Mindfully Healing

How to improve the brain’s executive functions in only 25 minutes a day. Just 25 minutes of yoga or meditation a day is enough to boost all kinds of cognitive powers, new research finds. Both practices effectively improved the brain’s executive functions. This helps people control their habits, their emotions and how they set and complete goals. Dr Peter Hall, one of the study’s authors, said: “Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation both focus the brain’s conscious processing power on a limited number of targets like breathing and posing, and also

Psychologists typically find that anxiety and depression share many overlapping symptoms. Instead of being ‘depressed’ and/or ‘anxious’, new research suggests five different types of depression and anxiety. The five are tension, anxious arousal, general anxiety, anhedonia — the inability to feel pleasure — and melancholia. Each type has its own particular symptoms and effects on the brain. The researchers describe the types as follows: 1. Tension This type is defined by irritability. People are overly sensitive, touchy, and overwhelmed. The anxiety makes the nervous system hypersensitive. 2. Anxious arousal Cognitive

Psychologists have been using variations on this technique, but this is the first study to show it works. To get rid of negative thoughts, write them down on a piece of paper and literally throw them away. While it might sound too easy, psychological research shows it can be effective. People in the study who did this found they also mentally discarded the thought as well. Professor Richard Petty, study co-author, said: “However you tag your thoughts — as trash or as

The personality trait is linked to healthier and more stable relationships. Having a conscientious partner is best for one’s health, research finds. A conscientious partner also tends to have more stable relationships. That is quite apart from the benefit of living with someone who can hold down a job and who puts the bins out. Professor Brent Roberts, the study’s first author, said: “Highly conscientious people are more organized and responsible and tend to follow through with their obligations, to be more impulse controlled and to follow rules.” Conscientious people

Why negative thoughts make some people depressed, while others quickly dismiss them. “Sticky thoughts” are the hallmark of depression, research finds. Bad things happen to most of us at some point, but some people take it worse than others. This is partly down to the inability to mentally turn away from them. Thoughts about negative experiences can get ‘stuck’ in the brain. Professor Jutta Joormann, the study’s first author, explained what happens in the minds of depressed people: “They basically get stuck in a mindset where they relive what happened