Crying can be a sign of joy, sadness, or frustration. Crying in public isn’t generally considered socially acceptable, and may be interpreted as a weakness. But are there any benefits from it? Well, maybe. Who cries, and when? Crying in response to pain is common until adolescence, but adults don’t usually cry for that reason. […]
Is Crying Good For You? Read More »
Do you make judgments when things are going well? If you do, that can stir up meta-feelings. Like metacognition is thinking about thinking, meta-feeling is feelings about feelings. Mental illness, or even a lot of stress, can mean extended periods of time feeling rather yucky. Periods of feeling good, or at least better in a
Meta-Feelings: How Do You Feel About Feeling Good? Read More »
For some people, fear can have a significant influence on the choice they make. In this post, I wanted to discuss how much of a role fear plays in our own decision-making process. Looking back, I don’t think fear was a big factor in most of my decisions. If I wanted to do something, I
How Big a Role Has Fear Played in Your Decisions? Read More »
I’ve noticed that a lot of people in the blogging world have quite a strong inner critic. I don’t, and II find it fascinating when it seems like people believe that they should self-criticize in order to do things properly, or in order to avoid being a bad person. So let’s chat about it. To
How Does the Inner Critic Get Started? Read More »
I’ve long had issues with the whole self-improvement industry, but the idea for this post came from a quote that Suzette Benjamin shared on her blog: We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement… All the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. Pema
The Problem with Self-Improvement — Aren’t You Good Enough? Read More »
Ginnie Sophia did this lovely video based on the poem. You can find Erin Hanson on her Instagram and Facebook. Her books are available on Lulu.com.
You’re Not Defined By What You’re Not Read More »
Our minds play all kinds of tricks on us. We’ve got all kinds of cognitive biases that influence what we do with our thoughts, and our brains do interesting things with what they pick up through our senses. There’s a philosophical argument as to whether or not there is a truly objective reality, but for
Perceived vs. Objective Reality Read More »
“Am I a bad person?” It seems to be a fairly common question. Searching for that question on Google yields 263 million hits. I’ve also seen it raised in the blogosphere. Regardless of what the answer may or may not seem to be, though, is it a valid and/or useful question? What exactly is a
Am I a Bad Person? Or Is That the Wrong Question? Read More »
Who is the Should Monster? It’s that voice inside your head telling you what you should do to live up to expectations—your own expectations of yourself, as well as what you think that others (and the world in general) expect of you. Shoulds can consume a lot of mental energy, so let’s chat about them.
The Should Monster: The Problem with “I Should” Read More »
“Happiness is a choice.” It’s a message that you probably come across fairly often. While it’s probably meant to be motivational and positive most of the time, if you start to poke at it a bit, it has some fundamental flaws. I believe that happiness is not a choice, at least not when something like
Happiness Is Not a Choice Read More »
