Archive for February 2022
Why animals are good for your health
I have a new family member – a 14-week-old puppy named, Daisy. In the spirit of how much she has added to my life already, I thought I’d share some health insights and scientific research on how animals benefit our mental and physical health. When I first began writing this blog, I originally had ‘dogs’…
Read MoreHow kindness impacts the brain and benefits mental health
Kindness makes us happier and also protects against depression. That’s what the science says. In a typical ‘kindness study’, people are asked to carry out a certain number of acts of kindness over the course of a day, a week, a month, or longer, and their happiness levels are either compared against people not doing…
Read MoreThe science of empathy
“In this moment, right now, I’m with you and I’m sharing your pain.” This is empathy. Scientific studies lend support to it. In one study, a person lay inside an MRI scanner while watching a live video of their partner sitting in another room. Soon, the partner was given a painful electric shock to their…
Read MoreHow your beliefs influence your life
More than 200 female students at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, were once told that boys typically score 5 percentage points higher in mathematics than girls. It wasn’t actually true. It was part of a study that examined how our beliefs influence our lives. Half of the girls were told that the…
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