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Showing posts with the label #Emotions

Laughing is good for your mind and your body – here’s what the research shows

#Laughing #Joy #Fun #MentaHealth #Mindfulness #Emotions Amusement and pleasant surprises – and the laughter they can trigger – add texture to the fabric of daily life. Those giggles and guffaws can seem like just silly throwaways. But laughter, in response to funny events, actually takes a lot of work because it activates many areas of the brain : areas that control motor, emotional, cognitive, and social processing. As I found when writing “ An Introduction to the Psychology of Humor ,” researchers now appreciate laughter’s power to enhance physical and mental well-being. Laughter’s physical power People begin laughing in infancy when it helps develop muscles and upper body strength . Laughter is not just breathing. It relies on complex combinations of facial muscles, often involving the movement of the eyes, head, and shoulders. Laughter – doing it or observing it – activates multiple regions of the brain: the motor cortex, which controls muscles; the frontal lobe, which helps you un...

How shutting down your feelings can be disastrous to your relationship.

  #Emotions #HealthyRelationships #Communication Research has shown that suppressing your emotions pretty well shuts down communication within that relationship. Let's chat about what the findings from one study might mean for your relationship. James Gross, a scientist who studies emotion, found that when we try to suppress emotion, this is what happens: • It's very hard to do - basically it doesn't work. We have to work very hard to shut an emotion down once it is up and running, and in the process, we often get more agitated and tense. This is especially true in close relationships when the trigger for the emotion, the other person, is still there giving us signals that get us all fired up. • Emotion doesn't stay inside our skin. When we try to shut feelings off, the people we are relating to also get more and more tense. When we are denying our feelings, our partners probably get tense because our faces register our feelings way faster than the thinking part of the ...

3 Reasons Why People Shut Down Emotionally

#Rejection #Avoidantattachment #Judgment #Shame #Emotions #Triple5LightTherapy #BlackMaleTherapist #BlackTherapist #LGBTAffirmingTherapy #Triple5LightTherapy Loving someone who shuts down, stonewalls you, or simply will not communicate, causes a quandary, particularly if you can tell by their lack of engagement that something is going on deep below the surface. Alternatively, if you have shut down emotionally yourself, you might review some of the following reasons why people close themselves off and ask yourself if one or more of them ring true for you. #1 Fear of Rejection If you or someone you love has experienced trauma, voicing your needs or feelings is a significant risk. Often, people managing life after trauma feel vulnerable and expressing their feelings opens them up emotionally to additional pain or rejection. Sharing feelings in the wake of grief also poses communication challenges since individuals processing complex emotions feel fear of opening the floodgates. If you hav...

The Psychology of Hoarding Toilet Paper, Beans & Soup

  #Hoarding #PanicBuying #COVID-19 #Anxiety #Emotions #Therapy #Triple5LightTherapy.com By   John M. Grohol, Psy.D. There’s a very good article by Bella DePaulo, Ph.D.  Why Are People Hoarding Toilet Paper?  that dives into the psychology of this behavior. It’s a good question because what we’re seeing are American consumers acting in a seemingly irrational manner in reaction to the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Panic  buying  is what people do when faced with an imminent disaster, whether it be natural — such as a hurricane or snowstorm — or something else, like the spread of a virus for which there is no effective treatment or vaccine. And while it seems irrational on the surface, it actually has a rational basis. I think one of the reasons panic buying seems to make less sense to some during  this  pandemic is the fact that it’s likely to not just last a few days or weeks, but months to come. There’s little chance most people can s...