Emotions

What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Cognitive vs. Emotional Empathy

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week, we’ll look at cognitive vs. emotional (affective) empathy. Emotional empathy, known formally as affective empathy, refers to our ability to share the emotions of others. Cognitive empathy refers to our ability to infer and understand someone’s emotional experiences from …

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hands holding a note saying "think positive"

Toxic Positivity: What It Is and Why It’s Not Helpful

Positivity can be a good thing, but toxic positivity not so much. So, what’s the difference? I’d say that positivity is about finding the good that exists despite the bad, while toxic positivity is pretending that the bad can’t/doesn’t exist or trying not to allow it to exist. The element of invalidation is another thing …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Healing Emotional Pain Workbook

Book Review: Healing Emotional Pain Workbook

The Healing Emotional Pain Workbook by Matthew McKay, Patrick Fanning, Erica Pool, and Patricia E. Zurita Ono uses process-based cognitive behavioural therapy to address the eleven negative coping mechanisms that are most responsible for emotional disorders. Process-based CBT focuses on coping mechanisms that may be used regardless of diagnosis rather than focusing on treating specific …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The ACT Workbook for Anger

Book Review: The ACT Workbook for Anger

The ACT Workbook for Anger by Robyn D. Walser and Manuela O’Connell uses an acceptance and commitment therapy approach to support readers in better managing anger. Anger is framed as a mix of feelings, physiological sensations, thoughts, and actions, and the authors explain that experiencing it is normal; it’s getting hooked on it that can …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Resting Bitch Face

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is resting bitch face. Okay, so the term resting bitch face certainly doesn’t sound scientific, and it isn’t. However, it does seem to be related to an actual physical phenomenon. So, do some people actually have a not-so-pleasant-looking …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Neuroticism

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is neuroticism. Neuroticism is a personality trait that’s part of the Big Five model of personality. It involves: “… the tendency to experience frequent, intense negative emotions associated with a sense of uncontrollability (the perception of inadequate coping) …

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How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Mind?

A while back, a post about choosing to be positive came up in my WordPress Reader feed. The blogger mentioned that “our mind is something we do and can have control over.” While they weren’t making reference to mental illness at all, I don’t think control over one’s own mind is quite so cut and …

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Book Review: I Will Not Be My Mental Illness

I Will Not Be My Mental Illness: Let’s Recover Together by Karina Pommainville-Odell, a fellow blogger, is an invitation for the reader to join the author in working on a better life with mental illness. The book’s tone is friendly and encouraging, and positive in a realistic rather than over the top way. Chapters are …

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