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World of Psychology


Perfectionism

Making Friends with Failure

Many of us may have grown up with the idea that making mistakes is a bad thing. When we received a bad grade or things didn’t go as expected, we may have felt distressed as we told our parents about it. We worried about their negative reaction.

The urge to avoid errors goes back to an earlier time when our ancestors could not afford to make a mistake when they hunted for food or came across danger. Miscalculations cost people their lives in the olden days. Their minds were adept at helping them ensure they didn’t make deadly blunders.
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Happiness

The Law of Polarity Might Change Your Life

As a change facilitator and therapist, I recognize there really isn’t a one-size fits all approach to being healthy and happy. Which is why books by gurus, and therapies sometimes work and sometimes don’t? The truth is just because something worked well for one person, that doesn’t mean it will work the same for you. And sometimes finding the right information which suits you can be a challenge.

So, what happens if you’ve tried multiple approaches to change something in your life and you still feel as if you’re stuck in a rut, and nothing seems to work? Well, I sometimes find the simplest approach to change is often the most helpful, which is why I introduce the Law of Polarity to my collaborative partners.
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Memory and Perception

New Research Raises Concerns About the Dangers of Marijuana Use

Whatever your personal position on the subject of marijuana legalization, whether for medical or recreational use, a growing body of research reveals concerns over the potential harms caused by cannabis.

The concerns are more than academic. With increasing public support (varying by demographic cohorts) for legalized marijuana, and 10 states legalizing recreational marijuana and 33 states where medical marijuana use is legal, the cannabis movement is just gaining steam.
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Inspiration & Hope

8 Ways to Hear Your Own Voice

For the last 12 years, I have kept a binder full of advice from friends and mental health professionals. After every doctor’s visit or coffee date, I would scribble down notes of what they said so that I could access their words when I needed them. Similarly, I kept a self-esteem file, full of positive comments from readers and loving notes from friends to pump me up when I needed reassurance and validation that I was a decent person who ought to stick around.

We all need to rely on doctors, psychologists, and friends to guide us. The gems inside my binder and file afforded me great reassurance in times of darkness. However, I filled my head so full of feedback from others that there was little room for my own thoughts.
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Books

Got a Minute? Then You Have Time to Create!

One of the biggest reasons many of us don’t create, and in particular write, is because we don’t have time. We’re working and parenting and cooking and dish-washing. We’re commuting, and dropping off and picking up. And we think we need to carve out at least 20 minutes to sit down and reconnect to our imagination. And somehow those 20 minutes get eaten up by other activities before we even realize it.

However, all you really need to access your creativity is a minute. Yes, just 1 minute. Which means that you can write while standing in line at the grocery store or waiting for the dentist to call your name. You can write while sitting on the subway or at the bus stop. You can write while the water boils, or your laundry is spinning. You can write while your lunch heats up, or you’re on hold.
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Depression

9 Ways to Free Yourself from Ruminations

Of all my symptoms of depression, stuck thoughts are by far the most painful and debilitating for me. The harder I try to move the needle from the broken record in my brain, the louder the song becomes.

Ruminations are like a gaggle of politicians campaigning in your head. Try as you might to detach from their agenda, their slogans are forefront in your mind, ready to thrust you down the rabbit hole of depression. Logic tells you they are full of bull, but that doesn’t keep you from believing what they have to say.
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Relationships

The Psychology Behind Remaining in Toxic Relationships

Have you ever known someone — a friend, a family member, or an acquaintance — who’s essentially stuck in a romantic relationship that’s unhealthy? And when I say unhealthy, I’m not referencing circumstantial discord and bumps in the road; it’s more of an inherent lack of compatibility where troubling, or even disturbing, issues ensue. Chances are, many of us have heard accounts of toxic relationships that continue to persist.

Granted, as an outsider, we never truly know what another’s relationship is like on a day-to-day basis, nor are we privy to their emotional intimacies on a deeper level; however, the ‘outsider perspective’ also allows us to listen and observe from a clean slate; from a place of clarity.
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