reminded me, yet again, how much I loved writing my biography of Churchill, Forty Ways To Look at Winston Churchill. What a time, what a subject.

So what can you do to prepare yourself for Hurricane Sandy from an emotional and psychological standpoint? How can you ensure you keep your calm and wits about you — especially if others are depending on you?

Here are some tips from our past combined articles on coping (mostly) emotionally and psychologically with a hurricane.

These selections come from our article last year about 5 tips to stay calm in a hurricane, as well as our 9 tips for coping with a hurricane. You can click on those links if you want more details (or more tips!) than what we’ve included below.

1. Be prepared.

Hopefully you’ve got this covered already, but if you don’t, find a friend or family member who does. Or get thee to a store before it’s too late. Being prepared for your physical needs helps put most fears related to your physical well-bring to rest. Most people feel uncomfortable and anxious being caught with their pants down.

2. Know and review the family plan.

Got a family? Get a plan. Here’s what the U.S. government recommends for family preparedness for a hurricane. Remember that you can’t count on being able to notify other family members living close by if the power is out (although mobile phones may sometimes work, see below), so let others know that even if they don’t hear from you that they shouldn’t worry.

3. Take comfort in U.S.’s stringent building codes.

A lot of people worry about how their house, apartment or condo will fare in the worst weather. The good news is that because of our country’s stringent building codes, most dwellings are built to withstand the strongest tropical storms, Nor’easters, and, yes, even hurricanes (especially if you live on the coast). While there’s no doubt they can still cause massive amounts of damage, most homes inland will come through the storm intact.

4. Accept the forces of nature and that storms are temporary events.

There’s little point in getting angry or upset over the natural order of things. Nature will always do what it pleases. It can be rough to weather big storms like Hurricane Sandy, no question. But hurricanes and other natural events are a part of what makes our planet so rich, diverse, and ultimately, interesting.

Lucky for us, all storms pass in just a few hours’ time. Hunker down and engage in whatever stress-relief exercises that work for you, whether it’s reading, spending time with your kids, doing crosswords, Sudoku or puzzles, or surfing the Internet (if you have power; you should plan on being without power for a few hours, at the very least).

5. Take a news break.

Information overload is an issue in many people’s lives, and no more so than when there’s a weather event. The news media works itself into a frenzy, because that’s what they get paid to do. Take a break from the constant updates and focus on a project or hobby that takes you out of the news cycle.

6. Keep in touch with loved ones, if you can.

If power allows, try and keep in touch with your friends and family. Staying connected with them during an event like this can help ease the stress and anxiety of the hurricane. It can also be a shared experience that you talk about for years to come. Sometimes a mobile phone will work even when power is out in your house, so please make sure your smartphones are charged ahead of time.

Good luck getting through Hurricane Sandy — it’s never easy riding out a storm like this, as the build-up to the storm makes us all anxious. We hope you and your loved ones make it safe and sound through to the other side.

An important part of coping effectively as an HSP is knowing how to soothe your senses. HSPs aren’t just sensitive to loud sounds; we also might be sensitive to bright lights, TV and computer screens, strong odors and certain foods (and their temperature).

For the article I spoke to Ted Zeff, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist and author of The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide. Zeff includes a helpful chapter in his book on what you can do to calm each of your five senses.

Here are some of those valuable tips.

Hearing

• To tone down jarring sounds, play soft music at your work or home.
• Pick tunes that calm you, such as classical music.
• Buy a white noise machine.
• Listen to relaxation CDs or visualization guides.
• Wear earplugs.
• If you live in a noisy neighborhood or city, try to have your office face the backyard.

Seeing

• Whether you’re at work or at home, take a few minutes to close your eyes and focus on your breath.
• Look out the window to enjoy nature, which is especially relaxing for HSPs.
• Buy large pictures or posters of natural landscapes.
• Buy nature-inspired wallpaper for your home.
• Have plants and flowers in your home and office.
• Spend time in nature, whether you’re walking or sitting silently on a bench.
• Surround yourself with calming colors, such as white, green or blue.
• Adjust the lighting.
• Put up heavy drapes to block out harsh light.
• Wear sunglasses.
• Wear an eye mask.

Smelling

• Buy an air purifier (also good for masking noise).
• Wear a mask.
• Buy essential oils, such as lavender or rose.
• Burn incense such as sandalwood or rose.
• Buy a pillow packed with calming herbs. (Zeff suggested this website in the book.)

Touching

• Get gentle massages from a masseuse or loved one, depending on your preference and comfort zone.
• Give yourself a massage.
• Take a warm bath, and add lavender essential oil, which is calming.
• Have a comfortable chair to sit in at home and work.
  

Tasting

• Pay attention to how the temperature of different foods and beverages affects you. For instance, one HSP felt calmer having hot cereal in the wintertime vs. cold fruit.
• Drink calming herb teas, such as chamomile tea, and warm milk.
• Curb your caffeine intake.
• Be aware of your body’s reaction to alcohol.

Check out more tips at Ted Zeff’s website.

If you’re highly sensitive, how do you cope?
What are your most effective strategies? Please share in the comments.

That’s why I really like the book Urban Mindfulness: Cultivating Peace, Presence & Purpose in the Middle of It All by Jonathan S. Kaplan, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and founder of UrbanMindfulness.org. In it, he addresses specific problems that plague city dwellers and gives readers a variety of strategies to feel more calm and fulfilled. (He lives in NYC, so I think he knows what he’s talking about.)

He breaks his book down into exercises you can do “At Home,” “At Play,” “At Work,” “Out and About” and “Anytime, Anywhere.”

Mindfulness is, according to Kaplan:

• “Noticing your thoughts, feelings, and actions without judgment or criticism
• Observing what’s happening around you
• Being fully aware of your senses moment to moment
• Living in the here and now without resorting to old patterns and automatic reactions
• Exercising acceptance of your own experience, whether good, bad or neutral.”

Here are four helpful mindfulness activities from Urban Mindfulness.

1. “Mini Mindfulness Masters at Home”

Kaplan says that sometimes we can find the best mindfulness coaches right at home. “Pets and children have an uncanny ability to live fully in the present moment, thus they can serve as ‘mini mindfulness masters’ to guide our practice.”

He suggests readers follow these mindfulness masters, which might mean “lying next to your cat, nuzzling your dog or gazing at your infant,” and tune into “some of the sensual aspects of the present moment your pet or baby might be experiencing (for example, temperature, sound, lightness or darkness and so on).”

Also, observe their behavior and how they relate to the present moment, whether they’re experiencing something pleasant (or not), and focus on your own reactions. Ask yourself what your mini-master would do right now. “The idea isn’t to embody or mimic this reaction…but simply to consider a different response from your usual automatic programming. If the image of your pet or baby’s reaction merely brings a smile to your face, all the better,” Kaplan writes.

2. “Exercising Acceptance”

Most of our attitudes about exercise are negative, Kaplan says. (I couldn’t agree more!) He offers four tips for cultivating an accepting and positive relationship with exercise. (Remember that exercise can be any physical activity.)

• We tend to assign virtue (or vice) to exercise. Either we’re good because we ran X number of miles today or we’re bad because we didn’t. Or we’re lazy and worthless for skipping a spinning class or superior for attending three times this week. Instead, Kaplan suggests readers discuss their physical activities without being judgmental. As Kaplan says, “It just is what it is.”

• Many of us make comparisons either to others (who are faster and stronger) or to our past selves (who were smaller, more muscular, more athletic). Kaplan calls for freeing ourselves from these comparisons. They not only make us miserable but we might push ourselves too far. “You might add too much weight to the bench press or strain yourself during a yoga pose, just to placate your inner critic.”

• Be grateful that you’re able to move your body. “Being able to exercise at all suggests having a body that’s capable of moving and helping us get through our daily lives,” Kaplan writes.

• Accept your limits. Moving can make you more prone to injuries, which might develop into chronic concerns and conditions, Kaplan says. So it’s important to accept your limits and injuries. “Railing against your injuries or pushing yourself in painful ways simply aggravates your condition, delays your recovery and worsens your pain, thus limiting your activities in the future.”

3. “Flecks of Green”

Being surrounded by nature is very good for us. Some research has demonstrated that walking in a park boosts our mood and even our ability to concentrate. You can get your nature fix in either a big-city park (like breathtaking Central Park) or smaller spots (which you might not realize even exist).

According to Kaplan, many cities have developed community gardens or smaller parks called “microparks,” “miniparks” or “pocket parks.” To find some nature near you, Kaplan suggests: searching online by typing in “micropark,” “minipark,” “vest park” or “pocket park”; visiting the Project for Public Spaces; “find[ing] a satellite image or bird’s-eye view of the area around your home and work”; visiting blogs with local events; searching out unused spaces that you and your community could convert into a garden or park.

4. “Mindfulness First-Aid Kit”

One of the last places you’re probably feeling peaceful is at work, especially if you’ve just endured a time-consuming or overcrowded commute (or both!). And it might be particularly tough to awaken from your autopilot ways and actually pay attention to the present.

Kaplan says that during these times we need something to support mindfulness practice. So he suggests creating a first-aid kit dedicated to mindfulness with objects that you enjoy and touch your five senses. When creating your kit, consider where you’ll keep it (drawer or a bag) and select several items but don’t pick anything that’s thought-provoking.

Kaplan also offers tips on picking the actual objects:

• For a visual, pick a pleasant picture. (Again, nothing too thought- or emotionally stimulating.)
• For taste, pick something with a long shelf life like chocolate.
• For sound, consider songs, meditation or prayer. (Nature sounds, he says, might be too distracting.)
• For touch, select an object with “a notable texture or temperature, like a rock, a piece of fabric, or an instant ice pack.”
• For smell, you can select anything from coffee beans (Kaplan’s favorite) to an air-freshener to “perfume-scented magazine inserts.”
• In general, you can consolidate and have objects that combine the senses and create a nice ritual. “For example, if you include a tea bag, you can smell it first, feel the warm mug as it brews, and taste it once it’s ready.”

A typographical error led Amory Lovins to coin the phrase negawatts. In a brilliant 1989 keynote address to the Green Energy Conference in Montreal he outlined what has become the blueprint for a radical business and energy concept.

Pay people to do nothing.

Twenty-plus years later the idea is deeply taking hold.

Fast-forward to Dr. Ron Denbo who was recently featured on a TED global ideas project. He is the Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint, an international company that provides software to measure and manage carbon footprint.  Individuals, governments and corporations can use these services to reduce the amount of CO2 they generate.

The rising amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is what has been causing global warming. It results in changing weather patterns (such as more frequent heatwaves and downpours), which threatens Earth’s stability and eventually makes it uninhabitable.

Dr. Denbo has a central mission for his company  — to assist employees and citizens worldwide in combating climate change. His premise is simple:

“If we needed one more watt in this country, what would we do?  We could build a new power plant, or we could save that watt.  Which is cheaper?”

His point is that if we can accurately measure energy use, we can help save energy and change people’s behavior patterns for the better. If you measure and pay people for the watts they don’t use, it can offset the watts they do use.

The concept has become a reality for larger companies, but it is working its way down to individuals — new, accurate ways to measure and compare energy use have been developed.  Once a typical usage baseline is established, the software Dr. Denbo has developed could measure what is being saved.

“You could put anything you want into an electrical outlet,” said Dr. Denbo at the forum. “There is no regulation on the efficiency, frivolity or value of what you plug in.  (The power companies) have to supply that electricity.

The Color of Money?

This idea of Negawatts seems to turn consumerism on its head, but it is a model for efficiency and actually may create a market for power companies.  There is even talk of a Negawatt energy market where energy would be sold like a commodity such as silver or copper. Since the cheapest watt is the one that’s never created, power companies could sell their unused power to communities in need at a discount:  Everyone is happy.

While there is no wide-scale rating scheme as yet for enticing the markets into the Negawatt idea, there have been some successful efforts at extending the idea beyond efficiency.  In one community, homes were rated for a green factor, then the rate of loans fluctuated depending on how much energy was saved.  One bank has been able to offer a half-point off homeowners’ mortgages if they were deemed green. This is not unlike how auto insurers set the cost of insurance.  The better driver you are, the lower your insurance rates; the more careless, the higher.

Which brings us to mindfulness.

You would be hard-pressed to look at the field of positive psychology and not see mindfulness, staying focused in the now, as a staple in becoming happier.  By offering incentives to think about your wattage use we are making energy consumption a mindfulness project.  I doubt Eckhart Tolle had it in mind, but his bestselling book, The Power of Now, takes on a deeper meaning when you realize the concept behind negawatts:  We do, literally, have more (electrical) power when we are mindful of its use.

At the heart of positive psychology is Self-Determination Theory (SDT): understanding the source of our motivations.  In the 1970s researchers Ryan and Deci proposed that three innate needs — competence, autonomy and relatedness — are essential to our well-being and psychological health. They are considered to be intrinsic motivation (the source of this drive is inside us).

Pursuing goals for external incentives — such as taking a job you hate just for the money — defines extrinsic motivation.  This type of motivation is common, but less directly associated to fulfilling our sense of well-being.

The Negawatt revolution straddles the shift between external and internal motivation, through a process Deci and Ryan called internalization. Negawatt theory is a direct attempt to transform an extrinsically motivated behavior (energy conservation) into an internally valued need (becoming energy-conscious.)  If we look at SDT we see that rewarding people to use power conservatively has the potential to empower them.  Knowing they can regulate wattage use on their own (autonomy) to both save and make money (enhancing their competence) for the betterment of others (community relatedness) strikes the chord Ryan and Deci meant by internalization.  Consider how the work of Nobel Prize winner Al Gore motivated people around the world.  We became conscious of the deleterious results of the greenhouse effect (extrinsic motivation) and have changed our intrinsic behavior accordingly (and buy compact fluorescent bulbs as an autonomous act of commonality).

(As a side note I propose any day that has an abnormality related to global warming, such as a record-breaking heat index, or rainfall, be dubbed an Al Gore-geous day – it is just a suggestion.)

In the case of Negawatts, the external motivator and incentive is to be paid for doing nothing.  Critics see this as ludicrous — getting paid for doing nothing with a commodity you don’t own — but the truth is it is not nothing.  It is mindfulness in the service of efficiency. In California they have rolling blackouts because of excessive energy demands. In India major cities have nearly daily blackouts because of lack of power. If we were able to reduce or eliminate blackouts because people are rewarded for not using power this becomes a proactive, voluntary act leading to greater community productivity and well-being.   It isn’t doing nothing: It is consciously, mindfully making decisions for the betterment of yourself and others.

Negawatts also reduces the need for dependency on oil while simultaneously reducing the aforementioned greenhouse gases, CO2.

Changing our behavior for the better is something others are working on as well.  For a novel approach check out fun theory, a concept being proposed by Volkswagen.

The ultimate question is: Will this work?  Can we help people become more mindful of their energy consumption?  I personally believe it’s possible, but somehow it brings an old joke to mind.

How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

Just one.

But the light bulb has to want to change.

Design psychology is about discovering your personal style and finding a place that truly fulfills you and feels like home.

Here’s an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article on how design psychology works…

When Ran and Ronit Ever-Hadani expanded their Mar Vista home, they ended up with a long, narrow space that had a fireplace smack in the middle. Because the room was almost like a bowling alley with no natural flow, the couple didn’t have a clue what to do with it. So the area remained unused, and became a nagging reminder of their disappointment with the costly remodel.

“No matter how we rearranged our furniture, nothing seemed to fit,” Ronit says. “Every time we looked at it, we thought about all the money we spent.”

Instead of using traditional decorators to help them make over the room, the couple contacted Constance Forrest and her partner and sister, Susan Painter, two Venice-based psychologists who are pioneers in the emerging field of design psychology, which plumbs people’s emotional responses to an environment in order to create living spaces that truly feel like a home.

In this approach, the design scheme is dictated by the results of lengthy interviews they conduct to learn about their clients’ environmental histories, and to tap into the fulfilling experiences and emotions that contribute to their vision of an ideal place.

Now, after months of planning, Ran and Ronit are in the final stages of transforming the oddly shaped room into a warm living and dining area that not only reflects their personal tastes but also resonates with their psyches. The rich color palette echoes the persimmon and ivory hues in Ronit’s bridal bouquet and the buttery yellows of Ran’s favorite shirt, while an intricately designed wooden chair is reminiscent of the furniture Ronit’s father used to lovingly restore when she was a child. “I can still smell the turpentine,” she says, laughing.

Tapping into such psychological underpinnings can help define a home. “We want to create spaces that elicit that feeling of ‘yes!’ when the client enters them,” Painter says, “that instant, instinctive gut-level reaction that a place feels just right.”

According to the article, design psychology is partly inspired by earlier research conducted by Clare Cooper Marcus, a professor emeritus of architecture at UC Berkeley and author of House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home. For her research, Marcus spoke with many people about their homes. Interestingly, people who had pleasant childhood memories applied some of their past environment to their current space (from location to furniture). However, people who had an unpleasant childhood tended toward the opposite by adopting a different style, for instance.

In addition to memories, design psychologists focus on personality and of course the person’s style and favorite things.

To formulate a design scheme that weaves together all these disparate threads, Painter and Forrest do intensive interviews to elicit the most positive, peak experiences that the client has had and mines those experiences for details of color, texture, light and spatial configurations to be used in the design of the new space. They also get a feel for clients’ taste and style by learning about their favorite things, such as articles of clothing, furniture, artwork or even jewelry, so that the final design reflects the client’s vision and not that of the designer.

In her book Some Place Like Home: Using Design Psychology to Create Ideal Places, environmental psychologist Toby Israel features a variety of exercises that readers can try to “become more conscious of the meaning the environment holds for them…[and] envision and create homes and other places that express a fulfilling self-place bond.”

But first, another quote from Israel that emphasizes listening to yourself in the design process:

You want to buy a house.

You want to redecorate.

You want to design a garden, a school, a workplace, a park, a city.

You look to newspapers, to magazines to books, to designers, to mentors.

And then you can look to … YOU, just you and the accumulation of all you are and all you have been and all you have the power to become …

Environmental Timeline

Here, Israel asks readers to create a timeline of the settings they’ve lived in for six months or more from birth to today, along with their ages at the time.

For instance, my timeline would look like:

Some of the questions Israel includes to get at your ideal, comfy, fulfilling space:

• What type of setting did you live in the most under the age of 18? Did you like living in this type of setting? Why or why not?
• What type of setting (city, town, suburb, village or countryside) did you live in for the greatest period of time as an adult? If so, why do you think you chose to live in that type of setting?
• Is there a place(s) on the timeline where you lived as a child or an adult that you feel had a major impact on you? If so, why do you think that place(s) had that impact?
• Are you happy living in your current setting or would you choose to move again? Why or why not?
• Do you have any further reflections on past, present or future choice of home setting?

Special Objects Inventory

In another exercise, Israel suggests creating a list of the special items in your home along with what they mean to you.

Here are her examples:

Meaning: Connection with many cultures

Objects: Tapestries, artifacts from around the world, furniture from foreign countries

Meaning: Love of family and friends

Objects: Photographs, children’s drawings, gifts from friends

Meaning: Love of natural beauty

Objects: Rocks, shells, pine cones, plants

After creating your own list of meanings and objects, Israel also suggests asking yourself these three questions:

• Do you feel that these objects and categories reflect you? Why or why not?
• Are there other special interests or values you have that are not being reflected in your home? Are there special objects you could include in your home to reflect you?
• If you could save only one of these special objects, which one would it be and why?

By the way, if you’re a student or work from home, here are some good ideas on creating a productive, comfortable space from several design psychologists.

What are your thoughts on design psychology?
How do you choose a space or new furniture? If you’re a design psychologist yourself (or a designer), please feel free to chime in on your design process! This is just a primer, so it’d be great to hear your thoughts or knowledge about this emerging field.

Maybe you’re walking along the beach, feeling the warm sand on your bare feet. Perhaps you’re riding your bike in a park, surrounded by hundred-year-old trees and singing birds. Or maybe you’re pinching the dirt as you dig through the backyard to plant a few flowers.

Being outdoors at a park, the beach or even just a few feet from our doorsteps can feel both relaxing and invigorating.

In fact, research has shown that participating in physical activity in the great outdoors can do a world of good for your psyche.

When analyzing ten studies with 1,252 participants, UK researchers found that outdoor activities like walking, gardening and bike riding helped boost the mood and self-esteem of participants.

Not only that: The mood-boosting benefits can begin after as little as five minutes. (You can learn more about “green exercise” here.)

So what are some ways you can take advantage of these findings? Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World, offers several suggestions below on “going slow by going green.”

1. “Spend time in wooded areas or green parks,” she says.

Certainly, all places in the great outdoors are not created equal. Stepping onto a busy, bustling street with cars whizzing by can easily give you a headache, and dampen your mood (especially if the area is filled with pollution).

So seek out the truly “green” spots in your area.

For instance, I love NYC, but some streets, with their honking horns and sewer-like smells can get overwhelming. But step into Central Park, and it feels like you’ve just stepped into a different, calmer and tranquil world. It’s absolutely beautiful.

If you don’t have access to a park or wooded area, Hohlbaum suggests visiting “a botanical garden or even a flower shop.”

2. Be mindful and grateful.

Pay close attention to the small stuff, to the little treasures in your surroundings: the trees, the flowers and even the outlines of each leaf, she says.

“It is a great exercise in concentration and relaxation as you become absolutely present to the current moment.”

Hohlbaum also cites Mark Coleman’s advice to recite a mindful meditation every day. Coleman is the author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. “Saying a prayer of gratitude as you observe nature can make you more aware of the true gifts the planet provides us every day,” Hohlbaum says.

3. “Connect with the earth.”

Gardening “is another really great way to literally dig into the dirt and feeling connected with nature,” Hohlbaum says. “Plant seeds or even a small garden in pots on your windowsill. Watch them grow and, with them, your confidence, connection and calm!”

You can learn more about Hohlbaum on her website.

What outdoor activities do you enjoy? Does being outside boost your mood?

Photo by Gregg O’Connell, available under a Creative Commons attribution license.

First and foremost, I should offer a disclaimer for this post:

The scientific media briefing I watched this morning, “Feeding the Brain to Help Manage Depression: The Role of Medical Foods,” was presented by Rakesh Jain, M.D., M.P.H., the Director of Psychiatric Drug Research at R/D Clinical Research Center in Lake Jackson, TX and Teodoro Bottiglieri, Ph.D. of the Baylor Institute of Metabolic Disease, and sponsored by Pamlab, a pharmaceutical company specializing in prescription medical foods. Neither PsychCentral.com nor myself is affiliated with Pamlab or Deplin, the new medical food discussed during the briefing.

Now that that’s out of the way, on to the more interesting stuff.

“Can we feed the brain to regulate mood disorders?”

If you had no experience with or knowledge of medical foods (meant for nutritional or dietary management of specific diseases), you might’ve thought Jain and Bottiglieri were referring to feeding the brain – and our bodies – with actual food when you heard that question.

Instead, the men were referring to medical foods – more specifically, a new product called Deplin, a medical food that includes L-methylfolate, the only active form of folate that can cross the blood brain barrier and help with the synthesis of the neurotransmitters associated with mood and, consequently, mood disorders such as depression: serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.

Research shows that people with depression and low folate levels are less likely to respond to treatments such as antidepressants and less likely to achieve remission.

(Unfortunately, a smorgasbord of factors can contribute to low folate levels – genetics, age, lifestyle choices like poor diets and smoking, certain medications like anticonvulsants, oral contraceptives, and lithium, and certain illnesses like Crohn’s disease, hypothyroidism, and diabetes, just to name a few.)

Well, that makes sense, right? I mean, if you need folate to help synthesize the neurotransmitters, and you don’t have enough folate, the neurotransmitters won’t be properly synthesized and your depression – even with the assistance of antidepressants – probably won’t get better. Or, at least, the chances of you getting better – and staying better for longer periods of time – will be decreased.

What didn’t make sense to me during most of the briefing was why folic acid and natural forms of folate (the kind you can get from green vegetables, for example) wouldn’t work just as well?

In other words, why do we need yet another pill?

How can you blame me? This column is called “Midweek Mental Greening,” after all.

Well, as it turns out, folic acid (which is a man-made product and can actually block L-methylfolate from crossing the blood brain barrier) has to go through a four-step process throughout our bodies before our brains can use it. Natural folate from green vegetables has to go through a three-step process. When time is of the essence, as it often is in cases of severe depression and other mood disorders, these three- and four-step processes just aren’t quick enough.

Combine the time problem with the fact that many people can’t make the necessary changes in order to increase folate (for example, people taking anticonvulsants aren’t likely to stop just because they need more folate, people with Crohn’s disease and diabetes face nutritional challenges they can manage but not eliminate, and elderly people can’t turn back the clock) and the fact that Deplin is immediately put to use once absorbed, and the “need” for yet another pill might not leave such a bad taste in the mouth.

A recording of the media briefing will be available soon, and in the meantime you can learn more about Deplin and folate deficiency at www.deplin.com. Of course, you shouldn’t use any of this information to diagnosis yourself and/or label Deplin as your wonder drug medical food. If you suffer from depression for which other treatments don’t seem to be working and you fall into one of the categories of folks at risk for folate deficiency, be smart about it: Make an appointment with your doctor.

Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, Michael!

1. Since you’re a specialist in this area–and I have always wondered this myself, feeling the effects of toxic places–how does poor air quality contribute to depression and other illness?

Michael: If a building’s air quality is not up to par, particularly sensitive people may react to it, finding themselves feeling ill. And if these same people find themselves sidelined from work for any length of time, it’s likely questions are going to be raised: what’s going on? Are they malingering? Hypochondriacs? How much of it is in their heads? These kinds of questions – from colleagues, neighbors, even family and friends – can prompt someone who’s frankly not sure why he or she is feeling ill into feeling down as well. Many especially sensitive people suffer from depression, perhaps not as a root disease so much as a learned accompaniment to their difficulties. The key thing that sensitive people need to understand is that poor air quality probably exacerbates what one researcher has termed “Central Sensitivity Syndrome,” a predisposition for their nervous system to be unusually vigilant. It’s not pathology – in most cases it’s their intrinsic physiology.

2. You have so many insights on highly sensitive people. Could you summarize your points and come up with a few ways HSPs can live and cope in an insensitive world?

Michael: First and foremost, highly sensitive people (or, as another author has referred to them, “sensory defensive” people) should resist the temptation to feel marginalized or embarrassed. Estimates are that 15-20% of children, for example, are high reactors or sensory defensives. Often they grow up into highly sensitive adults.

Consider that one especially acute form of sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), was put down as the “Yuppie Flu” a mere decade ago and yet, the more it’s studied by reputable organizations, the more it seems to be a bona fide susceptibility that some people are born with. (Whether it’s triggered has to do with accumulated stress in some cases, childhood trauma in others.) Same with synesthesia or overlapping senses: until brain imaging showed that certain people really do “hear a flavor” or ” smell a color,” their reports were regarded as metaphorical at best. So HSPs needn’t deny the validity of her own perceptions.

Likewise, a sensitive person should recognize his/her particular needs and be willing to speak up for them. It’s a matter more of education than agitation: recognize that most people aren’t highly sensitive and don’t have share the same perspective, don’t have the identical feelings. They can understand how another person lives, though, if that other person is patient and instructive, yet ultimately insistent. Realize that no one else can be counted to speak up for you, but do so with the same respect that you’d want for yourself.

3. I love the distinction you make between people who have thin boundaries (HSPs) and people who have thick boundaries. Could you describe this for my readers?

Michael: The thick-to-thin boundary spectrum isn’t a concept I came up with, it’s one I borrowed from Ernest Hartmann, a psychiatrist and dream researcher in Massachusetts. This way of describing personality is so useful when talking about sensitivity that it’s actually a foundation for my book. Basically, Hartmann says, thick boundary people are the ones who strike us as very solid, rigid, or thick skinned. Then there are people who are especially sensitive, open, or vulnerable. These are the thin boundary types. They’re very interesting since thin boundaries have been shown to correlate with dream recall and vividness, heightened emotional reactions, imagination and creativity, fantasy proneness, environmental illness, and mystical or psychic experience.

Thin boundary people hold the key, in my view, to understanding a lot about ourselves that has remained out of reach until now. The more science takes seriously what thin boundary people have to teach us – especially about the centrality of emotions to existence – the more we’ll come to appreciate distinctions in human nature that are really fundamental to how we all get along.

You could be a Type C personality, which makes you more susceptible to illnesses, says Michael Jawer in the fascinating book he wrote with Marc Micozzi, M.D, Ph.D., called “The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion: How Feelings Link the Brain, the Body, and the Sixth Sense,” which you can read about at www.emotiongateway.com.Here’s what Michael writes about the Type C Personality:

In recent years, a cluster of personality characteristics has come to be identified as the Type C personality, someone who is at heightened risk for a slew of afflictions, from colds to asthma to cancer. In contrast with the Type A person (who angers easily and has difficulty keeping feelings under wraps) and the Type B person (who has a healthier balance of emotional expressiveness), the Type C person is a suppressor, a stoic, a denier of feelings. He or she has a calm, outwardly rational, and unemotional demeanor, but also a tendency to conform to the wishes of others, a lack of assertiveness, and an inclination toward feelings of helplessness or hopelessness.

This is the sort of personality that Canadian physician Gabor Mate has studied extensively. Over his years of family practice, Mate relates, he began to notice a pattern: individuals who were unable to express anger, who didn’t seem to recognize the primacy of their own needs, and who were constantly doing for others, appeared to be the ones most susceptible to a slew of ailments, from asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus to multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These conditions are all autoimmune disorders. Mate claims that, when an individual engages in a long-term practice of ignoring or suppressing legitimate feelings–when he or she is just plain too nice–the immune system can become compromised and confused, learning to attack the self rather than defend it.

Emotional expression, in Mate’s view is absolutely essential because feelings serve to alert the individual to what is dangerous or unwholesome–or, conversely, to what is helpful and nourishing–so that the person can either take protective action against the thread or move toward the beneficial stimulus. If someone never gets angry, this reflects an unhealthy inability or unwillingness to defend personal integrity. Such “boundary confusion” can ultimately become a matter of life and death. If someone just cannot say no, Mate argues, his or her body will end up saying it in the form of illness or disease.

Midweek Mental Greening

It’s not scheduled to be complete until 2011, but exciting construction started earlier this month on what sounds like will be an impressive – and green – new mental health center for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

The new mental health center is the first of several reconstruction projects that will take place over the next five years within the Palo Alto VA, and according to Palo Alto Online, the new mental health center will:

• Use natural lighting, landscaping, and other therapeutic design elements to promote a healing environment.
• Use a single-story structure to offer patients easy access to outdoor spaces.
• Provide landscaped views from patients’ bedroom windows.

“This groundbreaking is groundbreaking in terms of what is going to be built here,” U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo said. “When they enter the doors, everything there will be about healing them.”

Of course, using the design of a mental health hospital as an additional treatment tool itself isn’t a new idea (think of the Kirkbride Plan, which saw its boom in the late 1800s); however, that doesn’t make Palo Alto’s new mental health center any less groundbreaking. According to Dr. Bradley Karlin, Associate Chief Consultant of Psychotherapy and Psychogeriatrics for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “the new center is innovative in its adoption of [the recovery] model, as recovery has not been emphasized in the development of other facilities.”

Plus, the Palo Alto VA’s new mental health center will also “replace one of the most seismically unstable buildings in the VA system,” according to Kerri Childress, the Palo Alto VA’s Director of Communications.

I wholeheartedly believe in the power of “green” recovery tools (obviously). Natural scenery, fresh air, and sunlight – I believe they’re all effective means for promoting recovery and mental wellness.

So, my question isn’t whether you think this new mental health center’s design and emphasis on “green” recovery will be effective (of course, you’re welcome to chime in with that if you want); rather, I want to know about your own experiences with “green” recovery.

Have you ever been to a mental health facility that used design elements such as the ones the new mental health center in Palo Alto will use? Or, have you ever consciously set out to use your own natural surroundings as recovery tools? Maybe scheduled a daily walk through a park or an hour of meditation surrounded by the trees, mountains, or beaches close to your own home? Even something as simple as raising your shades each morning to the sunlight flood your rooms?

If so, how did it all work for you? What’s your favorite “green” recovery tool?

Being selfish by using a shared group resource can hurt others. But it doesn’t always have to.

Since that time, we’ve had a great deal of research into this phenomenon that’s resulted in a few common solutions, as outlined by Mark Van Vugt (2009). These solutions include providing more information in order to reduce uncertainty about the future, ensuring people’s need for a strong social identity and sense of community is met, the need for being able to trust our institutions that we put in charge of our “commons,” and the value of incentives for improving oneself and responsible use, while punishing overuse.

Information

As Van Vugt notes, “people have a fundamental need to understand their environment” in order to help them understand what happens in the future or in times of uncertainty. The more information a person has, the more secure they feel in making rational decisions that may impact the environment they live in. We listen to the weather forecast to know whether to pack an umbrella which will keep us dry.

Van Vugt gives an example of local water usage. People conserve more when they understand that their usage can directly help alleviate a water shortage or drought. He also emphasizes that simple messages are the most effective. The energy efficiency rating on a major appliance purchased in the U.S. tells consumers exactly where that appliance stands in comparison to other appliances the consumer could alternatively purchase, as well as telling them how much money they’re likely to spend on using that appliance. Such clear, simple messages can impact consumer behavior.

Identity

We humans, as Van Vugt notes, have a deep need to belong to social groups. We’re inherently social creatures and crave group acceptance and group belonging. We’ll go to some effort to staying within our chosen group and to increase our feelings of belongingness.

An example given in the article is that in fishing communities where the fisherman have a good social network going, they exchange catch information informally and more frequently than in communities where such networks don’t exist. Guess what? Such an information exchange results in more sustainable fishing.

Belonging to a group also means being more concerned about your reputation within that group. Nobody wants to be an outcast of the society they’ve chosen to be a part of. Knowing where you stand within a group – even in the form of a simple smiley or frowney face on your electric bill, based upon your energy usage compared to that of your neighbors’ – can change individual behavior.

Institutions

Often times we imagine that if we simply policed the commons, that would be sufficient to ensuring fair use of the shared resource. However, policing is only as good as the institution charged with it. If it is corrupt and trusted by no one, policing is a part of the problem, not the solution. Look at virtually any dictatorship to see how this plays out in the real world. Citizens who live in such societies recognize there is little fairness in how shared resources are distributed.

Authorities gain users’ trust by employing fair decision making rules and procedures, according to Van Vugt. “Regardless of whether people receive bad or good outcomes, they want to be treated fairly and respectfully.” People have little incentive to participate in a group process if they believe the authorities or institutions running the process are corrupt or play favorites. Authorities can often encourage feelings of trust in their users or citizens by simply listening to them, and providing accurate, unbiased information about the resources.

Incentives

The last component of helping people avoid the tragedy of the commons is incentives. Humans can be motivated by a marketplace that rewards positive environmental behavior, and punishes unwanted, harmful behavior. Van Vugt cites the pollution credit market in the U.S. as being a successful example of incentivizing “green” behavior.

Van Vugt also points out that financial (or other) incentives aren’t always needed when other factors, such as a strong group identity, are in place. In fact, incentive schemes can be counterproductive if they directly undermine other core needs, such as information, identity or institutions. Littering fines, for instance, while well-intentioned might undermine a person’s trust in the authorities (because they’re suggesting littering is more of a problem than it really is), or transform it in our minds from an ethical issue or one of helping the environment, to an economic issue (the government needs another way to get our money).

The amount of research conducted over the past 40 years suggests that we have a much greater understanding of the tragedy of the commons. But we also have a greater understanding of ways to avert it, or to limit people’s self-interests at the expense of their neighbors.

Reference:

Van Vugt, M. (2009). Averting the tragedy of the commons: Using social psychological science to protect the environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(3), 169-173.