As I've suggested, the latest research shows us that what's going on in your gut influences what goes on in your brain--not the other way around. So, if the evidence shows us that the brain is responding to messages sent by the gut, primarily through the vagus nerve, then it …

You're known as a leader. You push yourself to do well. You thrive on projects that need control, order, and predictability. Healthy intimate relationships generally require flexibility, openness, and spontaneity. True connection requires vulnerability. You need to control what others know about you--and that gets in the way of emotional …

A short amount of time on the internet will reveal how much of our bodies are continually dying, only to be replaced with new parts for just about everything. For instance, red blood cells only last four months, and white cells a year. Skin cells, two to three weeks. You …

It will help you to think of solutions and better yet understand what other people's actions are caused by. Visualize Negative Thoughts Turning into Positive - Here's an activity that works wonders for negative thoughts. When you have a negative though, visualize it in your head and then slowly transition it …

The truth is that all humans are "hardwired" to feel unhappy when there is pain. Pain signals literally travel to the parts of the brain that handle emotions: the limbic system and the frontal lobe. This is part of the survival system, because pain is there to alert you to …

It taps you into a whole new dimension of sensation, and you feel like a blind man whose sight has been restored. Every action you perform is made up of separate components. The simple action of tying your shoelaces is made up of a complex series of subtle motions. Most …

There are many ways to fake psychic powers. Since the readings were done by phone, and members of a reputable radio station chose the calls, let's assume that the psychic did not have prior information on the callers. What else could account for her accuracy? The callers definitely felt she …

Kill the mental chatter the second it starts. Stop the self-pity and self-doubt conversations. Stop the inner-negativity. It's a bad habit. Tell the mental chatter, as Jocko Willink puts it, "I'm busy. Come back later when I'm not!" Stop worrying about what the voices are saying. Stop listening to them …

Good for you! So take a look at your social connections with friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and groups. Some of these relationships may not qualify as healthy and therefore will not be consistent sources of happiness and fulfillment--in fact, they can significantly detract from your happiness and fulfillment. Healthy relationships …

After we picked a career, we would have to investigate all the companies in the field that we could work for. As you can gather, if we did a thorough search to maximize our decision accuracy, we'd spend more time deciding where to work than actually working. We can't live …

Every baseball player practices batting. It's the first thing you learn in Little League, and you never stop practicing. Every World Series game begins with batting practice. Basic skills must always remain sharp. Seated meditation is the arena in which meditators practice their own fundamental skills. The game the meditator …

Take the case of Luke, who is a successful TV actor. Luke describes a sharp lesson that he learnt early on in his career, in managing criticism: I remember when, in my late teens, before I went on to drama school, I was in a local theatre group. This one …

Unite the mind with this sign that is available in the present moment and let the mind flow with every succeeding moment. As you pay bare attention to it, you will see that the sign itself is changing every moment. Keep your mind with the changing moments. Also, notice that …

Those who were stigmatized were assigned the most undesirable category in the community.2 Though modern use of the word stigma no longer involves physical markings, a person with mental illness carries an indelible mark of shame nonetheless. This happens because society views mental illness as menacing, deviant, and unpredictable …

You must implement change daily. You cannot hope for change. You must create change. Change is nothing more than ideas made manifest. Through change, your ideas will nurture and develop until maturity. I cannot do this for you; I can only inspire and encourage you to change. I can only …

If you find your mind extremely active, then simply observe the nature and degree of that activity. It is just a part of the passing show within. Maintain muscle mass. Cells that don't sustain the proper balance of fluids and electrolytes cause muscle fatigue. That's why drinking ample fluids during …

This little bit of advice seemed to help a student in my critical thinking course. He went to a casino and won $800, a considerable sum for an undergraduate student. On his way to blowing his windfall, he stopped and thought about how his mental accounts were affecting his decision …

Here are some ideas. If you like to speak more than you like to write, you can record the TRAP with your phone. If you're walking and talking in public, to the people around you, you're simply having a phone conversation. If you record your monitoring, I encourage you to …

Life is full of many ups and downs. Each lifetime has moments of inconceivable joy, tremendous suffering, and utter boredom, yet in the end, it is all part of a beautiful ride. It is a wonderful blessing to have a conscious mind, but being self-aware entails many burdens and drawbacks …

But being overweight can take a toll. It's the rare person that doesn't develop some sort of adverse health effect related to being overweight. This may not be affecting your life now, but don't ignore the fact that it could affect your life significantly in the future. Consider the life …

It is testimony to how much people want to help if we give them the tools to do so, if we make it personal and if we connect them with people in need. Successful people start their road to success with a moment of truth and a decision. A decision …

If it is distorted and fictional, be assured that it will show itself at the worst and most inopportune times, because that self-critical voice is relentlessly whispering in your ear. This personal truth business is a big deal, a huge deal. If you don't get yours straight, it will ruin …

Ask yourself, for example, what you would do if there was nothing to stop you - you didn't have to think about money or other people. Think, too, about what has and hasn't worked in the past in relation to what it is you want to achieve. If, for example, your …

You might be aware of the movement of the ribs as you breathe in and out or the movement of the belly, rising with each in-breath and releasing with each out-breath. Taking these next few moments to bring your attention to where you best sense the physical sensations and rhythm …

A state where you are willing to learn new things with a smile. Increase the state by changing the submodalities. Make images bigger, feelings more intense, sounds more impactful. Whatever pleases you and gives you a wonderful feeling of learning with ease and pleasure. Anchor it by touching your thumb …

You're worried about it. Worry forces you to think about little else over the weekend other than getting to see a doctor on Monday. It's annoying that you can think of little else, but the fact that you are so preoccupied makes it likely you'll go and see the doctor …

We may feel fear, worry, restlessness, or boredom. These reactions are also universal. We should simply note them and then generalize. We should realize that these reactions are normal human responses, and can arise in anybody. The practice of this style of comparison may feel forced and artificial at first …

We're not in denial--we know there is something going on that needs to be solved. Maybe we even understand that the matter is serious. It's on our to-do list . it just never gets done. The reasons we procrastinate are many and can vary by person. It's possible that some people …

I won't quarrel with that. But the secondary gain of educating the public is far more valuable. One of the greatest ways we make sense of the world is by hearing the stories of others. Through their narratives, we measure and reframe our internal thoughts and feelings, learn that we're …

There is an amusing passage by the British novelist Kingsley Amis on this subject. Amis was writing at the time about his strategies for recovering from a hangover, after a binge of nighttime drinking, but if you replace the word "hangover" in this passage with "panic attack," it reveals a …

Keeps your bones strong and joints healthy. Helps you maintain a healthy weight. Helps you maintain your independence well into your later years.1 Constantly fighting your emotions can be like playing an exhausting game of tug-of-war with a monster. What might happen if you just put down the rope …

It is also possible, and in fact not at all uncommon, that a successful person may attribute a great deal of positive characteristics to someone whose influence at the time was entirely negative or destructive, yet the person accommodated or adapted that negative experience in a healthful and positive way …

"The results suggested that suppressing the thought for the first five minutes caused it to `rebound' even more prominently into the participants' minds later," according to an article in Monitor on Psychology. Wegner later dubbed this tendency "ironic process theory" to explain why it's so difficult to tame intruding thoughts …

Why is that? There is often considerable evidence that both supports and contradicts the hypothesis tested. If we focus primarily on the supporting data, we're more likely to accept that hypothesis, even though the contradictory information may be more compelling. In essence, when we use a confirming strategy, we rely …

However, true experiments are difficult to perform on this issue because you can't force a random sample of people to smoke or stop smoking. As a consequence, researchers had to analyze the incidence of illness in smokers and nonsmokers. But any observed differences in one study could have been the …

Thomas Edison's productivity was boosted by napping. Napoleon Bonaparte would nap anywhere he could because he was so busy he didn't know when the next opportunity to rest would present itself. Leonardo Da Vinci took a 15-minute naps every 4 hours and slept less at night. On top of 10 …

So, keep in mind that evaluating risk for suicide is not like setting up a list of pros and cons. There is no specific formula for detecting and preventing suicide. What I recommend is to look at a person's biology, biography, risk, and protective factors--as well as her or his …

It directly influences the content and quality of every moment that you live. We needn't consider ourselves to be religious in order to invite prayer into our lives. In my eyes, prayers of love, gratitude and care are powerful, healing energetic frequencies that do count, and do make a real …

While early contradictory evidence may blur our understanding, later work often brings the picture into sharper focus. When programs to help disadvantaged children, such as Head Start, were first studied, we saw headlines like "Early Intervention Raises IQs by Thirty Points," along with "Head Start a Failure." What are we …

We'll discuss this topic in part five. Different communication channels have different uses. Rather than use every technology as an always-on channel, use the best tools for the job. Get in and get out. Group chat is great for replacing in-person meetings but terrible if it becomes an all-day affair …