“Hello there, how do you do? My name is Mr. Facebook, I’m sure you know me. Look, do you wanna check your new notifications, perhaps scroll through interesting feeds?” “Don’t listen to him! He is distracting you. Instead listen to me, my name is Instagram, and I’m here to instantly offer you the newest photos of your friends? Do you know that hot guy (or girl) you met last weekend down at the pub? So, go on then check it out.” “Mate don’t listen to them; all they do is to distract you! Instead, just come here and unwind. I’ve got loads of funny and absorbing short videos tailored just for you. My name is Tik-Tok by the way.” The More is More So yes, indeed. We have been through this a million times before, yet we still bite the bait every now and then. But why, you may ask. Why is it that they can do this so efficiently, under the wonderful disguise of ‘something new’? We like new things, don’t we? That’s where they come into the picture, because they know what’s new can’t be boring. You never saw it before, you never thought about it before and most importantly you never experienced it before. And they know this better than you, because it is all about that famous or infamous neurotransmitter called dopamine. Once, it was a fitness-enhancing hormone, it helped us to not just survive, but thrive throughout the ages, for instance, the fact that you are reading or listening to this blog is partly responsible for dopamine. Dopamine, the wonder hormone, helps you...
Let’s talk about loneliness. What does it mean to be lonely? Why do we feel it? Are there any good things about being and feeling lonely? People sometimes do feel lonely, but when ‘sometimes’ becomes ‘most of the time’ is what worries us. Right? Abe Maslow said that it’s a fundamental need to have social connections (Elizabeth Hopper, 2020), Erikson was a bit more optimistic, he said that loneliness helps with personal growth (Gross, 2020), Cacioppo pushed this further (Holding et al., 2020), and he said that it can lead to cardiovascular disease. Some of us have a deep feeling of not being good enough, and we hide away from people, feeling unworthy of attention. Those of us who feel this way should start reflecting deeply on the idea of excellence and should start taking steps to avoid a monolithic view of excellence. It’s not you who is worthless! It’s your idea about yourself that may need to be radically re-examined. We often read about people who are projecting their inner world to the outer world (Waytz, 2011), and while there are certainly such kinds of people, they tend to see the world the way they see themselves. But for the purpose of this blog, I will focus more on people who are on the other end of the spectrum. And namely, those who let the world project itself onto them, these are the people who let the wolf into the house. And while the wolf is being a wolf and behaving like a wolf, he does not realize the havoc he creates, and the suffering that follows follows....
Have you ever wondered why do we have to work? What is work and why does working seem so natural in every country in the world? Is it normal, natural, and healthy? We were part of the jungle, not too long ago. I say not too long ago, because 30 or 40.000 years is not too long from the perspective of our planet’s age. What was it like to wander in the African savannah or in the Siberian plateau back then? And then about 5 or 6000 years ago working became a thing starting with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but it was not until the time of the Industrial Revolution when full-time jobs became part of people’s lives. And then here we are today, where work is everywhere, so are our bills, taxes, and pension schemes. So why do we spend so much of our free time committing to 8 hours a day, 5 days a week to work? Some of us are looking for fulfillment, but not so many of us believe that fulfillment can be confused with monetary gratification. Consider the following question when asked to someone on his or her deathbed: What do you wish you would have spent more time doing? I doubt that they would say they would have been better off spending more time eating peanut butter sandwiches, or playing on PlayStation? Although, I guess a tiny minority of us would not mind these activities to do all their lives. I think most of us would opt to say something like: I wish I had spent more time making something meaningful, like studying...
What is curiosity? Why are we curious? What makes us curious? Psychology has a few answers to these questions, for instance, there are studies that show that curiosity may arise when we observe discrepancies (Berlyne, 2006), or when we perceive gap in our knowledge (Kang et al., 2009). The conceptual clarity between curiosity and interest is blurred because curiosity involves seeking new information, whereas interest involves seeking exclusively pleasurable information (Donnellan et al., 2022). So, we can see that curiosity has always been with us since childhood because curiosity helps us to better understand the world around us. And this is especially true when we are young and ready for life. You too have probably asked ‘why’ when you were a child. Much to the annoyance of your parents, however, this is something that researchers coin as ‘explanation-seeking curiosity’ (Kidd & Hayden, 2015), this behaviour motivates us to learn about the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of life? The younger we are the more questions we ask (some of us do this even in old age)! We want to know about the world, we want to explain the world, and when we have an explanation, then we can have exploration, which in turn improves metacognition. When false illusion evaporates, new reality sets in and then we are ready to go from theory to practice, to experience this new knowledge. Benefits of being curious If there wasn’t any benefit of being curious, we wouldn’t be curious, we would probably be happy with the world around us, even if we shouldn’t be. Motivated by curiosity, awareness of lexical ignorance may lead us...
Seriously… I’m not being ironic, I’m asking you, are you joking? Because why wouldn’t or shouldn’t you be joking? We know that being funny is not only good for those who are laughing at us but we the joker benefit from it as well. Humour is there for all ages, all cultures and in all languages, funny things are just funny things, since Ancient Greece it has been a tradition in Western Cultures to welcome humour in our daily lives (Hook & Grant, 1925) And there’s just so many types of humour that can make us happy, and happy is a word that we should remember, after all, if a joke does not make us happy then it is not a joke. Rather it is an offensive joke. The academic literature on the association of humour and wellbeing is vast, how it helps with coping, with stress and a powerful antidote to pain as well (Bennett & Lengacher, 2008). Let’s see some of these powerful antidotes to sadness, grief and pain: Physical humour This is straightforward, ever watched funny cat videos on YouTube, instant karma videos, people falling or tripping in, stumbling on something? This is the kind of humour where the act itself is the humour, think of Charlie Chaplin or Mr Bean. Some say a combination of laughter and a dose of vitamin C is all you need for a healthy life (Cousins, 1977). Aggressive humour This is the kind of a joke that is more than likely to be detrimental towards others, using sarcasm, cynicism, criticism at the expense of other people. It’s a...
We humans, have developed over time a taste for sweet things, an eye for sweet things and a smell of sweet things, but we also developed an ear to sweet-sounding things. Now, what is sweet and to whom is a subjective question, and I don’t want to discuss that here, instead, I’d like to put an emphasis here on the positive effects of melodies and harmonies. Maksim Gorkim once said, “When work is pleasure, life is joy!” I would like to make an adjustment here and change the word “work” with the word “music”. I believe music and the melodies can act as antidepressants, and there are numerous studies that testify this, here I would like to present a few ideas how our “invisible” friend music can help people to cope better under pressure and “renew” our emotional power when feeling down. Music and cancer patients The enjoyment of music, as explained by psychologists helps individuals to gain insight into the higher thought processes, it is a certain area of the cerebral cortex which is responsible for thinking, judging, imagining and creating. Cancer or the big “C” on the other hand is one of the most undesired illnesses, it comes with pain, lethargy, apathy and we know many times brings us one step closer to death. Supportive music has been shown to be beneficial for cancer patients who are undertaking chemotherapy, as it is known that chemotherapy is unpleasant, patients usually suffer from fatigue, feeling sick, losing hair, losing appetite. Supportive music can help patients to prepare for treatment, to feel motivated and energized. (Burns et al., 2018)...
