Social Interaction

How Affectionate Are You?

Google offers this definition for affectionate: “readily feeling or showing fondness or tenderness.” Some people are more affectionate than others, and not everyone shows they care in the same ways. I thought it might be fun to chat about our own affectionateness tendencies. I’m an affectionate little bean, particularly in writing. In person, I’m a …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Spite

Book Review: Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side

Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side by Simon McCarthy-Jones tells us why spite can actually be a good thing, even though it probably doesn’t seem like it could be. An act is considered spiteful if it involves harming another person, but in doing so, also harming (or potentially harming) oneself. Spite causes us to …

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The emerging blogger series on Mental Health @ Home

Mental Health and COVID Restriction Easing (Guest Post)

This post on mental health effects of COVID reopening comes from Escaping the Cage. Mental Health and COVID Restriction Easing I’m worried about my mental health as COVID restrictions are eased. I know that for many people COVID has brought many challenges to their mental as well as physical health. For me, however, it has …

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cartoon brain holding magnets

Can You Manifest a Purple People Eater?

Manifestation is all over the internet, part of the whole law of attraction vibrational package. Because I have a bit (or a lot) of a fixation on purple people eaters, they’ll help us see what we might or might not be able to manifest. The purple monster critter in the image above is someone I’ve …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Transactional Analysis

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is transactional analysis. Transactional analysis (TA) is a theory developed by psychoanalytic psychiatrist Dr. Eric Berne. This may not be the least bit relevant, but it helps set the scene—he has a pipe in his mouth in the …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What Is… Self-Verification Theory

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is self-verification theory. Self-verification theory comes from social psychology, and it says that we want other people to see us the way we see ourselves. That might seem self-obvious, but what’s interesting is that this applies even when …

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The emerging blogger series on Mental Health @ Home

How College Bested Me and My Anxiety (Guest Post)

In this emerging blogger post, Matthew of Matt’s Mishaps, writes about his experiences with social anxiety during college. Prior to attending postsecondary school, I was completely clueless as to what being a college student was, or what going to a university for four years entailed for my future. Living away from home, taking harder classes, …

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How Are You? When “I’m Okay” Means Not Okay At All

I suspect that many of us living with mental illness, or any other chronic illness, for that matter, have a standard set of responses that we sometimes draw on when answering questions about how we are and what we do. “Not okay” just isn’t something most people want to hear. For me, these standard responses …

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What Is... Series (Insights into Psychology)

What is… Deindividuation

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is deindividuation. Every human is a unique individual with self-awareness. Deindividuation is a process by which people start to lose that self-awareness when part of a group. Oxford Reference defines deindividuation as: “A psychological state characterized by loss …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Nonviolent Communication

Book Review: Nonviolent Communication

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg describes a form of compassionate communication. The foreword is by Deepak Chopra, which wasn’t a great start for me, as New Age really isn’t my thing. Rosenberg and I seem to look at the world very differently, so this is less book review and more …

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