Do you have an office job? If so, are you protective of your workspace?
UK resident Nathan Roberts is suing North West Ambulance Service in Manchester under disability discrimination laws for not providing him with a consistent desk of his own. Roberts was hired as an emergency operator in 2008 and quit in 2009 due to the “hot desking” policy in place; “hot desking” means that employees take whatever desk is available to them during their shift.
I’ve lived almost half my life ruminating about the past, or worrying – rather obsessively – about the future. It’s only in recent years that I’ve been in the present.
Dr Elisha Goldstein, author of “The Now Effect”, is a clinical psychologist who specializes in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. He has a blog on Psych Central that addresses these kinds of problems, which I’ve found to be personally very helpful.
In his latest post he writes:
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you’ll know that I struggle with exercise on a daily basis. OK, hands up…who else?
There is a yawning big gap in the market for a CBT therapist to specialize in exercise. Or at least overcoming the mental obstacles that prevent exercise. My recent post Psychologists Therapy Treats Mind and Body pointed to one such therapist who combines psychotherapy and fitness sessions. It’s a close match, although he doesn’t necessarily focus on a mind-exercise problem, as much as provide a treatment solution.
Researchers have found that people who compulsively check their phones for new messages, alerts and updates can end up more stressed. More stress with more checking – it makes sense. iMedicalApps.
In a somewhat related story, sleep experts say they are seeing an increase in cases of “sleep texting”. From a TMCnet article: ”Apparently, sending text messages throughout the day and right before bed isn’t enough for some text messaging addicts…according to researchers, day-to-day stress has triggered an unusual habit of people sending text messages while they are actually sleeping.”
Dr. Markus Schmidt of Ohio Sleep Medicine Institute says that one of his patients even sleep-texted nude pictures of herself.
In a 2002 study, evolutionary psychologists Gordon Gallup, Rebecca Burch and Steve Platek at the State University of New York (SUNY) studied the impact of semen on women’s levels of depression. Their research was spurred by the observation that lesbians do not synchronize menstrual cycles (known as the McClintock effect) as happens with heterosexual women. It was therefore theorized that heterosexual women absorb chemicals from semen during sex that could influence hormones and mood.
Given that semen contains over 50 compounds including mood-elevating substances such as endorphins, oxytocin and serotonin, the researchers sought to show that exposure to semen would lead to improved mood and lower depression.
Do you avoid social situations? Although you might be saving yourself anxiety in the short-term, in the long-term your avoidance is creating more fear and dread. The key to overcoming your avoidance is to take small steps towards facing those situations that you fear; both in your mind and in real life. Read more…
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In a recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers investigated whether Facebook profiles could reveal social anxiety.
Every year About.com hosts an awards program to choose the best products and services in various categories across the network. The About.com 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards will showcase the best of the best based on nominations and votes submitted by visitors to the site.
Incoming search terms:
“In my last post, I noted that Facebook and social media are major contributors to career anxiety. After seeing some of the comments and reactions to the post, it’s clear that Facebook in particular takes it a step further: Its actually making us miserable.
Facebook’s explosive rate of growth and recent product releases, such as the prominent Newsticker, Top Stories on the newsfeed, and larger photos have all been focused on one goal: encouraging more sharing. As it turns out, its precisely this hyper-sharing that is threatening our sense of happiness.” Daniel Gulati.
When I’m not berating myself about exercise I’m feeling hassled by our cluttered house. Complexity in life – including number of possessions – affects my mental health. There is a psychological cost to clutter and I feel calmer with less.
Gretchen Rubin, a well-known writer about happiness, makes the same observation:
“One of my key realizations about happiness, and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists, given its emphasis in popular culture, is that outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should…”
In this post she walks through the things that stop us from clearing clutter. They are largely psychological.